Great Scouts!

Liam began scouts as soon as he turned eight and has been loving it. I was really not excited for scouts, but I have changed my mind. The leaders here to a great job, and he is learning some important life skills. We look forward to it each week.

Liam was so excited to wear his scout uniform for the first time. When it was finally time for scouts he quickly put his shirt on, tucked it in with a belt, then had me tie on his "neckerchief."  Then he ran out to the edge of the driveway and waved at cars as they went by. 

Liam's first scout meeting turned out to be the pinewood derby! Here is the car he designed all by himself. Each scout had to name their car and Liam came up with "Fireboy."

The scouting program here is pretty good. I don't know if all derby's are done this way, but they had all the bells and whistles.

There was this screen that projected who was racing, the name of the cars and who was next along with other statistics.  

 When it was your car's turn to come down you got to sit at the end and wait.

Liam was so proud of his car. When he tells people about the pinewood derby he tells them that he got 3rd. Haha. He did at one point... he got 3rd out of 4 cars in one of the races he did. Sweet kid.

Chrisedes

My youngest brother Chris got married to this beautiful gal, Mercedes, and it was so much fun to be with them in the tri-cities area in Washington state.

We left the boys, but Rivey came with. I like to keep a close eye on her while she has her asthma problems. She was so awesome on the long 12 hour drive! 

 Mercedes' family has this beautiful home and yard. I was jealous with how much grass they had that didn't have one solitary weed in it! I have been pulling weeds from my yard for days!

 We had sparklers at the end of the reception and everyone was twirling them around in random ways. I took this picture real quick and to me it looks like a heart!

 An outtake of a few pics with my sisters Katie and Mary. It's not very often we get to all be together. Thanks Chrisedes!

Seis

 After Halloween we had Ninja Turtle costumes that Julian loves to put on. Julian's cousin Hendrix then fueled their love for all things ninja, so we threw a little ninja turtle party for Julian's birthday.

I like to put a pin on the boys announcing their birthday the day that it is. I'm still waiting for the day that they are embarrassed by it. We're good so far. 

 My first try at fondant was sub par at best. The ninja turtles turned out scary, but at least it makes room for conversation. 

 The base of the cake is a strip cardboard of cardboard glued together with fondant wrapped around it. The ninja turtles are mostly made of play dough because I didn't have enough fondant, then fondant wrapped around that. Everyone was disappointed they couldn't eat the ninja turtles. Oops.

 Julian's gift for his birthday was a ninja turtle lego set that I had bought off clearance a couple months ago.

I asked Julian to show me he was six. This is what I got. 

Julian is such an awesome kid. He is funny, reserved and aims to please. I love this little man.

Hoppy Bird-day!

It was this little chick's birthday. On Easter. Happy times! So I got out an old Halloween costume and snapped this gem. 

Then I made some cakes, because it was my oldest son's birthday too :) River was born 2 1/2 weeks early to land on Liam's birthday. Pretty awesome sibling love going on there.

 

 I don't know how many more birthdays will be on Easter, but I tried to think of something to go along with the fun aspect of easter, and then combine the two cakes into one. These cakes were the best I could do.

 I asked Liam if he wanted to celebrate with River and he was really excited to. So far he's been thrilled at sharing his birthday. I think he'll continue to enjoy his birthday as long as I am sensitive to his feelings about being separate with River or not. He was a little bummed about his birthday landing on Sunday, but I am a stickler about celebrating the birthday on the actual birthday, and we made the best of it.

Riv's Easter/birthday dress 

 The boys thought the bunny was creepy when they saw it for the first time. It is a bit possessed.

Sweetness

River is in a stage where she just wreaks sweetness wherever she goes!

First Day of Spring

Since moving to a new home we've found an abundance of daffodils surrounding the east side of the house. I knew they wouldn't last long, so as a way to celebrate the first day of spring, River and I decided we'd visit some of the elderly ladies in our neighborhood and drop off a little sunshine and flowers. It was a great success, and the flowers were only a bonus to River's sweetness.

 While dropping off the daffodils there was one older woman who came up to my car. She thought I was her daughter from Idaho because of my license plates. I felt a little bad because she was so excited. I asked if she'd like some flowers (I had one bouquet left) and she was so flattered about it. Me and Riv are going to drop by another time soon. Another woman called me later and told me I must have known she needed something that day. Her daughter went to the hospital that day and she wasn't feeling the best because of it.

Another sister left me the most thoughtful thank you card and plate of yummy cookies. She had company over that night and was so appreciative of the flowers. I hope me and Riv can do this every year. It made my day more than anything. 

I feel so much love and respect for women of all ages, but find I am drawn to these older women's strength, experiences and wisdom. I like to meet these amazing women because I know they have so much to offer. We are more alike than we think. I am so grateful for each friendship I have with all of you amazing women.

31

Happy Birthday to me! This year I took advantage of having family nearby and had a big date night with Tanner's brother Dylan and sister Hana. My sweet Grandma Jean was celebrating her 90th birthday in March as well (love you grandma!), so in thinking of her and her artistic abilities, I bought 6 canvas boards and had each couple paint their spouse. Everyone had some sweet art skills I didn't know about. It was so much fun.

 For those of us that wanted a challenge, we painted our spouse with our weak hand:

 This is Tanner.

 ...and me.

Dylan

I've sworn not to say. Love you Leah! Doh!

Stick it to 'em

This year for Valentines day I encouraged the kids to be a little more personal with their gifts. And nothing is more personal than going to the dollar store together and spending a buck for a book of stickers :) The boys actually thought it up, and I was great about spending $1 to cover 40 kids. We're not much into spending a bunch of money on generic commercial-pushed products just because it's a holiday. Here's a few of my favorite sayings Liam wrote out:

Note Valentine #5: "You don't know you're beautiful." From a popular pop song. Liam reserved that for that special someone in class. Liam making it happen!

And Julian:

First one: Gangnan Style song

Second: What does a Fox Say

I'd personally melt if I got either one.