May - June ~ 2016

We had a good soccer season for Mackayla and Jacob.

Field trippin with Mackayla!

The kids drew great pictures on this gift for Nini for Mother's Day.

Happy 65th Birthday Grandpa!

Mackayla had been telling me for a week to keep my Saturday night open.  That night they surprised me with a full spa experience in the yard. I love these kids!

I love being the mother of these amazing kids and I love how they try to make Mother's day so special for me.

Jacob's kindergarten concert

We were checking on the job one afternoon and this sweet girl worked so hard at building her masterpiece. She hauled each piece from different parts of the job site to create this, and was so proud of it!

Getting to help Uncle Scott and his brand new tractor.

Jared and the boys got to enjoy a night camping at the Father's and Son's night. The girls and I had a good time at home together.

Caitlin and I got to meet Jacob's class by the high school for their farm days. April and Cannon were there too.

Happy 65th Grandma!

The kids have loved the watching America Ninja Warrior lately and did some training of their own at the school playground.

Good times at home!

We all made it to the 50 miles club this year. The kids enjoyed their first year of mileage club and I loved that I could go join them sometimes. They had to push to get the laps in at the end but they got there!

 They had an assembly at school where they give an award to a few students from each grade for being outstanding the entire year. All three of the kids got it! I didn't know anything about it so I wasn't there but several other parents told me it was pretty amazing that three kids from one family had earned it. Jared wanted to take them out for ice cream that night to celebrate.

 Thanks to Grandma always being willing to keep Caitlin, I got to spend a lot of time at the school this year. I got to spend the whole day helping at the school for field day. The younger kids got to it in the morning and the older kids in the afternoon. This was the last full day of school and they all had a great time.

 Caitlin and I dropped the kids off for their last few hours of school and then went to the store to get a few things for our Summer Vacation Celebration after school. Then Jared met up with us and we picked the kids up. It was a hard decision but we decided to switch the boys to Wide Hollow next year so that Bradley could participate in the advanced PAL program. Cottonwood had been a great school and we are sad we won't be back next year but hope this will be a good change for Bradley. We may be back another year though. So now, we have an Elementary graduate and a kindergarten and 2nd grade graduate.

We went to Gilbert park for a picnic and some fun to kick off the summer break. We were having a great time until Bradley fell a long way out of a tree. Jared and I both saw him falling and both thought for sure we'd be heading to the ER with broken bones. Fortunately, nothing was broken but he was covered from head to toe with scratches and bruises and was pretty sore for a few days. Of course, the injuries barely show up in the pictures.  So, two hours into the break we were home recovering.

 We signed the boys up for The First Tee golf program this summer. They went to their lessons every Monday this summer. They didn't love it but did enjoy it a little. They were very good looking little golfers though.

 Jared went on a biking trip with the Young Men

 We did the color run race this year. We had bought passes for our whole family but Caitlin and Jacob didn't want to do it so we invited Carter and Lilly to join us. It was a lot of fun.

 Father's day! We had a nice breakfast, a few presents and then headed off to church. Nini had sent a gift for Jared and had included some goggles for the kids.

We love this man!!! He's always got 5 of us fighting for his attention, and he does a wonderful job of giving it to each of us!

 Jacob was so close to being able to ride a bike last fall but we just didn't ride much at all. Jared had taken his pedals off before and he had gotten the balance thing down. So, the first time we got our bikes out this year he hopped on and in just a few tries he had it down. He loved the "free feeling" of riding all over, wherever he wanted to go.

 One Saturday Jared needed to do a lot of clean up on the Holt's house so we headed over as a family and got to work. They kids did a great job and worked really hard. I had to call April though and give her the bad news that her house was too big and she would realize it when she tried to clean the whole thing!

 A Sunday afternoon picture.  And we are still storing a lot of things in our storage shed. The kids love it when we have to go look for something and they get to find all kinds of their long lost treasures.

 I never have that many pictures of me with the kids so this night when Caitlin fell asleep with me, I text Jared and told him to come take a picture. He came in, took the picture, and left before I even had time to act like I was asleep too. Not quite the peaceful look I was going for but I guess I need to take what I can get. :)  We had actually been through a lot together the hour before this. She accidentally hit her head into my mouth and cut the inside of my lip open. I had blood all over my face and running down my arms and she was totally freaked out and screaming. This picture will be my nice reminder of that fun event.