Katie's last day of gymnastics

Katie has really had fun at gymnastics.  She loves the jumping, tumbling, and climbing.  And she loves that it's just for girls.  Here she is striking a pose on the last day of gymnastics!!  Go Katie!!

Sweet brothers

Boys can actually stop the craziness for a few minutes to be sweet to each other.  And sometimes they even let me capture the moment just to prove to myself later that it did happen :)

Katelyn & Andy's wedding reception

Congratulations to Katelyn & Andy!!  They are like the most meant-to-be-together couple we've ever known.  They drove over to Nauvoo on Friday for their wedding and we helped prepare for the reception on Saturday.  I'm in my second trimester now and have tons of energy.  Which is a good thing.  Katelyn assigned me to be wedding coordinator and there was a lot to do.  But it was a lot of fun!! And I was so happy to help such a wonderful couple.  The reception went wonderfully.  Katelyn was the flower girl and Ethan was the ring bearer.  They did a very simple civil ceremony too because Andy is a convert and so none of his family was able to go to the temple for their wedding.  My little cuties added the perfect amount of adorable to their reception.

Strawberry picking with Teresa

One reason Katies' manicure didn't last was because we went strawberry picking.  I knew if we waited until after the wedding and tried to go picking the next week, there wouldn't be anything left.  So we went.  And boy did we get strawberries.  It was so fun.  And so yummy.  We didn't get as many as we have other years, mostly because of the overly wet spring we'd had, but we did get enough for some jam and plenty to snack on while we made the jam.

We LOVE strawberries!!

Big girls get their nails done

Katelyn Hasek asked my Katelyn to be her flower girl (ironically they are both Katelyn Marie's and their initials are both KMH- until this Saturday when Katelyn Hasek changes to Katelyn Kensiger).  Anyway, as part of the bridal party, Katelyn was invited to go get her nails done with all the other girls.  She felt like such a big girl!!  She had a lot of fun!  She actually did just fine sitting there in that chair for 30 minutes to go through all the steps for a manicure.  I was impressed.  Not that it actually made it a whole week to Saturday, but it was fun anyway.

Ethan's favorite place in the whole wide world

Ethan's favorite place in the whole wide world is on the mower with daddy.  Almost every day he asks if daddy's going to mow today.  Jared often does a little bit each day- otherwise it takes several hours to do it all at once.  Even if there's no mowing scheduled for that day, Ethan waits/plays on the mower.  He's even been known to eat his picnic lunch over on the mower :)  How funny.

Mommy in practice

Look at those beautiful blue eyes!! Aren't they just gorgeous?! I chose those tiles on the kitchen counter because of Katelyn's pretty blue eyes (she was just a bitty baby when we were redoing the kitchen).
Anyway, I digress.  Katelyn loves to make sandwiches.  Actually she loves to make anything.  Here she is practicing her mommy skills.

Mother's Day at Nauvoo

Katelyn & Andy are getting married later this month! Yay for them!! We are so thrilled for them!!!
In preparation for that, they went to Nauvoo this past weekend to get their endowments at the Nauvoo Temple.  We won't be able to go back at the end of the month again for the wedding, so we were excited to be able to go with them now for their endowments.  I was able to convince Jared to make a mini vacation out of it and we packed up our van and went over on Friday.  When we got there the weather was sublimely gorgeous.  One for the record books.  Especially for a pregnant mama who was nauseous for the past few winter-y months and feel like I'm coming back to life with this gorgeous spring weather.  We dropped our bags at our hotel and went for a picnic at the park.  I could've stayed right there forever.  It was like heaven.  We let the kids run and play until they had all their energy out from being stuck in the car for 5 hours.  Then we walked around and saw the Old Nauvoo village.  Katelyn and Andy arrived while we were seeing the village and we walked around together.  It was beautiful.  That night we went to dinner together with the Haseks when they arrived.  Oh and we went swimming because no vacation is complete without an indoor swimming pool.  My kids would be happy going to a hotel in town (not traveling anywhere at all) if there's an indoor pool to swim at.  When Greg and Stephanie got there later, we all went swimming together. That was pretty fun indeed.
Saturday was spent at the temple and with the Hasek family at a picnic.  I was so glad that we got to be there for this very special time with Katelyn and Andy. It was a wonderful experience. Then we stayed behind another day to enjoy the relaxation and Mother's Day weekend.  I woke up Sunday without a care in the world- no Primary on vacation.  It was a wonderful Mother's Day weekend.  Absolutely wonderful.

