Mt. Vernon

Today we visited Mt. Vernon. It was a wonderful family trip. It has been a VERY LONG time since we have done something as a family (besides gardening). I had to take a picture of this flower. Their flower garden was beautiful. There were quite a few lamb. Rachel fell in love with this little black one. The guy standing behind her thought it was about to lick her face. It was so cute.

Overlooking the Potomac River. Man this place was beautiful.

Here is George Washington. On the way to the Mt. Vernon Don was asking the kids what they knew about Pres. Washington. The older three knew quite a bit. Then Zach said: George Washington is my favorite president. Don agreed and said it was probably his favorite president too. Then Mayah popped in with "Jesus is my favorite". CUTE.

Here is where he is buried.

Here is George and Martha. :) (Caleb and Rachel)




This picture is for you Dad. Don wanted me to take this for you. He thinks this might work a bit better than your smoker. This is the smoke house. Below you will see what is inside.

Here they are smoking ....um something...I guess you can see a few fish there.

Mayah started getting tired and Zach offered (without being asked) to give her a piggy back. Other than that small ride she walked the rest of the way. And we walked alot.







In front of the tour ship. We didn't take this tour but we wanted a picture in front of it anyway. In front of the Potomac River.

This is Don's favorite painting (one of them anyway).







We really wanted to go inside his house but the line was soooooooooooo long. We had already walked the grounds and by this time the kids were tired. We knew that if we waited in line it would probably cause some grumpy kids.

Don was taking a picture of the kids and I and some people offered to take a family picture. I am very grateful they did. MAN....look how many stairs we can cover.











Here is a replica of George Washingtons house. It was soooooo cool. Part of the house would open up and you could see the beds, stairs and the set up of his house. That was the best we were going to get to seeing inside the house.

A cute little area to stop and rest.
Don loves history so anytime he can teach the kids about it he is right there. This made is so much nicer to teach as we actually got to see everything and experience it first hand. We took our food and snacks with us and made it a day trip. It was a very impressive place. The kids had fun and they learned alot and were very well behaved. Now I don't think it could get better than that.

Updating

I have a few pictures to post. I am a little behind....nothing new. So here is Ethan. I could NOT believe the size of this worm. Now that would catch a HUGE fish. Ethan thought is was great. Look at that smile.

Mayah and Ethan putting the worm into the bucket of water. It didn't take long before they lost it. I'm pretty sure that was a snake and not a worm. LOL. Just kidding.

I found this brand new pool still in the package for $4 at a garage sale. The kids wanted to put it up right away. Here is Mayah jumping from a chair into the pool.
Poor Mayah. Look at her eyes. Ethan was trying to be 'helpful'. He put sun block all over her face and it got in her eyes. She was having problems with them for quite awhile.

OK so the reason for this picture is just for documentation. Rachel is very independant. She has a certain way of doing her hair and she chooses what she wears to church and school. I think it is great. But there are times I try to help her. So this particular morning she got on these super cute capri's. But with this striped shirt? UMMM I wasn't feeling it. But she sure was. I tried to see if she would rather wear a solid color shirt but she didn't want to. So I just let it go. I guess we can choose our battles and as little as it was I decided to just let it be. I am pretty sure she will look back later on and realize that it really didn't match like she thought. But oh well. The joys of parenting. I guess I can't control everything even though I try to. :)

Zach is helping Don in the garden. We are trying to expand the garden. Don is sooooooooo excited about it. I am too but as it gets bigger and bigger all I can see is the amount of weeding this garden is going to take. OH WAIT.....that is why we had five kids.

So check out how dark the soil is on the left hand side. Any guesses as to why? Ok it isn't really soil. It is manure. Zach is throwing out some rocks. This is a very rocky place.

And finally: The Pine Wood Derby. The very first race was against Zach and Caleb. Caleb won. Then Zach went against someone else and lost. SO I told Zach to turn his car backwards. He ended up taking first place. Caleb received 3rd place.

Here is Caleb's car. He did pretty much EVERYTHING by himself including cutting it out. He got a little bit of help adding some extra weight to the bottom.







Caleb's car was voted the favorite by the judges.

Here is Zach's car. He had a little more help with the cutting. But he painted it all by himself and put the wheels on and then had some help adding the weight underneath. This car had to have quite a bit of weight added to it. And when they were trying to drill some screws in it for headlights it cracked the car. And Zach had hammered the wheels in so tight, at one point, that they wouldn't even turn. But FINALLY we got the car into racing mode and it won first place.

Here are Zach's awards. He won first place and then got best classic design from the judges.

Pretty fun night. They combined the pine wood derby with the pig roast and potluck. Kids had fun.

A great surprise

I went to the mail and found a box from my mother in law. I was EXTREMELY surprised to find this book that she had made. Thanks soooooooooo much for this lovely gift. It means more than you could ever know.

