May Days

 May is always such a busy month with it being the last month of school, the kids always have a lot of programs, awards & fun end of year activities. Every year I think it gets busier, & I am always happy for school to get over & for it to slow down again. Here are a few pics of the stuff we've been doing this month.

This was from Makayla's Hope of America program. She was on top of the flag in the yellow. They sang a bunch of songs & had dances & stuff. She did really good, we are so proud of her . The kids all enjoyed the program, they just weren't to happy about sitting there for 1 & 1/2 hours before it started.

Addy & her teacher when she got student of the month.Me & the boys got to go to the school & see her receive her award. Her teacher had a lot of nice things to say about her.

It was also dress as your favorite book character day, so Addy dressed as Sky from the Rainbow Magic Fairy Book series. You can kinda see her wings  behind her. She has worked so hard this  year. She is an excellent student she is always on task & is helpful to other students that need help. She doesn't just give them the answer she helps them find out how to get it. She is very friendly & always happy. Addyson is a great speller & good at math also.

The kids playing with Laynee's dress up the day after she got her teeth pulled. We will have to use this one to blackmail Lathan when he gets girlfriends.

They had so much fun! they all wanted to wear something. Silly kids!

Lucas pulling Rylynn in the wagon at Mom's house one weekend that Cory had the twins.It was super cute!

Troy had these pretty flowers delivered the day before Mother's day. I was so surprised & excited to get them. He is so sweet, I am surprised he was able to keep it a secret though.

The kids giving my Mom a Mother's Day doggy pile! They love her so much!

Another view of the pile.

 This is Nic's 4 wheeler from when he was little. My dad got new batteries for it & brought it over for us to use. The kids were loving it! Linkin was a little bit of a crazy driver & ran over a couple of the kids. But they still had fun!

Less than 2 weeks of school left now! Yay!! I only hope I can think up enough activities to keep 8 kids active & happy during summer vaca. We will have to do fun away from home things on Troy's days off & do stay at home activities when he is working.

Cleaning our phones

We cleaned up the photo's on our phones & put the ones we wanted to keep on the computer this week so I thought I would share them on here.This one is the cover pic on my phone.

This is the kids raking leaves in My mom & dad's yard. They were so excited to rake them & play in them!

Linkin Had so much fun!

Even Laynee helped!

When we drove up & saw Mom's nutcracker the kids couldn't wait to run up & give it a hug. They had to have their picture taken with him.

It turned out kinda blurry, but this is one of my favorite pics of all time. I love how excited she looks! Too bad she will be too big this year.

Chuck E. Cheese at Christmas time!

Chuck E. Cheese for Rylynn's birthday. The kids Love going there.

This is a pic of our racoon's in Pine Mountain. They were so cute the kids loved watching them. They did drive buddy crazy, though.

I always love how kids fall asleep. So funny, he looks like a sleeping cat.

Zac put his jacket on his legs. I thought his tail was super funny! Sometimes we take pictures of whatever we are doing & send them to Troy at work, so that is where a lot of these are from. 

The kids were playing hide & seek  when I got this cute one of Lath & Ry. They fell asleep in the closet waiting to be found.

Playing outside.

Linki loved his spiderman costume, this was his first time trying it on. This is one of Troy's all time favorites.

Another time I will have to put all of Troy's celeb pics on here. There just isn't time for that today. I love all these spur of the moment things that just make you laugh. I am so blessed to have all of these sweet kids in my life, they teach me so much, & make me laugh.

My Afty Tafty is 5

I can't believe my little Afty is 5. He is going to be going to kindergarten in the fall, which will be sad for me & happy for him. we took the kids to see How to train your dragon & they loved it so much he had to have his Birthday party it. At first he didn't want to wear his helmet because he didn't want to kill dragons but we told him he could be one of the vikings that ride on dragons instead. He got a lot happier about it then.

His cake looked really good with only back frosting, but then I tried to decorate it & kinda ruined it . He loved it though & that is all that really matters.

He loved these cool dragons from Grandma & Grandpa. He has had a great time with them.

a fun matching game from Auntie Jenny.

He was really excited to open his presents. We only got him a few because we got him a DS. But he is super excited to have one to play so he doesn't have to ask the big kids to play theirs. The only problem so far is he thinks he can play it when ever he wants & I had to tell him only if he asks first.he is a good kid though & usually listens well.

