Floating the River

 So apparently miracles DO happen at our house! First one was that Daddy got Memorial Day off from work! So what are the boys going to do? Go float the river fishing of course!! They took Jake and Stacey with them in our trusty little $150 fishing boat from last year and had an awesome time! Sam caught the three monster fish of the trip. The poor kid was so dang tired from all of his fun and going to bed late/waking up early that he didn't want to go anywhere near his fish, hence the crying picture.

 But leave it to Daddy to find a way to make everyone happy and we got our sweet picture of the biggest fish with the now-expert-fisherman Sam. His advice? All it takes is patience. Daddy says next time they will need to have Opa and the boys come so they can pull in all the big fish!! :) We are so grateful to my dad for showing us all the in's and out's and enjoyment to be had while fishing!!

 A total of 8 fish were caught on the river today! Sam's are the biggest 3 and he caught all of them himself with no help reeling them in. Meanwhile, Amy and I stayed home and really got into the nesting stage by reorganizing the kids' closet and dresser and pulling out the baby boy clothes. Mommy also got a good start on painting the shelf for the front room. Then for lunch we headed to Rexburg to surprise Liliana and take her out for lunch and a cupcake at a fun little place called Cocoa Bean.

Daddy, being the super hard worker that he is, made time for everyone's wishes and right after getting back from fishing went to borrow a skidsteer from work so we can get started on removing all that rock from our yard and prepping for the dump truck loads of good, potato dirt that will be coming soon. Then we headed over to our friends, the Potter's, house for some yummy grilled food and s'mores in the backyard. It just isn't Memorial Day without a cookout of some sort, right? All in all, a great and productive day at our house!!

Our First Graduate

 I can't believe it, but Sam graduated from preschool this week. He did do preschool last year, but they never did an end-of-the-year program or anything, so this was our first! He was so excited for the funny things they had prepared and told me bits and pieces all week long.

 Don't tell anyone, but I did tear up at several points during the program. It's at times like these when you reflect back and realize just how much they have grown.

 This part they each came up, said their full name and told us what they wanted to be when they grew up. I was worried Sam would follow some of the other boys who thought it was funny to say they wanted to be transformers when they grew up, but Sam was ready with his answer "A farmer like my daddy, and a pirate, and an airplane pirate (pilot) and do lots of cool stuff" One of the longest answers of the night and just made my heart melt that first and foremost was to be like his Daddy :)

 Here he is accepting his certificate from his teacher at the end.

The next day everyone was invited to our local park for a picnic lunch to say goodbye. We sure will miss Mrs. Barnes, she has been such a wonderful teacher this year! We are really anticipating next school year with riding the bus (maybe) and most of all, the beginning of the new (Spanish) language immersion program.

First Fishing Trip of 2013

 Last weekend we headed out on our first fishing trip of the 2013 season despite weather predictions of a drizzly, overcast day. It was plenty cold and we had a few little issues, but overall it was a blast for everyone! Jake and Stacey came with us and they were both able to catch their first fish ever!

 The smile on Jake's face tells the whole story of how fun it was to reel in his first fish! :) Sam, Jake, and Stacey all caught fish on this trip, so it wasn't a bad day. We only stayed out for a little over an hour, so it was just right.

 And as requested, here is a picture of Sam's smile now with the three teeth missing. It's an endearing gap and he has learned to speak clearly again :)

 The cute couple!

 Sammy and Daddy driving the boat. In case you are wondering, we did not get a new boat, we borrowed a friend's so that it was more comfortable for the two pregnant mommies and safer for the wiggly little two-year-old on board.

 Probably one of the only pictures you are going to see of me this pregnant, so enjoy it. It was cold!!

 And just a couple more showing the fun we had. True to form, we lost a pole during this fishing trip but thankfully this one belonged to us. Sam was casting with his little Spiderman fishing pole and accidentally threw the whole thing in :) Robert said he thought about jumping in after the darn little thing - I wouldn't have!

