Time Flies

Well, I am really far behind on my blog. It seriously seems like time vanished. I first wanted to post about how big Averi is getting. She has decided that she will go ahead and try to be big. She is already thinking she should try to crawl. She is getting pretty good at getting up on her hands and knees and she even rocks back and forth but she hasn't successfully crawled yet. It is so strange to me that she is doing this already. All of my kids have been really late crawlers so for this family this is early. It is fun but it also makes me so sad. It seems like once they are mobile they just aren't a "baby" anymore. We will see how quickly she progresses into a full crawl. I think the other kids may be worried because they will have to be way better at picking up their things if we have a baby moving about.

Canning

So I had to post a picture of the fruits of my labor. I decided to attempt to can. Now I have never done this before but I figured it would help out my food storage. My neighbor helped me get a great price on chicken and so i went to work. And let me tell you, it was work! Courtney helped by cutting up all of the chicken while I prepared the bottles and lids. When I was done with all of it I had canned 36 pints. I am so relieved to be done with it. The only problem is that I am not really wanting to eat it. I am afraid I am going to poison us all. Now I now my pressure was high enough and it went long enough so hopefully I will be able to get over it. It is a little funny because I don't really even think about it when I open a can of chicken from Costco...Anyway, I am way excited that I was able to learn this skill and I know it will be delicious when I get to eating it.

Wrestling

Let me start this post off by saying that little kid wrestling is super funny. We get such a kick out of it. They don't really know what they are doing so they basically just roll around kinda hugging. Jaxon decided he would give it a try. I still don't know if he is that into it but he keeps asking to go to the tournaments so I guess he must think it is ok. The first tournament Courtney was out of town and Jax was pretty nervous not having his dad there. So we are waiting for it to start and he is walking around the outside of the mat and a little kid grabs him pulls him on to the mat and tackles him. He comes back up to the stands and starts crying and says he just wants to go home. I convinced him to try one match. Well he wrestled two and got pinned both times (I am not a very good wrestling coach). He then decided he was done and we forfeited the last match. I thought maybe he was done with the wrestling thing but he has since wrestled in two more tournaments. In both tournaments he has won on his weight class paper and received two gold medals. It seems all he needed was his dad coaching him. Oh, and knowing he gets a medal doesn't hurt anything either.

Fall/Halloween

I am really far behind. So I am going to back up a bit and try to catch up. We went out to the pumpkin patch the week before Halloween to get our pumpkins. Rylan was positive that he could carry his by himself. I was actually very frightened for the pumpkin. But, alas, it did survive. We had a good time. The kids all got their pumpkins and then we played at the kid play area. I think they all would have stayed all night if we would have let them.
Here is Kambree at the Halloween carnival at the local grocery store. We went and ate there and played all of the carnival games. The kids got little prizes and thought life was perfect. Seriously, did you know that a little plastic slinky is all a child needs to be happy. Kambree was a Vampire. I made a little tutu for her and she insisted on having little plastic snakes and bugs in her "scary" hair.

Jaxon was our little frankenstein this year. He thought his green makeup was stinky and so we had to take it all off. We then resorted to an idea one of my neighbors gave me...chalk. It worked out pretty well and it comes right off when you want it off. And it is non toxic. We just sat down outside and scribbled and then got the chalk dust and rubbed it on his face. He thought that was much better.

Averi was my cute little ducky. Just look at those cute cheeks. She didn't know what the heck was going on but she was pretty sure it was ok because she was getting carried all around the neighborhood. She didn't cry the whole time we were out trick or treating.

And Rylan was a horse. He got the first picture in the pumpkin patch because apparently his mom gets the worlds worst mom award. I can't find a picture of him in his costume. In my defense, we know we took some but my camera had an accident (it fell off my car and I almost ran over it) and I think we lost some stuff that was on it. I will have to post a picture when I get some from my mom. He was a cutie. This is the first year he understood the whole Halloween thing a little bit. He was up at a door and we asked him "what do you say", and he told the guy "TWO". That wasn't the answer I was looking for but he did get two treats at that house. We had a great Halloween.

