A New Niece!!!

Eric and Harmony have a new addition!! Sydney Paige Cottrell came on Monday March 8th at 5:40am weighing 7 lbs 10 oz. I was dying all day at school on Monday to get my little hands on her! Although she is the 6th grandchild, it is just as exciting as the first! We went down to San Diego Monday night and got to hold the little princess
Every woman's dream to look that good hours after labor!! Look at those thigh rolls Sydney, that is new to the Cottrell family! :)
She is so precious!! Everyone is doing great! She barely cries and sleeps like champ!!
Proud aunt!!!! I always forget how little they are!

Open wide!!!

I took the kids to the dentist for the first time this week. I have been prepping them for a couple weeks now so they would know what to expect and be excited and not scared. We might have a dentist in our future, when the doctor was looking at Maddy's teeth Kaden wanted to sit on his lap and count Maddy's teeth with the big clip! Go figure, it's Kaden :) He's such a funny kid!!

Does this face tell you how it went? Yes, I dorked out and took pictures! It was such a proud mommy moment for me :) It was really fun to know and understand all the terminology the doctor and assistant were using :) He puts all the fearful adults to shame huh!!
He let them take pictures of his teeth which he turned to me and said this is fun mommy! The office was all digital so he loved being able to see the pictures they took on the screen. He thought the x-rays looked cool but he wasn't as thrilled taking them. He also let them polish and fluoride his teeth. The doctor looked at all his chompers... no cavities, and I got commended for their clean teeth! Yeah!! I better get good reviews or I'm in the wrong profession!!
This is after their appointment, they got balloons for doing a great job. No pictures of Maddy in the chair because she wasn't too excited about it. She was pumped going to the dentist and watching Kaden but as soon as it became her turn she wasn't having it. So she just got fluoride and that was even work! Maybe in 6 months she'll do better! Great job kiddos!!

The Bishops ARE Alive!!

Well well well...the Bishops reappear!! I know it has been WAY too long since I've done an update, so hopefully I can get back into it. It seems like a daunting task to update the last 4 months of our lives, but I will try in a concise manner, hopefully!!

The summer ended freedom in my life and regular stay-at-home-mom stuff! We did have a blast with lots of play dates and lots of fun!!Fall began with a visit from Papa, which is always full of reading books and playing outside.

October was the month of CHANGE!!!! I started Dental Hygiene School on October 7th, and it has been a whirlwind ever since!! The schedule was very challenging for both me and Bryce and the kids. My first term I was gone from 6:30am to about 6pm!! What a change from spending every moment with the kids to spending a few hours in the evening before bed. Then, after tucking the kids into bed starting my night of studying, sadly not having our "us" time as Bryce and I were used to. On the same hand, it has been an awesome experience so far! It has been quite fulfilling learning so much and challenging my mind as I had been out of full time school for a few years. As I should have expected, my family adjusted EXTREMELY well. The kids are so fortunate to have so much loving family to play with. Grammy does the majority of the days but Grandpa, Andrea, Harmony and Felicity have also put in many hours to help lighten the load, and of course Daddy when he is off of work. Bryce has had to take on a lot of extra work and stress. He's a rockstar!! He plays Mr. Mom and runs the business by himself!! Kris, Bryce's brother, is thankfully working with him to atleast lighten his load of owner/accountant/technician/phone answerer (great grammer Tiff). We have the most amazing family and an awesome support system. I am telling you, by the time I'm done this is going to be a CRAZY group effort!!! I am having so much fun and trying to keep up with life flying by. For instance my baby boy turned 3!!!!!

\What an intelligent energetic loving little guy Kaden has become. Some of his favorites still include animals specifically dinosaurs now. He is constantly piecing the world together one question at a time! Nothing gets by this kid! Kaden is a so much fun and is full of life and love!! Grandpa made a killer Lightning McQueen and Mator cake! It was sweet, wish I had those kind of skills!Might be one the sweetest pictures ever!! We had Kaden's Bday at Peltzer Farms, a pumpkin patch where all the kids got to visit the petting zoo, ride the horses and train, as well as find their way through a corn maze. It was tons of fun...totally a Kaden kind of Birthday!
Good looking bunch Grammy! Haven't they all grown so much!

Halloween...
So fitting for Kaden to be a Dinosaur. This kid wants to watch Jurassic Park everyday!! Maddy made the cutest little ladybug!!

Our lil' Maddy girl turned 2!!!!!
Ladybug was the theme since she was so into ladybugs after Halloween!! I was a proud mama after make this cake! After piping the whole cake in pink and black my hand was pretty sore :)

Christmas!!
I can't seem to find our Christmas pictures, so this will have to represent! Kaden was so into Santa this year Maddy wouldn't sit on his lap but would stand by him and did manage to warm up to give him a hug! We had a great Christmas and spent it at my parent's house in Santa Maria. It was Justin's first Christmas back so all of us were finally together! It was chaotic and exciting!!! Unfortunately, we ended our Christmas with a really bad car accident on our way home after the Christmas weekend :( We were watched over that night and through Heavenly Father's miracle are all alive. We did leave with some injuries, so the Chiropractor is a frequent stop. Our little Matrix kept us safe but sadly was totaled. We recently replaced it with a Toyota Tundra so now I REALLY feel safe in my big car. Pics from School...My home away from home!!

