{What's Happening}

We have been so busy lately.  We have had something every night for weeks and we can't wait for Summer to come and rescue us!!  I don't pack my big camera everywhere so often the happenings of our lives are in pictures on my phone.  Here are some of the things that have happened in the last few weeks.

Wyatt got all signed up for Kindergarten.  Holy Moly that makes me feel old.  He is so excited as you can imagine.  Each and everyday he asks how many more months until his birthday.  If you ask him when that magical day is he will tell you "August 15th, it's a Thursday".  Yes people we are that specific around here.  He means business.

Lauryn got to participate in her schools' International Night.  She sang a Puerto Rican song with the rest of the First graders.  She had fun and it was cute to watch.  Not saying that I could understand any of it but cute nonetheless!

The power company was in the neighborhood this last week taking down old trees.  Wyatt sat for literally an hour watching these guys cut the tree down across the street from us.  His favorite part was the chipper.  He laughed every time they put a branch in it.  He said it sounded like it was farting.  100% boy right there!!

The boys got to go on the Annual Father & Son campout.  Wyatt calls it the Brother & Son campout.  They had a great time and came back smelling like outside-wet-dog and campfire.  Yum!!  So glad my boys get to enjoy time with each other.  Love it!

While the boys were gone, the girls got to enjoy watching Meysa's school talent show.  She auditioned for it last month and was selected to play the piano.  She chose to play "God be with you till we meet again".  She found it was one of the simplified hymns that she could play and it was the closing song at her Uncle's funeral so it had special meaning.    It stood out among the Justin Beiber/Taylor Swift/Bruno Mars songs that were sung, repeatedly.  It was refreshing and I think she did a great job.  Afterward we went and indulged in frozen yogurt to celebrate a job well done!!

It wouldn't be Spring baseball if there wasn't a rainy game.  I can't count how many games I have watched sitting in the rain.  Thankfully it wasn't too bad.  Ayden is having a great season and the girls have decided that they want to play next Spring now.  Yeah!

Wyatt finished his soccer season.  He had such a great time learning to play.  He was pretty aggressive and scored often.  He was most excited about his medal that Coach Rocky gave him after his last practice/game.

 At Ayden's baseball game the other night Wyatt was a little sweaty.  His Mohawk is styled entirely by his own sweat.  We are resourceful around here.  It was a muggy night for sure.  Just a precursor of the summer ahead.

So there you have it.  A little run down of the random things going on around here.  We are off to Gettysburg today to spend the weekend soaking up some history!!  We are camping and we are really excited to get out of town for a few days!!

{Mother's Day}

I am so blessed to be these kiddos' mom.  I love Elder Neil A Anderson's quote about motherhood.

"Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling...It is not something to do if you squeeze the time in.  It is what God gave you time for."

I have always known that I wanted to be a mother.  From the time I was a small girl, I knew that babies were a thing of my future.  Others must have know that about me too.  At the end of my Senior year of high school our school paper published predictions for the Senior class.  The prediction for me, submitted by I don't know who, was that I would have seven children and be a high school secretary.  Whoever they were, they obviously weren't very good at predictions.  I don't have seven kids and I have never been a secretary.  However, they did know that I loved children and that I wanted to be a Mom.

I also knew that people said motherhood was hard.  The one thing I didn't know what how right they were.  To date, it is the hardest thing I have ever done.  Each and every day I wake up bound and determined to not screw up as mom that day.  Some days I make it till after lunch, or even bed time and some days it is 7:48 in the morning when I want push rewind to start the day over.

I have learned more about myself since becoming a mother than any other time in my life.  I have learned things that I don't know that I would have learned any other way or as quickly.  Like a crash course in a way.  As I learn and reflect on my life as a mother I become so much more thankful for the amazing Mom I had raising me.  I can't count how many times I have asked myself, "What would mom do?"  I have also had those experiences where I do a double take after saying something and say "wow, I just sounded like my mom!!"  (in a good way).

I know each person says that their mom is the best and truthfully she probably is, for that individual person.  I know that we aren't sent to our family from heaven by a lottery system.  We are sent to our families for a reason.  Which is humbling for me to think about as a mom now.  That means my children were sent to me for a reason.  What that reason is I haven't figured out, but I know I love them more than I can say.  I also know that they are continually teaching me and loving me while I figure this mom thing out.  For that I couldn't be more grateful!!

I am thankful for Mother's Day each year.  For the day that I have to remember my amazing mom and how grateful I am for her.  As well, as the reminder of the enormous calling I have as a Mom and how grateful I am for it!!

