July

 July was another wonderful summer month full of adventure! Heidi came at the first part of the month and we had so much fun while she was here! When Huds first saw her after she got into town he hugged her and wouldn't let go for like 3 solid minutes.

Early one morning, my mom and Heid came with me and the kiddos to hike Donut Falls. I love this hike. It's so beautiful the whole way, it's very kid friendly (Davis did the whole thing himself) and the waterfall is beautiful.

 Funny story, when we got back to *almost* the car, Davis crouched down and refused to move. I asked if I could carry him, to which he gave his usual "okay!" I carried him the last 50 feet to the car. Did the whole dang hike himself (that I frequently tried to carry him during) only to give up with 50 feet to go.

 We had a lovely 4th of July! We did red, white and blue breakfast and then spent the morning working in the yard. Our poor Chase woke up that morning with strep throat and was devastated! Ben and I had it the weekend before, so we were pretty certain what it was, and thankfully the pediatrician on call felt comfortable just calling in a prescription for him instead of insisting we be seen on the holiday. Chase was so upset, since the 4th of July is his very favorite holiday! We still made the most of the day though. He did have to miss out on the slip n slide with our neighbors and the pool party at my parents house. We did bring him up some dinner to enjoy and Papa let him play on his iPad.

Also, we were all the in the pool and getting the BBQ all set up when a HUGE storm blew in! In a matter of minutes it was a complete downpour- it was insane! We quickly moved our whole bbq inside my parents basement- we had like 27 people in there. It was chaos, in a funny memory kind of way.

The rain picked up again right at the first of fireworks, so we packed up and headed home. I watched fireworks right on my bed with Chase and Hudson (who fell asleep within 5 minutes of them starting). I snuggled Chase, someone was setting off a great firework show right across the marsh from us. We talked about positive attitudes and even though how so much of the day didn't go as planned, it was still a great holiday. Hopefully a good lesson was learned!

 We are deep in Harry Potter this summer! We finished the 5th book mid July and Hudson actually asked me to do this little "Harry Potter photoshoot" with him. He is eating those books up! As is Chase. And I'm loving reading it to them. We spend at least 30 minutes every night in their bed immersed in that magical world.

 We did our annual "Friends Camping" trip. My boys look forward to this every year. We went up Little Cottonwood Canyon this year to a really beautiful campsite. We love this wonderful group of friends. We now have 11 kids between our three families and it's a circus, but all the kids get along so well. Davis was completely nuts and made the trip so exhausting for me and Ben, but it was still worth it. However, when it was 11 pm and he was crying "let's go home" we definitely questioned our judgment about bringing him along.

 After one random swim night we threw all the cousins in the shower. I love this cute crew of kiddos!

 Chase got to do a free coding camp at the Apple store! It was so fun for him, he was so enthusiastic. They got to program spheros and he had a great time.

 Oh Davis! On this particular day some neighbor kids came banging on my door and ringing the doorbell and woke him up after like 15 minutes of napping. And then at 5:00 pm he was dead asleep on the couch. We snuggled a little before I insisted he wake up. He's the sweetest.

 On Chase's last day of Apple Camp I took him out on a little date and let him pick the restaurant. Not surprisingly he chose pizza.

 Every time Ben mows the lawn Davis joins him with his little lawnmower (and sometimes also joins our next door neighbor Craig in his lawn mowing as well). I think in Davis's little mind he's actually helping and it's so darling!

 We did our little 24th of July tradition a day early and did fireworks with the Josephs on the 23rd. I was surprised how scared Davis was! He sat in my lap, trembled, and held my hands over his face, occasionally peaking out for a glimpse.

 On the actual 24th we hit up the festivities at Bowmans. The kids loved the face paint (Davis got Mickey on his arm). Hudson's is Black Panther- he's doing "Wakanda forever" with his arms. Chase decided you couldn't see his flag well enough and chopped off his own hair when we got home! (He's since had a remedial haircut and learned his lesson to not cut his own hair). We ate hot dogs and drank lemonade and the boys thought it was the best.

 We ended the 24th with a fun BBQ and swim at Nana and Papa's. The kids were way into smores and ate way too many that night.

July started out insanely busy, but by the end of the month we had finally settled into a "relaxing" summer routine. We got to sleep in a little later (like 7:30!) and we didn't have nearly as many things planned. We spent more time actually at home and the kids bopped around the neighborhood to friends houses. Life was finally moving a little slower and I'm glad we got some time before the craziness of school starts all over again!

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.