June

I cannot believe a whole month of our summer break has already flown by! It has been a really wonderful, really exhausting month. I've had to remind myself over and over again that summer is long- we don't have to do ALL THE THINGS- and to slow down a little to enjoy. Mostly- I have really really enjoyed this summer break and the boys are all having a blast!

 June wrapped up baseball season. Both boys really love playing baseball. Hudson surprised us with being really calm and chill about it, but he always looked forward to games and sent us the cutest little thumbs up from each base as he ran around.

 The biggest challenge of baseball was definitely wrangling Davis at games. He's so cute, but doesn't have a whole lot of interest in sitting in our laps to watch the games for an hour straight.

 We've had some really nice mornings just playing outside in our front yard. Davis would play in his water table, the big kids would ride bikes, play basketball, or we'd have chalk competitions. I'd give the boys a theme to follow and then we'd all do a chalk drawing with the theme and score them. This particular day we did avengers. Hudson always put a lot of thought and care into his masterpieces.

 Chase's baseball season was awesome. The competition is a lot more intense now that he's in pitch-machine and he did really well with it. He rarely struck out and learned a lot about fielding the ball too. There were so many of his cute friends on his team, which made it extra fun. They lost in the 2nd round of the tournament (against an undefeated team) and it was a hard loss for Chase- but even in losses we can learn good lessons about character building and sportsmanship. We want our kids to play sports so that they can have fun and learn life lessons.

 We had a fun morning running errands at station park and then playing on the playground. I love taking all three of them places!

 We hiked Adams canyon one morning with my mom. We went to the lower falls, which is maybe a mile each way. Davis hiked the entire thing! He kept saying under his breath "i....doing....awesome!" - which he was. The waterfall was beautiful and it was fun to be out in nature with my kids. I was thankful my mom came along, it would have been a little crazy on my own.

 Davis has regularly insisted on wearing his snow boots when we play outside. Also, can I just say I love my neighborhood. We've had so many fun memories this summer just playing outside with whatever neighbor kids happen to wander over. Spontaneous water fights, pick up basketball games, and a whole lot of imagination happening right on our street!

 We've swam as much as we can! It's been a weirdly cold month, but every day that was warm enough we found time to swim! This picture is from the first week when Hudson didn't believe he could jump off the board and swim on his own. He's now back to jumping off and swimming all over the place without assistance. Chase is completely a fish and swims so well. Davis is still rocking the puddle jumper and loves to jump off the board "the jumping board" as he calls it!

 A momentous occasion happened- Hudson finally lost a tooth! Ben and I were getting Davis ready for bed one night and overheard Chase saying "Hold still Huds, I'm a tooth pulling expert!" He was helping him get it out! It took a little more help from Ben and then out it popped! Hudson was squealing with glee and Chase immediately wrapped him up in the sweetest hug, which turned into him picking Huds up and carrying him on a victory lap around the upstairs!

 I love this note he wrote the tooth fairy: Dear Tooth Fairy, I have lost my first tooth. It is small. I know it is small. PS Let me know if you see it. From Hudson.

 Chase got to go to day camp with the cub scouts. He was so excited to go that day he was awake at like 5:30. He actually slept in this outfit the night before because he was too excited to go. He got to climb a rock wall, zipline, shoot air soft guns and BB guns, do bow and arrow archery, rid BMX bikes and a bunch of other things. He came home exhausted and exhilarated.

 We tried to do the splash pad with a bunch of neighbors while Chase was at day camp. It started well enough while we played at the park waiting for the splash pad to turn on. Then once it did Davis was randomly terrified of it. Hudson and the neighbor kids played and ran and had a blast though. Davis mostly ran around the perimeter and cuddled in my arms.

 We made eclairs with the Hickmans one morning. It was so fun and I'm so excited to make them again and again. We brought about 10 home and they were all gone by the next day.

 Hudson here is working in his "office". He spends hours downstairs playing and creating and it's all WORK to him. While Davis naps every day the boys have quiet time- they can read, play in the basement or watch TV and they do great with it (although Chase has let me know he'd rather be playing with friends).

Also of note, I've added extra jobs for the big boys to do every day during the summer and they are doing awesome! It's nice to have kids that can be so helpful! Chase cleans bathrooms and tidies and vacuums our family room (3x a week). Hudson organizes our shoe rack (a constant source of clutter and messiness), cleans baseboards, dusts and vacuums. It's been awesome! Love these little helpers!

