Our baby isn't a baby anymore!

In May, our little Zachy turned two! I can hardly believe that two years have gone by already. He is such a sweet little guy. He hardly talks at all and is crazy shy of everyone, but he is just the sweetiest. Whenever we've been gone and come home, he screams in delight and goes running for us. He loves his big brothers and sisters. He is into climbing on things and yelling "Mine!" He hates being away from his parents and loves snuggles and the dog. He still sleeps in our closet (a little like Harry Potter...we're hoping he might turn out to be a wizard). He absolutely loves playing outside and going places in the car. His big blue eyes and dimpled cheek make me want to kiss him all day. :) What a guy! We're so happy he's in our family.

The boy got a free Arctic Circle ice cream cone on his birthday!

He was pretty excited about his cake - although he tried to blow out his candles by touching them. That caused quite a stir with the kids. 

He got a LOT of attention when he was eating his cake. 

Just a funny random picture of my Boy-Boy. 

LOL...okay this is a silly picture. This was a picture I took one day to send to Joe to show him how I was having a hard time getting my work done with this little helper around. I just love how Zachy looks so thrilled. :)

Fashion show!

Addie put on a fashion show for some of the girls, highlighting modest fashion. The girls went out to the ranch for the day to practice and get ready. That evening, the adults watched the show and enjoyed being together. So...I've already said that my picture taking skills over the past couple of months were terrible. This one I blame on Joe. He was in charge of taking pics of the fashion show. Somehow he neglected to take any of Addie and Hannah. So girls...blame him!

Bekah was all sassy and fun! What a beautiful girl. :)

Cousin Ella is sweet and cute (and pulling her skirt up a bit much for a modest fashion show, haha). 

She's a heartbreaker!

Brielle looked gorgeous, as usual.

Part of the audience - Em manages to look like she is sewing or something in this picture, haha. 

Zachy though the girls were WAY cool and kept wanting to walk the runway himself. What a stud. ;)

Fun at the ranch

It is always fun to go out to the ranch to visit the Richards and Nana/Grandpa. There is always tons to do out there. It always makes me happy, though, that I don't live there! It seems like sooooo much work. Crazy things are always happening to those guys, though. Chicken coop fires,escaped pigs, horse wrapped in wire, baby goats loose in the house. I like to hear their stories. I'm just glad it's not me! I can't even keep my teeny yard clean, lol. Here are some pictures of the kids riding on Addie's horse for the first time. :)

Bekah was sooo thrilled to ride on Fantasy. She couldn't stop talking about it. 

Hannah rides with Addie a LOT when we go out to the ranch. They have had some fun adventures. 

Lizzie looks like a real cowgirl

I wasn't out there when Joe was taking these pictures, but my guess is that it took some convincing to get Emma up on the horse. 

And the one cowBOY. I guess Ammon and Zachy didn't ride. What a handsome devil!

Track season

Hannah and Lizzie and Ammon all ran track this past spring. Hannah and Lizzie ran for the middle school and Ammon ran for the high school. They all did a great job! Hannah did the long jump, Lizzie and Ammon both did long distance. All three of them managed to get PRs at some point during the season. Unfortunately, I somehow managed to NOT get any pictures of Ammon! Seriously, sometimes I think my brain isn't screwed on quite right!

Sisters and best friends!

Lizzie running the mile

Hannah in the long jump. I was really proud of her. She did not want to do track at all, but she ended up doing a really great job and had a wonderful attitude. Love that girl!

Easter 2014

It was a beautiful Easter Sunday.We headed out to the ranch for Easter dinner and our annual Easter Egg hunt. I have totally random pictures that hardly include anyone, but oh well! Here is at least a sampling of the day...

It was fun having our first egg hunt out at the ranch. Em and I decided to do an epic egg hunt, including the older kids. The eggs were hidden all over the place - even in the barn and the chicken coop, etc. A few of the eggs had money in them, adding an extra level of excitement. 

We sent the kids out in waves - Zachy and Ellie first (to find ones basically just lying on the grass), then Bekah, Ella, and Jakey, and so on. That way the easiest to find eggs were gone by the time the older kiddos started. 

James and his girlfriend Tasha (Donnetta, is that how you spell it?) mainly watched, although they also helped some of the kids who got frustrated when they couldn't find their eggs!

My Emma on the hunt. We had enough eggs for each child to find 25. 

Ella must have spotted something!

This guy is dreamy, even when he needs a haircut! Love that face. :)

Beautiful sunny Southern California

During our time in Southern California, we did so much more than Disneyland! We stayed at an absolutely gorgeous beach house located in Laguna Beach (about halfway between San Diego and Los Angeles). We were able to visit lots of fun attractions and enjoy every minute we spent together. Nana and Grandpa flew up with Zachy a few days into our trip and joined us there. It was such a relaxing and yet invigorating trip! Wonderful people, wonderful times, and wonderful memories!

