A piece of my heart

I shared this on Facebook, but I love this.

A day in the life of Michael and McKay at school.

I love their teachers, their friends, their school. It really makes life so much easier to know that they are in such loving and capable hands when they are away at school. I am so grateful I got the chance to go and document all of the kids and make a keepsake for my boys and their friends.

Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!

Summer's here.

I just had to let out a little stress there.

Whew. Ok. I feel a little better.

It's not that I don't like summer. I actually generally prefer the slower pace of summer up until like Aug. 4th or so. Around then, I start feeling like my house needs a deep cleaning and I need a moment of silence. But until then, I love the slower pace of mornings. I love hearing the kids playing together. I love the splashing in the little pool outside. I love all the fresh fruits and veggie from the backyard. I love how the grill makes cleaning the kitchen SO much easier. I love the light in the longer evenings for photographs.

But, gaaah. I swear, every end-of-school time, the kids get sick! So this year was no exception. All of the kids have fallen prey to this nasty nausea/vomiting thing. It's been a pretty low-key end of school/Memorial Day weekend.

Still, the kids were able to participate in the dance festival, so that was fun. Hannah had to miss out on field day, and she was super sad. We told her there would be other years, but that's hard for a first grader to really grasp. Still, while it would have been memorable, a field day with vomiting would have been all kinds of bad. ;)

Michael's class danced to the Hoedown Throwdown. (He was also in the middle of a lot of tall boys. It was hard to get a good angle.) It was so cute to see him dancing so wholeheartedly.

Hannah's class danced to the Ice Cream Freeze (notice a Hannah Montana theme here?) and she was really into it. I giggled half of the time just enjoying her seriousness.

And McKay uh...danced? to Footloose, a Lehi favorite! He mostly just watched me and giggled. Which was probably fair, since I was giggling at Hannah, right?

We're party animals

Sheesh, I'm all fun-ed out. (Yeah, I think there should be another n in fun-ed out, don't you? It is tough to make up words, I'm telling you.)

The kids think IHOP is all kinds of fun. Faces on pancakes, and all that jazz. And well, did you know that for every adult meal you get, a kid eats free? And the others are only $1.99? It's great when you have 5 kids. Plus, there is a balloon guy who strolls around making all sorts of balloon creations. McKay got a balloon motorcycle. I mean, really, that is talent. He was really nice and recognized right off that McKay has autism and was so kind and attentive to him. (You can check out his website. He's super nice.)

But really, between pancake faces, balloon creations, all the kids that come with restaurants that offer free kids' meals, and just taking 5 kids out to eat...I think I might need a nap. IHOP is not for the faint of heart.

Quality time

I am still not sleeping well.

So I'm all caught up on Lost. I also have seen all of the House episodes. Now I watch Castle at 3:30 am. A year ago I did over 65 hours of online Photoshop training at 3:30 am.

But, in the last few weeks, I've decided to just be still.

Usually Ella or Garrett have climbed into our bed by this time of the night. So, rather than getting up and trying to find something to do to keep my mind off of the quickly advancing hours that I'm not sleeping, I've decided to just be still and listen to their breathing and watch them sleep.

I still don't fall asleep again, but there is something so beautiful about watching my kids when they sleep. It feels like bottling a little bit of time. They're getting so unbearable big and while I adore each new stage and discovery, it is hard to give up their precious baby years.

I guess I can count insomnia as a blessing in the end.

Michael!

I am just so excited! I never get to get pictures of Michael. He gives me about 2 seconds of looking at the camera before he is just 100% over it. But today, he sat for about 5 minutes. Yay! Isn't he handsome?
He's perpetually right up in the camera, but hey, I'll take it!

Aaaaaand, that's a wrap. No more pictures, please. Talk to my publicist.

Hannah was a little miffed that it was not her turn, but when I told her it was her turn...she just wanted to make funny grumpy faces. Love her! What a ham!

Maybe it really is spring?

This has been a flat out weird spring. (I actually accidentally typed winter, which would not be such an off-thought.)

The amount of snow we've gotten has been surprising. May 2nd, we woke up to a white lawn. That just ain't right.

But finally it looks like the weather is turning the corner. For the next five days, there is no snow in the forecast. So, with that meteorological blessing, I went ahead and planted my garden today. It's mostly just a bunch of tomatoes, peppers, and spaghetti squash, but we do have a few sunflowers, tomatillos, beans, and peas. We also had to replace one of the blueberry bushes, as one didn't take very well a couple of years ago. The fruit trees are doing really really well this year. I just hope the blossoms didn't freeze. The strawberries, raspberries and blackberries look promising too. Our grapes never look good. ;) I keep hoping one year, they will perk up, but it's never happened. I think I chose a bad location.

It was so much fun to sit outside and plant away while Garrett and Ella played and jumped and ran. The weather was so nice that it was really an afterthought. Not too hot, nor too cold. I love days like this. Nothing really remarkable happens, but life is just productive and good. I want to hang on to these days, because before long Garrett and Ella will be too old to be my partners in crime everyday, and I'll be so sad when that day comes.