Kindergarten graduation

Carson graduated from Kindergarten this June. Carson had a great year! He grew so much this year. Carson made lots of new friends, learned to count to 100, and learned how to read. It has been so exciting watching him catch on to reading. Nate and I can't spell stuff to each other any more because Carson now knows what we are spelling. We loved Carson's kindergarten teacher Mrs. Squire, she was so great with all the kids and got them so excited about learning. I volunteered once a week in Carson's class and loved working with the kids. Five year olds are so curious and sweet. I think I would love to teach Kindergarten someday. I am a little sad that the year is over though and am not quite ready to have Carson be gone all day long. But at least I get to enjoy Carson all summer. We sure love this Kid and are so proud of him!

Memorial Day FHE

The Monday before Memorial Day we talked with the kids about the military and the sacrifices they have made for us and our country for FHE. After that we headed to a little memorial in a nearby park where there were hundreds of flags representing people who have served in the millitary from Idaho. I though that it was super cool and that it did help our kids appreciate the millitary. This may be a new Memorial Day tradition.

Motherhood

Every year around Mothers day I pull out the camera and do a mom self portrtait with all of my kids. The pictures never come out as I would like or even expect. To be honest the whole process is a little crazy. That being said I love these pictures! The craziness of the pictures kind of captures the craziness of being a mother of 3. Being a mom to these kids is fun, exahusting, joyful, painful, tearful, surprising, and hillarious. Motherhood is definitely the greatest challenge and adventure of my life.

Hiking - a great adventure

On what I am sure was the only nice day in April we went out for a family hike. It was good practice for the summer months when we are going to be out and about more. One very important lesson I learned on this hike is that all small children walking on uneven terrain should be in pants, because after they fall 4 or 5 times their knees are going to be a bloody mess and they are going to go into hysterics (Lincoln seriously cried like he was dying). Also, band aids when hiking with small children. You must have band aids. Seriously, when is it not a good idea to have band aids on your person? Band aids are a small child's security blanket if they are injured in anyway, big or small. Hand them a band aid and in their mind they are cured. Also, a good rule of thumb when hiking with small children is to always let an adult take the lead in case you run into some kind of dangerous beast. Carson was leading out our hike and almost stepped on a snake. It wasn't poisonous, but it scared me half to death and I am pretty sure that there were poisonous snakes in the area. Lastly, when you see inclement weather approaching do not delude yourself for a moment into thinking that you, and your hiking partyof small children, will be able to easily make it to your destination before the bad weather rolls in. Ultimately the weather will over take you, and you will probably end up turning around mid-hike and running to your car carrying all of your kids. We have learned our lessons. Now I think we are ready to enjoy the outdoors.

Soccer Time

Another soccer season has come and gone. The name of Carson's team this year was the Grasshoppers. The highlight of the soccer season for Carson was having two friends from school on his team that he got to play with more often. We love that Carson played hard and always did his best.

trouble in pigtails

Now that Lily is getting around really well she likes to try and climb things. A favorite spot has been this kitchen drawer. All of my kids have loved to climb in this drawer. Eventually, after much perseverance, I have trained the habit of getting in the drawer out of all of the kids. However, Lily took the climbing in the drawer to the next level. Not only would she climb in the drwaer but she would bounce in it as well. Needless to say, the poor drawer doesn't shut too well these days. Also Lily's hair got long enough for little pig-tails, which were very darling if I don't say so myself, but definitely way too much work. Since putting Lily in pig tails everyday is not an option, and since I don't want her walking around with a mullet, I opted to trim her hair. So enjoy the pig-tail pictures because who knows how long it will take before you see them again.

bath time

Splish-splash our kids love playing in the bath. Give our kids their best loved bath toys: pirate ships, duckies, sharks, and balls and our kids will be entertained for hours (except for maybe Lily she is usually done bathing after 15 min.) The kids love to bathe.

Easter

For Easter this year we decided to drive down to Utah and spend the holiday with family. Our drive down was essentially uneventful. The only exception was when Lincoln spotted two grown men at a restaurant with pony tails. He looked somewhat confused and then wrinkled up his nose and said very loudly "What Him have girl hair?" Nate and I were quite embarrassed, and just avoided eye contact with the men with "the girl hair" while we finished our dinner. While in Utah we went to Nate's sister Rashell's very cute play. What wasn't very cute was Lincolns behavior during said play. As a result of his misbehavior he went straight into time-out when we got back to Grandmas. During his time-out he was goofing around on his chair and fell off it onto Grandmas brick hearth, which resulted in a splitting open of the forehead and a trip to the emergency room. Although not at home the Easter Bunny found us and the kids got a few little surprises. Grandma Barlow hosted a yummy dinner and a very fun Easter egg hunt for the kids. Minus the trip to the emergency room we had a very nice Easter and our kiddos were extremely spoiled.

cupcakes

A few weeks after Lily's birthday I took some pictures of her enjoying a cupcake. This girl definitely likes her baked goods! You can see how her excitement and the mess spreads as she realizes what a delicious treat she has got her hands on. The mess got a little bit out of control so I let her finish her treat in her highchair.

Lily turns 1!

Lily turned 1 April 15. We had a small party with family. Lily wasn't that interested in opening gifts but luckily she has two older brothers who were more than happy to open her gifts for her. She got several dolls for her birthday, but her most favorite gift was her princess ball. I finally have a girl, and all she wants to do is play with balls like her brothers. Lily definitely loved her first cake. She ate her cake with gusto and when we moved her tray with the cake on it so we could put a better bib on her she screamed bloody murder. At one Lily is saying: ball, daddy, mom, shoe, shirt, quack, roar, uh-oh, and car. Lily started walking a few weeks before her birthday and is now fully mobile climbing into and onto everything. Lily is such a sweet fun little girl we love having her in our family.