There Went the Month of May...

Our summer has officially begun. I have thought a lot about this past year, especially through the month of May. It has been a full year since we moved to our new home. A full year since our "summer of miracles", when we truly saw the hand of God carry us through some of our most trying times. A full year since I watched the kids go to their new school for the first time with knots in their stomachs and brave faces on. A full year of amazing blessings.

So, here we are, and summer has begun, and our water bill will most assuredly increase with all of the time the kids spend playing out in the backyard with the hose and slip-n-slide, and I am just grateful to see "how far we've come", in everything.

Our last month of the school year was, of course, filled to the brim, so I have come to this blog tonight to catch up. Prepare yourselves for a lot of pictures in random order. This was our month...

We missed the ward camp-out because Mike was so busy with his new Master's program. But, the kids dealt with it just fine, since we let them have their cousins over for the night.

For dinner that night, we let all of the kids make their own pizzas. I was amazed that they actually wanted to eat these things. Of course this picture was taken pre-oven. I think the goal was to see who could create the highest mountain of toppings.

Emma realized that her birthday was coming up soon, so she made a "birthday countdown" chain.

On the last day of school the boys and I went to Red Mountain Park. It's the perfect time to go right now because there are families of prairie dogs all over the place. The boys love it, but they haven't managed to catch one yet.

Colin created his own robot costume.

I grew even bigger, and still have the whole summer to go. Little Ethne is certainly a kicker though. She'll fit right in with her perpetual-motion-brothers.

Chesley had her last orchestra concert of the year. She did amazing, and I have to say, looked pretty stellar too. We are excited because she wants to continue with it next year as well.

We took the kids to see the Gila Valley Temple on the last day of the open house. The drive was well worth it, it was absolutely beautiful inside and the kids were really impressed. Afterwards we had a great time visiting with Mike's cousin Ryan and his family.

We celebrated Father's Day a month early, since June was already fully scheduled. For dinner, we planned out a buffet of Mike's Favorite Foods. None of them really went together, or tasted good side-by-side, for that matter, but the idea was fun, and we ate really great leftovers for the next couple meals.

Mike's Father's Day gifts all centered around heading back to school. We are so proud of our collegiate-head-of-household.

The girls both had big school projects to complete and present before the end of the school year. I firmly believe in letting my kids do 100% of their own work, even with things like this, and I LOVED what each of them came up with. They turned out great! Chesley's project was on the Arizona State Flower, and Emma's project was all about the zebra.

A picture of the girls on their very last day of school. Well, for a couple of months that is.

Mike trimmed the trees out in the backyard and let the kids have all the hacked off branches. They decided to make a fort with them all.

This is Colin and Zach watching Sesame Street. Because of them, our family room often looked like this. I would've loved this as a kid. :-)

Chesley earned her first income, babysitting her cousin Shae. She didn't expect to get paid at all (Shae is so fun just to have around) and she was thrilled!

The boys, all dressed up, visiting their cousin Kyle in the hospital before his heart surgery. They are both so proud of that kid!

Our hamster died. So we buried him in the backyard and held a not-so-solemn funeral. I wish I could figure out how to get videos from my camera to post on this blog because I filmed the whole thing. Mike's hamster-revised rendition of "Amazing Grace" definitely topped the night.

Goodbye Sniffers.

You were a good rodent.

We celebrated Mother's Day on the actual calendar day, and it was great. My favorite part, as always, are all of the handmade crafts and cards and coupons that the kids make for me. And this year I got an amazing box of chocolates and a gorgeous necklace too. Mike also made me a to-die-for dinner (as I am not a fan of breakfast in bed), so good, it was photo-worthy.

The best thing about Mother's Day is just watching my kids. It is truly a privilege to be a part of their lives!

And that's it, our beautiful month of May. No more 79 degree weather. 110, here we come!