Preschool Graduation...

Well, we now have a pre-school graduate on our hands! His class put on a little program at the end of the year to celebrate. The theme was Pirates; what do you expect when only 6 of the 19 students are girls in his class. :) It was right in Teacher Barbara's backyard. They all came out playing some sort of instrument or noise maker to processional music. I thought that was pretty funny! :)

Then they sang some songs...

Tucker in between two of his best buddies, Garret and Owen...

Then they all walked across the stage to get their books that they had made all year long from Teacher Barbara. But, Tucker like ran so I didn't get any good shots of that. :) It was short and sweet, just the way we like it! :) Luckily the weather was so nice that day.

We all know why Taylor came...

Tucker and his best buddy, Garret...

I can't believe that the school year is already over, this day seems like it was just yesterday:

And I am so bummed I didn't get a shot of him and Teacher Barbara at the graduation, but here they are on the first day of school, she is so great, we have LOVED her this year!

I found this cute idea on pinterest for teacher gifts, so I got Barbara and Kimbo both potted flowers with notes in them that said, 'Thanks for helping me grow!' So cute! Now on to Kindergarten next year, aaak!

Tuckers first lost tooth!

Tucker had some excitement as we were packing up and moving out, he lost his first tooth! It had been wiggly for a few days and Ben had just casually told him that it would probably come out within 2-3 days and so he kept on telling people, 'my tooth is going to come out in 2 days (or 1 day etc.)' And he was right on. On the day it was 'supposed to' come out, the day he kept telling people it was coming out, it came out. It was actually at bath time, right before bed, and I was hoping that he wouldn't be too sad that the day had come and gone and his tooth was still in; but he, of course, was pestering Taylor in the bath and bit down on a squeeze toy to spray Taylor in the face and it popped out-he actually had to catch it! He was so excited, he just started screaming my name and I came running in and he was grinning from ear to ear! :) 

Now he has a big ol' space and his big tooth is already starting to come in! Crooked, of course. Looks like this guy will need some braces some day! We go to the dentist on Monday, so we will see what she says! :)

The tooth fairy brought him a dollar, but couldn't find his tooth under his pillow (because he had hidden it; the stinker!)  which he promptly took to school the next day (the dollar and the tooth!) He was very proud that he got one by the tooth fairy and still has the tooth in his possession! :)

I hate packing!

While in the process of doing this: (and feeling pretty good about myself for getting so much done)

My house ends up looking like this:

It's impossible to do both at the same time; pack and keep the rest of the house clean! :) More to come on the move and our crazy life right now!

My Taylor girl...

I love my girl so much! She has started to become one of my best friends (already!) She totally takes care of me, and I'm not even joking. I don't know what it is, but the difference between girls and boys is so apparent in my children. These past few months as Tucker has been at school,  I have enjoyed my time with just Taylor and I. She's just my little friend, and now that she is just talking up a storm, I can actually talk with her  and play with her and it is fun and we just enjoy our time together. I love my boy, too, but now that he's a big Pre-School graduate (more to come on that) I am going to miss my time with just Taylor and I. She is so cute and sweet and loving! (She's sassy and bossy and a stinker, too don't get me wrong!) But I just love her to pieces and I am so glad she'll always be my girl! 

I love that little face, I could just eat it up...

She says the cutest things. She has a purse that is in the shape of a dog and she calls it her 'person' as in Purse(on). But it is so funny to here her say 'person' about a purse in the shape of a dog. It's so cute! :) She also always makes 'hoop' (soup) She regularly goes into the bathroom, gets on the stool, turns on the faucet and mixes things in the cup and offers me 'hoop'. She is so bossy too, she is constantly looking at me and just says one word orders. Eat! Sit! Come! Like all day she just bosses me around. I constantly have to remind myself that I am the one in charge! :)

She loves shoes, and is always putting on mine and Ben's shoes. And she loves anything princess and is always saying she is a princess. And she always wants to put on make up with me when I'm putting my make up on- It's crazy to me that ALL of that starts so young! Sheesh!

And I love that her hair is finally getting long enough to put in these two cute little messy buns...

I love you Tater Tot! 

Grateful to be a mommy...

I sure am lucky to be a mama! Mothers day was wonderful this year. (despite the fact that we had to speak in church!) I am lucky to have these two to call my own. It is by far the hardest thing I've ever done, but definitely the most rewarding as well. These two are fun and sassy and hilarious and loud and crazy and keep me on my toes! It was a bittersweet day at church, saying good bye to all of our friends. It was our last Sunday in the Bowdish ward. We will be moving into the Belle Terre ward boundaries, here in the Valley, but actually were just recently called to serve in the Spanish Branch here in Spokane. We are so excited! That will be our new home ward starting this Sunday. Primary, we hear, is in English, because most kids speak it, so luckily Tucker and Taylor will understand Primary, but everything else is in Spanish so I'm hoping these two pick up a bit of Spanish along the way! :) That is why we were asked to speak, because it was our last Sunday! boo!

