May was full of fun!

Our life seems to be flying by. I feel like we are in a bit of a "sweet spot" right now with most of our boys old enough to be independent and fun and enjoy lots of the same things we enjoy but young enough to still love us and be excited about all the little things. And Pierce is just a total delight. He makes us all laugh and smile even in the rough moments. Almost every day, something happens where I think, "I want to remember this." Here are a few:

On Sundays we try to stay TV and computer free except for Sunday movies and LDS.org. I often catch all 3 boys completely enthralled in a scripture story or Mormon message listening quietly together. I love that they love the gospel. I am so grateful for the way the church has embraced media and done such an amazing job at creating moving, testimony building messages for us to enjoy.

In April Pierce slept through the night consistently for the first time. My babies are the worst night time sleepers but we are sure grateful when they finally figure it out!

One of the most exciting things that happened in May was that Parker was surprised by Domino's Pizza in his classroom. First of all, Parker's teacher is really incredible and she makes their learning so relevant. Parker's class was tasked with writing a poem about a place in their community that they loved. There was a list of places and Parker chose Domino's pizza. He wrote an AMAZING poem about them. We sent the poem to headquarters and they loved it so much our local Domino's came to surprise Parker in the classroom with a pizza party for his class. He was the hero of the day. The experience and the poem were fantastic!

The poem!

 Pierce is growing up too fast, but I love it and am enjoying every minute with him. He is so expressive and so much fun. We could not be luckier to have him in our family. He is completely obsessed with being outside and wants to be out there every chance he gets.

Pierce also still loves to read. We like to stop at the bookshelf on our way out of Zumba and read a few. He is so cute with the books. 

We found an awesome place in Ypsilanti that has been brewing their own root beer since 1934. Mike was in heaven!

Pierce is also obsessed with riding bikes. He thinks he is so big. His brothers are just so good to him. I feel so blessed.

Over Memorial Day weekend we got our garden in. Lots of work,so we hope it produces like it did last year !

We spent a few lovely, sunny Sunday afternoons at Millpond Park. It is such a awesome spot. The boys were not supposed to get in the creek, but that didn't go over well :). Such a fun afternoon with all my boys enjoying our beautiful surroundings.

Memorial Day started out great with a local pancake breakfast at the fire station and a tiny parade right down the street. The weather was strangely cool but it was lovely in the morning. We were supposed to have a big BBQ with friends later that day, but the rain turned it into an indoor gathering with just a few. Bummer when the weather doesn't cooperate. 

Pierce does quite a bit of car riding and really doesn't love it (I swore my 4th baby would like the car :). Sometimes we are not smart and give him things to keep him happy that make a gigantic mess, like the rest of an ice cream cone. Glad he is so cute.

We love to take Sunday walks with the boys and this particular Sunday they found a baby bird that had fallen out of his nest. They took good care of it and wanted to figure out how to save it. My boys love animals. The end was as you might guess....

This boy totally cracks us up all the time with his talking. He loves trucks and yells, "Truck, truck!" over and over every time he sees one. Problem is, his "tr" sound comes out like the "f" sound. Not good. I have had to explain what he is trying to say to passersby as we walk into Walmart to, we've had to calm our appalled kids, and we've tried our own speech therapy to get him to say it right and even tried to tell him that trucks are actually busses or cars. No luck. So now, we just listen and smile. I know it won't last for long.

June was full of awesome moments too. Stay tuned!

Mother's Day

Wish I would have posted this on Mother's Day....such is life.

I LOVE being a mother. It is, most often, the very best part of my life. I feel eternally grateful to have 4 healthy, beautiful, and loving boys. I step back almost every day and wonder why I got so lucky.

They love me with their whole hearts. It has less to do with me and more to do with Mike's example. He treats me like a queen and my boys don't know there is another option. Their wives will be lucky women one day if they can love them like Mike loves me.

I was blessed with an incredible mother. Almost daily I am grateful for a lesson she taught me by example. She was really amazing and still is. Just the other day Katie and I were talking about how she did so many things "just right." One thing in particular was teaching us about modesty. Being modest was never a chore. She took us shopping and taught us to buy clothes that were economical, flattering, and modest. When it came time for a formal dance, it was a quest to find the perfect, modest dress. I have so many great memories shopping with my mom. She also knew how to choose her battles. I don't know how she did it. I feel fortunate to have such an example in my life. I often talk to friends who had absent mothers or moms who just didn't care. I am so lucky!

I am also blessed with a great mother-in-law. She has taught me so many things about the world and about myself. She has brought the gift of music to our family and we are forever grateful for that. She is creative and thorough and great and everything she does. She is a great example of putting your all into the things you do and I'm trying to be more like that. She was and still is a fantastic mother to Mike. He has so many memories of late nights with his mom...his teenage nights always ended with late night chats with her. When he speaks about them, you know that one-on-one time meant the world to him.

I come from a long line of strong women and I am so grateful for both of my grandmothers. They are each examples to me of hard work, optimism, choosing happiness, compassion, care for others and excitement for life. I will always remember my grandma taking plates of food on Sunday to women who were alone. We would load them up and jump in her car to visit someone who needed some food and company...I also got my love of books from her and hopefully a little of her wit. I will always remember my Gummy for the small moments she took to get to know me during a car ride, sleepover, while painting my nails or teaching me a new card game. You could always feel her energy, and I've always admired how comfortable she is with herself. Such a gift.

Mike's grandmothers are also amazing women who have and still do show us so much love. It was hard to say good-bye to Grammy last year, but we are so happy we had so many great memories with her.
Grandma Brett is so full of kindness and love. I am amazed at the small ways she finds to show she cares about our little family. They were and are fantastic women.

So, happy WAY late Mother's Day to me and all the women I love.

breakfast in bed + presents

Lots of love going on

Parker's sweet present

Parker's sweet poem

Jace's sweet letter

Jace's cute present

James' loving note

The Monday after Mother's Day I was lucky enough to attend the "Ma Spa" and James' school. They soaked, lotioned and painted our nails then served us cookies and spa water. Too sweet! I loved it.

Little Red Hen

James has had a wonderful year in Kindergarten! He is such a smart little guy, but has still enjoyed every minute of teacher and his class. They have done some really great things this year, but his Little Red Hen play really knocked our socks off. I thought it would be a painful, mumbling Kindergarten production but they all did such a great job. The music was wonderful and the speaking parts were clear. It has a little humor and was the perfect length. These students and teachers really out did themselves!

James was a narrator because he is such a great reader and was positively perfect. In fact, he had memorized his whole part, but still wanted to hold the paper "just in case." We ordered a DVD, just in case anyone else wants to see :). He also made a very cool "Little Red Hen."

What a great night to watch him shine!