Marvelous May

May was, as always, a very crazy month filled with end of year shows, performances, graduations, recitals, etc. Super fun, but super busy. Rachel showed off her skills in a gymnastics performance. We tried out the program at AF Rec Center and were pretty happy with it.  She is third from the left in this lineup. 

Thanksgiving Point's Tulip Festival never fails to disappoint. Always so beautiful!

The kids all randomly started holding hands and it was so precious I had to capture it!

May means Mother's Day and it's always great to feel the love. :) I'm trying to start a tradition of taking a picture outside with all of my children. I love them all so very much!

Luke graduated from Miss Maureen's preschool. We are oh so sad about not being able to do it again this year. She only has an afternoon class for Luke's age group and the time will just not work with Max's nap. We loved this preschool. She was an amazing hands-on teacher who always did great projects and activities with the kids. I highly recommend her! And being able to just walk around the corner to school and back was a huge benefit as well.

Grandma was able to come, as well as Dad.

Here is the lovely Miss Maureen!

Rachel graduated from kindergarten. She was so darling singing her little heart out during the program! I loved the songs they sang. Daddy was able to come too and that was pretty special.

Love this happy girl!

This is her good little friend, Rachel. It's so funny because last year one of Emma's good buddies was named Emma. And this year Rachel became friends with the other Rachel in her class. Aren't they cute?

Mrs. Milner was a wonderful teacher. I was so impressed with her ability to relate to the kids and her unconditional love for all of them. We will miss her!

And we can't forget Emma! She loved Mrs. Moore (especially her great taste in fashion!!!).

It was a wonderful school year for all the kids. It is so difficult to blog about this now that we have moved. It makes me miss our neighborhood and the memories we made there all the more!

Emma is 9!

Emma is now nine years old!  The happy day came in early April and we had a great time celebrating.  She wanted a friend party this year.  We decided on an American Girl doll themed party and it was a lot of fun to plan.  Many friends came and it was a success!  Here she is on her actual birthday opening gifts.
 

We did a fashion show with their dolls.  The girls chose outfits to dress their dolls in and then they each took a turn walking the runway, complete with music and a spotlight.  :)
 
The whole crew!


 

 I made regular sized cupcakes for the girls and mini-sized cupcakes for their dolls.  So cute!

 

Being silly!


 


We had a family dinner the following Sunday and Emma requested red beans and rice, cornbread, a veggie tray, and fruit salad.  Yum!  This is her birthday cheesecake.  It was delicious!
  

We are entering the 'tween' years with this little girl and I can't believe it!  She still has her stubborn, strong-willed streak, but is also very sweet and funny.  We love her so much!

 

More Family Visits

My sister and my dad came out for General Conference weekend in early April. I haven't seen Alexandra in a year! We went out and played during the priesthood session, eating at Cafe Rio and getting frozen yogurt with the kids. Then on Sunday night, we had more family over for a big chili dinner. It was SO MUCH FUN. There was a lot of baseball-playing, Tinkertoy-building, hair-braiding, and laughing. Good times!

Easter

Max's first egg hunt! The weather was absolutely beautiful on Easter weekend, which made the egg hunt so enjoyable! He learned the words
 "candy," "jelly bean," and "chocolate." :)

 
Luke, our sweet tooth, ate all of his loot in record time.
 


Dyeing eggs on Easter morning. I loved doing this when I was a kid. 
 

Easter morning!

 A big creepy Easter bunny. So we were eating dinner over at my in-laws' house. I look out the window and see a giant bunny just wandering around outside (my in-laws have a big commons area behind their house) holding this big fake carrot. It kinda scared me for a minute! And then I called for the kids to go outside and meet the Easter bunny! Even shy Max was brave enough to greet the bunny and give him a little love. Such a funny, unexpected event on Easter Sunday. The kids were pretty thrilled!
Our Easter weekend was not as lovely as it usually is. We started refinishing our kitchen cabinets (pictures to come!) that weekend, which turned out to be a very difficult and exhausting job (but worth it, I suppose). Also, I caught a terrible cold and Ben was completely wiped out on Easter Sunday from doing the cabinets. But we still tried to do all of our traditions and I even managed to complete my goal of doing a mini-devotional each day the week leading up to Easter. It really made a difference and helped our kids learn more about Christ's life and gain a greater appreciation for this most sacred and special time of year. Hope all of you had a great Easter too!

Changes for Max

Max has had some changes in his life lately. First of all, he had his first haircut! At 21 months, we figured it was time and he was quite shaggy. The "before" picture.

Crazy hair getting prepped.

Snipping away. Looking good!

After. His new haircut shows off how handsome he is!

We rushed home to show daddy the new 'do and had to get a picture too! Love that cheesy grin of his.

Max also got glasses recently. His right eye turns in occasionally and the doctors were concerned it would become permanent. We are attempting to correct it with glasses. We are not sure if it will work, but we are hopeful. He looks so cute in them, and he hasn't even given me any trouble about keeping them on! THANK GOODNESS. I was pretty worried about that. This pictures shows how his right eye turns in a bit when looking at you. He looks a bit cross-eyed.
What a cute boy!

March

Whew! That was a blogging break. Let's play catch-up a bit. My parents came out at the beginning of March for my cousin's wedding and it was a lovely weekend. We got to see them a lot and do many fun things together. Chuck E. Cheese was one of them! The kids loved all of the rides and my mom and I always go for the skeeball.

At the wedding reception with my mom.

The two Rachels. My cousin was such a beautiful bride!

My brother DJed the reception and always does such a good job. Luke LOVED listening to the music through Cameron's headphones. He was so cute with those things on!

Oh, how we love Anna!

Earlier during the reception Rachel asked Cameron if he would dance with her when it was time for dancing. She was so thrilled when he said yes! Look at that grin!

Sunday dinner with my family. Cameron and Anna were kind enough to host and let us fill their little apartment with lots of noise. :) This was the last night we got to see them before they flew home and there were lots of sad goodbyes.

Don't you love my dad's whiskers?