Happy Birthday Lydia!

Daddy made the birthday girl her very own leaf pile to jump in to her hearts content.

(We always seem to be raking up leaves around her birthday. . .)

I can NOT believe my baby girl is already 7.

She is SO excited to be 7 and she had an amazing day. Her friend Jaycee and her mom and aunt took Lydia out for a day of fun. They went to the mall and some clothing stores, they stopped and ate lunch, they bought make-up. . . it was exactly what she wanted and she came home acting 17 instead of 7 :)

Happy Birthday Lydia!

My girl has the best friends on earth. Her friend, Jaycee, called her up this morning and invited her to go out shopping and eating and to just have some fun together on her birthday and Lydia loved every minute of it. It was the perfect gift for them to give her, she loves hanging with friends!

I can't believe my baby girl is already seven!!!

Talia Runs EVERYWHERE

Lydia Loves Music!

Queen Must be Appreciated

Baptism Day

Hello Headgear

Jude isn't happy about this at all. But he put it on all by himself and understands how important it is to do it every single night. So hopefully we won't drag this braces business out too long! Also, who sleeps like that? This kid either sleeps stiff-as-a-board straight on his back or with his feet straight up the wall or hanging over the side. . . he's a weird one.

Raptor Romp

Ahhh- the Raptor Romp. It really is a lot of fun. But it's also exhausting to take all the kids anywhere by myself. Lydia was bummed that she wasn't out there performing with all of her friend's from last year :( But she had fun watching and supporting (and taking pictures)

Julia! She's definitely one of the tinesier Kindergartners.

T and Kayla had a GOOD time.

Look at those moves!

And the end-all Chicken Dance.

Pure chaotic joy.

Happy Birthday Jude!!

Look at my not-so-little baby boy :)

Dad has decided that when you turn 8 you get a doughnut the size of your head. Jude was really close to finishing that thing too. And Lydia was a bit disappointed in her doughnut that was not quite as big as her head, but still massive. . .

Scouts! A new book, shirt, scriptures, everything he needs!

And new shoes. Size THREE! I truly can not believe he's already 8. Some days I miss my little boy, but mostly I just love having him around. He's such a sweet boy (when he wants to be) and so stinking smart that I just love talking with him. I do moon-walk away when he starts describing Pokemon though. . . that's what his friends are for.

Best Friends

Talia and Emily get along so well- when Talia isn't bonking Emily on the head! It's nice having a friend that understands T and loves her in spite of her :)

Floating Fun

The kids LOVE it when Dad takes them swimming.

Kayla is getting really good at floating and trusting and I can't wait until everyone knows how to swim and we can all just go and I won't have to worry about the babies out-numbering the grown-ups anymore. Jude and Lydia can reach everywhere, but Julia is still so tinesy she has to stay with the babies in the shallower end and she hates it. But sometimes I keep the babies home and Dad just takes the big kids and she gets to be more adventurous.

Poor baby, left all alone.

Talia Megan

This kid always cracks me up with her vibrancy. Never a dull moment.

Makeup!

Lydia and her friend Abigail have been obsessed with makeup lately.

They've gotten a LOT better and don't make quite as big a mess as they used to.

But their creations are still very questionable and silly.

Lost tooth!!

Jude finally lost a tooth!

He'd been wiggling it forever and finally started complaining because he'd bite down on it wrong and hurt himself. So I told him I'd pull it and he freaked out. I basically sat on him and made him let me pull it. And once he finally calmed down he admitted that it felt better to have it out. Trust me kid! I know what's best for you!

Karate

I really enjoy watching Jude do karate. He's not as coordinated or focused as some of the other boys, but he isn't too bad either. He really likes to spar but needs to work on using the moves he's being taught instead of just free-for-all fighting. . .

Purple Day!!

This kid has been excited to dress up for purple day ever since school started. They've done a different color each day and she's been wearing a little bit of each color. But for purple she went ALL out. Because she had the "perfect outfit stuff"

The bus skipped our bus stop so I had to give her a ride to school. It drove right past us, instead of turning at the park to pick us up it just drove right on down the street out of the neighborhood! Hopefully he remembers the new stop tomorrow.

What's Your Wi-Fi Password?

We went to my parent's house today and Julia was SO excited to wear her new shirt.

A couple weeks ago when we were up there the first thing Julia said to my dad when she hopped out of the car was, "What's your wi-fi password?" And my dad just thought that was hilarious. So when I saw this shirt a couple days later I scooped it up and saved it for our next trip to Grandpa's house. She loves their little joke :)

Church coloring

Kayla is in that oh so fun phase where she isn't old enough for nursery and is way too independent to sit in class with me. But let's be honest, my kids hit that age around 9 months when they learn to walk and can't be bothered with sitting still longer than zero minutes.

But today, she colored. And not just dump the crayons on the floor and rip the paper. Actually colored. And it was adorable.