The Past Few Months in a Nutshell

I haven't been the best about blogging lately, so I decided to cram a bunch of stuff into one post and just get it over with.  This post will be picture overload!  It's just one of those posts that has cell phone pictures from random moments.  Since the pictures are coming from both my and Mike's phones, they are not in order.  I guess I could take the time to put them in order, but--frankly--I don't feel like doing that.  So, here are some moments from late-March through the late-May (in no particular order) from our life.

Aiden had to choose an animal to write a report about.  He also had to make a diorama of the animal's habitat.  He picked the beaver.  How random is that?!?  Here he is with his beaver habitat, which he made all by himself without a lick of help from me or Mike... 

We were pretty excited in the weeks leading up to our cruise.  The kids were constantly asking me how many more days until it was time to finally set sail.  Well, Pintrest to the rescue!  I found this cute printable that I framed and we used dry erase marker each day to change the number of days left...

Viv and I had a little girls night and went out for ice cream, cookies and hot chocolate.  I decided we should take a selfie, which turned into a selfie session as this little gal hammed it up for the camera...

After four months of physical therapy on his pinkie finger, Aiden had an appointment with his surgeon to decide if more surgery was going to be necessary to straighten his finger.  The physical therapy has worked well, but his pinkie still wasn't completely straight.  We were worried the surgeon was going to order more surgery, which none of us were very excited about.  But, to our surprise, the surgeon said that he didn't think another surgery was necessary.  Aiden just has to continue doing his PT everyday.  The doctor thinks over time, as his finger continues to grow, it will straighten itself out.  We're hoping that's the case...

We went out to dinner with some of our favorite friends from our old neighborhood--the Harts and the Skinners.  We have always been such good friends, but now that we live in three different neighborhoods, you'd think we lived across the country from each other.  We never get a chance to hang out anymore!  So, we decided to plan a little reunion of sorts--and it only took us two months to find a night that all six of us had free.  Yep, TWO MONTHS!!  Why is life so crazy all the time???  It was so great to spend an evening with some of our favorite people...

Mom/Son date with all three of the boys at "Mr. Peabody and Sherman."  The boys loved it.  I thought it was okay, but not one that will be making my favorites list...

Connor and I now wear the same size shoe.  This makes it easy to buy shoes for him--even when he's not there.  I try them on my feet to see if they will fit him.  How is it possible that my 11-year-old has the same size feet as me?  Not cool.  Not cool at all...

Here's a couple pages from a book Aiden was reading one night.  They reminded me of my life, so I had to scan them.  Yes, I have had both these conversations with viewers--almost to a T...

The Pinewood Derby was last month.  This year, it was Aiden's turn to compete...

Which left Connor free to take over the camera and take selfies galore.  Sigh...

Aiden wanted a very simple design for his car, but it served him well.  His car did great in all the meets.  His is the red one on the far right side...

He ended up coming in 5th place overall...

Way to go Aiden (and Mike too, because--let's be honest--that's who made the darn thing)...

My Dad gets tickets to all the Real Salt Lake soccer games, and sometimes we are lucky enough to have him share them with us.  Most the games are on Saturday night when I'm at work, but Mike and the kids go and always have a blast...

They are becoming die hard soccer fans...

Speaking of soccer, both Connor and Cohen are playing right now.  I'll have more about that in some later posts, but I wanted to post this picture of Connor.  There was one game a few weeks ago that was played in the pouring rain.  I have no clue why they didn't cancel it.  I guess soccer can be played in any kind of weather, but the kids were soaked from head to toe after it was over, as you can see...

Mike and Viv on a daddy/daughter date...

Cohen and me on a mommy/son date...

Hard to believe that this kiddo was scared to rock climb a few years ago.  Now, he basically runs up the wall...

And he can scarf down an ice cream and a cookie pretty fast too...