May and End of School

May began with Star Wars Day! May the 4th is Star Wars day and Hudson was just so excited about it. He really wanted us to have a cake and he gave me this basic design for it. He made the cutest decorations for Star Wars day and we invited some friends over for cake and watching "The Phantom Menace". I'm pretty luke-warm on Star Wars, but I love this kid more than anything.

 We had a lovely Mothers Day this year! Ben got me some pretty flowers and made a wonderful breakfast and the boys made the sweetest gifts and cards at school. I love being a mom so much- it really is a dream come true for me. These three little boys (and their dad) are the best!

 Just a random Davis- he stole this knights helmet from a neighbor a few weeks ago and has worn it a LOT since then. Like he's taken baths with it on his head.

 Baseball started! Both Chase and Hudson are playing this year and they are doing awesome! It's made for some fun nights at the ball park- although having four baseball games a week has made life a little crazy.

 My little cookie thief- this baby boy loves cookies more than anyone I know. He stole this one right off the counter shortly after it came out of the oven.

 Totally normal attire for Huds

 We snapped these pictures with Davis before church one morning and I love them so much. He's such a darling kid and we are all obsessed with him. How could we not be?

 Our neighbors, the Hickmans, are really into sidewalk chalk and frequently when they are outside doing chalk my boys wander down. Davis always insists Lindsay draw him a Mickey Mouse and talks to her excitedly about Mickey the whole time. And Hudson drew this darling R2D2, which I loved.

 Chase had hat day at school which was exciting because he rarely takes his hat off. He even sleeps in it. When people ask (and they frequently do) if he's a Red Sox fan, he usually responds with a shrug and says "I'm mostly a hat fan." I put one of Davis this day and he immediately said "Big like Chase!"

 Instead of a pinewood derby, our ward did a lego derby! It was the best thing ever! The boys all built their cars that night, Chase and Luca decided to build one together and they won first place! We laughed because our bishop jokingly asked us if Chase had practiced building lego cars in prep, but really his whole life had been prep for this! He also spent hours and hours at the discovery gateway building lego cars on their derby track. All those boys loved this event- it was low key and awesome!

 Davis has been majorly attached to his dad this last month. I will ask if I can hold him and he'll say "No, daddy!" One night he woke up in the middle of the night crying and I went in to comfort him. He immediately said "Hi mommy. I want daddy."

 Memorial Day marked 4 years of living in our home. This home means so much to us. We put so much into fixing it up. We've loved living here so much. We love our beautiful view out our back windows, the great school the kids attend, having enough space for our family to live comfortably and just so many small things about this home. One of the best parts of living here has been the wonderful people we've met. The friends we've made here have been amazing- they've literally laughed and cried with us, supported us in times of sorrow, celebrated with us in the good times, loved our kids (and we've loved theirs), and created hundreds of happy memories together. Over the last few months we've had the experience of truly seeing how great they are, and I'll always be thankful for their love, service and friendship. I never want to move!

We finished up the school year! This has been such a great year for my boys. I'm amazed at all they learned. They both had the best teachers this year. Before school ended the boys and I wrote them thank you cards and included a little gift card, and I wished I could have done more for them because they were really so great. They loved the boys, appreciated their unique gifts, were patient with their quirks, and just made school such a great experience for them. They started riding their bikes to school this spring and loved it, so for next year I'm planning on ditching the carpool and having them just ride their bikes every day. Only, Davis tries to join in and gets disappointed I don't let him ride to school.

 This was their last day of school- Kindergarten with Mrs. Turner for Hudson and 2nd grade with Mrs. Evans for Chase. We got their report cards and they did amazing. Both are testing way above grade level. Chase's end of level tests were 100% in everything. He's being doing online homework all year and he's finished all the 2nd and 3rd grade material and is well into the 4th grade material. Hudson has really grasped reading this year, his writing is amazing and just his general creativity and imagination continues to just blossom.

 This is how excited we are about summer! (Although while they were doing this, they were pretending to be riding the slinky dog coaster at Disneyworld)

 As a fun start to our summer, Ben took the older two boys camping! He arranged a little overnight camping trip with a few neighbors and their kids and they all had a grand time. So us wives and our babies had a fun little girls night together, and I got in a lot of quality time with Davis. The boys said sleeping in the tent (with the Joseph boys) was their favorite part.

 They tried a little fishing the next morning with no luck. However, Ben took extensive video footage of Hudson in his little imaginative world hunting for tug-a-lugs (one of their caves is pictured below) and also working on "nanotech" with this "business partners" for "Stark Industries". Oh we love that kid.

So that was May! It really was a great month. We ended the school year on a really great note- but also so excited to start our summer vacation. It is time for a change of pace!

