Time Flies When You're Having Fun

How is it possible that so much time has gone by without me updating my blog?!  This keeps happening!  It's the story of my life really.  Oh well, this is what we've been up to the past few months, I'll try not to be too descriptive.  A picture speaks a thousand words, right?


APRIL

Archer's Birthday

My little baby turned one and is a total terror!  Ha, ha, not really.  I believe he is my smiliest baby ever.  I could squeeze and kiss him all day long, but he doesn't want to sit in my arms at all.  He wants to be on the move dumping and spreading as fast as he possibly can.  You wouldn't believe how fast he can wreck a clean house.  Such is life with a one-year-old, but we adore him.  We try to steal squeezes and kisses as often as we can.  He absolutely loves digging in dirt or sand.  We're not sure our garden will survive this year. :)

This is how a room looks moments after he arrives.

Space Race

In our history club, we read about the space race and the kids reenacted Apollo 11 landing on the moon.  We love making history movies!  My friend, Stephanie, planned the whole thing.  She wrote a script and had the kids make space helmets out of paper mache.  They wore paint suits as their uniforms.  It was another super fun activity with our history club.  Stephanie's family has moved away now and we're not sure how we're going to live without them!

Hunter, Haly, Nicholas, Kayla, Logan, Jeff 

MAY

Mother's Day
I love Mother's Day!  My hubby and children pamper me all day long.  It's the best holiday ever!  In the evening we went to Oma's house.  We don't take our visits with Oma for granted like we used to.  She is fighting lung cancer and breast cancer right now and we are more aware than usual of the value of family relationships and the importance of savoring all the time we have with each other.  Oma is a fighter and we believe she will get through this, but we treasure our time with her all the same.

Our gift to Oma--a photo of her grandchildren

Kayla's Birthday

Kayla turned 12 in May, I can hardly believe it.  She has left Primary and advanced to the Young Women's program at church, she loves it!  Jason and I used to worry about the teen years, but not anymore.  Kayla is such a joy to raise.  Jason still mourns the quick passing of her childhood, but it's not over yet.  Although she is growing up, she is still our little girl.

Kayla and I spent her 12th birthday in Fredericksburg with the LDSHE homeschooling conference.  Youth have to be twelve-years-old to attend the youth conference and she turned 12 the day it began.  Lucky her!  She had fun with the youth while I had my yearly motivational, rejuvenating three days of getting more homeschooling ideas than I can ever possibly implement!  Ha, ha, I love it!

When we returned from our trip, Oma had a birthday dinner at her house for Kayla.  Kayla also went horseback riding.  She asked to do that instead of have a birthday party and I was happy to oblige.

Olivia, Kayla, and Hunter

Montpelier
We visited Montpelier again in May.  It was a lovely family outing.  We skipped the house tour and just enjoyed walking around on the beautiful grounds.  We love that place.

JUNE

Lake Anna
Summer just wouldn't be summer without boating trips to Lake Anna.  Jason and the kids love going boating with Grandpa.  They go tubing, hang out at the Loders, and jump of the dock.  I enjoy the peace and quiet at home while they are all away. :)

Newseum
Our final history club field trip was a visit to the Newseum in D.C.  It was a cool place, but a bit pricey so we probably won't go again.  I think it's better for an older crowd anyway. All the same, we had a lot of fun hanging out with our friends, and the kids got to pretend they were news reporters.

Sometime I'll write about Mr. Carrot who has become a precious member of the family.

Happy Father's Day
I was blessed to grow up with a wonderful father, and now I'm married to one.  I think Jason should be awarded father of the year every year.  I feel thankful for him every day.  We celebrated Father's Day at Oma and Grandpa's house.

Jason & Steve with their Dad

JULY

I don't have any pictures for July yet.  It has been a super busy month with cub day camp (that I helped run), two trips to King's Dominion, Kayla's theatre camp, and Hunter going off to Utah by himself. 

Kayla is part of a 2-week-theatre camp right now, and she gets to play the role of Annie.  It has been so fun for her and I can't wait to see the final show.  It's a free show on July 27th for anyone who might be interested in going. 

Hunter went off to Utah by himself.  His best friend moved to Peru two years ago and was going to be in Utah during the month of July.  Hunter begged us to go there so he could see his friend as well as his Utah grandparents and cousins.  We love going to Utah--my family is all there--but plane tickets are super expensive right now and we couldn't afford to have the whole family go.  Hunter decided he would save up his own money so he could by himself a ticket.  Thanks to Uncle Steve paying him to mow the lawn, and Oma matching all the money he saved, he earned enough to convince us he was serious!  We let him go.  I only got 2 hours of sleep the night before he left and was a bit of a nervous wreck.  I imagined all kinds of things that could go wrong while he was travelling across the country by himself.  I'm happy to say he made it safe and sound and is having a great time.  Now I just have to make it through his plane ride home!

That's all folks!