Where has the school year gone? Today was Connor's last day of Kindergarten. He has learned and accomplished so much in the past year! He is an incredible reader now! By the end of the school year, he was reading Level N books. I'm not sure what grade level that is, but I think it must be pretty high because these books have some crazy, hard words like "aboriginal" and "Ancient Egypt". He can write pretty much any sentence he wants to now, sounding out the words he doesn't know how to spell. And, he is doing simple addition & subtraction problems. His teacher this year was Mrs. Brimley. She has been such a cute, fun teacher! Connor just loves her to death & is really going to miss her...


He made some good friends in his class this year too. Here he is with some of his best friends: Matthew, Jed & Joe...


It has been a great year for Connor! Good job buddy on getting through your first year of public education! One down, 12 more to go! But, we won't think about that right now...it's SUMMERTIME!!! Let the fun begin! --Lindsay

We had a great Memorial Day Weekend. Here's what we did:

FRIDAY

Friday was "Pirate Day" at school for Connor. Our boys have been just about everything for Halloween...but, believe it or not, we've never had a pirate. We started borrowing pirate stuff from a bunch of different neighbors & this is what we ended up with. Not bad, eh?

We put Connor in his white shirt & left the top few buttons unbuttoned. We got a pair of shiny black pants & a shiny black shirt from the Morgans. We ended up taking the shirt & turning it into a bandanna. It actually looked pretty cute...the arms of the shirt were tied in the back & hung down really long. It looked pretty good. We got the eye patch & earring from the Skinners, and the pirate sword from the Kopelsons. We took my red wool scarf & tied it around his waist several times for a sash. And, to top the ensemble off, we drew a little mustache on his upper lip with my eyeliner. He looked pretty cute!

Friday was also Mike's first Friday off. What did he do with it? He stayed home & played Mr. Mom so that I could have a girls day with my mom!!! Such a sweet hubby! He drove carpool, did homework with Connor, & cleaned the house. I love him!!!

SATURDAY

On Saturday, some neighbors of ours put together a little barbecue for everyone who didn't go out of town for Memorial Day. There were a whoppin' 5 families there! EVERYONE went out of town! The neighborhood was so quiet all weekend long & church was dead too. But, those of us that were at the B-B-Q had a great time!


SUNDAY

On Sunday, we had my parents & my sister, Kristin, and her husband Dan over for Sunday dinner. My friend, Jessica, came over too...her husband & sons were out camping for the weekend, so I invited her over so she didn't have to cook for herself. It was a fun night! We ate Swiss Chicken for dinner (yummy!) & then just sat around and talked. It was a good night!

MONDAY

On Monday, we met my parents & my sister, Ashlee, and her family up at Sundance Ski Resort to hike to Stewart Falls. Here's Connor & I in the parking lot, waiting to start the hike...

The fam...

Eating a snack at the base of the falls...

While we were there, we discovered that Cohen REALLY likes licorice! He ate/gummed 2 long pieces of Red Vines all by himself! It was so cute...

On the way down, we think we passed Shaun Johnson (the Olympic gymnast & winner of "Dancing with the Stars") on the trail...in fact, we're about 95% sure it was her. If it wasn't her, it was someone who looked JUST like her! Anyone know if she was staying at Sundance for Memorial Day Weekend?

After the hike, we drove into Heber to eat at Dairy Keen. They have the BEST hamburgers & shakes EVER! The kids love to watch the train that drives around the ceiling of the restaurant. Everything tasted super good to the hungry hikers...

After eating, the kids played on the train outside the restaurant for awhile...

And then, we drove over to the Heber Valley Railroad Station because we knew that they had "Thomas the Train" pulling it this weekend. We were lucky enough to get a glimpse of "the real Thomas"...

After seeing Thomas, we drove back into Midway & went to the Homestead Resort. The boys had fun playing on the dormant volcano there...

We even went inside the volcano so that they boys could feel the natural hot springs...

And, we got a few fun pictures too...

Finally, we headed back down the canyon to my parents' house & had a barbecue & then the boys looked for cars on the mountain (headlights up at Squaw Peak)...

It was a fun-filled day! We had a blast! Thanks mom & dad for planning it for all of us!

TODAY

I know today really isn't part of Memorial Day Weekend, but I thought I would tack it on the end because today is Cohen's 10-month-old birthday! He is such a cutie! He has really started to babble this past month. "Da Da" was his first official word. He still isn't crawling, so apparently he's taking after me (my mom told me just recently that I didn't crawl until I was almost a year old, and didn't walk until I was 14-months-old). I am just enjoying having a stationary baby! Here's some pictures I took of my little Coconut earlier today...