 

All in all it was a great trip despite crummy weather and it was great just to get out, spend some time with Daddy and family, doing something we love. Amy has been asking to go "ishing" all week, so I think she had a good time, too! :)

Zoo Week

 This week has felt like a zoo AND it ended with a trip to the zoo, so highly appropriate title. First up is a picture of the cake I did this week for YW. We were making temple time capsules and an idea that was brought up was to make a mini wedding cake, so this is what I came up with. It was a lot of fun to make and the girls enjoyed it immensely!!

 Other stuff that went on this week: Sam had his first soccer game on Wednesday and did AWESOME! He started off as goalie and blocked 5 or 6 shots and then later in the game scored his team's only goal!! Thursday we had friends over for dinner and a movie night, which was lots of fun! Friday Mommy had a dr. appointment and everything continues to look good with baby.

 Saturday we went to the little zoo in Idaho Falls with two sets of Potters and the kids had a great time. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed a picnic lunch together at the park afterwards. On the way home we stopped by a few local stores to take part in their little freebies they were doing for Mother's Day, which the kids enjoyed ALOT! One of these was planting a flower for Mommy. Amy has been carrying her little cup with a petunia plant around the house she loves it so much! Sam was super excited they had snapdragons to plant because ever since I showed him them last year they have been his favorite flower :)

 Half an hour after we got home from all of that, Uncle Jacob came over to get the guns and ammo to go shooting with Daddy for his birthday. Sam really wanted to go, so I sent him with Jake. Amy woke up from her nap, so she and I snuggled in the cool basement and watched one of Mommy's shows to relax. That night we decided to go out for pizza since Daddy was finally home and then joined Jake and Stacey for cake and ice cream to celebrate Jake's birthday.

 We ended up getting home and going to bed way late, so no one wanted to get up in the morning, but we did finally manage to drag ourselves out and enjoyed Daddy's blueberry pancakes for breakfast. I taught YW at church on patriarchal blessings, which was really interesting to learn more about. After church none of us slept well despite being extremely tired. Turns out Sam started having diarrhea and stomach cramps and Amy threw up after dinner.

 So....it wasn't the most relaxing or enjoyable of Mother's Days, but we were together and I did make myself a rather yummy white chocolate raspberry cheesecake for dessert (hence going to bed super late the night before, waiting for it to bake). Hopefully my Mother's Day gifts of a massage and air conditioning for the house come sooner rather than later. Lately I have begun to get to that end stage of pregnancy where I am hot, swollen, and it gets difficult to move around. Happy to be having a baby, but tougher to get through each day is all. Hope all the moms out there had a great Mother's Day!! The kids still woke up not feeling well today, so we are just hunkering down waiting it out and getting some laundry and house cleaning done. Fun Monday.

 Hope you enjoy the pictures from our adventures at the zoo!!

Amy is Two

 The other big event for the weekend was Amy's birthday! Friday night Robert came home from work with the decision that he wanted to get a trampoline for the kids. We have been discussing circles around what we could do or get for the kids to be able to play outside more this summer and help keep them entertained while Mommy is taking care of baby brother. When he mentioned a trampoline it just felt right, so we hopped online and found a reasonable one at Sam's Club and made plans for me to go buy it without the kids and Robert would set it up while they napped on Sunday.

 As you can see, it is quite a hit! I am excited to have it and know that it will be a fun thing for all of us to be able to enjoy for a long time. Today we had friends over and they spent nearly all 3 hours outside jumping and playing. We just need to get five more tires with rims to put on the other legs of the tramp to keep it from flying away when we have the wind storms of over 50 MPH microbursts!!

 This was hilarious - we were trying to get a picture of Liliana and the kids for her to put in a frame in her room so she has something to look at and make her smile. Amy had her own idea of how to smile and pose for a nice picture!

