The start of summer!

For the Memorial weekend, we decided to head over to Louisville, KY (about 3 hours away) to see the famous Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby race is held.  This was all for our horse-loving girl, Makenzie! 

 They had a fun little museum there where the kids got to race their horses.  

Dress up like the crazy people that come to Derby!

They even got to be a jockey and ride a horse. 

Gavin!

Jordan

Makenzie

 

Checking out the grounds….

Checking out the race track….

 They introduce the horses in a small welcoming area right before they head to the race track.

They have a jockey kids club area that we found.  They got to make some cool glasses.

It was a fun day!  This was not the day of the Kentucky Derby, but they had other races going on every half hour.  We stayed and watched several races and made our own bets on the winner.   On the way home, we stopped at a small candy factory and saw how they run.  We came out with a big box of chocolates that were gone by the time we got home.  We also stopped to visit one of Tyler's favorite mission companions and his family that lives in Lexington, KY.  

On Monday, we had our first BBQ for the summer and invited a couple families over.  We enjoyed some great company, food, and the slip n' slide.  I didn't think to get the camera out until the end.  The girls were sun-bathing.

Jordan was the only one left on the slip-n-slide. 

I cut the boys hair last week.  Jordan really wanted a mohawk, due to the influence of a classmate.  I let him enjoy it for 5 minutes before I buzzed it off.  Jordan hates any kind of hair product in his hair, so I told him a mohawk isn't for him, since he would need to use a lot of it.  (Mom secretly won that battle!)

Makenzie was painting her nails and Jordan just had to be included.  He decided on blue because "boys can only paint their nails if it's blue." I'm love how he states it like a fact.    

Let the fun begin!

Tyler and I are both called to work with the youth at church.  We stay very busy with these callings.  The kids are great and we have a lot of fun!  This past weekend we pulled off a ward youth conference.  It was a service-oriented weekend.  We took the kids out on a video scavenger hunt, but "staged" several service opportunities to see if they would be willing to stop their game and help.   Tyler was sooooo excited to dress up like a bum and head to the local park to see what the youth would do.  He played the part so well!  We seriously didn't think the kids would take the bait, but all 3 groups showed concern for this homeless man!  Here he is after one of the groups gave him some McDonalds.  

Tyler sure had them fooled!  Not one kid recognized him.   It wasn't until the "Bum" showed up at dinner as the special guest speaker, and took off his hat and wig, that it all clicked!  It was a very memorable weekend.

  For the combined activity this month, we played some mud volleyball.  

Our kids always enjoy being included in the fun!  

 The girls! 

 (Except for me!  I was the camera lady and babysitter for Ellionna)

The Macho men! 

Tyler is behind Jordan.

Everyone!

I just threw away all of the kids clothes (which was planned from the beginning).  

Mud is suppose to be good for the skin, right?!?!

Washing off with a cold hose!  

All clean and showing off some muscles.  

And some cuteness!

May Days

We can officially call it summer!  But we've been playing all month already!

We enjoyed a night out and went "creaking" at a nearby State Park.

Jordan's kindergarten performed a "Doggy Musical."  We had to come up with a dog costume and this is how it turned out.  Jordan acted the part perfectly!

Enjoying some playtime at the school playground!

The kids got a Wendy's kids meal and their toy was this elaborate version of thumb wars, with a stage and stickers to add to your thumbs!  We had fun with this!

My littles are becoming two peas in a pod.  Gavin decided to set up the sprinkler on his own.  When I went out to find him, I let Ellionna go encounter the sprinkler for the first time, clothes and all!  It was a success and she loved it!

Gavin's favorite chore to do is cleaning the windows and the toilets!  I actually have to hide the cleaners from him, because he will do it several times a day!  He was so kind to let his sister help him this day.

 

These girlies are two peas in a pod too!  We randomly ended up getting matching dresses for them, so it's Makenzie's favorite thing to wear on Sunday.  Ellionna is really into her baby dolls too!

 More baseball!  

Makenzie always reads before going to bed.  I found that she fell asleep this particular night with a workbook on her face and a pen in hand!  

  

A good reason to blog….

Another Birthday!!!

Our baby, Ellionna Mae, is 1!!!

Oh, how we love her!  

She is walking now.

Although she prefers to be in my arms all day long!

She's a Daddy girl, too!

Her red-hair attracts everyone. 

I constantly have strangers coming up to talk to us.  

We had a small little party, which was perfect!  

She loved the cake!

The neighborhood kids enjoyed some cake and ice cream too!

She loved all her presents!  While all the other kids went back outside to play, she happily enjoyed playing by herself with her new toys.

April

Gavin:  Such a character!

I always have stories to tell on him.  

Gavin really wants to learn how to blow a bubble.  He was getting frustrated and decided making a mustache would do instead.

This kid is our shoeless wonder…. It is nearly impossible to keep shoes on him.

Every night he requests for us to sing the "Temple" song.  As I was singing the song one night, I would pause every couple words to have Gavin fill in the blanks.  The end of the first verse sings, "This is my sacred duty."  I sang, "This is…." and paused.  He ended by saying, "Shake my booty!" Did he really think those were the words of the song?    We both got a good laugh at that one.  Shaking our booty at the temple!

Gavin has a fascination with the garbage man and his truck.  What little boy doesn't?  Trash pickup is not done by the city here.  We have to hire a private company.  Well, with 4 different companies, we have 4 different trash pickup days in the neighborhood.  Every time a truck comes, Gavin is out there watching them.  Well, his fascination just went a little too far today.  After the trash was emptied, Gavin went straight upstairs to play.  It wasn't until I heard a few bangs that I went up to inspect.  He decided to be a "trash man" and dump out all the toys that we own into a pile!  So much for organization….

We all can often tell when a little kid has to go potty….. by doing a potty dance.  Whenever Gavin starts doing a dance, I tell him to go potty.  His reply, as he livens up his dance, is " I don't need to go potty, I just like to dance.  La da da!!!"  

Baseball season is among us.  

I have seen a lot of improvement with Jordan in his second year of playing.  His favorite thing to do is slide into home base.  I'll have to try and capture it.

We did a hula hoop contest one night.  We found out Jordan has a hidden talent.  He really knows how to move those hips!