Vacation to Florida

Okay, so once again Summer has come and I have gotten way behind in my postings. It started with what I call our "Family Event Vacation". We went to Florida for Eric's sister Kelsey's graduation and also had Melissa's baptism so she could have both her grandparents there. Lucky for us Eric's parents live in Florida so it also doubled as a wonderful family vacation in a beautiful place. We got there and left just before the oil arrived so the beaches were beautiful! We drove this time - which seems crazy with 5 children, but then again so does flying. Ha!

It really was a fabulous time for all of us! We spent some great days at the beach, did some intercoastal sailing along with having our annual water balloon war, had a wonderful crawfish boil and altogether had a very fun and very relaxing family vacation. Thanks so much Donna and Rich - once again you totally spoiled us and we loved every minute of it! Thanks Mom and Dad and Angie and Kevin for driving so far to meet us and share this great time with us! - and I can't forget Kelsey and Ryan because you are both so great with our kids - they just love you!!

So here's a couple of slide shows since we -of course- took a million pics and I couldn't just choose a handful to show here.

Spring?

So if April showers bring May flowers . . . what does April snow bring? Okay, okay, so its beautiful and to be fair, we do have some beautiful flowers already in bloom -and the sun was shining today as it snowed (and showered). Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor? I know He was smiling today as he sent this to us.

Comfy?

Kids can sleep in the darndest places. As I was grocery shopping the other day the front of the cart got really quiet, usually meaning some kind of trouble is brewing, right? To my surprise David had somehow gotten comfortable enough leaning on boxes of cereal to fall asleep. How cute - and a big plus for me. Now I could actually shop with some semi-quiet peace (remember I still have Rebekah in front). Actually I was almost finished shopping, but realized if I went to the checkout counter before he had slept long enough he'd be awakened while I was unloading the groceries and of course start into a total meltdown (not fun) so I checked my clock, realized I still had 20 min. before I needed to go to the checkout in order to get home in time for the other kids to get off the bus - yeah! How did this work out so well? Except what do you do in a grocery store for 20 min. when you've gotten everything on your list? Oh, well.

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter weekend. We were so glad to have my brother and his wife and their children come and visit us. The weather here was more than cooperative and the kids were thrilled to pull out their shorts and t-shirts and flip flops. We were able to take the kids to the park and picnic and play on Friday.Saturday morning Emma and Rebekah headed outside before getting dressed. The cat was gone by the time I took the picture, but I found them outside petting our cat and playing in this little section of dirt and rocks - and yes, that's dirt on Rebekah's mouth, she of course has to taste it all. Yum! (Grandma Diane, I know you're cringing)

Here's the gang settled in to watch General Conference. Listening to the prophet, Pres. Thomas S. Monson, the quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and many of the other General Authorities of the church was, as usual, inspiring and uplifting. There were many messages that touched my heart, but the one that I hope to keep close at hand and use daily is the message from Pres. Deiter F. Uchtdorf about that statue of Christ that was damaged during the war and as they tried to repair it realized that the hands couldn't be repaired and there was a sign put by the statue that we are Christ's hands. I hope I can be Christs hands, that I can do his work and reach out and help lift his children.

Saturday between sessions of conference we went for a short hike to some falls down the street from our house and had a picnic. The falls were pretty (you can barely see them behind the kids), but we couldn't see as much of them as we'd like because the way down to see them was a little too steep for all of us. We had fun anyway and saw a little snake which gave everyone a thrill.

With the great weather we were able to color our easter eggs outside.

These three boys had so much fun together whether it was having light saber duels, flying airplanes, or just digging in the sandbox.

A picture of the whole gang of kids before they went to hunt eggs.

Eggs high and low they found them all, and rather quickly too.

Rebekah wasn't interested in finding any eggs. I was trying to point one out to her, but she just pointed with me and then walked away.

My very favorite thing is when the kids are playing on their own and working together having a great time. Here they were playing 'bubble gum, bubble gum' to figure out who would be it first for their game of tag outside.

I have great memories of fun with my cousins growing up. I'm glad to see my children building some of their own. Families can be forever thanks to our Savior and His gospel.

Future Missionary

Here's our little future missionary

(or missionaries -as you can see little David peeking up in the back)

Thank you Elder Kennington and Elder Jones! You guys were inspiring to him!

After a long day of missionary work, haha. . . . He often comes home and puts on his "missionary clothes." He likes to wear them to dinner so he can practice not spilling on them :)

For Christmas 2009 all he wanted for Christmas was a suit. Isn't that awesome! He was 5 and all he wanted was a suit!

Santa came through and he was thrilled!

Okay, so to no one's surprise it has taken me a year to post this (not funny) and so I can now add another photo. For Christmas this year Grandma came through and James got a new suit along with his cousin Logan and brother David. So now he has companions!!

He's worn his suit to school a couple of times. Once for show and tell and talked to his class about missionaries and what they do. We're so proud of him and hope he keeps it up! One day he'll make a wonderful missionary spreading the good news of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father's plan!

These are the moments I live for!

These are the kind of moments that make mothering wonderful.
This is the kind of thing that when my children are grown I will look back and long for and miss so dearly.
When they are sweet and innocent, playing together and enjoying each other.

Making Syrup

Eric's latest adventure. He and his Uncle Pat decided to tap the Maple trees.

Mmm. . .homemade maple syrup!