One night for Family Home Evening, Mike and I decided our kids needed to do some sort of service.  But, we didn't have much time to really plan anything spectacular.  So, we decided to hold a car wash for our neighbors.  I got on our neighborhood Facebook page and told everyone that if they needed their car washed, they could bring it over and we'd take care of it for them.  It ended up being a lot of fun, but--of course--the kids didn't do the greatest job ever.  They are kids after all.  Mike decided he didn't want to return the cars without having them look superb, so he stayed up after the kids had gone to bed and basically redid all the work they had done.  Haha!  I think he finally returned the cars around 10:30 that night, but--dang--did they ever look great...

Viv has decided she no longer needs naps.  Her body says otherwise most days.  Because of this, I will find her asleep in the most random places and positions.  I should probably just do an entire post on just this subject.  But, instead, you'll just see a potpourri of these pictures scattered throughout this post.  Like this one.  Yes, she is really asleep on the kitchen chair like that...

If you couldn't tell by now, Connor is slightly obsessed with selfies.  And, I'm slightly obsessed with trying to photobomb them...

Me trying to get my phone back after he had taken about 2928 selfies...

My job has some really fun perks--like meeting Snowboarding Gold Medalist Sage Kotsenberg...

He came on our morning show a few weeks ago and hung out with us throughout the morning.  He was a really great guy.  Very down to earth...

And, yes, I get paid to do fun, crazy stuff like sing into our makeup mirror...

One afternoon as I was making dinner, I realized I had forgotten to buy Parmesan cheese.  I told my kiddos I was going to make a quick run to the store to buy some.  Cohen asked if he could come along for the ride, so I let him.  As we were walking through the store, I must admit that I was talking on the phone to a friend and wasn't paying very close attention to him.  When we got up to the check out line, I realized that Cohen had been quietly grabbing various snacks throughout the store.  So, we came for Parmesan cheese, but left with Cheetos and Chips Ahoy as well.  It's a good thing that boy is so cute...

Earlier this month, Dan graduated from USU with his MBA.  We all went up to go to his graduation and then went to dinner at one of our favorites in Cache Valley--The Beehive Grill.  So yummy...

See, I told you you'd see lots of these.  Yes, she's asleep on the kitchen chair again.  And, yes, she is standing up.  What in the world???

One of the perks at Mike's work is that employees get free lunch everyday.  And, everyday you don't use a free lunch, either because you're not there or because you go out to eat, you accrue free meals.  They also bring in all sorts of fun food trucks from time-to-time.  So, when Mike called and said that the Waffle Love truck was sitting in the parking lot, the little kids and I headed down for some free waffles...

Okay, shot #2--this time with most of Cohen's face in the picture...

Last year for Mother's Day, I got this beautiful entertainment center for our family room.  This year for Mother's Day, I finally decorated the shelves...

Here's what they look like up close...

And with the doors open...

Most the books are old books that once belonged to our grandparents.  Some of them are nearly 100 years old!  It's so fun to be able to have them on display instead of sitting in boxes in our storage room...

Also, on Mother's Day Weekend, my Mom's friends held a Mother/Daughter/Granddaughter brunch at one of the local country clubs.  It was fun to get all dolled up and have a fancy luncheon.  Ella and Viv felt like princesses...

The cute tables...

As part of the program, one of the daughters sang a few songs.  One of them was "Let it Go" from the movie Frozen.  Viv can't hear that song without dancing, so--naturally--she got out of her chair and started shaking her groove thing...

Ella jumped in on the dancing action too...

It was hilarious...

Later, Viv fell asleep.  Yep, it's another random sleeping picture...

The next day, the whole family got together for a Mothers Day dinner at our house--prepared by Chef Mike.  We also celebrated Ashlee's birthday, and Kristin made a cake for the occasion.  But, when she took the lid off the cake, she was surprised to see that the frosting had melted a little bit.  It reminded us a little of the cake that Fauna tries to make for Princess Aurora in the movie Sleeping Beauty, so we borrowed a few toys from Vivvie's room and turned it into a theme cake. Haha...

