Spring Soccer

 Zac started spring soccer last week.  THe only problem is he has games on Saturdays and Wednesday evenings.  Wednesday, Rob teaches a neighborhood kung fu class and then has to go straight to young mens at the church.  So I'm alone with the kids at the field.  Mostly it is ok, but Riley is at the stage where she just loves to wait until I'm not looking and run onto the field!  Doh!  OH well...I think I did a good job running out to get her just in time before the ball came our way.  ha ha. 

 I didn't get many pictures of Zac playing because I was keeping my eye on Riley, but he almost scored a goal at the very beginning of the game and then he scored the game winning goal in the fourth quarter.  It was great!

 These three kept busy rolling around in the grass and chasing a tiny dog that was near us.

 Zac biting his nails.  ha ha.

My cute girls!

New slip and slide

 We got a new slip and slide since the one we had last year was broken.  We opened it up and put it together and it was BROKEN!!  So annoying.  But it still mostly worked so we just kept it and let the kids play on it.  The loved it.  Of course, as I type this, the weather is kinda gloomy and rainy outside.  ha ha.  Hopefully the warm weather comes back soon!  :)

 And what is warm weather without a popsicle!?

 Yum.

 Riley loved the slip and slide and fell pretty hard a few times.  Then she started to be really careful on it.  ha ha

 Rob had to put his foot on that part so that the water had enough pressure to actually spray out.  

 Sadie and Zac have perfected the stomach slide.

 These two are so funny.  They were playing outside and it started raining so they made a little shelter.  ha ha

 The kids love playing in water.  

And riley is always just in her clothes!  ha ha

The ducks are back!

 We have two little duck friends that like to come visit us every now and then.  I think they know that the kids like to give them bread.  :)

It's fun.  Riley loves to chase them around the yard. ha ha

Our New Table

 At the beginning of 2015, I made a goal to learn some woodworking skills.  Mostly because I had found the website: http://www.ana-white.com/  I could spend a long time just looking at all of the projects on there.  My ultimate goal was the eventually make us a dining table.  Now a year and almost half later, I accomplished my goal!  I built a table for us.  And it doesn't wobble!  It's amazing!  I started by building a bench (in January...in Utah...not very smart.  My hands were always freezing!)  and then I moved on to the table. 

I got the wood while my mom was in town with their truck. At Home Depot, we tried to find the straightest boards.  It was hard and the workers there gave us a hard time about it.  ha ha.  But I'm glad we went through all the trouble because it turned out better than I thought it would!

 This is the pile of wood I started with.  Hard to believe it will turn into a table.

 This is my kreg jig.  I love it.  It makes building so much easier and faster!

 These are the legs all ready to be notched out.  This was one of the most time consuming parts of the project.

 Ta-Dah!  The base is done!  It's actually a little bit crooked, but not too noticeable.

 The top all screwed together. I was a little bit worried because it curves up a little bit, but it straightened out when I added the pieces on the end.

 All ready for more sanding and stain and paint.

 THIS was definitely the most time consuming part.  Waiting for paint and polyurethane to dry between coats.  And only being able to work on it during nap times and evenings, it took a little over a week to finish this part.  

 Then we moved it inside and I screwed the top to the bottom!  Rob had to lay on top of it because we didn't have clamps big enough to hold it together.  

 Thanks to Sadie for taking these pictures.  ha ha.  And Zac helped too...and Riley handed me some screws.  Emery did a great job watching.  :) 

 Now I just have to decide if I want to build another bench or get some new chairs.  We have been using our free old church metal chairs for the past 8 and a half years.  ha ha. 

Leatherby's

 A month or so ago, the kids were all very well behaved one day.  They usually are, but this particular day the kids spent the ENTIRE day playing so well together.  I was feeling like a reward was in order so we decided to try out a ice cream place nearby called Leatherby's.  We were totally unprepared for this place.  The servings were huge and the waiter did not warn us.  ha ha.  So we went home with some boxes full of ice cream.  :) Next time we will be more prepared. 

 Rob and Zac (and Riley) shared this HUGE sundae.  There were three massive scoops with toppings galore. When they were full of ice cream, it looked like they had only taken about 3 bites, when in reality, they ate a lot of it.  There was just so much left.  We brought it home and enjoyed it for the next few days.  :)

Rob ordered Emery a strawberry shake.  He asked for a kid size.  When they brought it out he said "no I asked for the kiddie size..." and the waiter just said "that's our small." A little warning would have been nice.  ha ha.  Oh well.  

Sadie got a single scoop sundae.  That was the perfect size.  She still didn't eat it all, but most of it. 

Dance class with William

 Emery started dance class in January.  It is so cute.  She loves it so much!  Anyway, one Tuesday when Emery had dance class, we got to watch William.  So he came with us.  But first, we listened to music on the computer

 Him and Emery stood there listening and holding hands for about 5 whole minutes.  It was cute.   

Then when it was time to go to dance class, I went outside to this:

 This picture doesn't do it justice.  THere was so much snow falling from the sky.  The snowflakes were big and fluffy too.

 Of course, we had to check it out a little bit before we got in the car.

 And this is how I keep two one and a half year olds busy during a 45 minute dance class.  Fruit snacks!!  And pretzels, and crackers, and goldfish, and grapes....you get the picture.  ha ha

 Riley was so sweet to share the pretzels with William...and he was happy to eat them out of her hand!  ha ha

Around the house

I love when I walk into a room and find things like this.  I little Hello Kitty all tucked in for bed with a little bottle.  It always makes me smile.

Here are all of the kids coloring one day after school.  :)

Emery and Riley love playing with these fabric letters I made forever ago.  I need to make some more letters so they can spell all of the people in the our family at the same time.  Right now, we improvise a little bit.

Poor Emery was sick a few weeks ago.  She slept a lot just right in the middle of the floor.  

Kinetic sand is always a good activity.

Riley is sometimes really snuggly...this time, she is using Zac.

I think this is when Emery was asleep when she was sick.  Riley just snuggled up right next to her and gave me a huge smile. 

One morning Riley woke up around 5am.  I brought her out to the couch and she started screaming about who knows what. (Well, in hindsight, it was probably because she had an ear infection...)  I tried to hold her and calm her down but she just arched her back and tried to get away.  So I let her scream and kick on the floor.  After about 10 minutes, she fell asleep.  ha ha.  

Snuggly sisters and a sad Zac.  I believe this was about the time he got an ear infection too.