I was struck by the fact that the ocean is significantly more aqua colored in California than it is in Oregon. It makes it just so very beautiful (although it is easy to miss the beauty of the ocean when the beauty of Lizzie Boyer is in the way!)

My poor older kids have learned to be a little too worried like their mom. They felt stressed the whole time they were at the ocean with the younger kids. They were worried that they wouldn't pay attention and get swept away and felt compelled to keep their eyes on the little guys at all times. I tried to reassure them that their dad and I were perfectly capable of watching over them, but it didn't seem to help. Somehow we managed to enjoy ourselves anyway. ;)

I have no clue what these three expressions are all about!

Caleb enjoying the ocean. He loves spending time with Ammon, Hannah, and Lizzie these days. He really wants to be one of the big guys....and he is getting there! Way too fast!

Emma and her crazy hair at the beach :)

Running from the waves. :)

Zach didn't like the sand so Nana and Joe took him on a couple of walks to see if he would warm up to it. He did..a tiny bit. 

Ammon built some fun contraptions to catch the waves. 

The girls actually made some pretty sweet sand castles. Too bad I didn't take any pics of them!

Soaking in some rays!

We meandered down to San Diego and visited the USS Midway. VERY cool! 

Zachy was ready to go!

Ammon trying his hand at being a fighter pilot

Way below deck in one of the  mess halls. They have audio tours that you listen to throughout the ship (thus the headphones)

Caleb wanted to fly as well!

Zachy pointing out a point of interest on a large world map

A sweet plane with missiles!

The whole gang (minus Hannah who thought the USS Midway sounded "Soooo boring" and stayed at the house all day (bored out of her mind). 

We headed over to visit the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center. Talk about AWESOME! The church is so great.  Seriously. The visitor's center was so fantastic, interactive and fun. The kids really felt like they were there. And it was all FREE! We all really learned a lot about the Mormon Battalion. Ammon even got to dress like one!

When it was over, we were able to mine for gold. The kids loved taking the gold home (and the sister missionaries were just adorable!)

Caleb would have been a great miner back in the old days!

Ammon teaching Zachy how to wash clothes the old fashioned way!

Working together is half the fun!

We missed this cute face while he was at Nana and Grandpa's house!

We ALL missed him!

I'm pretty sure this is what would have really happened if we had been pioneers on the trail! We were almost like this just driving the 18 hours from Boise to California in our air conditioned car, watching movies on our DVD players the whole time. LOL

It was fun to know that we have an ancestor that was a part of the Mormon Battalion!

Loved it so much!

Can you visit San Diego without a stop by the stunning San Diego Temple? No, says I!

Zachy had not had a nap all day and was pretty tired by this time. Good thing he has such a nice Nana to snuggle with!

Sweet, sweet blessings! Missing my Hannah Bay!

We loved San Diego!

Of course, the adults managed to slip away from the kiddos for some fun as well. We went window shopping and had lunch at this beautiful seaside restaurant one fine day. :) The view was AMAZING!

I never care about the view as long as I get to sit by this hunk!

Such a fabulous day!

One day we were able to drive up to Long Beach to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific. It was so great! In the past I've been irritated because it costs a billion dollars and then the kids are done in an hour. This time I found a great website that allowed us to get the tickets at half price. Even better, we stayed 3+ hours until closing and the kids would probably have stayed a lot longer if we had the time! They were slower moving from exhibit to exhibit than the adults (they used to rush us from one to the next before I could really enjoy them). Again - I love having older kids!

Hannah is so cute...and nervous of this sawfish. :)

The shark tank WAS pretty epic! The kids loved being able to pet and touch the small sharks and stingrays. 

My man and six of my amazing kids!

Pretty sweet big stingray!

They had some divers come down into this huge tank and interact with the kids. Super cute!

They each gave the diver a "high five" through the glass. :)

Caleb and the cute lady

Emma thought it was pretty sweet

My older kids went off by themselves to wander around. They enjoyed being away from the younger kids for awhile. 

We went to the most AMAZING, EPIC, WONDEROUS 4D movie of all times at the aquarium. Okay, actually it was TOTALLY lame and a complete waste of our time and money. Advice - if you ever go to the Aquarium of the Pacific, skip the 4D movie!

Lizzie is starting a new fashion trend!

Hannah enjoying a fresh drink before an outing

We did lots of waiting for tables at restaurants. Tables for 9-11 are hard to come by!

We had fun at the hotels on our way there and back. We stayed in Las Vegas on our way there. Here is a pic in Vegas of the girls at breakfast. 

We were able to attend a ward in Laguna Beach. Being spring break, it was crazy full and we sat in an overflow room (which was also the YW room, obviously). We laughed because there was this guy next to us (the one with his gray legs crossed in this pic) that was doing his math homework throughout the entire meeting. I mean, he had the whole book, scientific calculator, etc. It was almost a little embarrassing!

What a great trip! We were so blessed to get to go visit another area of the country and spend so much time together. We can't wait for our next big adventure!