May

Katie got to go on a date to Cabella's and Swigg with Dad!

And I got to go on her last Field Trip this year! She posed on the rock for me to take a picture, before loading onto the buses.

When you have a slightly anti-social, low energy child and you're riding on the bus for together for an hour, it means you get lots of snuggles! You won't find me complaining!

And when that child also happens to be drop dead gorgeous, you may also get a lot of attention from surrounding little boys...

The Dino Park was really pretty cool!

And, you had to know that Katie would find the random stray cat...

Most of the day she only semi tolerated my picture taking and would frequently flat out refuse to be in a picture. Then, as soon as I said "time to go, let's get back on the bus", she suddenly needed me to take a picture of her on every display we passed.

Rachel was outside playing with her sister and some neighbor kids, when suddenly she came crying and screaming and running into the house. She said a bug had crawled into her ear and she couldn't get it out. We tried scooping it out with a scooping tool, we tried flushing it out with water, and neither worked. When we didn't know what else to do and her screams intensified, Brian hopped into the car and rushed her to urgent care. The nurse heard what was going on and had them come straight back to a room, without checking in. She tried the same things we did. When she left the room to get some "tools", Brian took the doctor's light and shone it into Rachel's ear, until the bug decided to follow the light and crawled out of her ear on it's own! Holy Cow! I am still disturbed about this story...

I took the CUTEST DATE out to watch her friend, Hannah, perform in Peter Pan Jr. It was a great little production! Rachel's dimpled smiles and scrunch-nosed, silent giggles of pure delight were priceless! I sure love her.

We went on a bike ride with Scott and Lisa over to Lucky's Snow Cones. It was a beautiful evening!

Hayden was using his balance bike and got -understandably- tired, during the 3 mile ride...so his dad helped drag him along.

We got counters downstairs!! Yay!!

Some days:

I don't remember the significance of this picture. But how could I not include it?

Katie's class had a hero's presentation. They each had to choose a historical figure as their hero and then put together a whole poster about them and present it to parents as they walked through. Katie did Thomas Jefferson. Brian even slipped away from work for a few minutes to come support. Afterwards, all the kids went to the front of the room and read aloud an adorable poem about how their mom is their real hero and then they sang Mariah Carey's "And then a hero comes along." Seriously, so cute.

We went on an overnight trip to VERNAL! Everyone slept on the way. Except Brian.

*Gasp* Did you just take a picture???

Brian and his Dad ran the Dino Half Marathon. Such a fun, cute race!

 There were a lot of people with dogs, present. Rachel was mesmerized.

 Here they come!

Then back to the hotel for some swimming!

Grandpa's an animal. After a quick shower, he came and played hard in the pool with the kids. Like he hadn't exercised at all, that morning.

We had some lunch...

Stopped to see the Vernal Temple, real quick, and then we were headed home again! Look how cute these two are!!!

We got our little bar installed in the basement!

Mother's Day!

These two are SO cute together! Maliya had a family showcase with her ballroom club, and younger siblings were invited to participate in one of the dances. Rachel went to a couple of practices and loved participating! It was so cute! Maliya is SUCH an adorable ballroom dancer!

She had LOTS of family support!

This boy. Modeling Brian's trendy headphones from work.

Brian kind of loved this patriotic suit he found at Smith's and was super tempted to buy it. But, deep down, he knew he wouldn't have the guts to actually wear it.

I went on a walk/bike ride with this boy, one day, and suddenly teared up at the thought of him leaving me and going to Kindergarten. Even though that event is a year and a half away. What will I do without my boy? I miss my kids when they go to school.

Hayden has found himself a new little friend, in Lauren. They are hilarious, together. And when she came to the door while Hayden was in the middle of changing...he was a little too pleased with himself answering the door shirtless. 🙈😅

Maliya went to play with her friend, Aunna, and they made these cute little papers for each other, extolling the other's positive traits on one side, and drawing their portrait on the other. How adorable is that?

My kids took this shot. Sometimes I figure I should be represented too, so I go ahead and include these random shots that my kids get of me.

Maliya was a "Native American" in the "4th Grade Presentation", which, as it turns out, is all about Utah history, and includes some super cute songs.

Katie got called on in Primary. I couldn't help sneaking a picture. She's too cute. Pretending to be a farmer, which is so adorable already, and then you add her hilarious "embarrassed" faces. She's just too much, sometimes.

Hayden and Cael both sporting their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirts!

Dance Festival!!!

Brian took Maliya and Rachel out to Funtopia. So fun!

Maliya ran in another 1 mile fun run! Rachel attempted it too, but it didn't go too well for her.  Meanwhile, Katie and Hayden had a blast on the playground! They were being so cute together!

Maliya PR'ed!!! She ran it in just under 9 minutes.

I got shingles. It stunk. It was surprisingly painful in multiple ways.

Love teaching this cutie! Sunbeams are such fun!

The last week of school was free dress for everyone. This is what they chose to wear for their first day of freedom of attire. One of the many reasons I'm thankful for uniforms.

Maliya wanted me to take a picture of her too, even though she had a field trip that required her to wear jeans and a red school shirt.

4th Grade wax Museum! Maliya was Christopher Columbus. She did a great job!

Day 2 of free dress, and Katie is wearing a cat dress. Notice a theme?

My dad's car got backed into by a big SUV. The insurance company decided that damages would cost $2000, which is more than his car is worth. They offered him $1700 to hand the car and title over to them, or $1300 if he wanted to keep the car and he could use that money towards the repair. He took the money and Brian and I were tasked with figuring out how to fix the car (okay, mostly Brian. I just kept him company). Luckily, all the damage was just on the one door. We can work with that.