Graduation of the sweetest kid!

Joshua had his Preschool graduation today. I was teared up through most of it. Moslty it was because of sweet Joshua completing yet another step in his short life and a little bit because they set up a table of cookies right next to us and I had to wrestle Gabriella away from them the entire program. He sang us some cute songs. His favorite is the book and glasses song. He giggles every time he sings it. They each earned a diploma certificate and then we were finally able to let Gabriella have a cookie! She ate about 12, but I did not care at that point.
I love that Joshua will be able to join his big sisters on the bus next year, but I will be so sad to lose my little buddy. I don't know how Bree and I will get along without him next year. He walked around and said good bye to all his friends. He was surprised when I told him some of them might be in his class next year. He thought he would never see them again. That made him very happy!

Sorry most the pictures are blurry, but remember I was taking pictures and wrestling a cookie seeking little monkey:)

End of the School Year Celebrations!

I have spent a lot of time over at the kids school the past few days. It has been so much fun to stop in for all the different celebrations and parties they have been having. I love seeing the kids with their friends. I love the school my kids attend. They will miss their friends over the summer, but we are all ready for some relaxing summer fun!


Mariah's class had a Hawaiian Luau. It has quite the festive event. They were confined to the indoors because of all the rain, but they had a great time anyway. We stopped by in time to enjoy lunch with them, what a spread!

We also timed it just right to visit Samantha and her friends during their lunch time. She is so sweet and hardly said a word us, I am sure we embarrassed her. We stayed long enough for Gabriella to spill and then left them to eat in peace.

Flag Day at Brewerton Elementary

The kids school has a great tradition of celebrating flag day. Each grade prepares a song or poem to share with the rest of the school. It is so much fun to see all the kids in red, white and blue as they participate in the fun day. I was so glad to have all 3 older kids at the same program. That doesn't happen very often!

Gabriella thinks she is one of the big kids and usually insists on wearing one of their backpacks to school each day.

Father and Son's campout

This was the first year that Kris was able to take Joshua on the camp out. We thought the ran might stop them, but they were lucky and had a great day. For the most part I think it is best if Mom's don't get to hear or see what goes on at the camp. I don't know all the details but I know that Joshua did not eat anything except sugar for the entire 18 hours they were gone. He also played in the fire and burned lots of stuff. I do have proof that he did sleep as seen in the picture below, but I know it was after midnight that he went to bed. I am glad they had a fun time and I was so glad that Kris was able to gt away from the hospital long enough to take him. He can hardly wait until next year!

The Sacred Grove

I love this place. There is so much quiet beauty to enjoy just by entering this grove. The kids found all kinds of interesting things as we walked around. We also enjoyed a few lovely portrayals of scripture stories in the little outdoor amphitheater by our cute kids. If only we could have avoided the mosquitoes.

Outside Joseph Smith's family log home
Playing in the little tiny stream
Not sure what these two are up to.

Samantha, Isabel, Joshua and Michael

The Palmyra Temple

The Palmyra temple is one of the smaller temples. It has been here for a few years and I am very grateful for that. If it was not here we would have to travel to DC or Toronto to the next closest temple. The windows on the temple are beautiful stained glass that look like trees in the sacred grove. Veronica told us a neat thing about the temple. I guess on all the other temples there are not any windows that are clear or that you can see into. But, President Hinckley gave special permission for a set of windows to be placed facing the sacred grove so you can see the grove from the temple. The kids loved being able to walk right up to the temple. The grounds were beautiful and it was very peaceful.



I hope the kids will always be this determined to get into the temple!

An afternoon in Palmyra

A few weeks ago we spent a beautiful Sunday afternoon seeing the church history sights in Palmyra. We have been so lucky to be able to live so close to such amazing things. We try to get there often so the kids won't forget it, but it is not often enough. Our friends, the Haymore's, joined us for the sight seeing. It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.
WE never know why Gabriella does some of the things she does. We could not get her to leave this little stump she found in the Sacred Grove.
Gabriella's favorite seat, but only if her dress was on top of Dad's head.
The girls playing on the Hill Cumorah. It is a very steep hill and I am glad we did not have any out of control roll aways. (Unless you count Kris and Jon's attempts at sommersaults, but that is another story)
The littlest girls had to work pretty hard to get to the top, if they would have stood up they would have fallen over backwards!

Mariah enjoying the view. You can see that they are already setting up some of the lighting for the Hill Cumorah Pageant coming up in a few weeks. We are excited for that event as well.

You have got to enter this give away!

Hey all! My sister in law, the famous Zinney Lou tote designer, has been featured on the following website. Go there and sign up to win one of her darling totes! You get to pick the design if you win. Be sure to click on her website link to see all the tote design she has!

http://ilashgirls.com/surprise-giveaway-fun-tote-fun-headband/

The more the Merrier!!!

We have always thought that more people just made things more fun. Sometimes it has caused a bit of trouble. For example one year we invited a bunch of people to our house to celebrate Joshua's first birthday. We had planned for just about everything food, cake, etc. But it wasn't until an hour or so before the party that 40+ people were coming to our house and we only had about 8 chairs. Not very comfortable for our guests. It all worked out okay, but you can see what I mean right?

Well, we do still believe there is one situation where we are always happy to add more people. That is to our family. So it is with much excitement that we want you all to know we are expecting BABY #5! The little darling has a beautiful heartbeat and is expected to arrive January 27, 2010. Yes, another January birthday for our family. Mariah and Samantha have both already decided that it would be okay if it were born on one of their birthdays.

Anyone have an extra room we can staple onto our house?

I bet you have never tried this before!

Gabriella loves to take care of her babies. She loves to read to them, put them to bed, and change their diapers. I don't mind because the process of changing a doll's diaper is a very long, quiet process and entertains her for a long time. So, the other day when she told me she needed a diaper I thought nothing of it. She got the diaper and ran off to take care of what I thought was a baby doll. You can imagine my surprise when she returned holding this snake with a diaper on it. Have you ever diapered a snake before? I am sure it is no easy task! Thank goodness it was a fake snake or I would have been a bit more worried, but not actually that surprised. I would not ever put anything past Gabriella, even diapering a real snake. There is something really wrong about that realization:)

And, I thought that Mariah's "potato baby" was odd that she had when she was about this same age. Kris has always found it amazing the things our little girls turn into "babies"!

Gotta love Bree's expression, a little bit of sweetness and a whole lot of stinker!