Pay It Forward!

So, my sister got a fun gift in the mail and was then supposed to pay it forward. Well I entered and this is what came in the mail today. It is just so fun. So now it is my turn to pay it forward. If you want to enter to win my pay it forward just leave a comment here. On November 5th I will put everyones name in a box and I will draw three winners. Then you can be looking for something fun to arrive in your mail box. (I don't know what it is going to be but sometimes surprises are even more fun.) Let the comments begin.

2, 2, 2!

Happy Birthday to you Rylan. This is way late but I couldn't forget my little Ry guy. Rylan turned 2 at the first of the month. I can't believe he is already two. Two is always a kinda scary age but at the same time he is just so funny. He makes us laugh everyday. In this first picture he is showing off his new backpack. He is always stealing the older kids backpacks so they decided they would get him one of his own. He loves it! It now goes everywhere with us which is kind of nice because I have it stocked with toys, crayons, and coloring books.
The other thing he got was a hot wheels race track and more cars. He plays with cars all day long so this was perfect. Of course he also received great stuff from the grandparents. He loved his big day.
Here is his wonderful cake. Beautiful, I know. I made it myself. He didn't know the difference though--it was still cake.
We love you so much Rylan and can't wait to see what this next year has in store for you.

Eat up

I was pretty excited that it was time to start Averi on some solids. I figured it might help her space her night feedings out a little bit. But...I was mistaken. On a daily basis she is not going longer at night. Anyone have any suggestions? I really am not complaining because overall she is definately my best sleeper at this young of age.

I just think it is so fun to watch the kids figure out all of these new things. She was so funny to watch eat, especially the first few times. They just can't figure out what to do with it at first. But by the fourth time, she was a pro. She is just eating rice cereal but she doesn't seem to mind. (my other kids were not such fans of rice)



As you can probably tell in the last picture, she gets quite the audience. For some reason everyone decides that I need help. Even the dog has to hang around. I think the dog is just hoping that she spits some of it out so she can find it.


I was just getting ready to say that I love this age. And I do. She is smiley, she likes to make the cutest sounds, and she is just always so curious. But I was just telling Courtney the other day that it is so fun how every age seems to have its own fun stuff and of course the trials. I feel so lucky to be a mom and get to learn from all of my sweet kiddos.

Work, Work, Play

On Friday, last week, we finished getting all of the rock out for our landscaping. We have had all sorts of plants, bushes, and trees for years--but no rock. All of the weeds were really getting way annoying so it was decided it was high time to finish this little project up. Courtney had the day off so it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

It is a little funny that my picture ended up first on the post because I really didn't do much actual work. My job was simply to pull the 4 front bushes out and plant new ones. Hopefully these will do better than our other ones. After I completed that I sat back and watched all of the hard work take place while I tried to entertain Averi.
Thank heavens for Courtney's mom. She came over and helped most of the day. We never would have gotten finished without her. I sometimes feel like we give her the most awful jobs. I mean, really, how excited would you be to go help someone shovel and move rock in the 100 degree heat. But she came happily, and we really appreciated the help.

Here comes the play part. We had the trailer lifted but it wasn't quite getting all of the rock out. So the kids had to climb up to the top and then use their feet to try to kick the rock towards the bottom. They weren't to disappointed about helping-they loved it.

And Rylan was in hog heaven all day long. He seriously sat in this sand pile and rolled around almost the entire day. His day couldn't have gotten much better in his opinion.

We were able to catch a picture of Courtney on his last wheelbarrow load of rocks. He worked for two days getting this all done. I feel so lucky that he isn't afraid of hard work. Thanks, babe. It really makes the landscaping look "finished".