 

Hitting his dragon pinata. We had to go to several different stores to find this, but he was so excited to finally find one. The only problem was it didn't hold very much candy so I just threw out a handful when each person had a turn. It was the highlight of the party.

My silly Linki taking his turn.

April

This month has been so busy. We have put in laminate floors, painted our livingroom & diningroom, got the boys new bunkbeds & switched the kids bedrooms all around & tried to recover from all the birthday parties in March. It seems as though our house has been a mess with all of our projects for this month so Troy's last rotation off we just worked on cleaning up. Troy did the yard stuff for the spring & I worked on laundry, then we both did the house stuff & finished up a lot of the not quite done projects that we had. We got in the pieces to finish off the edges of the floors so we put those in & then got some glue to hold them down good. Me & the kids found a slide for their bed on the side of the road the other day, so now we just need to fix it up a little & get some bigger bolts to hook it onto the bed. Makayla was so cute & said that she thought Heavenly Father was blessing us, & I'm sure he was now we just need to find her a futon mattress & we will be done with the kids' rooms until we decide to paint & get accessories.

         One night we cleaned up our closet ( which we have been putting off for a long time, & had gotten to be a disaster). We started on the basement yesterday but I will probably finish it today, we have so much stuff down there & it is everywhere so we are organizing it by whose it is & what we want to get rid of by either garage sale or DI's . I don't think I want to have a yardsale of my own so maybe we will try to join someone else for theirs.

Makayla got braces on her first front 4 teeth this month, hopefully that will be all she needs. She was really excited to get them , but has had quite a lot of pain with them & several canker sores with them. Her teeth are already looking straighter & she looks soooo cute with them on.

          Angie took our family photos last week. They turned out really great, we have already made copies of them for our walls. She is so great at taking pics.

Here is a pic of the boys looking super cute! Linkin was really grumpy  that day & had just gotten up from a nap. So angie was really awesome to get a pic of him looking happy & not fussy.

Here is one of the girls. I just think they are so sweet. We are so blessed to have such good kids that are so loving & caring.

We got this new fire pit  so we had Angie, Clint & the girls over one night to enjoy a fire & some marshmallows with us.

All the kids had so much fun!! It is always hard to keep Lathan out of a fire though. He just always wants to be helping. Kyrie wanted to roast her own marshmallows ,  which didn't make Angie very happy. We had a great time. I am sure we will get a lot of use out of this. We are planning on having a barbque for Afton's birthday & maybe using it again then. The kids are all excited to have all the cousin's over since my Mom & Dad aren't having family dinners on Sundays except for birthdays now. It has only been one week but you would think it has been a month, at least, the way they are acting.

We are in the process of planning our summer vacation. Troy has booked us a suite at a hotel in SanDiego. It is right across from the beach, we are looking forward to spending lots of time there.  We are also planning on going to Sea World  & maybe the zoo. Troy's Mom said she will come & spend a day or 2 with us & we will get together with his Dad & Donna also.

My first blog

Ok well here we go my first attempt to blog. I look at my sisters blogs often but I always think I don't have time, I am trying to make more time for the things I want to do. And one thing I would like to do is keep in touch with family more, so I thought this may be a good way to try. Also I know we are supposed to keep a journal & this will be my attempt at that also.

I feel like I am at a busy time in my life & only see it getting busier. As the kids get older they are getting a lot more activities, which is fun, but can also be tiring. Makayla is in the end of her 5th grade year , Lathan is in 4th, Addy is in 1st & Afton will be going into kindergarten in the fall. Linkin is 3, he just started potty training, & Rylynn, my baby, is turning one, she has 4 teeth & has been walking for a few months now. I also babysit Angie, my sister's, 2 girls Laynee(4) & Kyrie (19 months). They are both great girls, we having them with us. Although it does make for less playdates with other kids for Afton & Linkin. I would love to have time to do things that I would like to do that don't include cleaning the house, dishes, laundry or changing someone. I have just started quiet time for the kids where everyone has to lay down for one hour, instead of the take a nap when you are tired thing I use to do & I am hoping that this will give me a little time to do some things I would like to do. I would love to learn more about cake decorating, sewing, cooking, baking & crafting. or to just have time to read, & I would really love to go back to school & get a degree in social work. But all in due time for now all I have is an hour a day to try to squeeze a few things in.