A Date with the Bishop

We really love our ward here in Salt Lake.  It's just 3 1/2 streets wide but it is overflowing with the most amazing saints I have ever met.  They are kind and friendly and my kids are so lucky to have such a wonderful to place to grow up.  Just before each of the kids in the ward turn 8 and get baptized, there's this tradition where the Bishop and his wife take them to visit the outside of the Salt Lake Temple.  Ethan happened to turn 8 a few weeks before his little friend Mia, so the two of them got to go together.  Look how sweet our wonderful bishop is.  

They spent almost an hour walking around the temple, touching doorknobs, pointing our it's amazing history.

 Taking pictures for the proud parents at home.

 The visit the Visitor center and talk about prophets and church history.

 This is the sweet Bishop's wife.  She's in the nursery and is just the most loving woman on the planet.

 It's a pretty special experience and I'm grateful that the Bishop, with his extremely busy schedule, takes the time out to make a big impact in these kid's lives.  He has truly created a personal relationship with this little boy who now feels like the bishop is someone he knows, who cares about him personally, who he can go and talk to and trust.  What an amazing lesson to learn at such a young age.

Memorial Day at the Zoo

Taylor was out of town Memorial Day weekend for another cousin's wedding in Seattle.  I decided this time to not go along and save the cost of flying me and 3 little boys or paying a babysitter to watch them for 3 days.  So thankfully our good friend the Stewarts were in town too and happy to join us on a trip to the zoo.  Not much explanation needed.

Joyschool Graduation

Miles is so excited to finally be getting big enough to do some of the things his big brothers have done that he's always wanted to do.  Joyschool (or any kind of school for that matter) was a big first step.  He was so excited to be a big boy.  And in truth it was probably my favorite Joyschool of all 3 kids.  Not because of the other moms or kids (I've loved each of my groups) but because of the curriculum.  It was just so easy to plan 1 activity, 1 book, and 1 craft each day and call it done.  

For our graduation party the kids sang a few songs and took pictures and then chowed down on dinner and played outside until way too late on a school night :)

Of course we needed pictures of all the kids along with the moms who did all the work.

My little sweetheart.  Miles has a personality all his own.  He is both loving and cuddly and kind as well as independent and stubborn.  You never know what you'll get, but we love this little cheeseball and his infectious laugh.

Pinewood Derby

With all the other sports and activities my boys are involved in, Cub Scouts is not really on the top of my list for fun or real life skills but since the church uses it as their boys program, I guess we're along for the ride.  The highlight of the year for my boys was of course the Pine Wood Derby.  And in Utah that means renting a track with all the electronic timers and a very fun evening.  Taylor and Ethan spent weeks working on their cars- yes THEIR cars.  Taylor made one too.  And really they spent less than 4 hours but it took several Saturdays to get them done.  

The track guy brought along this small, separate race track and tons of hot wheels for the siblings to play with so they'd stay away from the real track and the real cars.

Obligatory weigh ins.

A picture of all the boys- at least the ones there on time :)

And the cars.

Ethan drew out his design and then Taylor cut in for him on the scroll saw.  He chose gold as his color and wasn't the least bit interested in decorating it further.

Ethan with his best friend Joseph.  They're pretty cute together and I couldn't ask for a nicer, more well behaved child for him to play with.

All the boys got to race their car down each lane one time and from that they got the top four who got to compete in the finals.

All the boys waited at the end to watch the finish of each race.

Isla played with her favorite "aunt" Katie.

Isaac didn't get to compete but they were nice enough to let the siblings push the "go" button so they could be part of the fun.

Taylor unfortunately spent a whole lot of time researching online and talking to other pinewood derby pros and then made what he thought would be a perfect car... and it kind of flopped.  but he was a good sport about it.

Thankfully there were lots of girls who were more than happy to entertain Isla the whole time.

And when the racing was all over they pulled out "banana cars".  Basically just pine wood derby blocks with wheels on that they then rubberbanded a regular banana to.  The little boys were so excited!

And they got to race them down the real track.

In the end 4 of my 6 wolves swept the finals.  Ethan took 3rd, his best friend Joseph took 1st.

It was a great night!

Our little ladybug needs another cake

I made Isla the pink rose cake mainly because it was so simple and easy to frost and would be the perfect cake for smashing and getting messy pictures.  But really I've been dieing for years to make a girly birthday cake.  I took several cake classes and I've never been able to make flowers and put them on a cake.  Imagine that- my boys wouldn't consent to flowers on their dragon and ninja cakes!

Isla is our little ladybug and her room is decorated that way so I scoured Pinterest for ideas and spent the afternoon making it.  It turned out cute but maybe a little too covered in details.

Isla got frog glasses from Gram which she was happy to wear as long as we were smiling at her.  And then they came off.

Is it crazy that all these little people belong to me?  Quite bizarre but totally wonderful.

This is about as good as family pictures get these days but I'll take it.

Miles decided to "check out" the fondant about 3 minutes after I finished making it and before I got any pictures.  Love him!

Isla didn't mind.  She enjoyed every bite.

Bitty Girl Presents

After a long bath to scrub the frosting off, we thought it about time to let Isla open up her birthday presents.  

Taylor had a lot of fun trying to teach her to rip the paper off.  Eventually she got the hang of it and thought it was great fun.  Now I'm dreading finding ripped papers all over my house.

I found the cutest little people at Target.  They're large enough she can chew on them and I don't have to worry but they're all the disney princesses so finally we have "girl" toys in the house!

Miles wanted to line them all up.

Which was fine with Isla- she was ready to rip more paper.

Not sure what that is.

But I know what that is- it's a bottle and it goes right in my mouth!

I knew I wanted a walk-behind toy for Isla since she's my first child to reach a year old and still not be walking.  And when I saw this sturdy and very girly stroller, I jumped on it.

Look how excited she is.  Once Taylor got it out of the box and put together, she kept this ear-to-ear grin on her face until we pried her fingers off it and made her go to bed.

Seriously cracks me up- every picture she has her mouth wide open in a giant smile.

Ethan and Isaac were not impressed or even the least bit interested in her toys but they spent their time on the couch reading our blog books which just warms my heart that they, of their own accord, enjoy reading about what we've done as a family.