Crazy cute kids

Every night Daniel and/or I read a story to our kids before bedtime. Two nights ago as I was reading I look over and find that Holly has a new hobby...and she seems quite good at. She now likes to scale her doorway and then jump onto the floor in her room and go back and repeat. This girl never stops making me smile.
As is tradition in elementary schools around the US...Andrew's class got to participate in the Chick it Out program at school. Drew was so excited. He loves animals just like his mom did...I still do but don't want them all as my pets anymore.
I love my kids...and how they find joy in such seemingly little things.

Happy 10th anniversary to us.

We're heading home from a surprise trip to St. Louis that Daniel planned for us to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We got to go to a Cubs vs. Cardinals game and to a play at the Muny(an outdoor theater). Both were awesome. We've accomplished a lot over the last 10 years. We have 5 amazing children and 1 on the way. We've graduated from BYU together and Daniel successfully finished his PhD. We live in a lovely house and have met many wonderful life-long friends. We are blessed.

What a deal?

Saw this cute shirt idea and decided to make a shirt for both of the twins. It sort of goes against everything I've been saying about the twins since they've been born but it's certainly a cute idea. You do not get two for the price of one with twins. We more than paid double for them.

Hey that's MY....

Most kids start out with some of their first words including mine or my or anything possessive like that. I'm usually annoyed by this and constantly telling them it's not YOURS and we share. One thing I'll never grow tired of though is when Max says "hey that's MY Henry!"...or when Henry says "Don't hurt MY Max!"...to come to his defense when someone is fighting with him. They love each other and it is so sweet. :)

St. Louis

Here are a few pictures from our recent adventures in St. Louis.

When Daddy comes home

Recently Daniel went out of town for a conference so the kids had to suffer through life with only me. As you can imagine that was pretty tough. Needless to say when Daniel got home they were thrilled to see him.

Let them wear hats!

A quick post to express how grateful I am that Henry and Max like wearing hats. Not all of my kids have been eager to wear hats. They must not know how cute they are. But, somehow I think the twins are more aware than most.

They grow up so fast

This year a few friends and I did joy school together for Holly and her friends. Holly loved it and always looked forward to it. The only time I less than loved it was during my week to teach. The twins were always eager to "help" and participate....mostly by screaming, fighting, and distracting from the lessons. But we made it through with the help of my friends and had a little graduation party for the kids. Holly will start kindergarten in the fall and I am going to miss her. I don't have a favorite child but if I did it'd probably be her since she's so even keeled. Here's hoping I can restrain myself from showing up to her school the first day of kindergarten and crying in the office like a crazy woman. What kind of lunatic would do that? This kind apparently(flashbacks from Ashley's first day :)). The twins will start preschool as well since they have a few delays to work on. What does this mean. It means I'll have about 2 months where half the day I am kid free. Going from 3 kids home to none for a while will be weird. Somehow I think I'll manage. :)

Summer fun

It's June and it's finally warm here. Each day that it's over 60 and not pouring down rain, my kids beg me to get out our water slide. It's quite fun. While setting it up though I wondered if it maybe had a hole in it...as it seemed to have trouble holding my weight. Ashley kindly reminded me that I AM getting bigger being preggo and all. Just like the wii fit telling me there's no possible way I could have gained the amount of weight I did in that short amount of time...the slide was there to remind me of my ever increasing waistline.

Getting crafty

Daniel got me a silhouette for Mother's Day and while I was excited to get it....I wondered how many years would go by before I'd get it out and really use it. With baby number 6 on the way, however, I felt motivated to get it out. Why? Because I knew I wanted to make a shirt to answer all of the questions I'd be getting this summer when going in public with all 5 kids and a baby on the way. Here are my creations. The pink one has an answer for the inevitable questions I get multiple times during every outing with the kids. The white shirt is just for fun. I'm excited to make onesies and cute shirts for my kids.