This was my first real x-ray patient, we practiced on manikins.
These are my carpool girls Marcie and Kristen. We just added another carpool buddy so now I only have to drive 1 week a month!! We have a pretty good studying system on our long drive home!!
We all celebrated our first term at Yard House after finals!! It was fun for everyone to relax and wear something other than our green scrubs! We're the "Emeralds"
My friend Robyn and I
Your Future Hygienists!!

Also exciting news...
Ryan left on his mission to Edmonton, Canada!! This was at his farewell, I will have more pics to follow. We are so proud of him and very excited. He has been in the MTC for about 3 weeks and seems to be doing pretty well!
Grandma Bishop sadly passed away suddenly, so fortunately we were able to take a trip to Utah over my week term break. Ryan reported to the MTC that Wednesday so we got to see him off, visit with family and sadly say goodbye to a generous and loving Grandma. More pictures to come of our week in Utah.

Well if that is not enough oh Bishop happenings, not sure what is! Hopefully now that I'm caught up I can stay current. Thanks for your patience through this post!! :)

Pennypickles

I've been wanting to take the kids to this Children's Imagination Museum called Pennypickles in Temecula. My friend Autumn and I took our kids on Friday to explore their imaginations with a hands-on museum that kept them wide-eyed and captivated for the 2 hour session. They had a toddler room with blocks and things fit for smaller children but the kids only lasted about 10 minutes in there. They were more interested in exploring all the different themed rooms. One of their favorites was the maze that was in the dark and had glow-in-the-dark shapes, symbols and pictures in it (after the initial concern of going in a dark room, my kids are not real thrill seekers). I managed to capture a few pics while following our little explorers.

All the kids in a hot air balloon basket...they thought this thing was pretty cool and were pretending they were flying, while I was remembering my engagement and how small the baskets really are!! There was even a rope you could pull that lit a "fire" above the basket and made the appropriate noise. Thomas, Kaden, Jordyn (well her eyes and nose) and Maddy.

There was a music room that had an old record player and piano and even little instruments they could play. This was an old mic that you could sing in and then hear yourself through the phone. There were 2 on either side of this table so Kaden and Thomas each picked them up, we told them to sing a song and they both started singing "I am a Child of God" Great song choice!! :) "My turn" was muttered by Maddy when Kaden was done and following her bro, as she does all day long, started in with "I am a Child of God"

Autumn and Thomas singing away!!

Maddy on the space travel chair. I think she traveled into next year!

This chair looked like the "Alice in Wonderland" chair

Kaden, Thomas and Maddy relaxing on a bench outside in crazy hot weather!! We all had a fun day and my kids were asleep before we even got home, a great perk of a day full of fun!!

Croatian Kids

Justin brought a cute little outfit home for all the kids and I realized I never posted the pictures. I was looking through my pic files and thought these were blog worthy :)

Beach Day!

We are into September and still having beach days, I do love So Cal!! We went last Friday before all the Labor Day crowds, and this time Uncle J and Grammy joined us. Justin said he was excited to finally be a part of a beach day that he always got pictures of on his mish. The water was really warm!! I usually get my feet wet with the kids but on that day it was like a swimming pool so I actually went in all the way!! It was beautiful!! Keep this weather coming!!
The Crew...we're not small, and we're not quiet!!Uncle J built a hole for the kids to play, and they helped him build a sand castleCould Gracey be any cuter!?!
Grammy and the dirty lil Maddy, she's a big fan of getting sand EVERYWHERE!!Skye the lil beach babe!!! She has gotten quite the little tan and her hair gets blonder by the second!! Can you believe she was born with almost black hair!?!This has to be the cutest picture EVER!!! I think it's frame worthy! He spent lots of time playing in the water with his Uncle J.They both loved the ride!! Maddy got dumped a few times but still seemed to mutter "that was fun" under her chattering, scared breath!! She's a trooper!

Summer Blazing On!!!

Since it is still crazy hot here, I took advantage of a "End of Summer" sale and got the kids a new pool to play in, since our whale pool from last summer got eaten by mice in the shed. (Sorry LONG sentence, I've always done that huh mom) It was much bigger than I anticipated, but ended up being really fun for the kids. I made it our own little water park by putting their slide into it. It looks really fun... well it is pretty fun. Fortunately, for the kids they have a 5' 2'' mom that could join in the fun down the slid!!! :)That's what brothers are for right? What would an outside play day be without a popsicle?Come join us!!!