Happy 6th Birthday Evelyn!

Year: 0

Year: 1

 Year: 2

Year: 3

 Year: 4

 Year: 5

Year: 6

Getting sweeter every day. We love you!

Recent Happenings

I realized I haven't been doing a great job of keeping up on our family's recent happenings lately, so here is an attempt to keep up (along with some yard work pictures):

Lance is finishing up his first year of residency which means it is almost time for second year, wahoo! We survived! The first year of residency is extremely busy since they take the most call and are on Oral Surgery rotation almost every single month (meaning LOTS of hospital hours). We have now done TWO of these terribly busy years, one in Iowa, and one here in Arizona, so I am beyond relieved that we are moving on the the next phase. We should finally be able to get our husband and dad back! He will have four months of anesthesia and four months of general surgery this year...which means 8 months of no call! I already know Lance will be missing Oral Surgery by the time he is done, but I think we are both looking forward to a little more time together!

Blake has turned into my chattiest kid...by far. This has been a shocker since I thought they didn't come any chattier than Addi. He is constantly talking about one thing or another and has an amazing memory. When I pick him up from nursery it is always a ten minute description of exactly what toys he played with, who he played with, what snacks he ate, what songs he sang, who took what from whom, etc. It's crazy. The most I could ever get out of the girls was, "We had snacks and sang songs" no specifics. 

He loves to talk to his grandmas on the phone, but in the end the conversation always evolves to him listing off the foods he likes to eat. ("And I like to eat donuts...and crackers...and apples...and juice...). Which I'm sure is exactly what they called to hear... :)

Evie is beyond excited to turn 6 and her birthday is in just three days! We will get to celebrate in Utah with my side of the family. She is such a good sister and friend to her siblings, and is now spending her summer days reading to them and playing with them. I am definitely relieved that we don't have to be up by 6:30am every morning to catch the bus at 7! 

 Addi is quite the acrobat. She is constantly doing tricks of jumping off furniture, doing flips, headstands and all sorts of crazy things...and she is actually good at them! We're hoping after we get everyone finished with swimming lessons that we can get her into a simple gymnastics class at the Rec Center. Her favorite color is purple, and she got her dad's talent of getting songs stuck in her head so she always is humming a little tune.  She is turning 4 years old in just two weeks!

 We are all enjoying Arizona, and just celebrated our one year mark of living here last weekend. I can already tell we have acclimated to the heat of Summer this year since anything under 100 actually doesn't feel too hot!

Finishing Kindergarten

The Kindergarten classes had a final singing performance a few days before school got out, and all the parents were invited. Afterward, the teachers provided cookies and milk in the classrooms for all the families and Evelyn's teacher showed a slide show of the pictures she has taken of the class this year. She gave a copy to every student, which Evelyn was so excited about. She has already had me watch it twice with her!

As Addi sat there at Evelyn's desk, eating cookies, and watching pictures of all the fun things they had done in class this year (which, of course, she saw pictures of the zoo field trip, the children's museum field trip, Christmas party, etc), she started getting extremely excited about going to Kindergarten, and has been asking me every day how much longer it is. Sorry Addi, it's going to be one long year!

 Evelyn is so adorable and enjoys it so much every time we go to see her at school. She is always extremely proud of her siblings and loves to show them off to her friends and teacher when we come. It is really a part of why she is such an amazing older sister. She adores Addi and Blake so much.

Blake obviously cared very little for the singing, movie, or school, and gave all his attention to cookies.

 Evie and her teacher

 Outside her classroom

 Evelyn on her first and last day of Kindergarten. Not only has Evelyn grown physically taller this year, but she has also grown so much in confidence and independence. It's amazing the transformation that happens in that first year of school! Next year she will be attending the Traditional Academy at the same school she already attends which means she will be in a class that teaches curriculum a grade ahead, so we're all excited for a lot more hard work and learning! We're so proud of our sweet, smart, wonderful girl!

Mother's Day

For some reason this was the only picture I took on Mother's Day, which is a picture of the breakfast Lance and the kids made for me. However, it was definitely a day I want to remember, and it was so fun to have the kids anticipating Mother's Day all week long and trying to make "secret plans." 

My breakfast: Yogurt, berries and granola. Lots of notes and pictures, flowers from the backyard shaped into a heart, and a special rock "getting clean" in a cup of water. I loved it. Probably the best part was that Lance helped keep them busy with all of this long enough to let me sleep in!