{SEVEN}

Our "little thing" turned the big SEVEN on Saturday!!  No amount of denial on my part was going to change the fact that she is actually seven.  Her big day was slated to be filled with tons of things that had nothing to do with her at all.  Baseball games, soccer games, a service project.  But the rain gods had her back.  It was stormy on Friday night and so baseball was cancelled, the service project got moved up.  The only thing that stayed the same was soccer.  But the rain really cleared up the day so we could really focus on Lauryn.  She wanted to open her presents in the early afternoon, so that is what she did.  She got some art supplies, which is basically a given for her.  She got a bed for her American Girl doll, super excited about that and she got a gift card to the American Girl Doll store, to help towards saving up for her doll.  Later that night, per her request, we ordered Papa John's Pizza, watched Jamanji on Netflix and had an ice cream sandwich cake.  It turned out to be a great day to celebrate this precious girl!!

I really don't know what I would do without my Lauryn.  She is spunky, full of energy, creative, determined and oh so special!  She has a mind of her own, which she knows how to use and is not afraid to say and stand up for what she thinks is right.  I tell ya kids these days!!  Heavenly Father sure knew what these kids were going to need in order to combat the world in which they would live in!!  I'd bet on Lauryn any day of the week, and twice on Sunday in the battle of her vs. the world!!

We feel so lucky to have her in our family, we are truly blessed to call her ours!!  Happy Birthday Lauryn, we love you baby girl!

 

Her wild hair is truly an indicator of her spunky personality.  It doesn't stay tamed for longer than five seconds!!

{Wildlife}

We are always intrigued by how much wildlife we see in our little part of suburbia.  We get a plethora of deer, squirrel, rabbits, foxes, even pesky raccoons.  The other day though, we saw a  new friend in our neighborhood.  A poor little bunny rabbit wasn't fast enough crossing the street and got smooshed by a car.  Within a few hours we had a buzzard hanging out on our roof and the roof across the street.  He would swoop in and nibble and then dodge cars and wait again until the road was quiet.  The kids were fascinated watching this bird from our big window.  They insisted that I get a picture of it.  I was hoping to get it on the road while it was feasting but no such luck.  There were cars continually passing by and they he gave up and moved onto another road kill victim.  See we may live in the city, but we still get a few sightings of wildlife!!

   

{Sisters}

There are days that Wyatt and Ayden get along really well and they play great together.  There are also days that they don't like to even be in the same room with each other.  On those days Wyatt is lucky to have his sisters to play with.  On this particular day the girls were honing their mothering skills with baby dolls, purses and lots of "errands" to run int he backyard!  So Wyatt got his "baby" which was not human-like in natural but more of the bird-like variety.  The girls helped him change a diaper, feed his penguin, and put his baby down for a nap.  He is gonna be one good Daddy!!  Once they were done playing babies, Wyatt got to be something like a shephard, maybe.  Whatever he was, he was happy about it.  Hopefully he will look back on these days of playing with his sister as a grand time.  I sure do!!

{Monkey on the Bars}

There is a playground right by the baseball field that Ayden plays his games at.  My kiddos love it and so do I.  They are content during the two hour game and I don't have to listen to whiny kids.  A win-win in my book.  At Ayden's last game Lauryn discovered a new talent.  She can do the monkey bars and skip a rung. Now for a little thing like her that is a big deal.  I mean her arms are only so long right!!  She was pretty tickled that I got pictures to prove that she could really do it!!  What a monkey!!

{Baseball 2013}

We are in full swing with Spring baseball.  Ayden is playing this year after taking last year off because we hadn't found a good league that didn't have games and practices on Sundays.  This year though Ayden brought a flier home from school for this league and we are actually really happy with it.  You wouldn't think Ayden sat out a year though, he has jumped in with both feet and has been having a great time.  He is the smallest and probably one of the youngest.  He is getting to pitch this season, which I think is his favorite position (like father like son hey?).  The coach does a really great job of moving players around and trying them at different positions to see where they fit the best.  Ayden has been at catcher, pitcher, outfield and shortstop.  He likes to be in the action, so catcher and pitcher are his favorite positions.

Ryan is enjoying this baseball season right along with Ayden.  He is usually the one that takes him to his practices and talks shop with Ayden in the evenings while watching MLB games.  Apparently the other coaches could see a  gold mine of information sitting untapped in Ryan.  Last night they officially made him the pitching coach for the team and gave him a hat and made him start right before the game.  Ryan was in heaven, but trying to refrain from channeling his inner Ed Cheff (Ryan's college coach that could be well, a bit of a fanatic you could say).  I had to remind him that these were just boys and to take it easy on them!! :)

Lauryn has declared that she wants to try softball next season and Wyatt will be old enough to do T-Ball next Spring too.  We might as well sign Meysa up too so she isn't left out.  Heaven help me.  I am glad though that my kids are out being active and having fun along the way.

This one is blurry but Ryan liked Ayden's form!!