Haz Lo Justo...

We were recently assigned to go to the Spanish Branch here in Spokane. It is going to be our new home ward. It is so fun! I guess they pull people from all 5 stakes here in Spokane periodically to help with numbers and leadership etc... Anyway, our stake President asked us into his office a few months ago and asked us if we would be willing to go; the Stake President of the Spokane West Stake called him and asked him specifically for a couple that both speak Spanish; and that was us! :) He said there were only 4 couples in our entire stake that both speak Spanish! So, we've been there for a few months now and it is so great. Our first Sunday there the people just flocked to us after Sacrament meeting wanting to meet us and welcome us and they were so nice! There have been about 4 or 5 other families get assigned into the branch recently as well, so it has been fun meeting a lot of new people! Our first Sunday there Tucker came out to sit with Ben during Sunday school and told him he wasn't feeling well, so they went out for a drive and about a block out, Ben had to pull over so Tuck could puke on the side of the road. I don't know if he was nervous or what but the poor guy had a rough day. He didn't complain about not feeling well before church, so who knows. Since that first Sunday he has loved it! Taylor went straight into nursery no problem, didn't even turn around to say good bye! :) And the primary president loves her, always raves about how wonderful she is, and how she is already speaking Spanish!? (which I don't think is true!) :)

{Tucker loves his HLJ ring, 'Haz Lo Justo'}

It is so much fun being in a branch where everyone is so close. Tucker loves our branch president, he comes into primary and plays with them and chats with them. I was just called as the first counselor in the primary, and before I got there, the primary president only had one counselor, who also did the music. And the nursery leader hadn't been coming so the primary president was doing nursery both hours, and the one counselor was doing sharing time and singing time every Sunday, every month, by herself! So, needless to say they were happy when I got called into help, just to have some one else in there to help! There are two primary classes, the older kids and the younger kids, so Tucker has about 7 or 8 kids in his class ages 8-4. (There are 13 kids total in the primary, including Tuck) Primary is kind of Spanglish. Some kids don't speak very good English, and some don't speak very good Spanish, so it is kind of a mix. But Sacrament meeting, Sunday school, priesthood and Relief Society are all in Spanish.  Ben was just called as the Young Men's President, over all 6 of them!!! :) And we are excited for this new adventure! The only negative is that we now have to drive 25 minutes to get to church every Sunday, and meetings during the week aren't so convenient! :) We had a hard time making it to church at 11am when the building was 5 minutes away, we'll see how this goes for us! :)

Random summer stuff...

It has been so rainy here these past few weeks. While we have been stuck inside, this dude has re-discovered his beyblades. What, you've never heard of beyblades? I'm shocked! :) He got interested in them last summer with his cousins from Alabama. They are little tops that spin. They come with rip cords, and you have battles. He got some for Christmas, and we have played them every.single.day. I have literally had to put a cap on how many battles I will do with him in a single day. I am desperately trying to teach Taylor how to beyblade, so that Tucker can have a new sparring partner. She hasn't quite caught on as fast as I'd hoped. :) Then Tucker discovered an anime series of beyblades on netflix, so not only has he been battling, but he wants to watch it all the time, too. I guess they are a Japanese import. Anyhoo...it's pretty funny to hear him battle, he says things like, 'It's not about how good your beyblade is, it's about the spirit of the beyblade inside of you.' I'm glad he is learning such deep and meaningful things from his cartoons.

Luckily, when the weather IS nice enough, all he wants to do is this:

I absolutely love living on a street where we can just walk out our front door for a walk or a bike ride. We have been outside every single day it's nice enough. I love love love it! We have races, walks, bike rides, you name it.

Hopscotch...

We also got season passes this summer to river front park. So awesome! They turn the skating rink into a little carnival. There's a good 10-12 rides, plus mini golf, imax and a train ride around the park we can do to our hearts content. It's also awesome that all my friends got the pass, so we always have someone to go with.

Tucker and Ella on the airplanes...

Tucker & Milo on the caterpillar train...

Taylor on the big train around the park...

This girl was desperate to go on the roller-coaster. Tucker refused to go, and I hate roller coasters, but thought I could handle the kiddie one. Not so much, I think I screamed more than her the whole time. She kept going back and forth between screaming and laughing.

Lots of dance parties. My kids love to shake their booties!

Best dentists office, ever:

0 cavities between both kids = happy mama.

I tried Bountiful Baskets for the first time this week. It is so great! We get to try some new things, and we all know how Ben is with new fruit (like a kid in a candy store). I love that my kids are excited about it, and want to try all this new stuff we got, and that some of it is stuff that I don't normally buy. And I love the community aspect of it, and I'm excited to be a part of it.

Since we leave for Alabama in just a few short days, we've been trying to fit in as much daddy time as possible. Dinner at Jimmy Johns (our new favorite). Apparently Taylor loved the pickle...

Then to get some Froyo at Froyo Earth...

Yes, it was THAT good! :)

It's shaping up to be a great summer!

Somethings not right!

June is a catch me if you can kind of month as far as weather goes. If the weather is nice, you drop everything and go out and play, because the very next day you could be stuck inside because of cold weather. A few days ago there was a high of 57 and yesterday it got up to 91. Sunburns one day, sweaters and boots the next. You would think having a June birthday meant a for sure possibility of a pool party with warm weather. Not so much in Spokane. One of Tucker's little buddies had a birthday party a few weeks ago and while the sun actually made an appearance for a bit, it was still windy and became cloudy and overcast very quickly. As I was packing up the kids stuff for the party; their swimming suits and towels, I just kept thinking to myself that it isn't right that I also have to pack them hooded sweatshirts in June!