 But eventually we got her to sit up and smile nice!! These kids just love "A-la"!!

 And then we had the big party. I wasn't in charge of the camera, so there was really only this one that I liked from when we did presents. Mommy totally spaced bags or wrapping paper, so Sam and the Potter kids got to take turns bringing out Amy's presents from their hiding spot in Mommy's room. Oh well! Amy has really been in to Hello Kitty lately and with prepping for little guy to arrive, I realized how lacking we were in the girly stuff department. So her birthday presents mainly comprised getting our stash of girly bubbles, band-aids, stickers, coloring books, etc. And a bike helmet small enough for her head. She has felt so left out when Sam rides his bike with a helmet! But the best gift of all came from someone else (doesn't it always?) - Liliana bought her a baby doll complete with a binky, bottle, sippy cup, and mini teddy bear. She has been loving on that thing so much!! And she was so excited when she saw that her birthday card from Oma and Opa turned into a princess crown - it has been on and off all day!

 A picture of the cake. I had made a green "2" with dark pink and white polka dots, but I made an amateur mistake and it melted, so we used the back up generic Walmart birthday candle. Oh well. This was a design one of my friends had done before, so I can't take credit for the idea, but I do love how it turned out!! I felt like the colors really complimented Amy's personality and Sam helped me pick it out weeks ago, so there you go!

 Sam helping Amy blow out her candle because she was unsure of what to do :)

The inside of the cake I CAN take credit for, somewhat. I had seen the idea on Pinterest a long time ago and thought it would go perfectly with the outside design. I admit, I probably had a little too much fun plotting out this cake, but isn't that what kids' birthdays are for? The top layer was white cake with chocolate fudge filling and the bottom was white cake with strawberry raspberry jam as the filling and vanilla frosting around the outside. A fun day to remember our little Amy gal! I don't know where else this would fit, but one thing that was fun for Amy was that everyone at church knew it was her birthday, so she got some extra special attention from those outside our family. The nursery leaders told me she wore a princess crown all throughout nursery - that's my girl!!

Happy May!

 So this last weekend we went to Bear World with our good friends, the Potters. Their daddy had to spend the day working on school stuff and our daddy was busy planting potatoes, so we loaded up the van to the max and headed out despite the stormy weather and to take advantage of the half price admission. Here are the three oldest in front of the baby bear pen.

 And the three oldest again crowded into the coveted front car of the little train. The front car has the bell that they can ring while going around.

 The two youngin's in another car

 I liked this pic because you can see all five that are riding

 The older kids on the ride that goes up and down

 And the littlies riding with one of the mommies. It worked great because Julie could ride with the kids and I stood watching with the stroller and baby Katie.

 For this ride, the race cars bounced up and down, which all the kids loved!

 Here is the ride that is similar to the tea cups at Disneyland where you spin yourself while the whole thing spins. I was glad to pass this one up!

 I love Sam and Josh's expressions in this one - pure joy with a friend!

 Again enjoying the cars

 After getting our fill of the rides, we headed over to the little petting zoo. The animals are pretty tame, so it is nice to just let the kids kind of run around and bother those too slow to get away.

 Here you can see a gorgeous peacock along with Josh (orange) and Johnny (green). But poor Johnny decided to charge a goose, who decided to fight back. That darn thing wouldn't let go of him once Julie grabbed him, either. In comes 7-months-pregnant mommy to try and help (yes, I mean me) and I can't think of anything besides trying to kick the thing away. This works well until the goose decides to charge me! And Amy has followed me into the fray crying at the commotion. We all got away a little traumatized but unhurt. Quite the crazy story and I'm sure quite hilarious to watch :)

 This one is so like Amy. With animals, other little people, or even babies she is always getting on eye level to try and "talk" with them. So cute!!

And lastly the face stand with Josh, Julie, and Amy. It was a great day with our friends and helped us not miss Daddy so much (Saturdays are the toughest for us)