When the Kids Get the Camera

     To be more specific, this is what you get when the kids get the camera AND you have an adorable baby in the house:

Pictures taken 5/12/13

I think these kids love their baby sister!

Baby Birds

     We have baby birds!  We saw the nest quite awhile ago.  Then about 5 or 6 days ago we started to be suspicious that the eggs may have hatched by the way the mother was acting.  Sure enough, we started to see some fuzz appear at the top of the nest.  Over the last couple of days they have gotten bigger, AND louder!  They are so cute and I am so terrified that one is going to fall out of the nest and get eaten by a dog.  The nest is right in the eaves of our patio.  I get nervous every time I hear the dogs bark on the patio.  Oh well, hopefully all 3 will make it okay.  The kids are definitely enjoying watching them.


Mommy Bird was keeping an eye on me while I took their picture.

I guess I backed up enough for Mommy Bird to feel safe enough to fly up to the babies.

MOMMY!!!

Sabbath Snapshots

After we got home from church this afternoon, Haylee fed Avery some sweet potatoes.  They got all over the front of her....

 

 

....and the back of her! :)

 

Kelsey got a new dress from Haylee that she wore to church today.  Haylee's teacher brings in items from home for the class auction once in awhile.  Haylee often brings home toys that his kids have outgrown.  This time she brought home this adorable dress that his daughter outgrew.  It fit Kelsey just right!

 

Nate figured if Kelsey was getting her picture taken he needed to as well.  For some reason he felt like he needed to pose with one arm in his shirt.

 

Then these two best buddies needed to take their picture together.  I just adore how much they love each other.

New Bike!

     Yesterday Haylee bought herself a brand new bike!  She is one excited girl! :)

Swim Lessons

     Nathan, Kelsey, and Mackenzie recently took a series of swim lessons through IWV Swim School.  Nathan was pretty shy and cried at first but by the end was really enjoying himself.  Kelsey still needs some work but she definitely has no fear about jumping into the water!  Mackenzie did great and I think she has really gotten the hang of it!  I don't have a picture of Mackenzie because her lessons were at a different time.  But at the end of Kelsey and Nathan's last lesson, the teacher put stickers all over them so I just had to take a picture.

This is a really cute picture of Avery that I took while they were swimming.

Only an Aunt...

Only an aunt can make you a sandwich like this!

      Amber has been helping me get organized so she's been over quite a bit.  For lunch one day she made Kelsey a peanut butter, jelly, banana, marshmallow, sprinkles sandwich. (maybe honey too?) Now Kelsey only wants Amber to make her sandwiches for her! :)

Kelsey and Amber

May 15, 2013

First Fathers and Sons Outing

Nathan and Daren heading off to the Fathers and Sons Outing

May 10, 2013

 

     I have been slightly paranoid to send my little boy camping with his dad so this was his first year to get to go on the annual Fathers and Sons campout.  Poor Daren has been waiting so long to have a son to take with him.  He has gone other years.  He has taken other kids whose dads weren't able to go that year.  And one year he was taking the son of a some friends so he decided to take some of his daughters with him as well.  But finally, he got to take HIS son!  I had all sorts of thoughts of Nate wandering off into the dark and getting lost or eaten by a wild animal. Or of him falling into the campfire. But he came back in exactly the same condition he left, except a tad dirtier.
     This is a picture of them right before they drove off.  Nathan was so excited to go on an adventure with just him and his dad.  I knew I was having a hard time with this but I didn't expect the reaction I got from Kelsey.  Right after they drove off Kelsey burst into tears and sobbed to me about how there was one more thing she wanted to tell Nathan before he left.  And how she didn't know how much she loved him until he drove away.  It was so sweet.  Those two really are close little buddies.  She got her tears out and then we had a nice girls evening. We were sure excited though when they got back home the next day!