Cade turned 6 on the 24th

I can't believe Cade is six already. What a cute little boy. He was quite excited when the day finally came. The day before he was telling me that he wanted a chocolate cake with white frosting and for dinner he wanted corn dogs.

We started this little tradition. We start off the celebration with the birthday kid running in through the streamers! They love it.

That was Chris' idea to do the kiss on the cheek. He is so much more loving and thoughtful than I am. I love this picture, Cade looks so sweet and precious. It's a keeper.

continued pics of b-day

Auntie and Tanner

So Cute

Cade-O got this from the Weeks. He is loving it!!!! Actually all the kids are...... even Daddy.

Mopping the Floor

You know what it's like at summertime, constantly trying to think of things to do with your kids that doesn't include money and t.v. I got this great idea to have the kids help me mop the floor. We all got a rag and a bowl of pinesol and water and mopped the floor on our hands and knees.

Before long the bowl of water was spilled leaving the floor quite slippery. The kids had a blast sliding around on the floor. We don't have tile so it was perfect..they had so much fun doing that!!!

And I got my floors clean and my house smelt good all in the process.

Isn't that just the cutest little face. aaahhhh I love my sweet boy.

Garden

Last year was the first year our family tried to have a little garden. The kids were excited to do it again this year. Lately with fruit getting so expensive, I've been telling Chris. I didn't relize how lucky I was as a kid. We could walk out our backyard and have plenty of fruits to choose from. Peaches, apricots, plums, blackberries, oranges and grapefruit. I think even at one time dad had two almond trees. Those were the days. Thanks dad and mom for growing all that.
I was over at a friends house and happened to notice she had a tree with some kind of fruit on it. It was an apple tree! I guess apples do well here. I talked to Chris and we decided we were going to start off with an apple tree and grow ourselves our own garden of Eden in the back yard! We told the kids and hopped in the car to go get us an apple tree!!! When we got down to the nursery we were a little bummed to hear the lady suggest to wait until winter. So instead we went to Sam's Club and sampled all the food and had hotdogs and pretzels. Here's our little garden for now, next year I think I'll try and expand. The fence is because we have a rabbit problem. If you ask Macey she'll say " Stupid rabbit ate our garden". He got in again this year and ate some carrot leaves and my brocolli and cantaloupe plants - not too happy about that. Jim you got any suggestions on how to get rid of a couple rabbits? It ate my violets too that I brought back from Nana's that I had planted in my flower bed. Stupid rabbit!

Most nights the kids stay in their beds but it's so funny if one child wakes up and comes to our room, you can guarantee by morning they'll all be in our bed. Throughout the night one by one they come climbing into our bed eventually kicking Chris and I out to the guest bed. Luckily only Chris got kicked out this time and this is what I woke up to.

For Memorial Day we got together with our usual friends, one family was missing. We got together at our friends Neighborhood clubhouse/pool. We had a good time. Macey was in that little car almost the entire time.

CJ had a blast swimming all over the pool with his friends and getting thrown in the air by Kelly Mendenhall.

Cade on the other hand was quite content to watch and eat and dabble his feet in, but that was about it. I'm really hoping I can get down to Nana's this summer and get him in the pool everyday so he can finally learn to swim.

Mason loved it all, water and food what can be better than that for an 18th month old. He started nursery last week.. Halleluah!!!! Although I really can't complain with my calling it has been Chris that keeps him all through church. Hope you all had a great Holiday.
I did want to say one more thing about how neat it was to go to church and see all the men in our church who are or had been in the armed forces and see them in their suits. We had a marine, an army ranger, two air force and we just had two brothers come home. One of the young husband just came back for two weeks then he has to go back until Christmas. He flies these huge double propeller helicopters that carry tanks and hummers and he was in his pilot suit. I've gotten to know his wife and to hear her stories and the conditions and to see how hard it has been for her husband to be gone. I sat there in Sacrament meeting looking around at them all and really got quite choked up with gratitude and how lucky I am to have the blessings I have and to live in this country. How truly blessed I am. Love you all very much.

Here's our good friends the Mendenhalls. Ali has been such a good friend to me, she's lots of fun to hang out with. We love sharing and doing craft projects and borrowing each others books

This is Jenny Woods and Ashley Finlinson. We like to get together with them as families, they are both hilarious.

The guy in the middle is Ashley Finlinson's husband and then Kelly Mendenhall on the left.

And of course this is the only picture I get of Chris and I and this is the face he makes.......What a Big Terd he is.