My Five-Year Old

Adelyn's Favorites at Five--

Favorite fruits: strawberries, oranges

Favorite vegetables: broccoli, carrots, green beans
Favorite vacation: Seattle to see Eliza (her cousin)
Favorite breakfast: gingerbread waffles
Favorite lunch: grilled cheese and tomato soup
Favorite dinner: sour cream enchiladas
Favorite games: Chutes and Ladders, Dora Bingo,
Monopoly, Candy Land, Scrabble

Favorite color: pink
Favorite snacks: apples, carrots, graham crackers and milk
Favorite activities to do with Mom: play games, cook, read stories
Favorite activities to do with Dad: play outside, work in yard
Favorite activities to do with siblings: play games, make forts
Favorite treat: gingerbread cookies, chocolate ice cream
Favorite movie: "Angelina Ballerina"

Favorite book: "Pinkalicious," "Big Hungry Bear"
Favorite TV show: "Dinosaur Train"
Favorite pass times: listening to music and drawing,
play-dough, dress-ups, bike riding, arts and crafts, dancing
Favorite animals: kittens, puppies
Favorite songs: Disney Princess classics, "Peanut
butter," "Bubblegum," "I Like School" (preschool songs)
Favorite toys: Barbies, Build-a-Bears, Pollies
What she wants to be when she grows up:
nurse, astronaut, teacher, mommy

I love you so much Adelyn, and I am amazed by you everyday!

Boston

I took a last minute, emergent trip to Boston at the end of April to go meet this little guy for the first time...

This is my newest nephew Bryant Andrew. Now, I'm sure that just by looking at him you can tell why the trip was completely emergent. He is truly precious; seeing him would certainly have been reason enough to go. But in reality, I took the trip because his mother (my sister-in-law) had some health problems after the delivery and had to return to the hospital. She was given the order to "take it easy" after she got discharged. But she has four young kids, so she obviously needed some help.

It was a wonderful trip. I took Annalise with me and left my other two kids with Ryan and my mom. It was fun to spend some quality time with her and her girls. They are so sweet and fun. The above picture is 6-year old Savanna holding her baby brother. She is so loving and gives the best hugs.

This is Abby. She is so darling and fun. I love her little smile in this picture.

This is the oldest, Kiley, who is almost eight. She is such a big helper and is so smart. It is so hard to live so far from them now (they used to live only five minutes away). I will always treasure the week I spent with them and hope it won't be too long before we see them again.

Fun Around the House

Preston got this new helmet as a hand-me-down from his cousins. Since there has been a shortage of bike-riding weather this Spring, Preston has had to invent excuses to sport this little treasure. In this picture, he and Adelyn thought that playing with clay presented some potential cranial dangers.

What a little princess! We also got this Ariel dress and Tinkerbell doll from cousins. Ever since she could walk, Adelyn has loved to dress up like a little princess. One of these days I should line up all her pictures in dress-up clothes as she's grown older. Now that would be precious.

This is a darling little picture of Annalise cheesin' it with a ridiculously dirty baby-food face. She LOVES big-people food. In this picture I think she has just polished off a whole jar of baby food and a gingerbread waffle.


A cute little close-up of my fair little red-headed baby. She is 9 months old and is such a little sweetheart. She has become quite a proficient crawler, eater, talker (baa baa, da, da), mess-maker, etc. I cannot believe how quickly she is growing. I am already mourning her lost babyhood.

Spring Evenings

We have an amazing park near our home with a huge lake. We went there one evening for FHE to enjoy the weather and feed the ducks. Addie and Preston loved it!

Annalise is always ready and willing to smile. She is such a sweetheart and just makes me so happy.

I love this picture of Preston with the beautiful view in the background. He is wearing this proud smile because he has a strong arm and has turned into quite a competent little duck feeder. We just bought a fishing pole and we are excited to go fishing with the kids the next time we go.

Living Planet Aquarium

We decided to get a yearly pass to the Aquarium this year for something fun to do inside during this not-so-warm Spring. We have loved it so far. Some of our favorite things are the giant octopus, the sharks, and the crocodiles. My kids still haven't mustered up the nerve to pet the sting rays, but hopefully they will soon.

Here's our Addie in front of the giant slug statue by the area where they do story time everyday.

Preston, working really hard to steer the ship. Look at those muscles!

Annalise still prefers the view from the Bjorn over that of the stroller, so this is usually where she ends up. Fortunately, she is not too heavy yet, so I don't mind.

This was our first time seeing the penguins and we absolutely loved it! They were so active and entertaining the whole time.

Easter Weekend...(finally)

Although very over due (as usual), I wanted to post about Easter. I always love it when Easter falls on Conference weekend because it is such a great family time and so easy to focus on the Savior. We had a really nice Easter weekend this year. Adelyn was so wonderful and wanted to watch all eight hours of Conference. During one of the talks, the speaker mentioned children writing up a simple family tree to teach them about genealogy. I didn't even think she was listening, but a few minutes later she showed me her beautiful drawing of a tree complete with all of our immediate and extended families' names on it. She is such a good girl; I am constantly amazed by her. We went to my parents' house in Salt Lake that evening during the Priesthood session. The kids dyed Easter eggs and went on an Easter egg hunt with all of the cousins. We had a great time.

Preston with his Easter basket on Easter morning. We continued the tradition from my childhood and the "Easter Bunny" hid their Easter baskets on Easter morning.

Adelyn with her Easter basket sporting her cute morning hair! We had pancakes cooked on Ryan's new griddle (also from the Easter Bunny) topped with strawberries for breakfast. YUM!!

I made my first traditional Easter feast this year: honey-glazed ham, funeral potatoes, asparagus, carrots, and croissant rolls, with strawberry shortcake for dessert. We had Ryan's family over to share it with us, and the kids got a third helping of Easter treats from Ryan's mom who brought tons of eggs for another egg hunt. Annalise even got to share in the hunt and especially loved playing with the plastic eggs.