Let's catch up...

We've been having way too much fun to stop and blog about it.  But I want proof later on that we do occasionally have fun, so here we are.  Please to enjoy the dumping of the pictures:

 All the grandkids on Husband's side.  We went to visit his grandma (their great-grandma) for Mother's Day.  They all LOVE the teeter totter. 

 When little brother takes a nap, he typically is not ready for bed until 9 or 10pm.  So he stays up with us and terrorizes us.  Haha!  He can be very cute, if also very mischievous.  This particular night, he decided that he needed to have pudding with Daddy. So he got everything out - including a baby spoon for Daddy.

 This is what happens when he declares he does not need a nap.  We'll give him his bottle with warm milk and tell him he doesn't have to sleep, he just has to rest while he drinks it.  He falls asleep every time. 

 Little sister has been losing teeth.  She's got several loose right now.  A few nights of corn on the cob should do the trick!  I'm not sure what she was eating when the latest tooth came out and she swallowed it, but her note to the tooth fairy was adorable - complete with a picture of her tooth in her stomach.

 Husband and I like to take full advantage of the fact that his schedule gives him weekdays off.  The girls were still in school, so my sister took the boys and we went for a nice hike.  It's been a LONG time since we've done that!  It was beautiful and the perfect day for it.  Love this man of mine!  (Can you tell that neither of us really love taking selfies?)

 On Memorial Day Weekend, Husband was actually off the whole time.  Can't remember the last time that happened!  We went and visited graves on Saturday.  On Sunday we visited with family.  Monday we had a picnic lunch with Husband's family and then headed up to the Temple Quarry trail.  The kids loved "hiking.  If you'll notice, most of them are in flip flops.  It's not much of a hike, it's a paved path.  But it offers great views of the granite that was carved out of the cliffs to build the Salt Lake Temple.  The kids had a fantastic time!

 All of us!  We're so cute.  After the hike, we headed over to my sisters for a BBQ.  We cheated and got a bucket of drumsticks and thighs from KFC.  We may have to do that more often - the kids actually loved and ate their food!  WIN!

Memorial Day was the kickoff to the girls being off track for 3 weeks.  Some people are hating this year round thing, but I'm still loving it.  It's summer right now, and we are taking full advantage.  They'll go back in a couple weeks, but only for 3 weeks.  Then we have 3 more weeks off.  These more frequent breaks are perfect for us.  The girls helped us put in our garden last week.  We only planted about half of it, we still need to sift through rocks in the rest of the garden.  It's slowly getting there!  But we do have corn, carrots, radishes, cucumbers and pumpkins growing.  We also have 3 tomato plants that I planted in April.  Little green tomatoes are on them already!  SO excited for fresh tomatoes.  YUM.

Big brother graduated from preschool!  He participated in the program, which is huge progress for him!  He smiled and sang and said his part.  His teacher gave the kids candy bar awards. He got the 'Almond Joy' award because he is always just so happy.  He never gives up, he just keeps trying with a smile on his face.  They also got water bottles with crazy straws.  She had the 3 boys in the class come up first so they didn't get stuck with girl colors.  My boy (of course) didn't even hesitate and went straight for a pink one.  That's what happens when you just want to be like your big sisters.  Here's my graduate with Daddy and a photo bomber.

 "The bus"  That's what we called our carpool.  It was seriously so fantastic to have these little friends in the car all together.  They are hilarious.  And they have all just taken big brother in.  His buddy next to him was great about helping big brother understand what they were supposed to be doing.  They sat next to each other all year.  This little guy told is mom "Big Brother was having a hard time today, so I helped him understand what he was supposed to do."  These 3 little girls were the same way.  They loved my boy, played with him and never treated him differently.  But they also understood that sometimes he doesn't get it, so they just helped him.  How I'll miss these little friends!  He loves them so so much!

 Miss Teresa was the best preschool teacher!  I was so glad we were able to do this year with her.  She is moving on to a full time position at our school, and she's going to be fantastic!  Big brother just loves Miss Teresa!

 We finally made a decision about next year.  We've agonized for a while about this, and prayed and fasted and fasted and prayed.  We have his evaluations in hand now, which have given us a better idea of where he's really at.  Last month, we went to the temple with this question on our minds.  Sitting in the celestial room, I finally felt like he needs one more year.  I contacted the preschool that the girls went to, and the owner was thrilled to have another one of my kiddos.  She even helped me out on the price a bit.  He'll continue doing his private speech therapy and preschool 3 days a week.  Everything has just fallen into place now, and I feel so peaceful about it all.  I really feel like one more year will have him walking into Kindergarten with so much more confidence in himself.  YAY for finally making a decision!

As I already stated, we are taking full advantage of being off track.  Yesterday, we broke out the firepit and roasted hot dogs and brats.  Then we did s'mores.  Perfect s'mores, by the way.  We left the chocolate on the graham cracker in the sun while we roasted the marshmallow.  By the time we were done roasting, the chocolate was all melty.  Mmmmm.  I may have had 3 all by myself...  The kids were in heaven!  We decided to get a season pass to the local outdoor pool.  The indoor pool is much closer, but little sister and little brother just freeze.  It's better for them to have sunshine and warm cement to get dry on when they get cold.  We went last night and the kids had a blast!  Little sister really took advantage of that warm concrete thing, too.  We stopped for burgers and fries afterward, did a quick bath when we got home, and the kids slept SO well last night!  Bring it on, summer time!