Family Pictures

Crys took some family pictures for us a month or so ago.  I LOVE how they turned out.  She does such a great job.  My kids are also really cooperative for the first hour or so.  I am always pleasantly surprised at how well the pictures turn out.  :)  Thanks so much Crys!

Emery cracked me up because she just kept changing her pose.  But in all of them she looked really cute!  She is so photogenic!

What a cutie! Emery - 5

The bottom family picture is my favorite.  I don't really like how I look in any of them, but the one above shows the kids personalities so well!

Riley started doing this weird smile.  I couldn't stop laughing.  It was hilarious!

But you can always count on Rob to bring out the real smiles in these kids.

Star Trek hands.

Cutie pie Riley - 2

Me and my handsome husband.

Beautiful Sadie - 9 years old.

Handsome Zachary - 7

Allergies

Poor Zac has terrible allergies.  Mostly it affects his eyes the worst. They just get so red and itchy and swollen.  There was about a week of school where he called me in the middle of the day to come give him eye drops.  So I took him to the Dr. and he prescribed some eye drops that were supposed to be amazing.  They only cost 50 bucks for a TINY bottle.  But without insurance it would have cost us 198 dollars.  yikes!  I haven't been too impressed with these new eyedrops, but fortunately his allergies seem to be dying down a little bit.  Once they have gone away, I'll make an appointment with the allergist because they said he has to be off of his allergy medication for 3 weeks before he goes in. 

Hopefully these days of puffy red eyes are almost over!

We love warm weather!

 We love it when the weather warms up.  That means lots of walks to the park, lots of otter pops, lots of playing outside!  We love it! 

 We usually don't walk to the park this way, but this day the girls were excited to hold the flag up as we crossed the street.  

 There were a bunch of fairies on display at Gardner Village a few weeks ago.  We checked them out with some friends.  

 Emery and Riley are good buddies when it is just the two of them here. And Emery loves to pick leaves from plants and make soups and stews and food and nests.  This day she wanted to have some leaf ears.  :)

 We decided to eat our lunch on the brand new deck one day.  It was fun.  And these girls are cute.

 It was a lovely little picnic.

 Riley modeling her new swimming suit.  

 We don't have a ton of play stuff in the backyard, but we do have these two little swingset frames.  One of them has swings and a seesaw, but the other is just the frame.  The kids spend hours on these just climbing and hanging upside down.  

 Sprinklers!

 This is the day we planted all of the flowers.  I waited until the kids got home from school so they could help.  Then they did nothing but whine the whole time.  Oh well...things don't always work out exactly how I think they will.  ha ha.

 Sadie and her friend London walking to the park.  I made them matching shirts and they love it.  Now they say i just need to make one for the rest of their friends...

 These three make me laugh. 

And we love when we can pull the slip and slide out! 

 Riley is even getting into it this year!

 Zac was having bad allergies so he sat with his friend Kylan on the deck for a while.

Here are a few more action shots.  Enjoy!

Crazy weather

 One day we are outside playing on the slip and slide...

 And a few days later, the girls are enjoying playing in the snow!  This is the middle of MAY!  ha ha. 

 They were happy about it.  I hadn't quite put the snow clothes away yet thankfully.

 This was the girls at soccer...it wasn't snowing, but it was so cold and WINDY!

We usually plant our garden at the end of April or beginning of May.  This year I convinced Rob we were supposed to wait until after Mother's day to plant out garden.  We held off until the day before Mother's day.  We planted our garden that Saturday and then on the Monday after I bought flowers and planted them.  Two mornings later we woke up to this:

 SNOW!  I went outside at like 6:30 am to try to dig the snow off of the newly planted flowers and shake off the peach tree.  Ha ha.  Zac helped me and we both got covered in freezing cold snow.  I had literally put the snow coats and clothes down in the basement the day before this happened. 

 My beautiful flower pot...it survived mostly.  There were like 2 plants that didn't make it though.  

 And our green beans and cucumbers haven't fully recovered from this yet.  sigh.  I guess next year we will watch the weather better before we plant the garden.

These kids had a blast playing in the snow one last time for the year.  :)

Piano recital

The kids had a piano recital a couple weeks ago.  I love how their piano teacher does it because she has them play a song by themselves and also has a little duet piece where she plays with them.  It's awesome.  Both Zac and Sadie did great.  I'm only able to post a video of Zac playing one of his pieces because the other videos are all too big to post on here.  :(  But just know that they both did amazing and I'm really impressed with all that they have accomplished.  I love hearing them play.   It's not always fun getting them to practice, but it's worth it. 

This is the whole group that takes piano from their teacher.  

One voice children's choir

 When I found out that One Voice Children's Choir was coming to have a concert less than a mile away from our house, I knew we would be going. A girl in our primary is in the choir and I have been bugging her to tell me when they had a concert close by.  ha ha. We took all the kids and they all enjoyed the first half of the concert.  It was fun to hear the songs that we have been listening to on Youtube being sung live in front of us!  Then after intermission, Rob drove the younger three home and Sadie and I enjoyed the rest of the concert and then walked home after.  It was such a fun night.  I loved it so much.  And so did Sadie. 

Mother's day

These pictures (above) are from mother's day.  I love these kids of mine so much.  They are crazy and funny and just fun.  They teach me patience, how to let go, and how to love.  :)

The pictures below are some dresses that I made for the girls.  They just look like summer to me.  And it is the first project I've made with the fabric I got from LA when I went with my mom.  Can't wait to make more!!!!