Family Night

For family night this week we decided we would go swimming. So we headed over to Grandma Jake's to swim. We had such a good time. Every year at the first of the summer I swear that I am going to take the kids swimming at least once a week. And every year at the end of the summer I look back and can't believe that we didn't make it very much. I decided that it is still plenty warm for a couple of weeks and would should take advantage of it. This was actually Averi's first time swimming. The other times that we did make it to a pool she was usually sleeping. I didn't remember floaties so Jaxon was requiring a bit of assistance but he is doing lots better.
Kambree is turning into our little fish. She can now swim across the pool. At first she was doing giant belly flops into the water so she would be further across before she started swimming. By the time we left the pool she had actually taught herself to dive.

Rylan thinks he knows how to swim. He doesn't. We really have to watch him because he will just jump in wherever he is and just hope someone is around to get him.

Courtney has really been working with Kambree and Jaxon the last few times we have gone swimming to get them closer to being real "swimmers".

Grandma Jake even came down to the pool with us to watch the kids. She might as well have worn a swimsuit and actually got in because I think the kids pretty much made sure she was soaked before we left.

After we swam, Courtney grilled us up some amazing burgers. Somehow I did not get any pictures of this part of the event. They sure were good though. It was just a very enjoyable night.

Jaxon Turns 5!

Here is Jaxon blowing the candles out on his cake. He chose a Wall-E cake. I think it is so funny because the decision was all about the little toys that were on the cake. Oh, well. He loved it.

For his party we went to a real fun place that has a bunch of blow up bounce houses and slides. He had such a good time.

This is him the morning of his birthday. He kept asking me if it was night yet because his party was after Courtney got off work.

I just can't believe how fast time flies. Jaxon turned 5 at the end of August. It seems like he is just so grown up now. He is a really big helper for me. He gets home from school earlier than Kam so he ends up helping me for a while. He also loves to ride his bike (with no training wheels) and scooter. He likes books and reading. We love being able to watch him learn and grow and feel so blessed that he is a part of our family.

School Time!

I can not believe that it is that time of year again. It seems like I blinked and the summer was gone. Kambree started first grade this year and I think it might have been harder than Kindergarten for me. She was so excited and then when we got there she got so nervous (you can tell in the first picture). She wasn't quite sure what to expect now that she would be there all day. The good news is that when I picked her up the first day she told me, "I love first grade!" and that "it was the best day ever".

Jaxon started Kindergarten. He is so excited to finally be going to school. It is pretty funny because he couldn't wait to get some "homework" to do. So he was a little disappointed because they didn't get any the first day.

The last week and a half of summer it seemed the kids had been fighting about non stop so I was ready for school to start. Or so I thought. I took them to school and did pretty well. Then when I got home I was sitting there going...now what. It was just so quiet, so I started to cry. Courtney couldn't quite figure me out. I am happy for them though because they are enjoying their school time. Now I will just have to get used to the new routine and the new found quiet at my house.

29 Years Young

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, dear Courtney, Happy Birthday to you! Yes, it has now been 29 years since Courtney was born. I thought I share a few pictures of Court to commemorate the big day. This picture is when he was a baby (pretty obvious, I know) and it is one of my favorites. Just look at those chubby cheeks.

This next one is his kindergarten picture. I thought it was just darling. How cute is it that he is even in his tie and cute little sweater vest.

And finally I make the leap to adulthood. This is a picture of us in Maui in 2005 (thanks again for including us in that trip Steph and Justin). Really I knew I didn't need a picture of me included in this birthday tribute but apparantly we no longer take pictures of adults once the children come along. So I had a little difficulty finding a picture that would work. Anyway, this is a much loved vacation so maybe it will help with happy memories for Court.