But, as true Pacific Northwesterns, they insisted on putting their swimsuits on and getting in the water in the cold temperatures.

Oh, did I mention that there were red vines at said party, and Kate did infact have a party with one! :)

I love that little Kate bug! :)

Out with the old, in with the new...

While I've been trying to organize and decorate this house, the one area that is still left mostly bare is the front entry way. I just don't know what to do with the space, and I don't have the furniture yet. I love the space but it is just bare. I was thinking something along the lines of a little funky upholstered chair and I had been on the hunt. I didn't want to spend a fortune on something that was primarily just decorative (lets be honest, it's not going to get that much use) I looked and looked and finally found this cute little upholstered chair on clearance at TJMaxx. It's not as funky as I first envisioned, but as soon as I saw it (and the price) I fell in love. And it's not too loud or crazy to clash with the rest of our living room. I think it's the perfect addition, and now just need to find some sort of entry way bench or table to fill in that empty spot! And then on to the walls!

(oh, and don't mind the missing baseboards, we have yet to put those back up!) :) 

Also, it looks really small in the picture below for some reason, it really is proportionate to the rest of the living room! :)

Love!

Daddy love...

We don't go all out for fathers day like some maybe do, but we sure know how to do it right; home made cards, afternoon naps and some good food are all at the top of our list! :)

Tucker creating his home made fathers day card. I tell ya, that kid is getting so creative and loves to write and draw little notes to surprise us every now and then it is so much fun to receive unexpected little notes from him. Taylor also made a home made card for her daddy. She loves her some daddy!

We woke up daddy on fathers day by all jumping on him and tickling him. Now that we have to wake up at the crack of dawn for church, he was still asleep! She loves to tickle his head, and that is what she is doing in this picture. These two sure are cute together; there is nothing better than watching your husband interact with his (your) daughter. Precious!

It just happened to be a beautiful day outside, so after some afternoon naps, a little family bike ride we came home and had some delish dinner. Ribs, garlic mashed potatoes and lemon butter and garlic sauteed green beans. Don't mind if I do! :)

And this isn't his fathers day card, but this is a random card from a few months ago that Ben got on his pillow one day after work. He did this ALL on his own! It melted my heart (and it's not even for me!) :)

"To Dad Frum Tucker"

"I luv mi dad so mu(mu)ch too infinide (infinity) and bond (beyond)"

My kids are so lucky to have this daddy of theirs! 

visiting family...

Of course, in the midst of all the moving and chaos we had a ton of family visitors. I'm afraid I wasn't a very fun aunt/host/entertainer while they were here. I was pretty exhausted and overwhelmed at that point. But we managed to sneak in a few good times here and there. :)

Angie and Nathan came up for her brothers wedding, and we were so excited to meet this guy for the first time:

Little Chasey-Chase was blessed...

Then all the kids jumped in the hot tub, and of course, I didn't bring my kids swim suits, but that didn't stop them!

This little girl loves the water, and has no fear going under...

My mom came up for a few days to see N&A (Lets be honest, we all know who she really came to see...Carter & Chase! She always just wants to play with the kiddies!) :) The first night she slept at hour new house, then the next two nights she got a hotel room. I guess she didn't like our new place-we were really offended! She says she got it so she could take the kids and go swimming and give us a few hours to ourselves to organize our house; but I don't know. :) Anyway, she took the kids and they went swimming, then we met up with them for some Applebees take out and when we arrived at her hotel room, this is how she answered the door, in a robe. 

And the kids were like this on the bed. I had to laugh...yeah, it's a rough life for them!

She got a suite just for the jet tub right in the room, which we took full advantage of!

The next day N&A dropped off Carter to go swimming with us, and I had to get this shot of the two naked bums! :)

Cute swimming cousins...

I don't know what we were thinking when we took all 4 kids to Target after swimming. We were like a walking circus! We thought that with 2 adults, how much harder could 2 extra kids be? Let me tell you...A LOT! We had to do a lot of bribing and the kids ate a really healthy lunch of slushies, popcorn and a pretzel. 

That night was Angie's brothers' wedding reception. Taylor was a dancing maniac, dancing with whoever would dance with her! :)

Carter doing his 'knees' dance and Taylor following suit!

Dancing with Uncle Nathan...

Dancing with Angie...

Dancing with daddy...

This little guy konked out from all of the excitement of the day...

After the reception the kids got to spend the night with grandma again. Lucky ducks! It was a nice little break without kids and Ben and I got a lot done in the few hours they were gone with grandma. Thanks so much Bma! :)

Allen & Kelli and their kids also came up for a few days to see N&A. Tucker is always happy to have this guy around:

And it's nice to be off diaper duty for a while when Grandma is here, the kids always only want her to change them! :) Lucky Grandma! :)

The weather was semi-nice so we went out for a little walk. Unfortunately Carter is an escape artist and we only had one stroller, so we doubled them up! :)

And we even got to go to the theater to see Madagascar 3. It was Taylor's first time to see a movie in the theater. She totally didn't appreciate it, she stopped paying attention to the movie about 15 minutes in, and just wanted to sing, and eat popcorn, and then started saying, 'go home, go home' :) But at least we got to spend some time with our Carter before he left and Tucker and I really liked the movie! :)

Next, is our month long excursion to Alabama to visit our cousins down there, then Aunt Kayla & Uncle Jason and Kenzie May come to visit! Can't wait to see them! :)