Ashlyn's Preschool Graduation

Wednesday May 25, 2011 was Ashlyn's Preschool Graduation!

All the graduates were supposed to wear Sunday dress.

We took some pictures in our front yard before we went. We know, our grass is sooo lovely.

We even had some time for a little tree climbing

and grass sitting. I know, I know, the grass is beautiful!

The graduation was at her teacher, Laurel Steele's, house in the backyard. They sang lots of songs.

They did a cute dance.

Carter played during the entire thing. I think he now thinks that graduations are awesome.

He spent lots of time on the trampoline.

He had some fun with the trucks in the sandbox.

He also slid down the slide, played in the playhouse, swung on the swing, and rode around on a tricycle!

Audrie spent the whole time in my arms just looking around.

Ashlyn is receiving her diploma.

She loved her teacher and all the kids in her class!

It was a great year!

A Kiddo Update

I haven't done a very good job of recording the first year of Audrie's life. It is hard to believe that she is almost 10 months old!

Audrie is getting her first tooth! She was actually born with a "milk tooth" that fell out when she was about 6 weeks old, but this is the first normal one. :) She is still very happy and smiles at people everywhere, although she does not like to be held by any one but Mom or Dad. She walks along furniture, stands up on her own for seconds, and just recently learned to crawl down stairs. I am really glad that we only have short flights of stairs. She still loves to put things in her mouth and her favorite chew toys are toothbrushes, crayons, and pens.

A couple weeks ago I went on a field trip with Ashlyn's preschool class. Brad stayed home with the kids and Carter didn't want to go down for a nap. Apparently he wasn't able to fight off the sleepiness all afternoon because Brad found him like this:

Oh the places kids will sleep!

Carter is loving nursery now. YES! His nursery teachers recently taught him to hold up two fingers to show his age. However, he is not consistent with his answers when asked how old he is. Sometimes he's five, sometimes he's one, often he's three and occasionally he's two. He plays pretend with Ashlyn all the time. He loves fruit . . . kiwi, watermelon, pineapple and would eat it all day long. He is still my cuddly boy and loves hugs and kisses and being held. I hope that doesn't change any time soon!

Ashlyn and Carter are always pretending something - that they're monsters, or a family, or Kari and Bryon, or a girl and a dog. They make great messes all over the place, but Ashlyn is getting much better at picking up after herself. She is always helping me pack the diaper bag, buckle Carter up in the car, find Audrie's binkie, and grab the mail. I don't know what I would do without her! Lately she enjoys eating noodles, almonds dipped in honey, and Italian Ice (only strawberry flavored). She loves to hold Audrie (scary) and is great at making her laugh!

Ashlyn's Dance Recital

Since September Ashlyn has been attending BYU Children's Creative Dance Class. Her teachers were Miss Camilla and Miss Noelle. On Saturday she had a dance recital where they did a piece titled "Imagine." She was able to show us her beautiful slides, skips, gallops, and jumps. Grandma May even came to watch too!

Brad took some pictures of her in the front yard before the performance. It is a good thing that he did because the ones from the recital didn't turn out very well.

The recital was in a room in the Richard's Building. It has stadium seating with comfortable chairs, so every one has a good view. Ashlyn's class consisted of about 12 4 and 5 year olds.

The dance was definitely very "creative," but it seemed to work well for the young girls. We loved watching Ashlyn dancing around the stage and she really seemed to enjoy it too.

Kingsley is Here!

On April 21st Lorie gave birth to precious Kingsley. He is such a doll! We had about 7 of these cousin photos to choose from and this is about as good as they get:

Easter 2011

Typically we spend the Saturday before Easter with Brad's family. His mom always boils lots of eggs and sets us up with fun dyes for decorating. Ashlyn and Carter enjoyed dipping their own eggs into the colors.

Carter loved his blue egg most.

The kids also enjoyed a fun Easter egg hunt.

More cousins!

Audrie even got into the Easter egg action.

The kids put on Grandma's dress-ups and paraded through the room while throwing out candy.

Sunday was pretty low-key. We barely got ready in time for 11:00 church, so we didn't take any pictures before. These are the best shots we could manage after our meetings:

Ah well.

Later in the afternoon we stopped by Mason and Lorie's to see their new baby boy! It was also fun to visit with Mom, Kari, Bryon, Tyler, and Michael!

There are so many fun Easter traditions that it is easy to forget the true reason for the holiday. We're so thankful for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and for the knowledge of the plan of salvation. We'd like to do better at helping our children understand the significance of this holiday. Does anyone have any suggestions for Easter traditions that help the family remember Christ?

Cousins!

Last Saturday we got together with my siblings and their families and had a little brunch and hung out for a while. My kids are always so excited to see everyone, especially their cousin Tyler. Here are a couple of cute pictures of them together:

Tyler is such a good sport and cute as can be! I think they are really going to love playing together as he gets older! Also, any day now we are expecting the arrival of a new cousin . . .

Carter's Eggciting Achievement

Yesterday morning Lorie made scrambled eggs at our house. I think Carter was intrigued, because later in the afternoon I hear, "uh oh" and I walk up to the kitchen to find this on the floor:

Carter had opened the fridge, taken out an egg and tried to crack it. Actually, he didn't just try to crack it, he did crack it. I told Carter that playing with eggs was not okay and cleaned up the mess.

Later that evening I come into the kitchen and find this:

Carter had once again opened the fridge, pulled out the egg carton, and cracked an egg (or two). Only this time he cracked them into a bowl (which he had also gotten out himself) and mixed them up good with a spoon. Well done buddy.

The next morning Brad cooked those well-stirred eggs up for Carter to eat. Yummy!

Don't ask me where I was when Carter was playing around in the kitchen . . . not paying attention to him obviously!