may photos

The day we returned home from Hawaii was the day Layla looked like this.  Boots, undies and a bubble sword on a Sunday afternoon.  Normal around these parts.

There are two things McKay asks to do regularly- shoot Brian's old BB gun, or ride the four-wheeler.  This is the easier of the two, although neither happen as often as he'd like.

These are McKay's spring pictures.  He thought it would be a fine idea to order them.  We didn't, but bless these proofs so we can always remember.

I love when these girls play.  They are three years apart and I used to wonder if they would play like this.  I'm so glad that they do.  Ellery is usually really patient and sweet to Layla...did I say usually. 

When the kids see ripe strawberries in the garden (which is almost never- something is eating them before we do) they call them "my precious".  I don't know how this started, but I like it, and it's a perfect term to describe my peach tree.  My precious.  I want this little tree to thrive and flourish so much- I love it.  The kids have named it Princess Peach.

I love capturing sweet moments like these two reading in bed.   

One night we had one of those great late-Spring Utah rainstorms.  We all went out in the garage to look at it, and before we knew it all three kids were soaked.  It was one of those fun, spontaneous experiences that I hope they remember for a long time.

McKay started doing this.  His shoes didn't dry for three days.  

McKay made me this cute little heart necklace in school for Mother's Day.  It even has a picture of him glued to the back.  Well, I almost cried during church because Layla was sitting on my lap and put it in her mouth.  She sucked half of his face right off.  I'm still really sad about it.

These little ones on the tramp together- nothing cuter.

Another one of these cute sisters.  Layla's kissing an owie on Elle's leg.

One of my favorite things- laying outside on a blanket. 

While Brian and I were in Hawaii, I made sure we had as much shave ice as possible.  While we were enjoying it one day, we dreamed about how great it would be to get our own machine and have it whenever we wanted.  Well, my husband makes things happen, and in less than a month, we had our very own shave ice machine.  He's good like that.  We are loving it.  LOVING it! 

This is a rare sight- McKay playing with Smokey.  I believe he was doing a bit of grooming here. 

I taught the whole young women's group for our combined lesson in the end of May.  Elle took this picture of me mid-preparation one afternoon as the kids played outside.  Glad that's over- thank goodness I only have to do the big group once a year because it felt like preparing for it took over my life for a bit there.  

It was a moment of weakness on my part.  Brian had been making me feel guilty about Ellery's grief over Sparkles.  She cries often about Sparkles' dying and he kept saying "What's one more guinea pig? Two is the same as one- we should get her one so she can get over this mourning that won't end."  Well, we were at the pet store for something totally unrelated to guinea pig buying and decided to let her pick out a new pet.  Welcome to the family, Caramel.  You were almost named Glitter.  Still not totally sure this was the best decision, but what's done is done.

This little cutie also joined our family in the end of May.  We all loved holding him in the hospital.  Such a cutie.

Riding bikes at the church, something we love to do together.

That's May!

my little dancer

Ellery has been taking dance from one of my cute beehives all school year long.  Miss Rachel, as Elle calls her, is such a sweet, fun teacher.  Elle loves it and I really love it because it is within walking distance and costs us $10 a month.

At the end of the "season" Rachel holds a dance recital and this was a BIG deal for Ellery!  She was so excited for it.  It was held at the church and they got to dance on a real stage.

I don't want to brag too much, but this little girl has talent.  Every mother there could have thought the same thing about her own kid, but I'm pretty sure she was the best of her bunch.  She knew each step and didn't have to look to anyone else to know what to do.  She was confidant and her face just beamed as she danced.  Her two dances were to Strawberry Shortcake and Call Me Maybe.

A fun little tidbit is that at Zumba we dance to call me maybe and every time it would come on, Ellery and all her friends would immediately stop playing and run up to the stage to do their dance.  It was cute.

Grandma, Granddad, Grammy and Poppy were all able to be there for her recital.  Grammy even brought her roses.  It was the cutest little concert with the cutest little girls.  We love miss Rachel's dance class and I know another little girl who can't wait to join in on the fun.  Laysie Lou.

my heart today

I am truly a blessed woman.  

I love taking care of these three.

I am often exhausted and have nothing left when each day is through, 

but I'm happy to be able to do this.

With motherhood can come a lot of guilt.

Oh, the guilt.

We talked about this  in relief society today.

I realized that some of President Hinckley's most famous words 

are simple, beautiful and absolutely applicable in regards to motherhood.

Try a little harder to be a little better

and

It will all work out

Words that this mother is now trying to live by.

Try a little harder- but don't beat yourself up if you can't try harder at everything.

Try a little harder, but realize you are already doing quite a lot.

Try a little harder to be a little better, but realize that there is one who can make up what you lack.

It will all work out.  

When you think something is the end of the world, it never is.

When you think you've failed, you didn't.

When you think something awful will never end, it does.

When fear threatens to paralyze you and make decision for you, don't let it.

Because it will all work out.

I love my children so much.  There really aren't words.

I hope that I can remember to live every day showing them this instead.

I try my very best to do so.

Happy Mother's Day.

thoughts on a sunday- just pictures

We got home from Maui and after reuniting with our sweet children for not even an hour, our baby looked like this.  Home, sweet home.  Layla, sweet Layla.  One of my favorite pics of her, maybe ever.

