Five years old

Liam's birthday was last week. He turned five. He woke up that morning and said "Dad, I'm five, watch this!" He then stretched up and got stuff out of the freezer, stretched his legs wide apart, jumped "farther" than he could when he was four and various other activities showing us how much he had grown overnight. He then said "Wow, five is amazing!" He got to have two birthday parties, much to his delight. This is the one at Grandma April's house.

Owen and Jamison are good buds. We love Jamison!

We had a very special guest show up. By the way, Erin put this on and started Darth Vader breathing, saying "hoo-pahhhhh". Who knew she knew that?

The present he really wanted. Ta-da!!

Most of the friends eating on the tramp.


Sylvi and Erin are also good pals. (Most of the time.)

Delicious black frosting smile.

Happy Birthday to Liam!!

We played on the trampoline, swung on the swings, slid down the slide, ran around the yard, played with balloons and had a grand time. I think all the kids had fun. Thanks to all Liam's friends for coming!!

We went home for the weekend because my cute nephew got home from his mission and we got to go hear him talk. He did a great job and it was fun to see him again. Liam decided since it was close to his birthday and we got to go to Grandma's house, he should have a party. This is the party at Grandma Manwaring's house.

Grandma was so nice and made him a chocolate cake and two kinds of cheesecake. Lots of the family were there and he got to open presents again. I love my family! They are the best!!

Here's Liam with the fam. Some of the older cousins who are great examples and the best older cousins ever! Liam idolizes these guys!

Happy Birthday Liam! We are so glad you are part of our family! We love you!!!

Spring is here...Wait a minute!

So, granted these pictures are dark, because there was a storm rolling in, but, it has been Spring here for a few days. So fun being outside, playing with bikes, etc. Then...

Today we get this...

Dear Snow,

Would you please stop already? You're killing my Springtime buzz!!

Sincerely,

Everyone on my street.

Easter Hunt

We had a nice Easter. We colored eggs and the bunny came to visit us on Saturday and on Sunday we had a little Easter egg/candy hunt in Grandma April's backyard. Liam had a grand time, Erin liked picking up the candy, but when she was done, she was done, and Owen didn't care. They made a haul, regardless.



Here is Liam and his cousin Jax divvying up the candy. "Here, I don't like this one, you have it." What good sharers they are!


Here's what the younger two thought about it. Wheee!

Hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Mommy's little helper

Don't you love it when your kids try and help you? Yes, yes, it makes it 10 times harder and messier, but I figure, if they want to help, let them. There will come a time when they don't want to help. Owen is my little helper lately. He wants to do everything I'm doing. Loading the dishwasher... Doing the laundry...

Sweeping floors, mopping floors, making cookies, etc. etc. Let them help. It will build memories at least, right?

April...Finally

Hallelujah! It's April. March was a horrid month for us. Our car got totalled, we had Cameron's identity stolen, were informed two of our children need surgery (still need to get that scheduled), had Doctors appointments galore, had ear infections, sinus infections and pink eye. We had Kindergarten roundup (which, on the way to, we ran out of gas), had some bad news from Cameron's work (we still have a job, everything's fine), my washer conked out on me and when we went to the store to get the foam mattress you'll read about later in this post, Liam tipped the cart over with all my children in it. It landed right on top of him. The lady at the counter took forever helping us, and when I say forever, I mean FOREVER!! It was about 30 minutes. Then when we went over into 'domestics' to pick up the mattress topper, the lady there took another 20 minutes. While she was looking for the correct topper, Erin and Owen were playing around and Erin was "helping" Owen walk. I told her not to push him so, of course, she pushed him, then promptly fell on top of him. It split his top and bottom lips open. Blood everywhere. I took Erin off of him, not as gently as I should have and all three of my children were sobbing in the store. (Liam was still sad from the earlier cart tipping incident). I sat down in the middle of the aisle with my bloody crying baby in my lap and my sobbing Erin at my side. Liam was sitting in the cart crying and there I was, blocking people's way. Fun times! Hopefully all that is behind us now. Onward and upward right? Conference came in a timely manner. I enjoyed all that I was able to listen to. It's hard to get everything with kids running around.
Even with all the negative, it is really hard to overlook our blessings.
* The countdown has begun to graduation. Only FOUR MORE WEEKS until the long awaited Masters!
* Our kids are happy and healthy.
* We got an awesome deal on a memory foam mattress topper. I highly recommend it to everyone. Even though it has been almost five years since I have slept completely through the night, the time spent between trips to the kids' room has been spent in delicious slumber.
* We do have one car that is still working.
* We have awesome neighbors who offered to let us use their car for a while.
* It has been very spring-y, thus more time spent outside.
* I had time to de-clutter our house over the weekend. That's seven garbage bags full of stuff we won't have to move when we move. More for the DI!

*I have a little girl who doesn't care what people think when she gets dressed in the morning (note the picture at the beginning of the post).
There's lots of others, too numerous to write down. I've gotta say though, I'm not going to miss March one bit. Good riddance!