Happy Fourth of July!

We drove about an hour south of us to go to a "small town" 4th of July. It has been pouring rain the past few days, the parade had just a little. It was super hot and humid. Kids rode rides after as we baked in the heat. It was too hot to even begin to think about eating fried cheesecake, but it cracked me up!

Happy St.Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 

 Sophie couldn't eat green eggs with her eyes open. She said that she understood Sam from Green Eggs and Ham. We also had kiwi and kind of green coffee cake, Noah said it was "swamp green".

 Ready for church. Everyone has on green, it is a bit hard to tell in the picture. While I was getting ready Grace and the boys made a tiny plate of food and a drink of green water in a small tin foil cup and put it outside for a leprechaun.

I am in love with this picture. Luke is growing up so fast, everyone is. He cracks me up all the time. Even without a green fuzzy mustache.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We have had a fun, sugar filled Valentine's Day. Hope yours was full of love!

Almost as good as snow...

 We had an ice storm yesterday afternoon. The kids were super excited-they got out of school at noon. Grace and Noah spent the whole afternoon in and out, slipping around and having fun. This morning Jason took the girls target shooting. This is a new development, Sophie and Grace love it surprisingly. So the boys and I decided to be adventurous and slide down the driveway.  It felt a whole lot faster then the video shows. We still think of Auntie Em every time we use the blue sled. The kids call it Big Blue. It is starting to wear out on the bottom, I am way too sentimental to give it away! A bit silly I know.

Speaking of silly...I found this when I was looking at our pictures sliding from today. Cracks me up!

Snow Day!

 It started snowing last night around 6. We lost power at 9 and slept in a cold house! Luckily it came on at about 7:30 this morning. A Friday snow day means a LONG weekend with no school Monday and Tuesday. The kids and I had a blast. It warmed up fast, most of the snow is gone, but we played and played and played.

 I am officially in love with my new camera. I am still super inexperienced at using it. I love that I got the snow spraying up in Noah's face. He was not so happy though...

 Sophie, Alison Mullahey, Walker and Ella Joyce, Grace, Zach Mullahey and Noah

Jason calls these boys the 3 marauders...they play hours and hours together.

 My sweet Grace, what a girl! In the boy's birthday package my mom included some books from my childhood that I loved and read over and over. Right in the middle of the party Grace started reading Chester the Worldy Pig. You can see Luke still unwrapping in the bottom picture. Today Grace read "the best book ever". She literally read every minute she was home from school until she was finished. It was a mystery/ghost book. I kept asking her if it was scary, she finally just told me no mom! It is intense, but not scary! We will see at 3am just how intense it really was. Jason actually had to tell her to put her book away at dinner. She had it on her lap trying to read and eat at the same time.

The other night during scripture study we were reading in 1st Nephi and Jason asked the kids rhetorically if they could imagine wanting to throw their brother off into the ocean. Gracie just giggled and said yes!
She did give her gerbil to Luke over Christmas break. She is tired of taking care of it but it is still sweet to me that she wanted to share it with her brother.
Sadly, in the past 2 weeks Grace has told me that her eyebrows look funny and she has a big tummy. The other girls in her class are all skinnier then her and it makes her sad. Breaks my heart, and makes me mad! Jason and I are working with her, I hope it was just a bump in the road and not something she is internalizing. 8 is way to young to not enjoy her awesomeness! Plus the fact that she is still super little for her age. I wish I could just journey into her brain and see where those thoughts are coming from. Faith, prayer, patience. Repeat....

Happy 6th Birthday Luke & Noah

 It is hard for me to believe these guys are 6! It doesn't seem like that many years ago that they were my tiny baby boys, just born and so sweet.

 

These guns been played with almost constantly since the birthday party. Add some nerf guns that shoot darts and a basket ball hoop  outside and you have some happy and busy boys. When others call his gun a rifle Noah corrects them and says it is a civil war replica musket!

What joy these boys bring to our lives. I am so grateful for them.