Confession

I have a confession.  Some times I let Zack do this….

There is a VERY good reason though.  Zack seems to know when I have a deadline that I have to get something done…and chooses that EXCACT moment to be clingy and needy.  Solution?  Water.  This kids loves water.  So if I have to finish something in the kitchen I’ll strip him down, put the plug in the sink with a little bit of water and give him a few cups.  He stayed in the sink for an hour yesterday (and as a side note chooses to go potty all over me as soon as I get him out.)  If I need to clean the bathroom – bathtub!  If I need to pick up the back yard – kiddie pool!  If I need to mop the floor it’s his own personal slip n slide.  If I need to make cookies for graduation party – sink!

And really when he smiles like this the whole time I don’t  feel bad.  Now explaining to Andrew when he can’t join him in the sink is a whole different blog post….

Last Day Happy Dance!!!

I know it’s only 9:40 in the morning and the kids are still in school, but I am so excited I get to pick them up in 2 hours!!!  And then they are done for summer!!!  We have some really fun things planned for today, but I had to blog these cute pictures of the kids this morning.  I can’t wait for summer!

Our Favorite Missionary!

The Saturday before Mother’s day we were able to talk to our favorite missionary!  It was a crazy set up.  Nathan was skyping with Grandma and Grandpa, we were skyping with Alex on his device turned to see Grandma and Grandpa’s iPad, and Megan in Alaska and Dan and Emily in Florida on other devices all turned watching Nathan.  It was awesome to all be talking to Nathan in Taiwan from all these different states!  This is our last time seeing Nathan before we get to see him in person! 

Trampoline

Our friends the W’s just got a new trampoline.  They invited us down to try it out one night.  The kids jumped and jumped and we even let them play with the hose.  They loved it!  Little Zack decided he wanted a turn, and after one taste of the trampoline we couldn’t get him off.  How adorable is he?!!  And yes, I do feel very guilty I didn’t take a picture of all the kids…only Zack.

Who Knew?!

One night this little man did NOT want to go to bed.  He came up with 101 questions to ask me, just so he could stay up.  Things like “Where does Jesus get his power”, “Does Superman really exist?”, to “How do cars work?”  You know questions that are really fun to talk about…just not at 9pm!  So I told him if he was going to stay up and wanted to ask me questions he had to do my chores, the dishes.  That kid hopped up, pushed a chair over to the sink and got right to work.  I was shocked!  He did a really good job too.

After putting all the cups in and silverware he decided he was tired enough to go to bed.  I’ll think I’ll use this one again!

Loving Summer Days

I have a new addiction…..garage sales.  Do you know what amazing things you can find at garage sales?!?!?  I’ve been bugging Christopher for months and months…well really the whole time we’ve lived here in New Mexico…to get a pool.  They are pricey!  The communities around here select a weekend per community and hold a big garage sale, but only in the month of May.  This was one of the beauties I found.  A perfect pool for my little guys for a whopping steal of just $5.o0!  I may or may not have just purchased a big pool for my older kids on Saturday….I’ll blog about that later.

Anyways our days here are fantastic now!  We do morning chores and food shopping and running around while it’s still chilly outside, then come home and put on our swim suits and play out in the water and sun for a few hours.  We normally have a little picnic lunch outside and have friends over.  Then we come inside and give Zack a nap and read with Andrew or watch a little video.  It makes them so tired!  It’s great!

Oh and this picture was just too cute not to include.  Zack loves peaches and dips them in his pudding cup.  You’ve got to get them all dirty before they rinse off in the water right?!

Spring Piano Recital

Ben and Kallie participated in their spring piano recital yesterday (May 18).  They did such a great job!  I love their piano teacher.  She always has a fun program they are working on and they get awards for various accomplishments.  Benjamin learned all his Major 5 finger scales so he got another award for that as well.  She also makes them memorize their recital pieces.  All the kids did a great job! 

On a side note Zack had a hard time at the recital.  The recital was held at an assisted living home so the kids had a audience besides parents to play to.  The problem was we were all too many people for the performance room so it was held in the dining area instead.  Poor Zack was just the right height to hit his head on EVERY table, but not tall enough to see when the tables were upon him.  It was the saddest thing ever.  He would just be walking around playing and bang into table after table.  Poor kid!

