Catching Up

Eliza and I went to the botanical gardens one day and it was one of my favorite days.  I love that place (especially the Japanese gardens) and I loved enjoying it with this sweet girl. It was also a bonus that the cherry blossoms were in bloom.

We love feeding the koi fish.

Daniel took the girls to a western themed daddy daughter dance at church.



Exploring signs of spring on the light table at preschool.

Bird watching at preschool. 

He is taking notes on the monarch butterfly he was watching :). I love that he's a nature lover.

They had to check Andrew's heart after the doctor noticed an irregularity.  He was worried because he really wanted to sign up for tackle football and he needed to pass this in order for the doctor to sign his physical.  Everything checked out to be fine and he is now loving football.  They haven't started the real season yet but they started drill practices.  His track season is coming to a close and swim team is in full swing so he's been busy!

This kid loves legos

He is not like his siblings where he crowds around the babies waiting for a turn, but when things quiet down and there is a baby around he loves taking care of them.

We were babysitting until late and she didn't want to sleep in a crib :).

I know I've said it before but I am really having a hard time dealing with the fact that all my kids will be in school next year.  Being a mom can be so super hard but I love having them around and I will have no little kids to just bring to the park to throw rocks with next year. :( I'll still have my preschool kiddos though which will be good.

Andrew's turn to make his blanket

Hannah made cookies and she's either snitching or helping...probably both.

Our front yard still hadn't recovered from lightning hitting the tree but it was perfect for these two who wanted to spend a Sabbath afternoon hammering nails into the dirt.



The hammering was a practice for Ethan's family home evening lesson about Nephi building a boat.

Ethan read us the story as they acted it out.

Smelling the most wonderful smelling flower buds

:)

Our friends the Fassmans are moving back to Seattle and we are going to miss them!

We found another nest of baby bunnies. The babies were older than the ones we found last year and they were all gone the morning after we found them...I guess mommy decided they were safer in the wild.



A trip to the zoo with good friends



cute kiddos

tired kiddos

Hannah helping with baby Ivy while Niki and I were garage-sailing

freeze tag

I love my boys!

This swing has been a lot of fun!

Hannah loves rollerblading

A fun project my preschoolers love is using water and a paintbrush to paste foam shapes onto the window

Making May Day baskets

Eliza left her May Day basket on the neighbors door and had fun knocking and running

A special activity day girls activity where we got to know the older sisters in our ward

I realize this post is Eliza heavy but I don't want to forget these little kid days. 

The bean plant she grew in preschool

Its finally time to replant the front yard

We all helped a little but I'm especially grateful for all the work Daniel did

The kids school did a family picnic night

Watching the baby ducks at the pond



Silly boys

We match! I love this girl who is my little look alike.

Playing with friends





I got to go with Ethan and his class on a field trip



She loves to color

There is a little fish pond behind a dentist office near our house...

...we had fun checking it out with neighbors





Hannah's had another piano recital and did well

My candid pics from while we were getting our family pictures taken

Silly kids...these two can be the best of friends.  When they're not, they definitely are not, but often they are. 

I guess that's true for all of them (well, most of them. The sweet moments between the oldest two can be few and far between.)



We had a really fun evening together after pictures were done



One of the rare moments caught...I actually forget how this came to be, I probably told him I wanted a picture of them together and they had all promised they would be good about pictures because its all I wanted from them for my birthday.

A beautiful night

Andrew is an awesome kid but he's getting too big





The fact that they're all together and being sweet to each other is a small miracle.  I'm sure there are on average more tears than smiles when they're all together so I'm extra grateful and camera happy when everyone is getting along.





We like to celebrate birthdays and other special days with our favorite foods so this is the story of mothers day.  It started with Ethan bringing me breakfast in bed. Daniel made breakfast but then left to go to a meeting at church so the kids took over.

mmm...dutch babies

Hannah made me this delicious lunch.  The salad had fresh mint leaves from the garden in it and was so good.



I was sitting on my new porch swing I got as an early birthday present which we all love.



They brought me a yummy snack.

Daniel made carne asada for dinner.  It was a great day!

I always get to the end of a blog post wishing I had more pictures of the hard times and even in between times so it feels more real, but I sure am grateful for the beautiful moments that surround all the other times (and that I'm good at remembering to take pictures of).