Birthday Pictures...Mary and Rebekah

Rebekah...one year old

Mary...10 years old

Random Snow Day

We have had such a mild winter this year.  It has actually been very disappointing.  We were so excited for the blizzard that was forecasted to hit us in the middle of the week.  The kids came home from school on Monday with high hopes of a snow day.  We did all the rituals...ice cubes in the toilets, PJ's on backwards and inside out, spoons under pillows.  The snow began falling around 7pm.  Joel and I decided to chance it that school would be cancelled.  We rented the movie, "Moana" and had a movie night with the kids that didn't even start until 8:30 at night.  Everyone was super excited and loved the movie.

Fortunately, we got a call early the next morning that school was cancelled!  We even got the call before seminary so Thomas was able to sleep in.  It was an awesome day...as all snow days are!  I love when all our kiddos are home and we can just be together.  Today was no exception...it was an absolutely wonderful snow day! :)


family

Easter Fun

It was fun to dye Easter eggs together and then have the kids hunt for them on Saturday morning.  Having older siblings is pretty awesome for the little ones.  I love to watch them all work together and get excited when the little ones find eggs too.

Horse Lessons

Mary could hardly wait for her first horse lesson.  She is learning how to groom horses, muck stalls, care for the horses, and how to ride.  The smile on her face never dims the entire time she is on the farm.  This was the best gift she could be given!

Family Projects & ER Visits

We have some really low spots in our backyard along our fence that become a swampy mess each year.  We decided to fill those in this year in hopes of being able to plant grass again.  We had 5 yards of topsoil delivered to our driveway and we began a fun family project of hauling the soil to the backyard.  Friday morning the kids went out and began working again.  While Thomas was taking a load to the backyard, Sam and Josh decided to play "King of the Dirt Pile" and sword fight with their shovels.  Well, Josh's thumb got struck by a shovel resulting in a deep and long cut across his knuckle.

So, he and I headed to the ER to get it cleaned out and stitched together.  Sam felt so bad and was crying because he didn't mean to hurt Josh.  I finally convinced him it was just an accident, but we could learn from it.  To which he responded, "Why do we ALWAYS have to learn a lesson from things?"  While at the ER everyone would ask what happened and Josh would respond, "Me and my brother were sword fighting with shovels and he won!"  One of the nurses was asking Josh about his siblings to get his mind off the pain.  He asked Josh, "Who's your favorite sibling?"  Josh replied, without hesitation, "Sam!"  These boys are buddies.  The injury didn't slow Josh down at all.  In fact, as we turned onto our street from the ER he saw all the boys outside playing and he had me drop him off there so he could play football too.  Tough kids that love being together!

11 Months