Tent Rocks

Right after Andrew’s soccer party we packed up and headed out to Tent Rocks with our friends the B’s and the W’s.  It was more incredible then I thought it would be!  We had heard it was a great hike, but really here in New Mexico you really never know.  This time though it turned out to be true!

Most of our group.  As you can tell I was in the back.

Most of the kids, minus the little guys.  I think all in all we had 18 people hiking with us.  My friend A is 33 weeks pregnant and beat us all to the top!  And that’s with a huge heave backpack on her back! 

Ben and his bud Zac with their walking sticks.  They thought they were pretty cool being the oldest and all.

I love this picture of Andrew and Christopher.  How cute are they!

Taking a little shade water break.  You know, before we even hit the trail. 

There are signs everywhere about not climbing on the rocks.  Apparently these kids didn’t read those signs….and their parents were too busy taking pictures and chatting to get them off…quickly.

Andrew’s favorite part of the hike was sliding down the steep rocks on his bum.  Good thing those jeans are on the short side for him.  They just don’t look the same anymore.

My cute Kallie and her walking stick.  Our neighbor friend who is 14 has adopted Kal as her little sister.  She insisted on doing kallie’s hair that day and kal felt like a rock star.  It was pretty adorable.

The slot canyon was so fun! 

Getting up to the rocks.  Zack didn’t like this backpack at the beginning, but really loved it towards the end.  Isn’t it beautiful up there!?

My adorable boys.  The sky was incredible!

The best spot for pictures.  These rocks were just amazing!  The pictures just don’t do it justice!

The B’s.

I love Zacky in this picture.  It looks like his little hand is on his hips!

the cute w’s.  Their two girls were somewhere else.  That was another thing I loved about this hike.  The kids mixed so well with each other and we all just looked out for each others kids. 

At the bottom of the trail we put the boys in our stroller.  Not really the best idea, but the easiest way to carry two kids at once.

I think Andrew had the best time on this hike out of all the kids.  He loved climbing and running and just the adventure of not knowing what was coming up.  After our hike (about three miles round trip) we had a picnic dinner at the base with everyone.  It was such a fun Saturday and we can’t wait to do it again!

Oh, one quick story.  As we were coming back down the trail we said hi to some forest rangers walking up.  They asked if we had two boys, one in a black shirt and one in an orange shirt.  I was pretty sure that’s what Zac and Ben were wearing so I said yes.  We were then informed they were writing “James” and putting peace signs on the rocks….which is illegal.  I then told them it must not be our boys because that’s not their names and I’m pretty sure they don’t even know how to make a peace sign.  When we finally met up with the boys again we asked them about it to which they replied, “Why would we put James on the rocks?  We put OUR names on the rocks!”  Lovely.

Red Hot Ninja’s!

On Saturday (My Dad’s birthday….Happy Birthday DAD!)  We had Andrew’s end of soccer season party where they give out the ever important soccer trophy.  But before we get to that I was looking at pictures and came across this picture of Zack…

Which made me think of this picture of Andrew back in 2009.  Random I know, but I’d thought I share….and really this picture of Andrew is just so cute how could I not repost it!

I love soccer season.  It’s crazy and busy with two practices a week and games taking up all day Saturday, but I love it.  I’m kind of sad it’s over….so a few months. 

First we had a potluck lunch and the kids played tag.  Don’t let Kallie fool you, she actually did have a lot of fun at the park.

Now for the ever important soccer trophy!  The kids were swarming their coaches to get the first look at the trophies.  They were so excited!  Andrew was given his trophy first, so he thought he got best player award.  I didn’t have the heart to correct him.

To awesome coaches, Coach Jana and Coach Dallas

The coaches asked each kid what their favorite part of soccer was.  Since Andrew got the first trophy he got asked first and responded that scoring goals was his favorite part.  The four other kids said the same thing.  By the last kid I think he was too afraid to say something different!

Andrew played awesome this year and even scored a few goals!  He is really excited to play next year!