Strawberry Rhubarb Patch

I've been trying to decide what to do out front.  The nasty planter that was already there has been on my hit list for quite some time.  I just wasn't sure what to put in it's place- if anything.  I only knew that I wanted the flag and flag pole to stay.  Jared's been refusing to even think about it for as long as I've been talking about how it has to go.  Finally, I decided the boys and I could rip it in a jiffy and then the hard part would be done and he'd have motivation to jump in and do the fun part to make it into something new.  Well, it turned out Jared was right.  Shhhh, for heaven's sake, don't tell him I said that!  But it was a REALLY hard job.  And we didn't get it all done in a day as I'd hoped.  It took weeks.  We hacked and pulled and dug and hacked and pulled and dug some more.  Those "bushes" were more like their own little forest.  It had turned into a twisty turny conglomeration of a dozen or more different plant types.  What a mess!!
When it was finally all out, we had to decide what to do with the space.  Magically, one evening Jared suggested a strawberry rhubarb patch!!  I loved it! You know how when you can't decide what to do and hee haw around about something and then when the right idea comes- you just know that's what you're going to do?  So that was it!  We decided to work on it that very Saturday.  We enlisted the help of the children.

Jared: "How would you guys like unlimited strawberries to eat whenever they wanted all summer long?"
Children: (emphatically): "YEEESSSSSS!!!"
Jared: "Who like strawberry rhubarb pie?"
Children: (equally emphatically): "MEEEEE!"
Jared: "Ok who wants to help plant it?"
Children: "We do!"

We started that Saturday by going shopping for supplies together- we needed construction materials and plants.  We loaded the trailer up with the supplies and headed for home.  It was a warm Saturday, but not too hot.  I reminded the children how much hotter it would get and that it was best to get the job done when it wasn't excruciatingly hot yet.  They were troopers.  We worked and worked.  There was digging and digging and more digging to do.  The kids were in charge of filling the wheelbarrow with all the old soil (which was filled with a ridiculous number of rocks) and then together moving the wheelbarrow over to the trailer.  When the trailer was full, we took it to the back field to dump on the shooting range burm.  We were surprised how many trailer loads of rocks and sandy soil we took out.  It was like 5 or 6 trailer loads.  A lot of wheelbarrows.  Then came the faster part.  We put down the new boards and filled them in with better soil and plants.  We didn't get all the plants in that day.  I was shocked how much we did get done!  The kids were such big helpers and worked so hard.  I actually don't think Jared and I could've done it without them.  We are finally starting to see the "fruits of our labors" in teaching them the value of work.  And now they'll get to enjoy the "fruits of their labors" in eating strawberries all summer long.

Pregnancy tummy shots

So I think Jared would secretly like to have twins.  Every pregnancy he talks about how *terrible* it would be to have twins.  But every ultrasound he's like, there's just "one"? Almost disappointed.  Funny huh?  But he'd never admit to it. 

4 months

5 months

Anyway, this pregnancy, I just popped out FAST.  I usually try to gain weight at the recommended rates.  But despite all my efforts, I gained a lot very fast and had a pretty big baby bump very early on.  So, Jared was quite convinced this time it was twins.  I really would've been ok with that too.  I've always thought having twins at the beginning of your family (when you don't know any better) or at the end (when you have big helpers) would be pretty fun.  So here are some pictures of my rather large baby bump.