Natalie's Preschool Graduation

Natalie's class



Natalie had a preschool graduation last week. It was the cutest little ceremony. Sis. Barney was such an amazing teacher for Natalie. She is so patient and loving. Sister Barney prepared a nice program for the parents. The kids sang songs that they had learned throughout the year and then received their diplomas. I think I am a dork because I got teary eyed just thinking of my little girl growing up and being done with preschool. I have not come to grips with the fact that she will be gone ALL day long next year. I am going to miss her like crazy. Natalie is very excited to move onto kindergarten. She learned so much this year and is VERY ready for next year!
Natalie and Sister Barney

We are Proud Parents

Jake's Birthday Party

Jake-Birthday Boy!!


The kids have a friend named Jake that lives across the street from us. It was his birthday yesterday so we went to his party last night. It was at a place called Hoot's Party Zone. It is a place that has MASSIVE playgrounds and big bouncers to play on. It was such a blast! Even Taylor got in and joined the fun. We were all so exhausted by the time the party was over.

Cody's 100th time up the ladder to the slide

Cooper's Park Party

Cooper's 1st grade school year is officially over! I am sad to see him grow up and move on to second grade but I know that he is ready. His teacher said he did an amazing job at math and his creative writing has improved tremendously since the beginning of the year. He has learned so much this year and I am anxious for him to continue to excel academically.
All of the 1st Grade classes at Cooper's school had a party at the park to celebrate the end of the year. They had all sorts of activities such as the chicken dance, the limbo, and bubble blowing. I loved going to the park with him and getting to watch him play around with his friends.

UH OH!!!!

We have officially entered into the world of crawling! Eli has been scooting around for about a month now but just a couple of days ago figured out how to crawl the "right" way. This is a bitter sweet moment for me. I am glad he is growing up but I was not ready for this much mobility. I have to vaccuum about every hour otherwise Eli will do it for me. And even though I think I have picked every thing up off the floor he seems to find the one crumb I left behind. I thought I did a good job at keeping my tile floors cleaned but after only a couple of hours of him being on the floor his knees are black! He gets frustrated because I will be working in one room of the house and by the time he makes it in there to see me I have finished my work in that room and I turn around to walk out. Then he has to turn his body and head in a different direction in attempt to follow me around. I love this age of babyhood. He is such a happier boy now that he can move around. Now if I could just get him to sleep through the night!!

Weekend Recap--Sorry no pics for this one!

We had another wonderful weekend. Taylor took Cooper, Natalie, and our friends boy Michael to our ward's Father and Sons camp out. Yes, Natalie went. Our ward has so many primary aged children that they wanted to extend the invite to daughters too. So lucky for Natalie she got to go with Taylor. They spent their time fishing, eating junk food, sitting by the fire, and wandering the woods. When they got home Taylor told me that Cooper had fallen into the river that they were camped by. He fell in all the way to his neck! Cooper's friend that he was with actually had to fish him out with a stick! I was a little worried/angry at first. I wandered where Taylor was at the time that this occurred and why it was not prevented. But then I realized that those details don't matter since Cooper made it home in one piece with no major scrapes or bruises. I think I would rather not know the details!! I also heard that Michael almost fell in the camp fire....that would have been really bad since we were just borrowing him. I am so grateful that everyone made it home alive!! I was jealous that they got to go camping, I love camping so I look forward to later this summer when we can go as a family. I got to stay here and hang out with some friends from my ward because their kids were gone too. Even though I still had 2 of my kids with me it was still a nice break.
When they got home Saturday we cleaned out the camp trailer and ran some errands as a family. That is ALWAYS fun! Later that afternoon the kids had a birthday party to go to for their friend Jackson. They had a great time, it was even warm enough to play in the kiddy pool. Hooray for summertime!

Mothers Day

Can you guess what these are?


Turkey feathers and a very proud man!!


