Father Son Campout

Immediately after Abby performed in the Talent Show, Jason headed out with Landon and Nolan for the Stake Father/Son Campout up in Pennsylvania. They had a great time roasting marshmallows, playing catch, doing an obstacle course, and sleeping in the great outdoors.

 This little guy loves to be outside and was in heaven the whole time!!

Landon was too busy playing with the other boys to be bothered with taking a picture, but at least Nolan was a bit more cooperative. So glad they could share this fun memory together!

Talent Show

Abby participated in Paramount Elementary's annual Talent Show on Friday, May 15th. The whole group sang "It's a Hard Knock Life" from Annie for their opening number...

Then these three girls performed a fun song and dance to "Shake It Off" complete with matching outfits and choreography.

They had a great time practicing and performing together.

This girl is already planning her talent routine for next year. She is trying to convince Landon to do a brother/sister song and dance together. We'll see if she can get Landon on board with the idea. She sure does love to perform!!

Icing Man!

Landon attended a birthday party for one of his friends at a local bakery. One of the birthday activities was to decorate your own cupcake. Let's just say Landon had a little TOO much fun with that activity...

That is quite the cupcake little dude!!

He also enjoyed fighting "the dark side" with his homemade light saber...

Darth Vader's got nothing on our little Landon!!

Mother's Day 2015

Motherhood...the hardest, greatest, most challenging and rewarding job I have ever encountered. I am completely in love with these four kiddos, but man oh man, they can also drive me CRAZY!!!

I am so blessed to be their mom though. They have taught me far more than I could ever imagine. I get a bit sad at just how fast they are growing. Abby is on the verge of hitting double digits in age and Jason made the mistake of mentioning that our time with her in our home is already half over (Whaaaaat????)

The days can be so long but the years are just flying by. This was my first Mother's Day as a mom of four children and I feel so lucky that these munchkins are mine forever.

How can you not love these squinty-eyed bundles of joy!!

In true Abby fashion, she decorated the whole downstairs in streamers and this fun little poster and also made everyone breakfast. Then I got to open up some fun homemade gifts from the kids and a few non-homemade gifts from Jason! The whole day was just really nice and I enjoyed it immensely.

Abby wanted to pose with her little sister too. She really loves Miss Maylie and I sure do love my two sweet girls.

"Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling...It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for." 

-- Neil L. Andersen

Busy Saturday

Ever since Spring began, it seems like our weekends have become extremely busy. Fun,usually, but also packed with activities. 

On the first Saturday of May, Landon had a baseball game at the Valley fields. They had a great game and won 9-5. Landon was the lead off hitter and had three singles. He was pretty proud of himself!!

Jason has enjoyed being an assistant coach and is usually the one who pitches to our boys. They will be starting kid-pitch here pretty soon which should be interesting!

Right after the game we headed over to the Art Museum where both Landon and Abby had their artwork on display for the Elementary School Art Show.

Here is Landon's work of art...

And Abby's sculpture!

A very fun Saturday indeed!

Our Master Poet!

The Washington County Library sponsored a poetry/short story contest over the winter months and Abby ended up winning first place in the 2nd-3rd Grade division. She was thrilled and was excited to attend a special reception on Friday, April 24th to recognize all of the winners.

Here she is all dressed up and ready to go inside the Hotel Convention Center. We got a babysitter for the boys and just brought Maylie and Abby which was a nice way to celebrate the evening without dragging along two little bored boys!

They had a nice dinner beforehand, a short presentation from an area author, and then they had each winner read their poem or a part of their short story. Abby was the first to go up and did an amazing job!!

Here were will the different winners at the end of the evening...

Our little poet!!

A few weeks later, a group picture was included in our local paper too!

Here was her winning poem:

The Secret

I know a secret, I’m not going to tell.

I know a secret, but I told it to Nell.

Then suddenly “knock, knock” at my door.

Well what do you know it was my friend Eleanor!

So I told her the secret, she said she would keep it.

But when it comes to Nell, she can’t keep a secret!

Nell told Eddie,

Who then told Freddie,

Who also told Jill,

Who finally told Will,

And when Will heard the secret he said in front of all,

“I know the secret….EMILY LIKES BOBBY PAUL!”

Bobby blushed and I said, “Nell spilled the beans.”

Gee, I should not have told anyone by any means!

Miss Smily

This girl is so giggly, especially when you tickle her tummy! She is almost always smiling and loves to ham it up for people when we are out and about which endears her to anyone we meet.

Diaper changes can be a bit challenging since she is also very wiggly, but how can you get frustrated at a face like this?!?!?!

Those little hands on the edge of the changing table belong to my little partner in crime...Nolan. He loves to make Maylie laugh too and does a great job of it!

Baseball MVP

Landon decided to forgo soccer this year in order to play baseball. I thought he would be totally bored since I think soccer has a lot more action than baseball, but I have been proven wrong. He's a pretty good little player, and VERY into the game. They have played several games already and there are a few tears shed when his team loses but some extreme celebration with a win.

Here he is right before his very first baseball game on April 15th. Jason was out of town and was sorry to miss it, but he has been able to make almost every other game and is also an assistant coach for the Huyett's 4-H Team. Landon plays for Maugansville Little League and is playing as a Minor 7.

I told him to give me a few action shots and this is what he came up with!!

Sure do love this little slugger...and so glad that he is enjoying baseball so much. 

Half his team always wants to be done or stares out into space for much of the game, but not Landon. He is intensely focused on each aspect of the game and always knows where the play should be. He gets a little sad if he doesn't make a hit, but fortunately he almost always is able to make it on base. We have all enjoyed many afternoons and evenings at the ballpark watching our little baseball player in action! 

Cutie Patootie!

You wouldn't know it from these pictures, but this little girl has mastered (for the most part) the beautiful art of sitting on her own. I still put the Boppy down for her though since she is quite the little mover and will often flop herself down pretty hard to get into rolling position. At least the Boppy softens the blow a bit!!

She is obsessed with shoes since she rarely wears them. It provides a few minutes of fun entertainment until she decides to rip them off!

And alas, this may be the last time she actually was able to wear a headband. She now likes to rip those off too!!

And yes, she is just as cute, snug-able and squish-able as she looks in these pictures!

Sure do love this little cutie-patootie!!

Curiosity Zone

In mid-April we headed down to Virginia to attend Coldon's birthday party at the "Curiosity Zone." This was his first "friend" birthday party as most of the time we get together in Baltimore for a fun afternoon at the Aquarium/Discovery Zone. It was fun to share this birthday with Coldon and all the kids had a great time learning about rockets, space, and other science related topics.

This little boy looked pretty professional in his white lab coat!!

It was so fun to spend the day with our cousins Coldon, Reygan, and Willow!

Ready for some experimentation!!

And building our own rockets out of LEGOs!

Afterwards we spent the afternoon at Tasha and Jeff''s home in Ashburn and then all of us made the drive up north to see how their new home was coming along. They are building a new home on 5 acres just outside of Frederick, MD and we are so excited!! Once they move in, they will only live 35 minutes from our house. Yeah for more cousin/aunt/uncle/sister time!!