Long overdue...

Finally we have updated family pictures!

a little hard work never hurt anyone...

We had our sweet little cousins from Coos Bay come stay with us last week.  We all did some yard work together.  These little troopers were so great!  All smiles, no complaining!  Look at all these happy faces and happy hands pulling weeds!  It was so fun.



McKena on the lawn mower.





Derek giving Spencer a wheel barrow ride.



Pig pile on Nathan......Dave just informed me that it's a dog pile not a pig pile.
Anyone else ever heard of a pig pile?  I grew up with pig piles.



Taking a break.





All the kids ready to go to church at 8:30 am Sunday morning.  I was a little worried about getting 9 kids ready for church, but Ryan and Tonya's kids are well trained and were up getting dressed and fixing their breakfast before I had a chance to ask them to.  They made it very easy:)



Last day of school

Last day of school.  Ready to sign yearbooks.

Big thanks to wonderful teachers!!! 




Lauren with Mrs. Ally

 


Derek with Mrs. Smith

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Nathan with Mrs. Hood





Nicole with Mrs. Cook

 

Nicole with Mr. Garritano



 





 
  



Nicole did something I have never seen her do before...she got home from the last day of school and she crashed on the couch.  She has had so many projects and essays and speeches and tests that she's been going nonstop.  It was nice to see her mind free from projects and upcoming tests and just able to relax.  Yay for summer vacation!!! 

Our Destination.

 We've made it a family tradition that when we go on road trips we stop and see as many temples as possible along the way.  I love when the kids ask where are we going and the answer most often is the temple. 




This is the Los Angeles temple.  It was such an awesome way to spend Sunday on the road.  It has a beautiful visitors center.  We spent a couple hours there.  It was so great.

 




 Newport Beach temple.

 




Sacramento temple.

                The temple...our destination.

Mother's Day at the Los Angeles visitors center. 

A magical trip...



Kurt looked at this map for about 20 hours while sitting in the stroller at Disneyland. 
He loved every minute of it.





After four days we finally saw Mickey!




 



The highlight of the girls trip was definitely waiting in line for an hour and a half to see Rapunzel and getting the surprise that Flynn Rider just stopped by unannounced!  Cartoon Crush.

A walk

Spring is magical the way everything comes to life again.  Leaves appeared all over the trees this week.  And these beautiful wild flowers called trilliums grow in our yard.  We don't pick them because they don't grow back for seven years once they are picked.  The kids treat them like magic flowers like on Tangled.  They sit by them and sing "flower gleam and glow...let you power shine".  It's very magical:) We had a wonderful walk around the trails near our home the other day.  Yay for Spring!

Our precious lambs



 

This year for Easter we gave the kids each a lamb and a picture of Christ. I love the analogy of the Good Shepherd with us being the sheep and following Christ.



Lauren loved her lamb the best.  She named her Lillian after Great Grandma Gleason.



Lauren lost her first tooth in Primary class on Easter.



This is a picture of Lauren...or my little sister Tess 20 years ago...I'm not sure.





                          Happy Easter