Love this Family of Mine

  This post has no theme, but highlights some of the big and small positive things we've enjoyed lately.  

Kids all giving a group hug--have to capture these moments!!

It is so tender to see how excited Shelten gets when his big brother, sister and father come home from school and work!

These two pictures are from when my cousin and his wife came to visit awhile back.  We rarely get visitors, so this was a special treat.  They live a few hours away, but we share the same temple.  Our kids had fun, and I'm bummed that I didn't get a picture of Jazlyn with Ella, they really bonded.  Hopefully we'll have lots more opportunities

  Although not the best picture, I had to document our fun entertainment one night a few weeks back.  Our next door neighbors also have four kids and Jazlyn is best buds with their daughter (next to her).  One day they wrote and practiced a play all day and then performed it in the neighbor's garage for both of their families.  They had programs, costumes, and even a few extras with siblings running in trying to create their own parts.  It was quite memorable.

  Want a great idea for family night?  A few weeks ago Wes suggested we go to a park and pick up litter, and then reward with ice cream afterwards.  I was amazed at how helpful the kids were.  There wasn't a single complaint.  We even had to deter them from some of the garbage (safety reasons).  They definitely earned their ice cream!

  I'm privileged to serve in the primary for the kids in our church with these three lovely ladies.  The one of the right recently had her first boy so the rest of us threw her a baby shower which turned out super fun.  They are the cream of the crop, love working with these great gals!  And a fun side note, between the 4 of us we have 17 kids, a decent chunk of the primary!

  This was the first night Matsen had his new scout shirt to wear to den meeting.  He was stoked!  Doesn't he look thrilled and handsome?

 I celebrated my birthday recently and wanted to enjoy the beautiful weather on my special day.  Our town has a historic Stagecoach stop where a family lived back as the pioneers were passing through and hosted and fed travelers passing through.  They still give stagecoach rides.  The kids loved it!

 They also have a blacksmith there who let the kids help with his demonstration.

  And we lucked out that we went on a day they were harvesting their field corn.  The kids dug right in and thought it was the greatest thing ever to help with harvesting the corn.  They are some good workers!

  They helped fill this wagon up with the corn.

At my request, Jazlyn made me a frozen peanut butter pie.  It was delicious!  Although in many ways a birthday just seems like another day when you get older, I was super touched as I received so many kind calls, texts, and cards from dear family and friends, some far away.  I love that technology can help us keep connected even though there may be many miles between us.  I am so extremely blessed.  Although some days are challenging, overall I love my life and am so happy I can be a stay at home mom and teach my children and watch every minute of their growing up years.  I went to parent-teacher conferences today and am so proud of how great my kids are doing in school as well.  Life is a blessing!