June 4, 2014

Due to some miss-communication, Taylor and I (and Jackson) ended up at Anna's nails to meet my sister. They ended up being at the Walmart nail place. Oops... Taylor and I took advantage of the mistake and got our nails painted. No mani/pedi's for us--I can't stand people touching my feet. Just a paint on our toes and hands. It was fun! :)

After that, lunch at Cafe Rio with my friend, Heather and her two daughters, Jessica & Mandy. I love these girls so much. Jackson does too, apparently. :) I'm proud to be their middle aged friend!!! :) HA HA. Katrina and Kayla also joined us.

After lunch, we got to hang out with our favorite cousin singing our favorite song. Both girls are obsessed and belted it out to each other...

That afternoon, Taylor had gymnastics, so we thought it would be fun for Kezie to join the class for the day. She is so funny! Taylor's coach, Kayleigh was so good with her, and totally wrangled her in. She was a cutie jumping around doing the somersaults. She actually did a lot better than I thought she would! :)

It was a fun day with family in town. Can't wait for them to live here permanently. Hopefully....one day!!! :)

June 3,2014

Kenzie got here! And Kayla & Jason, too! :)

I love this little girl so much. She is so fun and spunky and sweet...

A good little poser, too. I told her to sit so I could take her picture for a Father's day project I was doing for my dad, and these two pics turned out perfect! :)

We are excited to have them here for the week for Jesse & Hannah's wedding.
{too cool for school}

Meahwhile.....this guy is getting SO dang close!!!

June 2, 2014

Our neighbors are moving. She is one of my best friends and our kids have become like family. We are so sad about this. We have a ladder that goes over our joined fence so that our kids can easily come and go. I love this. It's perfect for me, because I'm social enough to love having friends that are like family and I love having neighbors who are totally comfortable at my house and visa versa. But I'm also anti-social enough that I don't want to have to put a huge effort every day to plan and organize play day's. So, this really is the perfect scenario for me! :) It happens very naturally and I don't have to put a lot of work into it! :) HA!

It's only fitting that one of the photos of the day include the McLaughlin boys before they move. It was nice enough that the kids were able to bust out the hose while on the trampoline. Summertime perfection right there.

Even though they are only moving a few minutes away, it will never be the same, and that makes me sad. I will miss our daily Maverick runs and hops over the fence to chat. I will even miss having to go over and pick up boxes off her front step so her hubby doesn't see... :) shhhh....don't tell!

This was the week that they moved. It all happened so fast. They got their keys for the new house on Thursday afternoon, and they had to be out by Saturday at 5. And that night and Sunday the new family moved in. We all went and helped on Friday and took loads up to the new house. I was busy this week getting ready for our neighborhood yard sale all the while trying to help her get packed up and moved. It was a crazy week, but lots of good memories made!

While the kids jumped next door, Jackson and I hung out in the perfect weather. I inherited some cans of paint from her that she didn't want to take up. More like her hubby didn't want her to take up to the new house. :) So I started some projects. I had been wanting to paint this mirror for a while and now that I had some black/texture paint, I finally tackled it!

I love the moments I have with this sweet boy.

He likes to put things on his head. Food before he eats it, toys, blankets, pretty much anything...

It was a beautiful June day and knowing Spokane, it will be cold and rainy next week. But we enjoy it while it lasts...

June 1, 2014

Photo a day challenge. I thought that for the month of June, instead of writing blog posts in topics, I would go day to day. Someone somewhere in the blogosphere, or facebook world challenged 'us' meaning anyone who happened upon it, to a photo a day in June challenge. (I personally think that a photo a day in May sounds better, but alas, May had already passed.) So it would have to be June. It's already almost the end of the month, but I am going to start posting my daily photos. Some days there are lots of photos, and some day it was a stretch just to get one.  Either way, I thought it would be fun to give it a try.

It was a Sunday, and it was Stake Conference. And actually, don't tell anyone, but me and the kids didn't go. Ben went to all the sessions by himself. I tried to find a babysitter for the adult session the night before, but since it was just opened up to 12 years and up, I had a hard time finding a babysitter. All of my babysitters are good Mormon girls! :) But we had fun playing inside while daddy was away at 6 hours of church by himself.

It was beautiful and sunny outside, so after daddy's afternoon nap and while I was making dinner, the kids played.  I love our backyard. I love summer evenings in Spokane. They are absolutely perfect in every way. Not too hot and not too cold!

