another memorable memorial

We had another fun holiday weekend. Its hard not to have fun with this troop.

 

We got start Memorial Day off with breakfast with extended family up in the canyons.  (This little girl is starting to add a lot of ham with her “cheese.” when I take pictures.)

Then we were off to the park for a picnic and some fun.

Cali and Kimi have both moved on to bigger and scarier things.

One little kid lost his lunch after this ride, but luckily it was after it slowed down because I was in the “splash zone.”

We ended the day with a trip to the cemetery to visit some departed family.

We are thankful for all those people in uniform that make it possible for us to be able to enjoy days like these!

boy or girl?

Yes, it is definitely a boy or girl, but we are not going to find out which until sometime in September. (The measurements of the baby has now set my due date to about September 24. Two more weeks of pregnancy tacked on. Yipee.)

We have already told people that we are going to let it be a surprise, and believe me, that was probably what kept me from giving in and finding out yesterday during my ultrasound. It took about all my will power.

The one reason I would like to find out is that I get pretty caught up in picking names and it would be nice to cut the field of possibilities down by 50%.  Or we could just pick a name and use it no matter which it is. Scott and I once knew a girl named Brandon. :)

But I don’t usually get true surprises. (I usually have all my Christmas and Birthday presents figured out by the time I get to open them.) So this is one of those times that we would like to have a real surprise.

The kids vacillate on their guesses. Ian, whom I thought would be a sure voter for boy says he would like a sister. That way he keeps his own room and toys.  He’s given this more thought that I credited.

So you guys can go ahead and guess, and we will see who is right.

april showers

 

We had some record breaking temperatures this past week, so Ian and Natalie got to do something that we normally don’t do in April.

I’ll just let the pictures explain themselves.

easter dressy

Is it really so hard to sit still and smile for a picture?

This was after about 100 tries.

Are you wondering what Natalie is holding? We just had the lawn aerated and that is dirt plug. We don’t have a dog.

“Put down the dirt, Natalie.”

She looked so sweet, digging in the dirt in her fancy dress.

I’m sure that picture taking is their favorite part of Easter. :)

the birthday boy

Someone at our house just turned FIVE!

The older kids are out on Spring Break this week, so we all got to go have a picnic by Dad’s office.

And we got to go to a museum near by. Indiana Jones loves museums, so this was a cool thing to do. In the children’s section they got to dress up and try Latin American dances.

He got some new Star Wars Lego’s from Grandma and Grandpa M. I can’t really tell if likes them or not. He’s so hard to read.

He asked me to make him an “I” cake. I thought he meant an “eye” cake, and was kind of grossed out. I was glad he explained it to  me and didn’t have an eyeball staring at him when he expected his initial.

Happy Birthday to my little man.

around the conference table

I love General Conference. I think it is better than most holidays because you get wonderful family time without all the crazy stress.

We may have had a Jedi council going on too.

Because I don’t really have a better place to put these things, (I am afraid of Pintrest because I know myself to be a notorious time-waster) I wanted to stick my favorite places that I found activities to print off for my kids here so I could find them again in October or for FHE.

My favorite printable packets were from foodstorageandbeyond.com. Ian had the most fun with that packet.

This blog had a good coloring book from the Friend already put in a google doc and ready to print. (I don’t always get good results trying to print from the lds.org coloring pages.)

Deseret Book also had a cute packet that we liked.

Now I just need to work on improving everything I took note of before the next conference! Luckily I have six months.

elementary school musical

Cali just finished up performing in the musical at her school. It was “Doo Wop Wed Widing Hood,” and Cali was the cutest member of the chorus on the stage. I’m not biased in any way.

I was actually surprised at how well they were able to do a musical for a group of elementary school students. I couldn’t even memorize a poem when I was that age.

(Natalie always thinks she is the one that we want pictures of, and Cali was nice enough to share her spotlight. )

adding another peanut to our gallery

Here is the first look at the bun in the oven, who is due to make an appearance this September.

Being pregnant and having the other kids be a little older this time has been fun, as they all feel ownership in “our baby.” Such as: their feeling like their input on names is really important. We still haven’t come up with anything better than “Indiana” or “Hermione” yet.

Ian also asked me the other day if I ate the baby, and that is how it ended up in my tummy.  I just kind of left the answer at “no.”

Speaking of eating, I haven’t felt sick, but I have felt like eating everything in sight. I am not sure which I would really prefer.

Someone recently pointed out to us that we are going to have five kids under the age of ten.

We know. Aren’t we lucky?

nine

Cali doesn’t enjoy her birthday cakes quite the same way she used to eight years ago.

Yes, she is nine already.

Cali picked bowling for her birthday activity.

Natalie didn’t even care where the ball went. It was all good.

Ian took his turns all by himself, and his legs turned into pogo sticks as soon as the ball was let go.

I told him he was an awesome bowler.

“I know.” he replied.

It was a pretty close contest. I was sitting it out, but I did bowl one frame for Scott.

I got a strike.

I quit there.

Really he didn’t need my help.

Happy birthday to my sweet girl who first made me a mother.