Here is the first page. I couldn't get very good pictures of them but they are just wonderful.This is me with my mom, sister and grandma. Sorry about the shadow on the picture. It was hard to get a good picture.

Here is a page of Don and I at the Seattle temple. There is kind of a story about our pics. I won't go in to any detail other than to say we were not very pleased with them. Denise....where were you 14 years ago? We needed your expertise.

And this is actually my favorite page. WHY? Because this is truly what happened because two people fell in love. Look at those 5 adorable kids. WOW. We are truly blessed.

Going away party

We had a going away party for our friends who will be moving very soon. There were alot of kids there. They had so much fun. We had a BBQ and it was great and very nice to say our last goodbyes. Here are just a few pictures.

The boys must be looking at the kids. Seems likek something must be a little funny. The girl in the blue is the one moving. We will miss there family.

The group.....well part of them. I couldn't get a picture of everyone.

The other part of the group. I think that might be Don way out there playing with the kids. He has the light colored shirt on with the jeans.

OK so this cute girl has a crush on one of our boys. It is actually quite funny. SO one day a friend at church was telling me that her daughter came up to her and said, MOM....I have a boyfriend and he has red hair. So she was thinking Ethan. I mean there aren't that many redheads at church and Ethan is only a year or two older than her. So she kept talking about it over and over and her mom said she just wouldn't let it go. Then one Sunday after church Caleb was running to the car and this little girl saw him and she pointed out to her mom ....there he is mom. That is my boyfriend. She has even asked her mom is she can have a sleep over at our house. After her mom said no she then asked if he could have a sleep over. UMMMMM I SAY NO. :)

SO at the BBQ she gave Caleb a long skinny balloon that had lost all its air. We told Caleb to tie it to his wrist so that it wouldn't hurt her feelings. Her mom said it makes her day whenever she can see Caleb. She is not even 4 yet and she already has a boyfriend? Well that is close to Mayah's age and we are not allowing her to have a boyfriend until she is 20. Caleb just thinks it is weird....although I did see him with that same balloon this morning. I think this has boosted his self esteem a bit. And he REALLY needs a boost in that area. I am ok with this innocent little girl liking him. If she was older I would never allow such a thing. LOL

Fun with friends

We have some friends who are moving next week so we decided to go get them and have some play time before they leave. Nothing better than making a mud puddle in the garden and getting dirty. Standing in the mud. Now is this all we have to do to keep kids busy around here? Easy, cheap and definately fun.

He is sooooooooooooooo cute. He is only 2 and he talks like he is 4 or 5. He wasn't too into getting wet or dirty. He just kept telling me he wanted to go inside the house.

I wonder if they will still be clean in about an hour. They have been playing outside for quite awhile. They came in for some nachos and then right back out again. We love having friends come and play. I made some homemade play dough so when they get tired of playing outside we will have some inside fun. We will be sad to see our friends go but very happy for a new opportunity for them. We wish them the best of luck in their new area.

Easter weekend

Our Easter this year was easy.....since I waited till the last minute to do anything (the night before). I normally don't wait this long. I like to get things done and ready way before it happens but not this year AND Caleb and Zach came with me to the store. They picked out what candy to get and a small cheap toy for everyone. We only spent $20 for all five kids. That works for me. Here is Ethan hunting for eggs. Mayah is finding some eggs. The kids loved looking for these plastic eggs. I think we hid 53 of them and more than once.

Kids are coloring their hard boiled eggs. They are the perfect age to where they can do it themselves. I colored a few too.

Rachel and Zach looking intently.

Here are some of the colored eggs. CUTE.

OK so here are the dresses I made for the girls. I made Rachel a skirt and Mayah a jumper dress. I just didn't get around to finding a cute shirt to go under it so she wore a sweater over the top. Adorable.

I could get everyone to smile except Zach. He was being such a pill the whole time. I took pictures last year and I put them in the same order. I need to find that picture and post it to show how they have changed. I cannot believe how one year makes a huge difference in kids this age.

This happens to be my favorite picture. Look how Ethan has his hands in his pocket and the girls actually posed like that and tried to pose like that is ALL of the pictures. But I asked the boys to go back to back. Zach didn't want to but I was FINALLY able to convince him.





I think this one is too bright. OOPS. OH well. Still cute.

And the girls again in their matching outfits. I cropped the boys out since they were closing their eyes or doing something silly. I love the Easter season. I love that we celebrate it for the Savior and for his Atonement and Resurrection. As soon as the kids found their Easter basket they all came up to our room and we talked about the story of Jesus. Then I asked questions and it was so cute they each were raising their hands to wait to answer the questions. Ethan was VERY adament about the angel coming. I then bore my testimony to the kids about the Savior. I am thankful that He lives. I am thankful that we have a Savior who loves us and would suffer so much for us but yet whose life is one of living. We know he lives and we know he is waiting for us to come back to live with him again. I am blessed and grateful at this time of year to remember such an event. May you all remember and think about what exactly this means for you. I love my Savior very very much.