The primary kids sang up on the stand during Sacrament Meeting. It was the first time Addi has ever sung in Church and she was A-dorable. She ran all the way up the aisle and when she finally got settled into place she was absolutely beaming at me the whole time and making sure I could see her face. Afterward, she ran down the aisle and gave me this huge smile like she had just given me the best gift in the world by singing to me. It was so cute. All day she kept saying, "I sang in the Mom and Dad Church!!! Did you see me?!"

The rest of the day, I didn't lift a finger thanks to Lance and he even made dinner and a cheesecake (my favorite). I couldn't have asked for a better day or family to share it with!

Desert Botanical Gardens

 Ever since we moved to Arizona, I have had the Botanical Gardens on my list of places to visit while we live here, but haven't been able to justify $15 per person! So when I found out there was a free day, I planned on going no matter what. Well...it just so happened that Blake and I were extremely sick the days right before the free day, and neither of us were really feeling that great, but we just went anyway! I'm so glad we did. I didn't even realize how much cabin fever I had from being inside for three whole days until we were walking around, and I know Blake enjoyed it too...despite the vacant expression in all the pictures. We went in the evening to avoid any crowds and to walk around in a lovely 88 degrees instead of 96 degrees it had been earlier.

 Evelyn and Addi are really becoming good friends lately. They chat a lot about everything you could imagine. I hope they stay such good friends as they get older.

Indigenous Native American hut, or "Hey, a haystack!" as Addi called it.

 Can you tell his shorts are from last summer? Time to get this poor guy some new shorts!

At the end of our visit the kids played in this fountain for at least a half hour. It was so nice to just sit outside in the warm breeze and enjoy it for a little while. I kept having to convince Addi that they couldn't take any money out of the fountain because they were people's "wishes." Even though we saw tons of pretty things that day, I'm pretty sure this was their favorite part.

Kid Quotes

Over the past few weeks I've been writing down some of the things the kids have said so I can remember them...

Addi: "Mom...do penguins live on the snowy coast?"
Me: "Um...yep I'm pretty sure they do."
Addi: "Ok thanks."

Ev, in her prayer: "Please bless that Mom can get cuter..." (afterwards, I asked her, " Hey, what are you trying to say?!" and she just smiled and shrugged, haha. Now I will never know!)

Addi, singing: "There was an old lady who swallowed some snow...I don't know why she swallowed some snow...perhaps she'll sneeze."

Here is Blake reminiscing about our trip to Washington in February.  He also talked a lot about Jake and Ellisha's dog Carly, which I didn't get it on video, but it was also a highlight for him.


On a Sunday walk and Addi was falling behind...
Me: "Addi, come walk by me. Do you want to hold my hand?"
Addi: "Um.....hold your hand? On a sidewalk?.....Weird."


Blake always says the word "punk" which he thinks is a word he made up himself, and he always says it to try and be funny.

Me: "Goodnight Blake! I love you!"
Blake: "Good night...PUNK!"


The sister missionaries came over for dinner, and for dessert we had strawberries and ice cream. One of the sisters was allergic to strawberries (oops!) so she just had plain ice cream.

Ev to the Sis. Missionary allergic to strawberries: "Um...did you try the strawberries?"
Sis Missionary: "No, I didn't, I bet they're good though."
Ev: "Well...did you know that you really need to try things before you decide you don't like them? You need to just try one taste of them and then you will probably find out that you like them. But you really should try them once. That's what I always say."


Addi to Ev: "Did you know that Washington Grandma is bigger than our Dad? I don't mean huge or gigantic...just older."


One of the cutest things happening around here lately is that Evelyn loves to read to Addi and Blake. She has to turn in a book list at the end of every month that lists books she read all by herself, and most afternoons she has been doing her personal reading time while reading books to her siblings. I think all three of them look forward to it now. Every once in a while, Blake falls asleep too. :)

Evelyn and Addi were wearing tulle dresses that have a white lining underneath last Sunday.
Addi: "Evelyn, did you know these dresses are great for twirling?" (twirls)
Evelyn: "Yeah, and they have this white dress underneath that doesn't twirl up so it doesn't show our underwear."
Addi: (tries twirling and looking at the white lining) "Yep, you're right. My bum is totally camouflaged."

Addi singing on Sunday. Lately singing around the house is a common occurrence with this little girl.