Love you Cocoa Bean! I wish I could just freeze you right now so that you would stay this little forever! You are so sweet & sooooooooooooooooooooooooo stinkin' cute! Thanks for being my little buddy! --Mommy

First, a little background...a few weeks ago, I pulled out all my kids' summer clothes. I hadn't bought any shorts yet for Aiden, so I went to my box of Connor's old 3T clothes & pulled out a pair. The shorts were pretty long on Connor's short little legs back in the day. Because of this, Connor had worn a little hole in the knee. "Oh well," I thought. "These will do until I make an Old Navy run & buy Aiden some of his own."

Okay, fast forward to a few days ago...I was busily cleaning my kitchen. Cohen was sitting in his high chair playing with toys, Connor was off playing at a friend's house, & Aiden was playing in his room...or so I thought. From a distance, I heard my little Aiden's voice say, "Mom...Mom...come help me! I'm stuck!"

"Oh!" I thought, "What has he gotten himself into this time?"

I walked back to Aiden's room...but it was empty. "Aiden, where are you?" I asked.

"I'm in Cohen's room!" came the reply, "Hurry! I'm stuck...upside down!!!"

"What?!?" I thought. "Upside down?"

I hurried into Cohen's room & THIS is what I found...

Today was Connor's end-of-the-year kindergarten program. It was so cute! They sang a bunch of cute songs: some songs about America, some songs about what they've learned in Kindergarten this year, "What a Wonderful World", etc. It was darling! Because Mike just started his job on Monday & is in the middle of training, he couldn't come. But, Nana came to hear the program & it made Connor's day! Connor's speaking part was, "I love America because I have a home in America". He did great! Here's a picture of him saying it (or making out with the microphone...one of the two).


Here's some pictures of the kids singing their songs. I love this first one because the boy next to Connor is REALLY into the song he's singing! Haha! Maybe the next American Idol...you never know...


Singing & snapping "The Kindergarten Class"...sung to the tune of "The Addams Family"...

"1st Grade, 1st Grade"...sung to the tune of "New York, New York"...

Afterwards, we headed back to Connor's classroom for some pictures. Here's Nana with all my little men...

Connor & Me...

I love my little monsters...

It was such a fun & cute little program! Connor looked so cute & did a great job singing and saying his part! I can't believe he's almost done with Kindergarten!!! WOW!!! He's growing up too fast! --Lindsay

Well, Aiden has now officially graduated from his 1st year of preschool! Lyndsey Faulkner, one of the moms that teaches in our little group, held a little end-of-the-year party at her house. The kids made little yearbooks to help them remember the year. Each of the kids & teachers (a.k.a. moms) wrote a little note saying what they liked best about the year...


After making their yearbooks, the kids headed outside for one last snack time. Lyndsey had them make edible graduation caps by turning a Reese's peanut butter cup upside down, then putting a graham cracker square on top, and then attaching a piece of gum that was cut in half lengthwise to the top for the tassle. They were pretty cute...

Then this evening, we all got back together for a "graduation ceremony". Lyndsey made graduation caps by turning a plastic bowl upside down, putting a square of cardstock on the top & then attaching a tassle. Here's Aiden sporting his hat. Isn't it cute? Ignore the sillies in the background...

The kids sang a song & then received their "diplomas". Connor got a little bored during the celebration & proceeded to jump in front of the camera & make faces. I'm totally using this picture as blackmail someday...

Here's all the graduates! Aiden and Hunter apparently felt the need to show off their power ranger skills for the picture...

A big thank you to Lyndsey for organizing our little preschool group & putting on such a fun year-end party & graduation!

So, congratulations to Aiden & all the "graduates" for completing a year full of letters, numbers, snack time & recess. You guys did great! That's one year down for Aiden & 2 more to go. (Aiden will do 3 years of preschool, due to his birthday being 6 days after the school deadline.) I'm so proud of you buddy! You have learned so much & can actually sit still for a whopping 4 minutes now...if you're in the right mood! Haha! --Mom

You all have read about many of the crazy and fun things Linz and the girls do on their "girls night" outings, so I thought I should post a little story about a great "boys only day" that we had this weekend (and it was sooo much better than any of those girly things). Thanks to a well connected father-in-law (thanks Phil!!!), we were off to the races. Seriously! The boys (Mike, Connor and Aiden) went out to the Miller Motorsports Raceway for an afternoon of high performance, super fast, and mind numbingly loud excitement!