Now that I think about it, I think it was a photographer that I follow on facebook, that I don't even know, or don't even remember who it was. But the whole purpose of the challenge was to get people to get out their nice cameras for every day use, and not just their phone cameras. I'm glad she did, too. Because these pictures I would have just taken with my camera phone and they wouldn't have been as great. I need to do this more! I usually only bust out the big camera when I'm going to a session, and for my own kids, I use my crappy phone. Which is actually pretty great and convenient, and I can totally see good in, but it's nice to use my nice camera on my own kids every now and then!

My baby...

And just some cute extra's of my baby in May. Just because I love him so much. I seriously just can't get enough of him! I sometimes just nibble on him...

He had a huge marshmallow stuck to his hand at papa's house and didn't even realize it was there or what it was...

The boy loves some spice. He eats guacamole by the spoonful's. Like the stuff that Ben and I eat that Tucker won't even eat because it's too spicy! He also likes to feed himself, and so I gave him a green onion one day and he loved it! :) He also loves our pepperoni sticks, again, something that my other two won't even eat.

Our neighbor, Wayne, brought this over for Jackson one day. He said he bought it for his nephew last year at christmas and it was too small, so it had been sitting in his garage, and he was going to donate it to charity. But then thought that it would fit Jackson pretty well, so brought it over! It was so nice! I went out and bought them some Krispy Kreme as a HUGE thank you! Jackson really likes it, too. It lights up and makes sounds, and he just will sit and move all the handles. 

Unfortunately, when you're the third child, this is what it looks like most of the time when he gets on it. One of the other two are all of the sudden SO interested in riding it,and playing with it with him, that he gets annoyed! :) But how could you be anything but excited with that little girl behind you???

Doing what he does best, chillaxin'...

May extra's...

May was just lovely this year. Taylor even brought me a beautiful flower from our yard on May day itself!!! :)

Tucker also took a little glass jar full of flowers to Mrs. Larsen for May day. I think that Tucker has his eye on Mrs. Larsen! :) He sure does love her! :)

Then off to the park with our friends it was to take advantage of the beautiful weather. It seems that maybe Taylor has her eye on a certain boy, too....

1st park day of the season. Yay!

And this guy's first swing ride. Maybe second? I think he likes it!

I do love coming home to this on these beautiful spring/almost summer evenings...

Our bird friend who was only at the front window before has started following us. If we are upstairs, he finds us upstairs and starts tap tap tapping on the window. Here he found us in the kitchen. Part of me wants to let him in and keep him!

Gomer is still alive and well. Everyone who comes over and sees him tells us that he is the most active turtle they have ever seen. And it is true. I can hear him roaming around in his cage all day long. That's not typical for a turtle. I hope it means he is happy! :) And when I put that lettuce in his cage, he bee lines it straight to the lettuce faster than I have ever seen a turtle move! We still love our little Gomey.

Ben told Tucker he would pay him .10 cents for every business card that he gave out in our neighborhood. He is such a little business man and was happy to help. He did all 10 of the houses on our street for $1 and was done. :) But I was so proud of him, he actually went up and rang the doorbell and talked to the people and said, 'my dad owns a fence business, so if you ever need a fence, give him a call' It was really cute. Taylor and Brandon were happy to help, although I think Taylor just wanted to wear her 'Uncle Star Fence' shirt and Brandon just ran along next to them.

Another funny story about business cards is that one night Kathryn and I were on our way to the Stake Center. She was going to watch my kids for me while I had my recommend interview. I was following her in her car. She ran out of gas. So I ran to my house, got a little gas tank that we have with gas in it, and went back to rescue her. Well...we couldn't figure out how to get the gas into the car. The new little tanks have these nozzles that you have to click into place to prevent them from just spilling. So, we had the nozzle in her car, but no gas was actually coming out. I felt like an idiot. Finally a nice man stopped and helped us and showed us how to turn and click these little green pieces into place and then the gas finally started coming out. Well, we were thanking him profusely and he said, well, the best way to thank me is to give out my business card if you know anyone who needs concrete work done. Tucker, upon hearing this ran back into our van grabbed one of Ben's business cards and said, well, We'll take your card if you take our card! :) He is so funny that kid!

This was a busy photography month for me too, it seemed. With graduation coming, I made a few grad announcements, which I love doing! Also, a lot of time spent on my cute cousin Stormee's wedding invites/Save the dates. We found this really cool website, printstagram, that prints your instagram photos. So, I Instagrammed one of her engagement photos, and turned them into little stickers.

