Everyday

Glimpses of everyday life around here.

The elementary crew typically does homework in the mornings around here.  It is not always this picturesque.

 Check out the concentration going on with Camden.

 

Of course, when the boys are busy, Emmie has to bust out her homework, too.

 On any given day you'll see Drew out front shooting hoops.  He's actually getting pretty good!

It's sights like these that make me feel like I have a big family.  I don't think the denim load dried very well this day.

 I was thankful for all of our hooks.

It's the little things like this that speak to me and remind me that I am living the dream - my dream of being a mother.  These are the good times and I love my job.

Birthdays

It was quite a trick to combine birthday season with Easter this year, and Spring Break and a fun vacation was hard on its heels.

First we celebrated Grandpa.  We did NOT use 85 candles, per his request.  We did have two cakes - triple chocolate and raspberry.

Then we had a joint celebration for Emmie and her dad.  Who do you think the pink princess cake dress was for?  Not Callie - she was the designer.

There is the excited 4 year old!

 I love how this picture captures her excitement.

But for Tyler,

 we did use the correct amount of candles.

42 candles for my pyromaniac.  He lit them with his favorite tool.

Holidays

 Leprachauns,

the Easter Bunny,

and a freckled nose.  Can life get any better?

Maybe if your Easter eggs look like this:

 

I almost couldn't eat it.  Well done, Hannah.

Families are Forever

Tyler booked tickets for us* to go through the Provo City Center Temple open house on my mother's birthday.  He didn't do it on purpose, but I don't think it was an accident, either.  She passed away almost 6 years ago.

I absolutely loved going to such a special place where families are sealed together forever on her special day.  "I always want to be with my own family, and the Lord has shown me how I can."

Happy Birthday, Mom.  Love you!

*We missed Hannah, who was at a mandatory rehearsal for choir.  She visited the temple with the youth from our ward a few weeks previous and told us what favorite features to look for.  Of course, the spirit there is always the best.

We Own a Zoo

We've got a monkey that scales lamp posts,

dogs that like to dog pile. You can just make out a hand towards the bottom left but there is a body buried under there. (We also do the kind that is made up of all bodies).

And that particular body provides enough noise for all of those pups on top.

Finally, we have bookworms.  Seven of them.  Here's the smallest edition.

Six Silly Valentines

Tyler was down, sick with the flu, but I remembered just in time that when we decided not to send out Christmas cards, I promised him that we would do Valentine's cards instead.  

Saturday afternoon - everyone was home (that was a small miracle)

I commissioned the teenagers to find their own color-coordinated clothing and threw a red top at each of the four younger children

it was cold enough that even though it only took 10 minutes the kids put on coats in between shot locations

the perfect lighting was disappearing so Callie didn't have time to do her hair how she wanted

BUT

I still got shots to treasure.  I feel so blessed to have these six beautiful sweethearts in my life! 

We got somewhat normal shots with the promise that there could be silly ones at the end,

but in the "normal" shots there were at least 10 of these kinds for each acceptable one.  We either had someone being a goofball

 or someone had their eyes closed

 

 or maybe even two of them

 

My personal favorite thing to do is scroll through these shots and watch the progression of Emmie's face.

Emmie has been my most difficult child to photograph since the time she was born.  She's too busy enjoying life to stop and capture a photo of it.  But here I have what is just about her best picture EVER. 

*cue Hannah's Kate Middleton impersonation*

 In all honesty, as long as I get some that look fairly decent I love the crazy ones as much as the "good" ones - these kids all came power-packed with personality and I love them!