Aiden's class did a Character Fair where they had to dress up like a character from their favorite book.  Aiden chose to dress up like Nate from "Big Nate."  His hair was so gross later that day!  We had to wash it twice to get all the product out of it...

Connor participated in the State Fair, where each of the kids chose a state and did a report on it, then presented it to parents and other students.  Here's Connor with his poster about Connecticut that he made all by himself...

One of Cohen's friends had a birthday party at Boondocks a few weeks ago.  The boy's mom sent me this cute picture of Cohen on the bumper boats having a blast.  I know first hand how much Cohen loves the bumper boats.  My soaking wet hair and clothes know first hand as well...

Oh, back to Mother's Day for a second.  See, I told you these pictures wouldn't be in order.  As I mentioned, Mike made dinner for my entire family.  I was at work that afternoon and only came home in time for dinner, but Mike sent me a couple pictures while I was still at work, so I could see all the fancy things he was doing.  Here's the dining room table all set...

And, yes, he even made origami napkins.  I believe this picture came to me with a text that read, "I promise, I'm not gay."  Haha...

Here's my cute Aiden on a date with me...

Yep, he ate that entire thing all by himself...

Connor and Aiden participated in their school's annual 5K last week.  Here's the 2nd Graders (all wearing blue) taking off on their 3.1 mile journey...

And, here are the 5th Graders (all in green) taking off about 15 minutes later...

Aiden finished in about 40 minutes...

There he is crossing the finish line...

Connor came in a few minutes later with a time of 27 minutes again--same as last year...

He was the 9th fastest 5th Grader...

Aiden with his medal...

And Connor with his...

Then the fire department showed up...

Raised their ladder...

And sprayed down all the runners...

And a few smaller siblings as well...

They were all soaked--and loving it...

The two runners.  I still can't believe that I've never run a 5K and yet my kids do one every year without a problem...

On Memorial Day, Mike, Dan, Greg and my Dad went golfing in the morning.  After they were done, Kristin, my Mom and I all met up at Thanksgiving Point for some lunch...

But, not just any lunch.  A Waffle Love lunch!  Yep, I'm slightly obsessed...

After that, we all went shopping and then ended up at Ashlee and Greg's new house in Saratoga Springs for a barbecue.  I didn't get any pictures of us eating because I was too busy stuffing my face, but after dinner, we all headed over to a nearby park to work off some of those calories...

And, the boys had a blast playing a little Bocci Ball...

It was a fun day!  I love spending time with my family.

Okay, you ready for more interesting pictures of Vivvie sleeping?  There's this one on our bed with her face buried in a pillow and another pillow on top of her...

And, the one that may be my new favorite.  Nothing like a hard wood floor and some soccer equipment to relax you, right?  Geez Louise, this girl can sleep anywhere...

The boys participated in Field Day at their school just a few days ago.  I wasn't there, but a friend of mine helped with Aiden's class and sent me a few cute pictures of him...

And, finally, (yes, I know you were wondering when it would all come to an end) today was the Dance Festival at the elementary school.  The 2nd Graders danced to Katy Perry's "Roar" and they wore their Tiger Sleeves as part of their costume...

Aiden is right in the middle of the picture.  I was surprised how into it he was.  He's a pretty good little dancer...

The 5th Graders danced to "Footloose."  It was harder for me to get pictures of Connor because he ended up on the opposite side of the field from where I was sitting.  He's in the middle of the picture with a navy blue bandanna around his neck...

Here he is during one of his solo parts.  He is not centered in this one.  If you look at the kid in the center and then go to the left, you'll find Connor.  Yes, I know it's like Where's Waldo, except they all have matching clothes on...

Okay, so now you're caught up on our life lately.  It's been busy, busy, busy!  Tomorrow is the last day of school and I couldn't be more excited!  Hopefully, we'll have a lot of lazy days this summer.  In fact, I'm counting on it!  --Lindsay