9th grade recognition night

This darling girl attended her 9th grade recognition night with her proud parents last night
and was awarded the President's Outstanding Excellence Award (gold edition) for being
amazing and brilliant and fabulous. These pictures make me laugh. I won't share all
of the inside jokes, but man, she is just the best. And we love her so much. 

Brains and beauty. The best mix to be sure.

May phone pics

I told you our chickens were overachievers.

 My sinus infection of almost three weeks is going pretty great, thanks for asking.

Blinds open, flowers blooming, chickens chickening. 

On this particular morning, I had to take something back to a nearby shopping area and stopped

 to let these sweethearts see the fountain. I gave them each a penny to make a wish and throw

 in the water. Grace must have felt the overwhelming pressure getting to her, because she didn't

 want to make a wish and just kind of dropped it in. But Nate thought for quite a while and I could 

see his lips moving as he threw the penny in. As we were walking away, he asked me if I knew what 

he wished for and I told him I didn't. He said quietly, "I wished that I could always be really nice." 

 My darling bookends.

Blue tongue courtesy of a popsicle. Purple shiner courtesy of a ladder.
Crazy personality courtesy of her father. Obviously.

Our garden is planted and I love it. A lot.

Oops

Let's hope Namibia fares better than the raspberries shall we?

This is my sacred duty

Spring soccer times three

Graduate

And just like that, he's finished with preschool.

Ben's third grade program

I really love this boy.

Bottle rocket fun

Bottle rocket launching with some seventh graders today,
including my very favorite seventh grader of all. Fun times indeed.

Our darling Annie

Ahhh, I'm so proud of this girl! And so excited for her. She just found out last night that she made
the high school play and we are pretty giddy at our house. Making the play at our particular high
school isn't easy, never name being an incoming sophomore. She just decided to give it a try and
not worry about the result. But we are pretty thrilled with the result. And this girl. She's amazing.

Her temple

I haven't been to my grandma's temple since she passed away just over eighteen months
ago. I knew I wanted to visit, before we left to come home, but was a little nervous not
knowing how my emotions would handle it. My heart pounded on the drive over, but filled
with sweet and complete peace the second I stepped onto the temple grounds.

I love the temple. I love my Gram. I love these incredible kids of mine.

Called to serve

A trip to and from St. George in just over twenty-four hours. And it was worth every
second. Because I love this niece of mine something fierce and she will be a missionary
that will change lives, share light and give goodness wherever she goes. Hearing her
speak in church touched me deeply and hugging her goodbye made me emotional.

What a wonderful few hours.

Sure love you Kass! That Panama is one lucky country.

Timp Trail Half

This guy I married was in a pretty intense car accident last night (as in slammed
from behind on the freeway by a car who didn't brake before impact). Just twelve
hours later, he was on his way to run a half marathon with his brother. His strength
and determination make me love him all the more. And drive me nutso sometimes.

(At least one of us worries about him. I'll give you a hint. Her initials are Linn Allen.)

Nonetheless, these two are amazing. I'm so impressed.

Oh I love them

My favorites

I'm truly not sure how I could be so blessed as to be able to parent my six favorite people in the
world. And do it alongside my one favoritest person ever. What a wonderful life I've been given.

We sure love him

I love this picture so much because to me, it epitomizes everything Jacob is as a father. He is calm
and sweet and loving and full of light. And he makes every one of his children this happy and
content. I love him with every part of my heart and am grateful everyday the Lord let me be his.

I'm so very blessed

God's kindness absolutely overwhelms me.

Our chicklets these days

This little lovely got her hair cut by someone other than her mom, for the first time today. She sat still
equally as well for the cute girl that was cutting her hair, as she did for her mother taking this picture. 

Approximately three seconds. If that. This girl makes me tired. And happy. But mostly tired.

I adore her.

Is there anything cuter than a boy receiving his very first t-ball shirt and hat?

No. No, there is not.

I love this little Detroit Tiger so much.

You can call him Ben or Mr. Responsible. Either will work. He gets himself up, gets ready,
cleans his room, always takes care of the cat, heads to the bus on time, gets his homework
done each afternoon and on and on. Every single day. And all without a reminder.
This kid is going places. I adore him. And learn a whole lot from his example.

Plus he is handsome. Love this darling boy.

Oh I loveth him. Two hat-tricks in games back to back for this man-child of mine.
He is one cool guy. Who makes me laugh every single day because his wit is something else. 

(He was too tired to smile. Or so he claims.)

Oh I love these two crazies something fierce. They are officially finished with all AP tests
for the year and are a tad thrilled about that fact. Campbell appears to be remembering
how often he prayed during his tests and Annie just looks relieved at the thought of her
test being over. Yeah for awesome kids and their brilliant brains and good choices.

AP Human Geography. AP Stats. AP Psych.
Check, check and check.

A preschool Mother's Day program

I cannot even describe the sweetness of today. I love Nate's preschool teachers and mostly, I love
my Nate. The table decorations, the lunch, the program, the poem (that made me cry) and my boy
wanting to be right beside me every second possible. It couldn't have been a better Mother's Day gift.

Nate's first t-ball game

The cuteness was a little too much. Nate was so into the game and
played so well. I really just loved watching him. A lot.

My favorite picture from prom

Junior Prom

I sure am grateful when I get to take pictures of my kids and their friends.
Especially for something as fun as Junior Prom. This boy of ours makes me
happy and it is such a privilege to be his mom. I absolutely adore him.

Missing my sweet grandma

This morning, I clicked on the blog of my fabulous cousin and his cute wife. As I started
to read, I realized something very big and exciting was happening in their family and
I felt so incredibly happy for them. And then, it was quickly followed by the realization
that if my Gram had been here, I would have known. I would have known about this for
some time. Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t feel bad in the least that I didn’t know, as it
wasn’t something I felt someone should have shared with me. It was just that my Gram
was so incredibly proud of her family and wanted more than anything for all of us to be
close and supportive of each other, so she would have shared this with me, because of her
pride in her grandkids and so that I could have been as happy for my cousin’s family as
she was for them. All of this hit me in a matter of seconds and unexpectedly, a lump
formed in my throat and I put my head in hands and just shook with sobs.

I miss her so much.

But I feel such deep gratitude to know I will see her again. I can't wait.