Love me some kiddos!

Seriously, these are some really cute boys!

The babe is almost six months old! Half a year! That is craziness! We are working on his sitting skills. He's still a bit tipsy and is distracted by everything around him. If he could move on his own he would be all over the place. That boy is so curious! Makes nursing a bit challenging at times because he is so easily distracted!

Loves his jumper which makes life good...

And now for the older brother... He's been loving look and find books lately. He picks the same one pretty much every night.

So there is an explanation for this next photo, I promise! Cole had an accident on Sunday before church which is rare. He really has been awesome but for some reason had a few accidents this weekend. Hmm... thankfully he's over that. Anyways, Jake went to go and find him something else to wear to church and this is what he came back in. Eli's, if you're wondering... I laughed pretty hard! And no, he did not wear that to church! 

And showing his sensitive side. Feeding his baby...

He's a manly kind of guy though, too...

He's been very aware of gender lately, meaning things are classified in his mind as "girl" things and "boy" things. Like movies for example. Barbie movies? Not boy movies. Good for him. Jake would be quite proud. The other day he was going over to a friend's house for a bit while I got my hair done. After telling him he was going to play with Ruby, you could tell he was thinking about it and a little concerned with the idea because Ruby is a girl. After some thought and discussion he said, "Sometimes I play with girls." We were having a nice discussion in the kitchen the other day about favorite colors that then moved onto animals. Part of our conversation went something like this:
Cole- "Do you like brown horses?"
Me- "Horses are nice."
Cole- "Those are girls."
Me- "What are boy animals?"
Cole- "Rhinos, lions, monkeys."
And below is what he showed me after Jada's dance class the other day saying, "These are my motorcycles. Motorcycle fingers!" I sure love this boy! 

And for a break from talking about these children, let's talk about how we document them. As a side note, blogger looks so different this post! I didn't realize they were changing the format but it is awesome! Uploading pictures was great and you can even move them around! Way to go, blogger! No more uploading five at a time in reverse order. So glad! Anyways, I've been busy catching up on my blog books for an upcoming Relief Society activity. Happy to say that 2010 arrived in good shape. Unfortunately 2011 arrived missing a key letter. Welcome to "unnie Days". I am lame. Guess that's what I get for not going back and checking my work!

We've also been getting our Hi-8 tapes made into DVDs at Costco which makes for good Sunday watching. It's so funny to watch videos of yourself from back in the day. You realize how old you are and how much your kids have grown and how we have all changed and grown up a bit, for better or worse. Guess lots of kids will do that to you! I also figured out how to burn DVDs off my computer from our newer video camera. These kinds of projects make me happy!

And back to the kids...

Elle's art was displayed in one of the district educational buildings so we took a trip to check it out. This made her so happy! She really loves art!

And I'm happy to say that she survived the "STAAR" test. And boy was she stressed about it! Took her forever to get to sleep the night before. They do a good job getting the kids all worked up about these tests. She told me one of her friends even threw up twice the night before. Give me a break. I told Elle that if she couldn't pass the test, no one could so she really had nothing to worry about.

And lastly, Elle made this nice note for Mya...

Mya has been doing handstands all over the house lately. On the way out the door for gymnastics one night, Mya decided to do a cartwheel into the laundry room. For the record, laundry rooms were not really made for gymnastics. As she came down, she sliced her baby toe on something. I was waiting in the car for her getting a little frustrated as she sat crying and just told her to hop into the car. I didn't really know how bad it was until she said it was scraped up and bleeding. I looked back and found that it was dripping blood and sliced real nice on the underside. So another visit to after hours care at our doc's (we are regulars, in case you didn't know) resulted in two stitches for Miss Mya. She then got some time off of school and PE and enjoyed hopping all over the place for awhile.





And the only one who's not featured in this post is Miss J. Sadly Kindergarten Round-Up was the same night as the toe incident so I didn't get to go with her to tour the school and get the papers for registration. Luckily Jake took my place and then came home and headed to the doctors with Mya. I am just bummed he didn't get a picture of our future kindergartner!

 I just love all these kids. And when you have 5 of them, it really feels like something is always happening! Life will seem so dull one day when they all grow up! The things that are hardest in life are sometimes those things that bring the most joy and I believe that sums up parenthood quite nicely!



Cajun Easter

Being the raised in California type of girl that I am, I really had no clue about things like jambalaya and gumbo, fan boat tours, and the fact that you can substitute "eaux" for a simple "o". Until I met Jake. And thanks to him I now understand red beans and rice, humidity, and the fact that alligators eat marshmallows. And a whole bunch of other swampy stuff. I am a lucky girl!

Anyways, we went to Louisiana for Easter break and had such a great time! We really did enjoy ourselves and kept busy doing all kinds of fun Cajun stuff. We started out by touring Insta-gator Alligator Ranch. I now know a lot about alligators. Really I am quite educated. If you ever encounter a gator nest out in the wild, give me a call. I'll tell you exactly how to harvest those eggs and keep momma gator at bay!

Anyways, we really had a great time. This was one of our rewards for our good performance Conference weekend.

The kids got to touch plenty of gators...

And even the baby got a turn...

I'm sure he loved it!

We got to feed the gators marshmallows (see Cole's hands above. And by the way, he really wanted to wear his gator shirt to the gator ranch. Cute boy.) We got to see one get wrangled and taped. And we got to see a mouse get eaten alive. Well, Mya and I didn't watch that part. Couldn't bare to see the little guy get chomped up. Something about this next pic is just plain creepy...

