Dance

 Abigail had her big dance recital tonight.  She did great!  It was so fun to watch her and the rest of the little girls.  She's been excited for this night for a few reasons...  the costume, the make-up (which by the time we got to eyeliner, she decided not so fun), Doing the 'mommy dance' because each girl  came and gave their Mom a carnation (which was supposed to be a surprise, but kept hinting about maybe giving me something that looks pretty and smells nice), and getting a teddy bear with a matching costume.  Bonus excitement also happened... Daddy brought her flowers, she got a trophy, and she decided that she never wants to wear make-up again (great drama in the removing of the mascara)  Which is a great bonus to me if she never wants to grow up and wear make-up, because I'm sure I'll never feel she's old enough.

Love this happy girl!

Easter festivities

We had a blast this Easter! It started a week early with an Easter egg hunt with the Dawson cousins. Grandma Sharla and Grandpa Larry did a great Easter egg hunt for the kids. The weather was bad, but we just did it indoors. Of course, I forgot my camera! I was so sad.
Easter weekend, my neighbors did a party for lots of the neighbor kids. We had games, cookie decorating, and of course, an egg hunt. So much fun. We're lucky to have great neighbors.

Saturday night, Luke told me that the Easter bunny better hide his basket in a challenging place, because he likes a challenge. Well, the Easter bunny underestimates all of the kids, because they all had them found within 5 min. Next year, the Easter bunny wont be so soft...

Hailey has this new pose, tongue out and usually arm extended... look for it in the following pictures.

Sweet Abigail was found her basket and everybody elses first.

You'll notice that Carly's not in this picture. Well, she has a problem... a serious one. It started out funny, but recently has taken a turn for the not so funny. She was busy sneaking her basket down stairs to the basement. She has taken up to hoarding her things away. I will probably do a whole post on this one day. Ben thinks that she's going to need therapy. I agree.

Abigail has been waiting for weeks and weeks to wear her new pink dress. She probably asked me everyday for 3 weeks straight when she could wear it.

My handsome guys. Luke really hates outside pictures. The sun's always in his eyes, so he can barely open them. By the end they were tearing up. We need some shade in our yard.

The girlies

Being silly

Later on Sunday, we had dinner at G & G Jenkins with another great egg hunt.

All the grandkids

Hailey just cracks me up. Our computer is full of these kinds of pictures.

She's probably already thinking of hiding her eggs away in her stash of stuff.


What a great Easter, love spending it with family!

I have a seven year old?

Wow, do I feel old. Only one more year until baptism! Luke is such a great boy, so full of life. He's the best helper. He loves his sisters and takes such good care of them. I feel like he's grown up so much this last year, and become a little young man.

A little Q and A with Luke:

What's your favorite book? Harry Potter
What's your favorite food? Chicken nuggets and Meatballs
What's your favorite color? Black and red
What's your favorite toy? my new legos
what's your favorite subject at school? running around and math
What's your favorite place we've been to? camping at Lava Hot Springs
What do you like to talk about? starwars
What is your favorite scripture story? Samuel the Lamanite
What are you excited for? For my uncles to come home. (Eli from Kuwait in 2 weeks, and Blake in Florida in 3 months)
What do you want to be when you grow up? a Police officer
Whose your favorite sister? All my sisters, Mom! ( I knew he'd say that)
What's your favorite thing to do with Dad? Play catch and wrestle
What's your favorite thing to do with Mom? Talk about how much we love each other

On his birthday, I got to go to his school and talk about Luke, and bring pictures for every year of his life. When I walked into the classroom a girl stopped right in front of me...
The girl: Are you Luke's Mom?
Me: yes
The girl: oh, well I'm his best friend (said with hand on hip while staring daggers at me)

I think she was staking her claim on my son. She definitely talked about him a lot and hugged him a lot. The kids then all went around and said things that they loved about Luke. It was fun to hear what they had to say.

I thought I'd put some pictures of Luke on here, pre-blogging days. It's hard to imagine he used to be such a little guy.

classic ultra sound picture

classic hospital picture

Around 1 month old. He was such an alert little baby, from the second he was born.

6 months old. I forget he used to have a little chub on his cheeks

7 months old. Getting ready to go to a football game.

1 year old

1 year, with his favorite spoon and hat.

2 1/2

21/2- Luke loved to sleep with little Abs. I would find them together at night sometimes.

On to the birthday... We had Grandparents come over for cake and ice cream. He was extremely excited to he got star wars lego sets... and some money that he plans to buy some star wars legos with. He almost has the whole collection.

Hailey also loves legos

Hanging with Gma Dixie

Daddy's girl

He donned his Darth Vader shirt for the party in hopes of acquiring more starwars stuff.

We love our Luke!

Time to update

Well, I never take my camera anywhere, so all the pictures I have are from around the house. The girls are always asking me to take pictures of them. So here are a bunch of the kids playing around.

Our neighbor saw how obsessed Carly is with wearing dresses everyday, so she brought a bunch of her daughter's old ones over. She wanted a picture in each dress, but since there were quite a few, she settled for one in the purple (her favorite) dress.

Abigail loves pictures with her favorite dolls or stuffed animals. Everytime I look at my phone it has new pictures of her dolls on it.

Luke loves to read. If it weren't for legos or computer games, he'd probably be doing this most of the time. I love it when I find the kids reading by themselves.

Luke and Ben have been reading Harry Potter together. They are now starting #3. Sometimes Luke gets impatient while Ben's at work and reads to himself.

Hailey loves her blankies. Luckily, it's any of her 8 receiving blankets, not a specific one. So there's always one clean. Her favorite thing is getting a clean one out of her dresser. She must love the smell of our laundry detergent.

Every once in a while I like to take a picture of Luke without his glasses. It's nice to see his handsome face, and eyes. This boy looks so much like his Dad!

The only show that Hailey will watch is about 10 minutes of Super Why. Ab loves to hold her while they watch it together.

We've got plenty of silly face pictures

I've said this with the third and fourth child, but I don't want to be the Mom that stops taking pictures after the first couple of kids, so I'm randomly taking lots of little Hayes.

I looked out the window the other day to see Abigail trying to teach Carly how to ride her two wheeler. Abigail really is such a helpful child, I love it.

Brent's getting hitched

Brent and Shelley got engaged earlier this month! We just love Shelley and can't wait until it's official (May 19th). Abigail is especially excited to have a new Aunt. She keeps asking when she can call her Aunt Shelley. I told her anytime, but she wants to wait until the wedding.
Shelley's parents are from North Carolina, and they were in town for a couple of weeks, so my Mom put together a dinner so we could all meet.

The lovely couple

On the left side of the table we have Lauren, Shelley's sister, Shelley, Her Dad, Kent, and her Mom, Sandra. Hopefully if you're looking at my blog you already know the people on the right.

These two hit it off right away. This is Emma, Shelley's niece, and her and Carly are the same age. The kept hugging and holding hands. They kept falling over and getting hurt because they were hugging and trying to walk at the same time.

These two are big trouble makers, but still adorable.

hanging out, probably playing where's my water.

Sweet, not-so-little Kael. This guy is growing up too fast, and there's no more grandbabies on the way. I don't know what we'll do without babies to play with.


The kids all did well to entertain themselves so the adults could visit. It was so much fun getting to know Shelley's family.