They came in little booklets, then I had to cut them up, use some double sided photo tape, and I taped them to the back of her announcement as a 'Save the date' sticker they could put on their calendars! I thought the idea was so cute, and I love the way they turned out! I think everyone should do this!

I also designed her announcement:

And even though it was quite the project and took a lot of time, I was happy to do it for Stormee and so happy with the way it all turned out!

But back to reality with 3 small children. Lots of time outside making habitats:

They made many of these habitats for bugs they would find. Surprisingly the bugs never stayed. hmmmm

Tucker's school art walk. His ice cream cone is the blue one two up from his head where he is standing. I thought it was so good!! I loved the colors.

I'm so proud of this little man. We got his end of school year test results, and this is how he fared:

Although they don't have GPA's in elementary, it says that his equivalent GPA would be 4.0!

He is such a smart little dude, and I couldn't be more proud of his desire to learn and how fast he catches on to new ideas and concepts. Way to go, buddy!!!

Not only that but his teacher has told me numerous times that he is a helper in class to those who don't understand as quick as him. Lots of kids to go him with their questions, and that he is a good class leader. The other kids will pick up on his ideas, or jokes even, and they will become class jokes, or class ideas and discussions. Like during writing time, he started writing made up stories about 'Bob' and he would think they were so funny, he would read them to his friends, and then his friends started writing stories about 'Bob' and eventually 'Bob' kind of became the class joke or theme and a lot of their discussions were about 'Bob' or even Mrs. Larsen would use 'Bob' as an example to teach something. And it all started with Tucker. He even always talks about Bob at home, so it totally doesn't surprise me that Bob made it into the classroom! :)

The two awards that he got this year at the end of the school year, for their class are: The joyful jokester award, and The most creative writer award. And that one is true, I've read some of his stories from writing time at school, and they are hilarious! It's amazing to me sometimes how he understands and gets jokes and concepts that I wouldn't think a 7 year old would understand. I feel like I've been able to talk to him as an adult almost, for a while now. The boy probably has a better vocabulary than me! :) Anyway, he's just a great kid (that totally drives me nuts-O a lot of time, too!) and I am so proud of him!

Family Fun Night at the school. Tara was in the midst of packing and moving, so I took her kids with me. It was quite the night! :) I don't know how people have 5 kids all the time and stay sane! :) Collin & Tucker at the candy bar walk:

Taylor helped with the clean up:

And this guy just sat back and enjoyed some pizza:

Another beautiful night of fun, food, friends and dancing! Can't go wrong with that combo.

These two brothers sure do love each other. At Tucker's annual eye exam we learned that his Stigmatism is getting a lot worse. The doctor was a bit concerned about how fast the shape was changing. So, we have to go in in three months for a re-check to make sure it's not moved more. He got a new Rx, and the doc said that was probably the reason he hadn't been wanting to wear his glasses lately, because they probably don't really help much because his eyes have changed so much. But he says a lot of time, too, that he sees just fine without his glasses; so we'll see!
May was an exciting month! :) Can't wait to see what June has in store!

Branch campout...

The last weekend in May was spent with our awesome branch, and Pines ward. We had a combined ward/branch campout. It was the perfect night and the perfect location. Beautiful in every way! I love our branch family, and the awesome families in the Pines ward.

Tucker likes to give Luke Peterson a hard time. I think Luke likes it because it gives him his boy fix, with three girls this is all he gets for now! :) I personally think that Tucker is trying to get in good with Ellory's dad! :) I hope so too, because that Ellory is a cutie! :)

Silly kids I have...

Juan was the grill master for the night, cooking up some delicious burgers!

The lady folk from our branch...

We played a game with the bishopric from Pines ward and the branch presidency from our branch, but Juan was the only one there from the presidency of our branch, so just him and Maria represented! :)

They put shower caps on with shaving cream, then the wives had to toss cheese puffs and the men had to catch them on their heads. My friend Dori and her husband also participated because he is in the bishopric of the Pines ward.

This sweet girl sure loves her daddy. And the feeling is mutual!

Jackson with one of his BFF's, my friend Dori's son, George...

Ben, of course, has to challenge anyone who will, to feats of strength. Juan and him arm wrestling...

It was just gorgeous!

Ben teaching the young'ns how to skip rocks...

We opted to not spend the night and just went up for the evening. I didn't really have a desire to sleep in a tent with a one year old. On our drive home that night, this was our view. We sure do live in a beautiful part of this earth! We are so lucky!