Easter

Easter was wonderful this year! We spent the week doing Holy Week- every morning during breakfast we would read the verses in the Bible that corresponded to that day in the last week of Jesus' life on Earth. I loved doing this. It really gave us a great focus during this week.

We had a fun Easter egg hunt and dinner at Nana and Papa's on Saturday. Sunday morning the boys found their baskets from the Easter bunny and we had a delicious breakfast together while reading the last verses about the resurrection.

I had to speak in church, which made things a little stressful for me. I gave a talk about how Easter is the holiday of hope. It was a message maybe I needed more than anyone, so it was a good study for me to get ready for this talk. 

We ended our holiday having a lovely dinner with Papa Ray and Grandma. The boys did another egg hunt there and between the two egg hunts we had so much candy at our house! It really was a wonderful holiday. It's always good to remember our Savior, even when life isn't perfect and sometimes it's hard, that our Savior suffered all for us. 

Our Spring Break

I was really looking forward to Spring Break this year. I love having my kids in school, the structure, and all they learn there. They love school! But it's also so nice to have them home and have a whole week to do whatever we want! My goals for spring break were to spend lots of quality time with my boys and to enjoy as many fun, free things in our own backyard as possible!

One thing on our list was some cooking lessons. I let each boy choose what they wanted to make. First thing Monday morning we made blueberry muffins with Hudson! He was so proud of the result!

 Then we took off to enjoy the fresh air at one of our favorite parks- GrayHawk. Lots of our neighbor friends met us there and we had a grand time! This park has so much to do and it was fun to have so many friends to play with!

 In the late afternoon we set off for Salt Lake City! We had some time to kill so I took the boys around Temple Square. They loved more than I expected! We stopped to talk about various statues, the architecture and meaning of the temple, admire the floors, see the visitors center displays, and I took them in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and showed them the room where Ben and I had our lovely wedding dinner. They were so enthusiastic about everything!

 Then we met Ben (and some pizza) at the Hilton for the night! We had a free hotel night that was use it or lose it, so we did! The boys loved the idea of a staycation- especially the hot chocolate bar in the evening and the delicious breakfast buffet in the morning! We stayed up late watching TV and had a great time! And as a bonus, for like the first time ever, Davis slept just fine in the pack n play!

 In the morning we set out to tour the Capitol building. This had been on Chase's wish list for the week. He loved learning about everything- the history, architecture, government, he's always searching for more knowledge. Hudson, on the other hand, was pointing out the similarities between the rotunda and a Jedi temple. And Davis was pretty happy to be along for the ride!

 Chase is in a serious tree climbing phase right now- he finally figured out how to climb up a really tall tree by our church, which was a serious accomplishment for him. Also- this is our newly pruned cherry tree. Over the last few weeks, Ben and I (and my dad, and our friend Matt) have pruned our apricot, pear, peach, nectarine and 2 cherry trees and our grapevines!).

 We babysat Nora and Anna one night and all the cousins had a great time. I loved this picture of Davis and Anna in the bath together. Afterwards Davis kept helping me rub lotion on Anna and kept saying "Soft. Baby." Over and over. In fact, he called her "baby" all week, which is weird because she's older than him.

 Wednesday we hit up the Hill AirForce Base Museum. My big kids LOVE this place. It really is so cool. And Davis was a huge pain while we were there- trying to run under the ropes and right next to a plane. Ah- so stressful! Towards the end I stuck him in this wagon with some friends and he did slightly better. Sometimes taking a two year old places just isn't magical. The important part is that the big kids loved it!

 Our last two days of the week we spent at two different, super awesome parks! This swing park was crazy and fun and Hudson spent too much time on the merry go round and threw up in the car on the way home! We had sent out a group message to our whole neighborhood with the park schedule, so a whole bunch of neighbors met up with us each day and it made it so fun!

 Chase got his chance at a cooking lesson. He made oatmeal waffles- completely by himself.  He is also making french toast all by himself these days! I'm so proud!

 Amid all these activities we also had a great amount of down time. One day I looked over to see my three boys watching TV like this! They are such sweet brothers.

 Our week ended with general conference. I love general conference and so many messages spoke right to my soul. The boys requested that we do the special bowls of treats (labeled with certain words- if they hear that word they get to pick a treat out of that bowl). Hudson was so into it! He rarely missed a word! The boys mostly built with legos while listening, and he was hopping up right and left to retrieve an M&M or marshmallow.

This was such a great break! I'm thankful for these boys who love to adventure with me. They are enthusiastic about everything and it makes everything so much fun!