Father Son Campout.

One night off from two of the three boys. Heavenly. I didn't know what to do with my time. I decided to hang out with some great friends at La Madelines. Great food. Great conversations. Henry was great the whole time.

As for Willie, Parker and Lincoln they drove to a camp site near a lake. Sweet Water Creek or something like that. Willie and the boys had fun. There were some moments that weren't fun but overall it was a good time.

The boys were so cute when they left the house. I loved that they were all ready for camping. "cats" (aka, baseball caps/hats) check; sunglasses, check; bear/puppy, check; sippy cups, check. The boys were very excited to spend some time with dad.






The boys liked playing in the sand. The water would have been nice if the fish weren't there. By the way there were no fish but that's what Parker thought so he didn't want to go in. If Parker didn't want to then you better believe that Lincoln didn't want to go either.

A New Piano.

Okay so it's about a 12 year old keyboard that I found on Craigslist but we love the music. The boys are really cute about playing their favorite songs on the piano. I hoping to get some beginner music so I can start teaching the very basics of piano. If the boys like it enough then we'll sign them up for lessons. They both really love music and they are great at remembering tunes. I wish I had the sheet music for a Chinese song that they love to sing. Lincoln always wants me to play 'hua ja qui fe' (I'm sure the spelling/sound is way off), it's a song about trains.

I love when the boys play really well together like this.

Mother's Day.

This year Mother's Day was a little different. The weekend started with Willie heading off to Alabama. We decided midweek that Willie would take the weekend and help with the tornado relief. Some of my first thoughts were; I want to go to the arts festival this weekend, and I can give up my Mother's day so that Willie can help someone who needs it. So Willie left in the early morning. I woke up and got the boys ready and we went to an Arts Festival. The day was so nice and sunny. Parker walked a lot of the time. I enjoyed taking the boys to see art work. Willie worked really hard the whole time he was gone. Not very often in your life do you have the opportunity to physically help with the relief of a natural disaster.
Here's the gang that helped out. Willie is wearing the long sleeved blue shirt in the front.

Willie was glad he had a great long shirt to wear. He came home with a few little scratches. His buddy Rafi had quite a few more on his arms.
The boys and I had a nice easy dinner. 10 minutes in the oven and our popcorn shrimp was done. Sunday morning went smoothly. I was able to take care of all the boys and still leave the house with plenty of time to get to church and find a seat. During Sacrament Parker made sure that Lincoln's cup made it into the tray after the Deacon, Jack, had continued on to the next row. Jack was so impressed he bore his testimony about my boys. He liked that they were showing respect to the sacrament. Henry stayed in my arms the whole time. Lincoln was sick so he stayed with me as well. Parker had fun in Primary. He made a hand print for me to keep. I will treasure it always.

I am grateful Willie and I were able to help with the tornado relief. I wish I could have been moving the trees too but maybe I'll get to do that another time. I did enjoy being a mom on this special day. Thanks boys for making me smile.

On The Random Days.

One evening we took a walk. The boys are so chill. I love that Parker is getting in his pajamas right after dinner. This has been pretty frequent and it's been going on for more than two weeks.
I was nervous and excited to find a nest in our camping chair. I was thinking it would be a hindrance to have a nest on our porch. We decided to move all of our activities to the front porch and let the little House Wren make it's nest. After about a week I noticed that the bird never came back. The nest was abandoned. We must have gotten too close. It was cool for awhile. I think we would have enjoyed watching some little birds grow up though. Three boys in the bath. Only for fun, it doesn't happen all the time. Lincoln likes taking a bath with Henry. Parker will only get in when we say he really needs a bath. He has fun once he's in. Parker likes to watch all the water leave the tub before he gets out. Lincoln likes to dump water out onto the floor. Henry enjoys splashing and investigating. During one of our storms we had warnings of 1-2" size hail. I wanted to move the cars somewhere with some shelter. This is what we ended up with. Right before the storm hit us it had diminished a lot. The hail was less than 1/2". We did have the Tornadoes roll through the Northern part of Georgia a few weeks later. Willie was able to help with the clean up a week ago.

More Temple Visits.

During the weeks of the Temple Open House Willie and I took the boys once as a family. We went early in the morning to beat the rush. It was nice. We pretty much had our own tour. The boys were able to enjoy it more. I was able to focus on our Eternal Family as we walked through the celestial room. The boys once again enjoyed the 'Christmas Tree' and the 'Cows.' Parker enjoyed the pictures of Jesus. I took a picture of each of the boys while Willie went to help with tour guide stuff. Here is Henry's picture, I had to be in it with him.
I love Parker's picture.
Lincoln didn't want to sit still for me but I still got one of him. Here's our self family portrait. With it being the morning not too many people were around to take our picture. It was a cloudy but beautiful day. I am grateful for the temple. I love the Spirit of the temple. We are happy to have it back in our midst. Willie and I were also able to have time on our own with one of the boys. Willie and Parker attended a tour and then Lincoln and I went. It was fun to have some personal time with the boys in such a sacred place.

Henry 6 months

Henry was a good subject when it was time for his six month photos. In just a few minutes we took about ten fun photos. They may not be professional but I love his happiness. Henry is rolling over and eating really well. He enjoys the oatmeal over the rice cereal. He loves to watch Lincoln. Lincoln can really get Henry to laugh. Henry is a happy child.

He prefers to have me over anyone else. I feel bad sometimes when he is being held by Willie and starts to get a pouty face if I'm not holding him. I should appreciate those moment more because as he grows up he won't want to be held by his mommy anymore. I love my boys.


Henry did really well sitting up on his own. He would begin to fall after about a minute but I would prop him back up. He loves to sit up.

Easter.

The Easter Bunny loves to visit our house on Saturday because he knows that the real reason for the holiday is Jesus Christ. I wish we could have done more to prepare for the celebration of our Savior. I think we were a little distracted with the Temple Open House and dedication as well as new callings and other fun things. The bunny gave the boys new pj's, a new beta fish (Mr. Blue), and lots of candy. I've heard that many kids that we know wanted to re-hide the eggs. Our boys didn't ask and we put them away so quickly that we didn't have a big mess of them later.

One thing we were very excited to do on Easter was to go miniature golfing. Parker has been doing really well earning money by using the potty. He's doing a great job. A few accidents here and there. Parker and Lincoln have worked together but mostly it was Parker earning money since January. Finally in April we had enough to pay tithing and then go golfing. When we were done we were really ready for more. I wish we could have stayed longer but nap time got in the way.


Willie was very excited to get on something better than our carpet in the closet. It still wasn't the real thing but we enjoyed the competition.

During Lincoln's nap Willie took Parker to the real course to practice. They didn't hit to many balls but it was a step up.
Dinner was great. The pizza is suppose to be a bunny. Everyone has different tastes so we did a little bit of everything for everyone.

Easter egg dying. We waited until after naps on Sunday to do this one. I should have made more eggs for them to dye. Can you believe this was the first year that we did this with the boys. They loved it and we had fun watching, wishing we could do all of them ourselves.