Mack is really interested in weapons.  Shooting dad's bb gun in the backyard was really fun for him.

Princess Peach- my peach tree.  She blossomed and is super cute.  Grow little tree, grow.

I think I already posted this picture...maybe all of them?  But here are my girls testing out the medical field.  I love, love, love when they play together.

I also really love when these two spend time together.  McKay read Ellery a bedtime story and I wanted to capture that sweet moment between them.  

Puddle jumping in a spring rain storm.  

maui part two

maui part one

We have been waiting for this trip for a really long time.  We always hoped to do something big for our ten year anniversary.  We dreamt of being done with school and just living it up in paradise to celebrate our ten years together.  

It had to be a month after our actual anniversary, but we didn't mind- we were going to Maui!

My sweet dad offered to drive us to the airport.  Departure time 8:30 a.m.  This meant a 5:30 a.m. alarm clock.  Ugh.

We were unlucky enough to have a crazy flight plan to get to Maui.  First stop- layover in Minneapolis.  I don't even know.  Delta Sky Miles at their best.

   

It was a suuuuper long day of traveling, but I did come across these treasures in the airport on display at the Mattel store.  I had these!  Peaches 'n Cream and Barbie and the Rockers!  I didn't know my old barbies are now iconic.  Very exciting for me.

After a TWENTY ONE HOUR day- we finally got to our place in Maui and crashed.

And the next morning we got to wake up to this.  The view from our balcony.  It never got old to look at this view.

The next day was Sunday.  We wanted to get in the water SO bad.  First, because it was so beautiful.  But mostly because it was really hot.  We decided to go to the "Blow Hole" which is a hole in the mountain where the ocean's surf comes gushing out of- kind of like a geyser, but not at all like a geyser.

It was here, at the blow hole, that I became horrified at my outfit.  Look at my earrings.  I realized that wearing a normal outfit in the middle of the day in Maui is not at all common, at least among the tourists, and definitely not comfortable.  Brian was kind of horrified at my denim shorts and I'm not really sure if it was the setting in which I wore them, or just them on their own...Anyway, I realized that I didn't bring enough of the right kind of clothes to wear while hiking around Maui.

So I took off the earrings and left on the shorts.

Okay, that's all about my clothes.  I think.

On the hike down we saw this cool heart cutout in one of the cliffs.

 See what I did there?

I also got all fancy with my new phone and took this panoramic shot.  

Brian really loved the blow hole.  He was just really into it.  In fact, we actually went twice.  The first time there was nothing happening at the blow hole except crabs crawling around it.  So we decided to go home, check the tides and come back when it was higher.  And it was a good decision because it was really awesome when it was actually blowing.

Pretty rainbow and my shorts again.

 It was hard to tear him away.

Now might be a good time to mention that we forgot to bring a camera.  This was okay, because I had just gotten a new phone with a decent enough camera, but it also means that there are many shots like this, and that also explains the quality of the pictures we did take.

A beautiful scene on the drive back to our hotel.

That night we walked along the beach with the best sunset views, and although it was pretty cloudy, the sunset was quite lovely.  

Oh look!  Another one of these.

The next day we got up bright and early- Hawaii time- and headed out on a sailboat to go snorkeling at Molikini (a small island off of Maui).

 

This was definitely one of the favorite things we did.  There are dozens of boats that go to Molikini every morning.  Huge boats that hold tons of people and have big load motors and chug on out to the island and let all their passengers snorkel in one big pile.

Brian was smart enough to book our trip on a sailboat.  In order to get to the island, we had to use the motor, but on the way back they put up the sails, fed us a delicious lunch (including guava juice which I quickly became obsessed with) and we got to just relax with only the sound of the ocean and the feel of the wind.  We found a spot to ourselves on the back of the boat and just sat there and soaked it all in.  Brian also saw a whale off in the distance.  Amazing.

The snorkeling was really fun and I'm glad we did this first.  I LOVED snorkeling.  Probably my favorite thing about Hawaii.  It's interesting because the ocean really scares me- always has.  It's so huge, powerful, unpredictable and unknown.  Plus, you can't see what's going on under there.  But put some fins on me and a snorkel mask and my feelings changed completely.  Yeah, it's still unpredictable and powerful, but it's no longer a secret once you can see it.  I loved just observing the underwater world and just taking a peek into what goes on under there.  

Another thing I loved was I was an awesome swimmer in the ocean!  I am not very strong in the water, but the way you float in the ocean due to all the salt- I felt like Michael Phelps.  Not really, but I felt pretty good.  

 That night we went to Front Street in Lahaina.  They have a million touristy, beachy shops and restaurants along both sides of the street, which is right along the ocean.  We ate dinner at Outback Steakhouse and paid probably double what we would have back home, but it was still good.  

We both really liked Lahiania.  They had this park in the middle of everything with a huge banyon tree.  It was pretty neat, but it also housed some pretty unique characters as well.

This picture is funny because I think I was about to take a picture of this hula girl statue, like you do in Hawaii, and Brian was in the middle of making fun of me for it when a nice lady walking by asked if we wanted her to take a picture for us.  I of course said yes, like you do, and this is the fine shot we got.    This is a fake smile from Brian.  

We ended the night with Hawaiian gelato (is that a thing) and it was really tasty.