I don't know that Courtney is the largest fan of his special day (I mean, face it he is starting to get older) but I still want to wish him a Happy Birthday. The kids and I appreciate so much his presence in our lives. I love so many things about him so here are just a few. Here ya go Court:

• I love your work ethic. Your parents really did teach you to be a hard worker and I think it is so wonderful. No matter what I know that you will always do everything you can to make sure me and the kids are taken care of.
• I love your sense of humor. It never fails that you can have me laughing until I almost cry. You are just funny. End of story.
• I love your optimism about life. It is so good to know that if I am down about something you will always be there to help me see the positive in it.
• I love the great dad you are. You don't just sit back and watch. I love that you are willing to change a diaper if you need to, or give someone a bath, etc. It is so fun to see you play with the kids and witness your guys' special bond.

I love you very much and hope you have many great years to come!

A Whole Decade...

Wow it only seems like eight years ago when Kellee and I were married. But it has most definitely been 10 years. Thanks to the Bejing Olimpic Committee for throwing a celebration to commemorate Kellee withstanding a decade long onslaught of the psychological torture weapon better know as Courtney. Way to be strong love. The last list I built was so fun that I don't want to over use and trivialize the tactic so here I go in semi thank-you-note format:

Kellee,
Thank you for the entirely too enjoyable decade we have spent together. Though everyday is not and adventure, the adventures are not spread so thin as to cultivate boredom. Thanks for taking incredible care of me. I would likely still be alive without you but someone like me would never make it without someone to remind me about the important stuff (clean clothes, pay bills, shower, the little people need constant supervision, birthdays, etc. - I really would shower i just wouldn't have any soap to make it worth my while.) You may not know it but when you laugh at my not always funny joke you make me feel like a million bucks. I appreciate that you don't hate me when I get to involved in a show or a book and you have to remind me to "engage" with the whole parenting thing. (I am glad I have been able to use this line on you the last couple of days while you are reading "Breaking Dawn". If my expression looks like your expression I don't know how you don't laugh at me all the time.)

Thanks for supporting me in all the things I think I want to do. I know that even if things don't go so well, after a little mockery, you will again be my biggest fan. I love you and I am glad that this has only been our first decade. See ya tonight.

Love ya,
Courtney

Ride, Jaxon, Ride

As mentioned in the previous post, Jaxon has learned to ride a bike with no training wheels. We are so impressed because he learned how to do it in just 2 days. His birthday is in a couple of weeks and so he is waiting (patiently) to be able to get a new bike. For now he has to ride Kambree's bike.

Notice that there are only 2 wheels.

So now we just have to deal with him wanting to go out and ride bikes all of the time. The only reason this is an issue is he hasn't quite mastered the getting the bike started at the beginning so he needs Courtney to help him. Notice the red face. That is because it is dang hot outside and Jaxon just wouldn't stop until he coould do it. Also, wanted to give a shout out to Courtney. Thank you for taking the time and energy to help them with this skill. It is seriously hard work to run behind someone, bent over and holding them up, in the 105 degree weather. I was too big of a baby so I just cheered from the sideline, while sipping on my nice cold water.

Funny Things Kids Say

Our kids must be getting a bit older because they now say things that should make sense but don't quite. I am only going to give you a smattering of the most recent, most memorable quotes.

We were driving to Fishlake and we stop in Circleville to get a drink at the gas station (tradition, who doesn't stop in Circleville). I climb back into the pickup and Kambree asks, "Do people live hear." I am thinking this is pretty lively for a ghost town but who am I to judge so we say yes. Kambree follows up with "Do they speak Spanish or cowboy." I assumed she knew what she was talking about and said "cowboy."

We are on Fishlake and it is hailing and I am trying to get Jaxon under cover so he doesn't get soaked when he tells me he is okay because "I am trying to catch some hell, but it's not that easy." I am sure he meant hail but it threw me off for a second.

Just yesterday we were watching a DVR of Monk and Monk start looking around a crime scene. Kambree has been paying close attention and says, "That Mr. Monk sure is a good looker." Now Tony Shaloub isn't hideous to look at but I sure hope she meant that he was really good at looking.

