Kyler's toe

This is sad. I haven't written anything in over a week because the end of the school year is just so busy. I don't have time to download pictures off my camera or write up anything big. I want to take a nap before the missionaries come for dinner. I know, I have my priorities straight. An opportunity to nap trumps all. So I leave with a picture of Kyler' black toe. He has been fascinated with the blue to black transformation of this toe nail after smashing it. He begged for peanuts from costco. We bought them. He dropped them. Poor toe.

these days

Kyler and Kacin have come of age. Twice now they have shared mowing the lawn. I love their enthusiasm for this task. They begged to be allowed. So proud of these guys.

Sweetness in my shopping cart.

Perry doing his "work", he called it.

And a messy living room. It pretty much looks like this all of the time. Tidy lasts 5 min. around here.

My cute helper in the kitchen. He has really taken to cooking.

The raingutter regatta happened one evening. Kacin battled asthma and a too big sail, but stuck with it 'til the end. They both had some cool looking boats. Kyler may have been a tad bit glad that this was his last regatta. He's just getting so old.

The school year is winding down. I teach two more days. Perry goes to school for 5 more days. The older boys have 10 more days. I have mixed feelings. I am mostly excited and ready, and partly feeling unsure if I can be a patient mom all day long every day. If I could catch some time to finalize some summer plans I think I would be feeling better. Actually, I'll probably just feel better in the morning once I have rested and my head isn't spinning from dealing with pee all over the couch and hearing screaming the 30 min.to therapy and wiping smeared snot from someone's face and hair and piles of stuff a little girl has made in multiple areas of the house as she plays "trip" and "school' and motor skills evaluations, and grumpy kids and grumpy me. Oh how I'm thankful for fresh starts in the morning. And I'm thankful I can sit down here and look at pictures and remember all of the good in my little life. There is so much hard and so much good. I need to keep my thoughts on the good and laugh at some of the craziness and that is a key to happiness when things are challenging.  We can do this. 

If you pick a fight with a squirrel . . .

If you pick a fight with a squirrel,

you are going to get bit.

It was the squirrel who started it.
He was running all over the chicken coop and trying to get into the chickens food.
Eric saw it through the window so he went outside to scare it away.
It didn't move when he went out there, so he threw a pine cone at it.  And he hit it.
The squirrel still didn't go away so Eric decided to take a stick to it.
He picked up the stick and swung and the squirrel jumped on E's shoulder, bit him in the ear, and scurried away.

While the two marks on E's ear lobe bled a lot, he is not yet foaming from the mouth.

Eric gets some gnarly injuries because of chickens here.

Out Walking

I sometimes get mad or frustrated or tired, or just plain have a lot on my mind. 

My best remedy is to go out on a long walk.

Walks during this time of year are wonderful. It is warm and beautiful outside. I love the trails near our house because we get to walk through pretty paths.

Layla picks flowers as we walk through. She fell asleep in the stroller one afternoon clutching them.

Look at this beautiful sky.

One day when I was out with Perry a nice lady was gardening in her yard and let him pick some of her flowers.

We have also spent a couple of afternoons walking through the forest trails behind the park.

We have an extra one with us each afternoon after school and he is so sweet with our littles.

 Even though Kacin and Kyler aren't always thrilled to have a shadow, they do really well when Perry wants to stay right with them. Perry adores his big brothers and wants to do what they are doing and be right with them.

Which means I get to follow this cute one around.

sealing celebration

Even though it feels to me like we've celebrated this numerous times this year (here and here), the boys were pretty bummed when they realized we passed by their own sealing day in April without so much as a piece of cake. This led to a family meeting in which we decided that from this day forward all adoption/sealing celebrations (no matter what day you were actually sealed/adopted on) will be held henceforth and forever on the Saturday before Memorial day. 

So we got another celebration in this year. Yay for family!

On Saturday afternoon we drove to Bellevue. We went in to Deseret book store and let each kid pick out a small picture (keeping it real--by the end of the day Layla had ripped/chewed her picture of Jesus to shreds, and Perry didn't even make it to the picture choosing because of his screams and had to be escorted to the car).

But we stopped by DQ and everyone got dilly bars and peace was restored.

They ate them at the Seattle temple while Eric shared a short message about temples and sealing. 

It is always good to be reminded of how much it means to be a forever family. I love these people, and celebrating with them.

duck, truck, goose

After months of research and watching craigslist like a hawk, we got our husband and father back when he finally purchased a truck.

And Kacin was thrilled to be modeling it for you.

A friend came to us on Saturday with a duckling they rescued from some dogs. Except upon Eric's further internet investigation he believes that what we were all calling a duck is actually a Canadian goose. In that case, he may only be in our family for a short time. But for now, we are caring for this cute duck/goose.

a Kyler post

Kyler's laugh is infectious.

He is friends with just about everyone at school, but best friends with Collin.

Kyler tries hard to stand for the right on the bus and at school.

He has gotten into the habit of reading scriptures in the morning and then again before bed.

He loves playing gaga ball on the trampoline.

He works hard during gymnastics. My pictures don't do it justice, but he can do a really great hand stand.

Kyler is a wonderful big brother. When talking to Perry, he imitates the speech and language he has heard the therapists (and us) use. He tries hard to help Perry. He loves to take care of Layla. He is a great friend to Kacin.

He has led the reorganization/declutter of his room about five more times since my initial clean out.

This boy brings us so much happiness!