That baby looks like some tasty gator bait to me!

And of course we had to put our heads in the fake gators mouth. Because it's fun.

And then Pops and Jake helped the kids hold some baby gators. I wasn't sad to be on the outside watching this activity, but the kids really liked it. Elle even got brave enough to catch them herself!

Love this one of Cole. At one point I was afraid he was going to throw a baby gator out of the pool by his tail.

Such fun pets! And for the fam...

And after playing with gators, we let the kids eat one... jerky that is...

After all that fun, we hit up Parkway Bakery for some delicious po-boys and some yummy fries. I really love sweet potato fries these days.

And for our other Conference treat, we went to Sal's for some snowballs. Jada and I had to take a pic in our Eiffel Tower shirts. She obviously liked her treat!

Two of the nights we were able to enjoy Pops' fire pit. I love Jake's parents' home on the swampy golf course. It really is so beautiful and so relaxing to be outside. The first night we did a fire, Jake, Pops, and I were outside after the kids were in bed. We were enjoying a nice conversation when all of a sudden something slimy landed on my leg. And stayed. I freaked out but luckily didn't shake the little frog into the fire. Gotta love the swamp!

The day after the gators we took the kids canoeing. Now this wasn't our favorite considering we were sharing the water with lots of boats. Canoe vs. boat. I don't think things would be so pretty for the canoe. And we had little kids on board. Luckily we were safe and kind of sort of enjoyed ourselves. Maybe.

Elle bailed on the idea and stayed back with Gigi and Eli so Pops and Mya were a team. Mya was a great paddler and even rescued a floating oar dropped by Cole.

Cole really liked helping paddle.

On Saturday night we dyed Easter eggs which was a little hectic and messy...

And Sunday was Easter. The babe wore egg pajamas...

And the kids got some goodies in their baskets and got to find some eggs. It was a bit rushed with 9 a.m. church and all but I still think they had fun.

I love Eli's little grin...

Later Saturday night, Jake's brother Levi arrived with his fiance Shelby and her sister. We had so much fun getting to meet Shelby. Reminds me a lot of how I was back in the day, coming to New Orleans to meet Jake's fam. Good times.

I love this baby!

After church we went for a nice stroll through the mosquito infested swamp. I love the story behind this pic below. Elle was terrified. Really. She was really afraid. So she held Pops' hand. By the end of our walk, she was so proud of herself for making it and facing her fears and was much braver when we walked out on the golf course later that night.

Cole wanted to hold Mya's hand...so cute...

Swamp boys...

And this is where we saw a gator. It was sort of big and sort of close, and we were on that wood walkway without sides that wasn't elevated. And this is pretty much when we decided to turn around and head home. Jake wasn't interested in letting that guy out of our sights. I think I've had my feel of gators for awhile.

Back for Easter dinner with Shelby and her sisters...

And this was one of my favorite moments on the trip...

The weather was absolutely perfect pretty much the whole weekend. On Sunday night Cole was outside using his new net to catch lovebugs. It was quite possibly one of the cutest things I have ever seen. Not many moments are better.

And that night we had a surprise b-day celebration for Gigi. Yummy cake. Good company. Perfect weather. Lots of gators. Awesome trip. Wore the boy out!

And a few other pics from my phone... traditional Easter cinnamon rolls... so yummy... you know you want one!

The babe in his egg PJ's...

And I love a snuggly baby in a towel after a bath!

Eli really liked the porch swing. I love it that he's getting so big!

On Saturday Jake and Cole took a little trip to pick up Gigi's cake at Haydel's bakery and of course had to get a treat...

Posing by a bead dog...

And that is that! Moving on...

This past weekend was our favorite Blue Bell Fun Run! You know the one where you get to run and then eat all the ice cream bars you want. Yep that's the one. Five years in a row. We love this thing!

Jada and Whitney were soooooooo cute! I believe they held hands the whole race. I did most of the race with them and then got to run my own 5K so I deserved the ice cream at the end!

Mya got to run with her friend Abbie...

And Elle ran really fast! She was one of the top ones in her age group.

And I got to run too. I actually don't think I've run this distance since the last Blue Bell Fun Run because of being great with child, so I was pretty impressed that I could make it in under 27 minutes. Nothing great, but better than I thought I could do. And I think I was 9th in my old lady age group. And, by the way, matching shirts are a must! I think next year we'll throw in some crazy socks too.

Jake was nice enough to sit out and kid-watch this year so I could run.

Love those strawberry bars!

Such a fun early morning!

And for a few other random things...

We had a Relief Society fancy garden party. And that baby is pounding down the baby food these days...

Jake got a new calculator for work. Exciting, I know. I had to laugh when one night after it came in the mail he asked me, "Have you looked at my new calculator?" Um, no. And then he said, "I'm so excited!" Wow, are we that cool?! How times have changed!

JJ started swim lessons with Whitney and Coach Jen who we love...

And Cole was such a big boy at his first dentist appointment. He did awesome!

Sweet little boy who thinks he doesn't need a nap. I feel bad for this little allergy-prone boy with his sneezy nose. We had some awesome projectile sneezes all day today. Good thing I got more tissues!

And Mya is such a good little mommy. She has to read for homework and often makes it a family affair...

And the boy found a new chew toy...

I love this baby!