Anyway, back to Mothers day. It was wonderful. A delicious home made breakfast, beautiful home made cards, two cute kids, it had it all! :)

After we snapped our annual Mothers day picture, Ben had to hop in and get one with his kiddos! :)

It was a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon; naps, food and reading were all had by all. The weather was even gorgeous so we got to eat a BBQ dinner and play outside. The kids sure do love being out there!

Of course, all good things must come to an end, and somehow whenever T&T play together, it usually ends like this:

As much as he loves to love on her, he also loves to torment her! :) Such is the life of a little sister, I suppose.

Happy Mothers day to my own wonderful mother, and thank you for all you do!

Meg's b day...

My dear dear friend Megan had her birthday a few weeks ago. I had these great plans to get some of our friends together for a night out to celebrate and on the eve of her birthday she called me and said, 'I totally want to change the plans for my birthday' (which were just dinner and a movie) She told me that she had seen a pin on pinterest about a lady who, on her birthday went around all day and did random acts of kindness. She did the number of how many years old she was turning. So Meg wanted to do 32 random acts of kindness on her birthday for other people, instead of go out to dinner and a movie with her friends. She's a saint! So, I got a baby sitter for the day (which is hard to find!!!) and we went out for the day to serve others and make their day a little better. I brought my camera along because I had grand dreams of photo-documenting the whole day, but mostly I forgot I even had it until the very end of the day! :)

Our first stop was Costco; to pick up supplies but while we were there, we did find some serving to be done! :)

Who doesn't want a free diet coke (or pepsi, although I prefer the coke!) :)

We helped some people put away their groceries, and then went around the parking lot looking for people whose cart we could return for them.

Got some skittles to take to the kids at the Shriners hospital...

While at Shriners hospital,(they wouldn't let me take pictures inside) we took the nurses a big thing of Costco waters, and then were going to leave the skittles for the kids because we couldn't go to the rooms, but we were able to go into like a rec room place where the kids play and there were two little girls and their moms playing cards and they asked us to join them. They were from Mexico and didn't speak very good English, so it was fun being able to use my Spanish. We played spoons with them for a good hour and a half and it was so much fun. The girls were 12 and 13 (one of them spoke pretty good English) and we became good buddies with them. Luckily they were on the mend and heading back to Mexico the following week. They had been here for three months!!! It was really fun making some new little friends.

Our good friend Laura came too.

Next, we went across the street to Deaconess Hospital and paid for 5 cars parking. We had also written notes to go with the paid parking that said things along the lines of, 'we hope that for whatever reason you are here today, this helps brighten your day a bit.' Something like that. :) We saw an old guy scrunch up his face and look at us like we were crazy after his parking fee was paid for him, so weather they appreciated it or not, we did it! :)

After all this, the plan was to go to lunch downtown, but for some reason we had to head back to Costco, so we decided to grab lunch there. And who doesn't love Costco lunch? I know I sure do! Plus we all had to get back to our babysitters so we didn't have to pay them a fortune! :) It was a fun day to get out and do things for other people and spend time with good friends who make me want to be better! :)

i love this time of year...

It is finally FINALLY starting to warm up. It is still hit and miss, like this week is cloudy and rainy, but we have had a few good days here and there. Of course, we head outside as often as we can during this time, not knowing how long it will last. 

It looks like we might have a future golfer on our hands. Tucker has been really interested in golfing and learning how to golf lately. I think it's because he got a golf set from his Grandma & Grandpa in Alabama for Christmas this year. He is finally getting to use it! Good thing his daddy is a golfer and can help him out with his swing, because I sure as heck don't know what I'm doing!

I'm really going to miss this house for a lot of reasons, and one of them for sure is the beautiful Spring flowers. Every April and May my backyard is beautiful!

After our little photo shoot in the flowers, Taylor found this old plastic owl I got to keep the crows out of my garden box a few years ago. (She also found an old coat and hat of Tuckers that had been out on the back porch since the cold weather) She looked like a little homeless child rocking and singing to the owl. Silly girl!

But you know it's been a good day outside when you come in and your face looks like this:

The first spring we lived here I wouldn't let anyone touch the flowers, because they were too beautiful. Then I learned how quickly they go and it is such a waste if you don't get to enjoy them, so I try now to make as many bouquets as I can during these two months, to keep and to give away.

Here are just a few of ours from this year...

Taylor's Bouquet:

A Bouquet for Teacher Barbara...

Happy Spring!!!