Rylan is just learning to talk and he can kind of say Kam but it sounds a whole lot more like dam and please sounds exactly like peas. I asked him to say haematoma but he just gave me a blank stare like he thought I was an idiot. I seem to get that a lot from him.

Averi simply squeals but that is kind of fun.

By the way Jaxon learned to ride a bike without training wheels over the weekend.

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

I better start this off by letting you all know that we love our library. It all started when Kam and Jax were pretty small. We would go to storytime at the library every week. As we added more children to the family this seems to have gotten a bit more difficult. Really, if you know Rylan, you can understand it is almost impossible. He is a pretty good kid he just loves to run around the library and hide from me. But we do still try to go every so often.

Anyway, the library has an amazing summer reading program and we have had such a great time participating this year. The theme for this year was BUGS! Now the kids thought this was great. They learned about different kinds of bugs, how to collect bugs, they even had worm races (with these disgusting huge worms). You should see these kids now--they are constantly collecting bugs. Every single water bottle has to be saved so they can put a bug in it. They even put ants in the bottles. Then of course they want to bring them inside the house. The crazy thing is then we are required to feed them meals and go get more books about the particular bug so that we know how to properly care for the lovely things. (and I thought it was pretty good if the kids and the dog made it through the day fed and alive)

These are pictures of the kids with their roley poley bugs. They were trying to help Rylan join in the joy of bugs.

I've been Tagged

*Random Facts*
1. I got to go out without any kids Friday night
2. We drove 1000 miles in 2 1/2 days (vegas, enterprise, salt lake and back)
3. Rylan actually stayed in nursery today (yea!)

*Current Obsessions*
1. Blogging
2. Scrapbooking/stamping
*Goals*
1. Exercise (gotta lose some of this baby weight)
2. Read my scriptures
3. Have more patience
4. Get this darn house cleaned
*My Fears*
1. Having something happen to my family
2. Not being a good mom
3. Germs (hand sanitizer, please)
4. Snakes
*My Joys*
1. My four wonderful children
2. My husband
3. The Gospel
4. My friends

5. Scrapbooking (somehow I must find time to do this)

6. Reading

I tag Kristi, Heather J., Marcie, and whoever else has yet to be tagged.

Kellee has a Birthday (I Think After 25 they Should Be Called Anniversaries)

Well it is July 15, 2008. That means Kellee is 28 years old. Just hitting her prime. To celebrate the joyous occasion of her birth I decided to (in my best engineerese) build a bullet point list of the reason I love Kellee and the reasons she is likely the greatest wife in the world. The last part of the last sentence is supposed the be read in an ascending carnival announcer type voice if you know what I mean.

• Obviously at the top of the list is Kellee's amazing, otherworldly ability to put up with the daily exasperations of one Courtney Coates. Superhuman really.
• I never have to wash my own clothes.
• I never have to wake up in the middle of the night to feed the babies.
• Kellee laughs at all my stupid jokes, not stupid jokes, and wanderings of my random mind.
• Kellee (as the fine accountant that she is) take care of the books as well as all tax returns.
• Kellee doesn't complain when I don't finish a project and start another. This happens more than I would like people to know. I still have a pallet of top caps to put on my block wall I finished last summer.
• She will go camping with me in my super old, not super nice camp trailer. (It's probably because the toilet works.)
• She doesn't get mad at me when I touch the sisters at inappropriate times which unfortunately is probably way to often. (Author Edit: I didn't realize some of us grew up in a monastery like my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Lyndsey and Jeremy, but my reference to the "sisters" referred to Kellee's mammary glands sorry for the confusion.)
• She teaches our children all the things they should know.
• She has way more patience with the kids than I do.

There are way more but I don't think I want to post some of them (too personal) and shouldn't post some of them (too personal if you catch my drift).

Kellee, I love you and thanks so much for spending the last ten years with me. It has been an adventure and if we are lucky the fun will just keep on rolling. I can't think of anyone else I would rather spend the eternity with. Hope you have a great birthday.