Taylor's Bird


Cleaning the Turkey


This is how I felt about eating the turkey

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. He took full responsibility for the house, the cooking, and the kids today. I have been very well taken care of all day long. He even killed and cooked our dinner. On Friday while he was driving back from up North he spotted a turkey running up a hill. He threw his truck in park and chased after it. He just happened to have his gun with him because of his hunt with Cooper a couple of weeks ago. He shot 3 times at it and eventually killed it. He brought it home in a cooler and cleaned it up. So, Happy Mother's Day to me, I got to enjoy a home cooked wild turkey. There is nothing more manly than "bringing home the bacon" for the family...or turkey in this case!! Thanks honey for a wonderful meal and a wonderful Mother's Day.

My family


I also want to say Happy Mother's Day to my mom and my mother-in-law (who I consider my mom). I feel very blessed to have them in my life. I am grateful to them for being a constant reminder of how to be a good mom and how to be a righteous daughter of God. I appreciate their love and support and I hope that I can make them proud of how I am raising my own family! I love you guys and I hope you had a great day!

Uncle Dallas

Taylor's brother, Dallas, came to Albuquerque on a work related trip. He was only here for the day but we found time to meet up with him for a burger. The kids were so excited to see him!! Lunch was interesting because I had all 4 kids by myself at the restaurant....you can only imagine how well that went. Let's just say we were in and out of there in 30 minutes. RECORD TIMING!!

This picture makes me laugh because I can totally imagine Dallas with 4 kids one day.

Picking Up the Kids

Sunday we flew from Cancun to AZ to pick up the kids. I was so anxious to see them. I missed them a ton while I was gone. I saw Eli first, he came with my parents to pick us up from the airport. He cried at first when he saw me which broke my heart but I immediately picked him up and loved on him and eventually he was glad to see me. He started nursing right away with no struggle. YAY!
The kids greeted us with a million questions about our trip and stories of what they did at Grandma's house while we were gone. They were all happy and healthy. I could not ask for a better ending to an absolutely perfect vacation!! Now back to reality!!



I even got to see baby Reagan. She is getting so big!

More Pics of Vacation

WATCHING THE SUNRISE OUR LAST DAY ON THE BEACH



JAY ENJOYING A MIAMI VICE (NON-ALCOHOLIC OF COURSE)




DOING BACKFLIPS IN THE POOL



THE KATAMARAN




SWIM UP PATIO TO OUR ROOM


THE BEACH SCENE

Vacation Part I

Driving to AZ




I know, I know, it has been too long since I have posted but I have good reason! Our family has been traveling the world. Ok, not really but Taylor and I did take a long over due vacation to Cancun, Mexico.
Here is how it all started........We have a friend that needed to go down there for work so I volunteered to watch their kids for them so they could get away alone together. Well a few days later they came to us and asked if we would rather go with them.....HECK YEAH!

My First Time on a Beach

I have never beeen to the beach or seen the ocean so of course I wanted to jump all over the opportunity. I was a bit hestitant to leave at first because Eli was still nursing and I was not sure how that was going to work with me being gone for 5 days. Taylor and I worked with him to take a bottle but Eli was very stubborn and would not latch onto it. There were several times leading up to the trip that we almost cancelled because of my fear that he would starve while I was gone. He denied the bottle until about 2 days before we were leaving. He finally decided that it was ok to eat from something other than me.
So, last Tuesday we drove the kids to our families in AZ and Taylor and I left for Cancun. It was the most amazing vacation I have ever been on!! We thoroughly enjoyed our quiet meals, not waking up in the middle of the night, and just flying by the seat of our OWN pants for once. We did what we wanted when we wanted. And we had awesome friends to spend our time with. Taylor and I really needed this time away and I am so grateful that we had the opportunity!!

Visiting Tulum-Mayan Temples








Drinking Coconut Milk




We went swimming in some cenotes, which are underground water caves. They were the most beautiful things I have ever seen. It was kind of scary though because the water was over 20 feet deep in some places.