For any of you who do not know, I am a car nut! I love to fix them, paint them, and pretend to know how to drive them. This was basically a dream come true for me. As a serious car fan, I also feel it is my responsibility to expose (indoctrinate/brainwash if I have to) my little men to the pure excitement and joy that comes from the smell of gasoline and burning rubber. I mean, what little boy wouldn't love to see super fast, extremely loud, and masterfully built technological wonders pushing the barriers of friction, knowing that at any minute they may catastrophically spin out of control? And of course, they loved it...or at least they loved the cookies! I had a blast!

(Great picture Connor!)

It was a beautiful day with lots of sun, and we had a great time. But, even an event as wonderful as this one could only keep the little ones excited for a few hours before I began to hear the “dad, can we go home now, I am hot and want to play with friends.” What? Picking friends over racing?! I think I may have a long road ahead of me before the indoctrination will be complete.

What a day!

Well, today was Mike's last day working at this place...


He's now off to his new adventure at this place...



This day has really been a bittersweet day for Mike! First for the "sweet" part. He is so excited for his new job! From everything I've heard, L-3 is a fabulous company. The people that work there LOVE it; & the people that don't work there wish that they did. I was telling another meteorologist at my work that Mike got a job there & he said, "Wow! You must be married to a pretty smart guy!" When I asked him why he would say that, he told me that he knew the president of the Salt Lake division pretty well and then said, "They don't hire just anybody over there! You have to be EXTREMELY qualified for them to even give your resume a second glance!" Wow! I had no idea they were that selective! It is a very cool company that does a lot of really cool stuff & Mike is really excited to continue his career there.

On the other hand, he is also very sad to be leaving ATK. He loves what he does there. How could he NOT love it? He blows up huge rockets in the West Desert! That's every little boys' dream job! He also loves the people that he works with too! Yesterday, Mike's whole team went out to lunch at Cheesecake Factory to say "goodbye" to him. They invited me to come along since I had never met any of them (that's what happens when your husband works a classified intelligence job). I can see why he is going to miss them so much...they were all so fun & had some hilarious stories! He will really miss all of them!

So, now it's onward & upward for Mike! We feel very blessed to have this opportunity! I am so proud of you Mike! Thank you for being such a smarty pants & working so hard! Have fun wearing your little white lab coat everyday & playing with "James Bond stuff"! You will do great! I love you! --Lindsay

Mother's Day weekend was a fun one for me. We started it out with a hike on Saturday afternoon. We decided to hike up to Battle Creek Falls. It is this beautiful little waterfall that is up a tiny canyon just east of Pleasant Grove. It's only a little over a mile round trip, so it was an easy hike for the kids...and they did it all by themselves. Well, except Cohen who hitched a ride in the baby bjorn...


The kids in the parking lot before starting the hike...


Here are the slowpokes bringing up the rear...

About halfway up, there is a part where the river opens up into a little mini-pond. The boys had to stop and throw rocks into the water of course...

The view from near the end of the hike, looking down the canyon toward Utah Lake. It was beautiful...

There were also a couple of caves on the way up. The boys loved going in them. Right before Mike took this picture, he said, "Hopefully there's not a cougar in there". That's why the boys have such funny looks on their faces...

And, here's the waterfall at the end of the hike...

Isn't it pretty? We all sat down & ate some snacks at the base of the falls. I love this picture of the boys looking up at it...

The whole fam...

It was a great little hike! If you are looking for a hike that is good for little kids, this one is it! We had a fun time!

On Sunday, Mike & the boys picked me up from work at 8:00 am & we headed up to his parents house to visit his mom and give her a present. The boys had a blast with her little robot dinosaur...especially Cohen, which really surprised me since he usually doesn't like loud, strange noises...

We also ate some breakfast with his mom & dad and then had to hurry home for church. After church, we went to my parents house to see my mom and have a barbecue to celebrate my sister Ashlee's birthday. The first thing the boys did was attack their Tata...

After we forced them off of Tata, we were able to calm them down for long enough to take a picture of all of them. Aren't they cute?

After dinner, we headed over to the park to let the kids get out some of their energy & the adults ended up playing Four Square...or at least our version of Four Square (none of us could remember all the rules, so we just kind of made it up as we went). Afterwards, we headed back to my parents house. I put this self portrait of Kristin, Cohen & me in so that you could see one of the cute shirts Mike gave me for Mother's Day. We went shopping about a week or two ago & I got a bunch of cute new summer clothes and jewelry as my Mother's Day present...

Ashlee & I went in together to get Mom some of the new little kid Willow Tree figurines. We got the 3 little boys & the 2 babies to represent our 5 kids. Aren't they cute?

After opening presents, we had cake & ice cream for Ashlee's birthday...

It was a really fun weekend! I had a great Mother's Day & I hope all you other moms did as well! --Lindsay