Love ya,

Courtney (Kellee, you know what I say here)

Averi's blessing

Averi's Blessing

Well, we blessed little miss Averi on June 22, 2008. The schedules of all of our family were just crazy this summer so we just picked a Sunday and got it done. It was so nice. I really feel like we are super blessed to have amazingly supportive families. I will also say that I had my testimony of the priesthood reaffirmed as I watched all of those men go up to the front and surround my sweet baby. (Courtney's brother Devan had been ordained an elder the night before so he was also able to participate.) I am so grateful that Courtney is worthy and willing to use his priesthood for our family.

After the blessing, we went down to the park and had a barbecue. We had all sorts of yummy food. We had hamburgers, potato salad, macaroni salad, chips, fruit, and of course a variety of treats. It was so fun to see everyone and just have a real good time.

How Did a Pudgy Kid From Little Ol' Loa Get So Lucky

Well, it was a big weekend for us. We went to Loa for the Brian Reunion. For those of you who don't know, Loa is in Utah. We left on Friday and went to my Grandma Coates' house in Gunnison. She had yet to enjoy the viewing pleasure of Averi. I left work at 3 o'clock so we could make it to Gunnison at a descent hour. Good thing I left early because we rolled out of Toquerville at 7:03 sharp. Strong start to the weekend.

On the way to Gunnison we were privileged to stop in every town turning a 2:45 hour drive into a strong four hour drive. Did I mention our air conditioner went out in Cedar City. I am picturing the jealous looks from the people wishing they could have changed places with us. We're almost to the best part of the trip. When we get to Beaver near the north interchange Jaxon all of the sudden gets a really concerned look on his face and yells from the back seat that he needs to go to the bathroom. (Why didn't he go in Cedar, can he hold it just 2 more hours). Said he needed to go #2 so we pulled right over. First gas station we get to is closed but he prairie dogged it all the way to the door before we figured it out. We drove rapidly across the street where he jumps out of the van and waddles to the bathroom. I go with (strangers in gas station bathrooms freak Kellee out). He gets into the stall and a few seconds later I hear him moving around. I ask if he is still going. No lie this is what he said to me "It is amazing. I just needed to pee and fart." I ask if he is for sure because we are not stopping. Jaxon says "I tried. I couldn't even push out a teensy, weensy piece." This last little story was probably TMI but I nearly didn't make it back to the van because of laughter.

We finally get to Gunnison at almost 10:30 and as a consolation prize we get to wake Rylan up. We got everyone ready for bed and I went to bed at 12:30. Rylan was still taking laps around the play pen and throwing blankets out onto Averi. My fun tank runneth over.

The next morning because of my incredible scheduling and grandmas chickens we left late and made it to the skeet shoot and hour late. Luckily my great scheduling is genetic and I was only 10 minutes late. We shot for a couple hours where I am happy to say I took an iffy second overall and won the big money in the Annie Oakley game.

Kellee and I left Wayne County and traveled to Sandy to have dinner with friends. Kellee's friend Jen watched Averi. When we were finished with dinner we went back to Lehi and talked with Dave and Jen. We ended up staying at there way-to-nice-for-a-28-yr-olds house. (Seriously way to nice. Had the second level all to ourselves.)

We were supposed to meet my parents in Aurora to pick up the other three kids (they are the greatest for watching the little devils while we went to Sandy). My parents were behind schedule (are you seeing a trend) so Kellee and I went to Richfield to pick up some mister fan bottles for the trip. By this time we have now offered to pick my mom up in Delta from the farm and bring her back to St. George. Walmart didn't have the bottles and neither did Dollartree. We bought just spray bottles and two fans from Dollartree. We went to Kmart and they had the mister fan water bottles. Eight dollars a piece and we picked up two plus batteries.

