Happy Father's Day!

Look at that daddy with his cute little kiddies! I tried to be nice and let Ben sleep in on Father's Day, especially since he did his race the same weekend, but the kids were super excited to give him presents and breakfast in bed so I think he slept till about 8:00 am (in our house, that kinda is sleeping in...). The kids had so much fun decorating the wrapping for his presents with stamps, markers and stickers the day before so it really wasn't the presents, but the wrapping that they were excited about. Ben is such a great daddy and he takes such good care of us. I am so lucky to have him!

Of course we made him a special breakfast--raspberry almond stuffed french toast! Yum...

We gave him this cute picture frame with pictures of him and the kids that said "Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a daddy."

The kids made Ben this special Father's Day tie and were so thrilled when he wore it to church and received lots of attention.
We went to parents' house for our Father's day feast and I had to get this picture of me with my dad--isn't he cute? I love you dad!

Way to go Ben!

Ben participated in the much anticipated Wasatch Back race last weekend. He did the race last year and had a lot of fun so he decided to give it another go. It's kind of funny because he still doesn't profess to enjoy running all that much, but the race itself it the fun part and it's good incentive to get some exercise. He loves to shave his head, especially when he has what he considers a valid excuse so he did so just for the occasion even though he knows I do not find it at all attractive. I fared pretty well with the kids except for the fact that our computer got a virus and I, being the computer illiterate that I am, had no choice but to stay off of it until he was able to fix it. Needless to say, I've gotten a little behind on blogging. Regardless, the kids and I had fun making all sorts of Father's Day surprises while he was gone.

Here's Ben with his team.

Here he is right after he got home Saturday night. Doesn't he look pooped?

Bowling on a rainy day

The forecast for today was rain so we changed our original plans to go to Pineview Reservoir and went bowling (for free) at FatCats. You can actually bowl up to two games for free any day during the summer and just pay the shoe rental fee. Cool huh? Of course, we used bumpers and a little ramp thing that you roll the ball down so it was kind of cheating, but the kids did pretty well. Amazingly, Brig was content to sit in his stroller for most of the time, but towards the end even he got in on the action. He really just like picking up the bowling balls and dropping them on the floor--luckily no toes were smashed!

Summer is here!

I've been so busy enjoying summer already that I haven't even had time to blog about it! I was actually really excited for the kids to get out of school so that we could spend some time together as a family and not be tied to our regular routine so much. We have a lot of fun things planned for the summer (at least for the first couple of months) so I should have lots of fun pictures to share.

But first:

Here's Eliza graduating from kindergarten,Emma's field day,
and the kids in their new favorite popcicle eating spot. (Notice the red spots on those white pants--what was I thinking buying white leggings anyway?)

We kicked off our summer by going to Willow Park in Logan with a few other moms and kids from our ward. They have a cute little zoo that the kids enjoyed and we stopped by Gossner's on the way home for ice cream and cheese. YUM!

We also got to stop by and visit Ben's sister, Kelli, to see her new house and baby. It was very fun to see them and visit for awhile. I should have taken some pictures of her sweet new baby--he was so precious! I'm jealous that I still have two more months of being pregnant, but in the meantime, I'm trying to stay busy so I don't think about it too much! I hope that you are all enjoying the summer as much as we are!

Mommy-Daughter Date

I have a tradition of taking my kids out on their birthday, but this year we kind of got busy around Eliza's birthday and didn't get to do that. So ever since then she's been saying "Mom, when are we going to go on out date?". Well, yesterday I spent the whole day with Ellie and she finally got her date.
We went to the Dinosaur Park with her kindergarten class,
had lunch at Rainbow Gardens,

and went to a doctor's appointment, which Eliza actually thought was fun because she got to see pictures of the baby on the ultrasound machine. Anyway, it's always fun for me to have one on one time with my kids no matter what we are doing.

These darling benches were outside the restaurant and Eliza wanted a picture on each of them. Isn't she sweet?

Guess what's missing?

This actually happened a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't even think about posting about it, so I'm doing it now. Better late than never, right? Eliza lost her first tooth! This is a very big deal when you're six. She actually held on to it for a couple of days just so that she could show it off. Truth be told, I don't think she could bear to part with her first tiny baby tooth and would have gladly forfeited the tooth fairy money. Unfortunately, she ended up losing the tooth somewhere around the house and was quite devastated. The tooth fairy graciously left her a dollar after her sister helped her compose a note explaining the whole situation. I think she is still holding onto the hope that the tooth fairy will let her keep her next tooth and, hopefully, next time she can hold on to it!

Note: For those of you who might find this information useful, I suggest using a small Ziploc baggie, NOT an envelope to store those tiny baby teeth. This was a hard lesson to learn after Eliza's experience and after crawling on the floor many a time looking for teeth that Emma had dropped somewhere in that darn shaggy carpet!

Happy Mother's Day/Birthday to me!

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." --Abraham Lincoln
These two women truly are my two most favorite mothers. My own mother has been such an influence for good in my life and truly understands me better then anyone I've ever known. And her own mother, who helped prepare her to be such a wonderful mother and who inspires me to be grateful for each day and for all that the Lord has blessed me with. Thank you and I love you both so much!

On this mother's day I feel very blessed to be the mother to these four precious children. I also have a pretty great husband who did all he could to make this mother's day/birthday special for me. Thanks for a great day! I love you Ben!