Summer Pics

My boys (and first picture with Daniel's new camera*)

Porter and Daniel fishing on Papa's boat

Sunrise on Independence Rock

Rock Creek, my favorite spot on our trip

Had to include a picture of this little muffin!

Fort Laramie

We had a great trip and it was so fun to spend time with family! A huge thanks to my Mom & family and Mike and Em for watching the kids while we were gone!

 Chimney Rock

*also a huge thanks to Papa & Mimi for the camera!

Porter is 3

Top 3 things I love about Porter:

He is such a softy, always first to say sorry and give hugs

Loves to hug...sometimes a little to tight...to little girls...in nursery

His one-liners are classic:

"Whoa, mom take it easy"

"Ooh good job, that's amazing"

"fanks mom"

He calls Jesse and other little kids buddy.

There are many more, and I'll have to add to the list as I remember them.

I love this kid!!

First year of preschool

Eliza loved her first year of preschool. She learned a lot! We were lucky to have such good moms in our group that really put time into preparing and teaching these kids!

Friends

 

Although we have our fair share of unpleasant scenes here in our house 

 I sure do love when I see them getting along and loving each other!

Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. I really know that I would and could not be happier being anything else but my children's mother. I love watching them grow. They are each so unique. Jesse loves to help me unload the dishwasher, every time he hears me open it he comes running to be my little assistant. Porter loves to do hard work outside with his dad. If there is a shovel or tool involved he's there and will stick with it until the end. Eliza is our little artist. She will imitate my stick drawings exactly and she could color for hours, which has become a very nice thing during sacrament meetings!

As I heard of a baby that passed away this morning and another friend giving birth to a baby boy almost at the same time, my heart was very grateful for the blessing it is to be a mother, to bring God's children here and be able to help them grow. Oh, but they are helping me grow soo much too! I looked at them a little different and was a little softer today, the way I want them to remember me being.

Easterish

 We kind of got Easterish this year. We went to our ward's easter eggstravaganza and had a blast. On Sunday we didn't get Easter Sunday pictures as a family because it didn't happen before church and after church {some} kids didn't want their picture taken and {some} kids were asleep... But here's what we got:

Spring Break 2011

For Spring Break we went to Oregon. It was such a nice trip. We went to downtown Portland to see the big City of Books bookstore. It was everything I dreamed it would be and the kids LOVED the children and education section. They sat for an hour and read book after book. I could live there. The kids favorite part was going back to the hotel to swim of course. The next day we went to the Tilamook Factory and tasted delicious cheese and ice cream. After that we just drove up the coast stopping at the different beaches and lighthouses along the way. The next day we went to the zoo. It was a great 3 days and we would definitely love to take any family coming this way to visit there. It is totally worth the drive!!