As we leave the store dad calls and now we are the ones behind schedule. We stop at the gas station where we got gas, soda, water, and a bag of crushed ice. The ice alternated between Kellee and my laps. Old school air conditioning. When we got to Aurora dad had went ahead in the pickup but we lucked out because he left the motorhome for us to drive to Delta. Mom took the van because she claimed to not mind the heat. This seems like a good time to tell all that motorhomes are big and not very aerodynamic. We drove to Scipio and enjoyed the novelty of the motorhome (digging the not so subtle sway). When got on the freeway at Scipio the gods of pleasure thought we hadn't had enough yet so they sent a couple dirt devils our way. (Did I mention motorhomes are big?) We were whipped across the freeway like rag dolls. I sneak a look at Kellee and she looks like she is crying and this is before the canopy comes loose. It sounds like a condor has landed on us and is beat us with its wings. We stop on the freeway and have to unroll a broken canopy and reroll said canopy. (Involved not a so aerodynamic Courtney climbing on top on the motorhome in a hurricane no fewer than three times.) Then we’re back on the road again.

We make it to Delta (our first time there, it was everything everyone has told us) and eat lunch. We leave about 6:30 after all the water bottles are filled. By the time we get 5 miles out of town the kids are soaked and grandma is trying to protect Averi from the onslaught. Not a single kid complained about the heat. They did get bored and we played there game called "Correct Again". I will have to tell about the rules to that game later.

Only had to stop one time between Delta and Toquerville; it was in Minersville at there "park". It was fun for the kids but don't make it a destination. My swing set growing up had more activities than the Minersville Park.

When we got home every went right to bed. And thanks to the afore mentioned gods of pleasure I slept like a big ol' slightly chubby rock. No one died and we didn't wreck so it was another successful reunion weekend.

Updated Music Machine

So I added some new songs to our music machine for those interested in what I am currently listening to. If anyone has suggestions for artists I may like go ahead and let me know about them. For those living in St. George or formerly living in St. George you all understand how poor the selection on the radio stations around here can be.

For the readers out there I am running short on good books. Any suggestion will get my full consideration. And as a bonus I will read almost anything so don't hold back because you think I won't be interested.

Thanks for your time.

I Need More Cowbell.

This is for you Jake. Enjoy the bomb'n comedy.

Slip-n-slide

Slip-n-slide

The kids have been working so hard this summer to get their playroom all clean. We told them that once we got it all organized and put away that they would be able to get out the slip-n-slide we got for them. On Wednesday they got it all done so we broke out the slide. They had such a good time. The only problem is that we are wondering if we will have to get Rylan his own slide because he wasn't to into the take turns thing. I was constantly having to drag him off the slide so the big kids could have a turn. It was just real fun to see them all having so much fun.

Averi - 1 month

Averi is now one month old. Seriously, time is already flying by. I don't want to jinx myself but she has been a really good baby. She puts up with all of the kids passing her around and loving her to death. She even somehow survives the noise that takes place in our family (that is saying a lot). It is amazing how these little ones come into our family and somehow you just know that they were meant to be there. We love you Averi!

Graduate!

I can not believe that Kambree is already done with Kindergarten. It seems like it was just barely the first day of school. On Wednesday, May 21st, they had a little graduation. It was so cute. They sang two cute songs and then they even did a chime bell number. I was amazed that they could get all of those kids to play their bells and that it actually sounded like a song. Kambree had fun on her special little day and now she even says she is excited for first grade to start. Now I just have to figure out how I can get excited for that. I am beginning to think it may be harder for me than Kindergarten was because then she will be gone all day. It is crazy how fast they all grow up.

Who is the biggest kid?

A couple of days after Averi was born Courntey decided to break out the water guns (thank you Jones family) and go play with the kids. They all ended up soaked but they had so much fun playing with dad. I am not so sure my mom thought it was so fun though. She had just mopped all of my hard floors (which takes like 1 1/2 hours) 2 days prior. Courtney couldn't even make it outside before he started having the water fight. Of course, I am not so sure how fair it is when your opponents, my mom and I, don't even get any of the water guns.