Memorial Day at the Lake

What can I say........Monday was a perfect day at the lake!!!! We even got our yardwork done in the morning. Then we headed to where the boat was over the winter and got it all cleaned up to put it on the water. While I'm looking at adorable Carter in this picture-- a little side note before I get back to the lake day. A few weeks ago on Sunday night, Carter went to sleep in Hayden's bed with him. He is not a fan of his crib anymore, and we need to get him a big boy bed. I had just fallen asleep and I heard Hayden screaming for us to come upstairs. I ran upstairs--Eric was in our closet packing and flung himself over the banister to get upstairs quicker. Hayden had Carter in the hallway and was screaming that he was choking. Eric was calm and acted quickly. He gave him the heimlich and a toy screw flew out of his mouth. Hayden said he was asleep and woke up when he heard Carter choking. It was so weird, because Carter is really past putting stuff in his mouth. I have no idea why he had the screw in bed with him either. It really scared us all, and the kids were really shaken up. I was so glad Eric was there. I know I would have done what I needed to do, but I would have been much more freaked out if it was just me. Everyday we can't squeeze the little guy enough! He is precious and growing up too fast. Everything he says is so cute to us. We are so blessed to have him in our family!

We have finally had some really nice weather for a few weeks. I thought the water would be too cold, so I didn't even wear my suit. It ended up being way nicer than I thought. We took the boat down the river and the water was about 10 degrees warmer in Anderson than in front of the cabin. I wished I would have had my suit on! It was just such a great family day!

The boys fight over who gets to drive the boat with dad.

My nephew Andrew came with us, and it was great having him with us. He was so cute. He just got home from his mission in Spain. He said that he had dreamed for 2 years of running down the dock and jumping into the water on a hot day. When we got to the cabin he did it immediately and was so excited! His family was home doing yardwork, but he couldn't handle knowing we were going to the lake and not going. Who could blame him? My kids love him and fight over him.

I'm not sure where Jackson got his love of being in the spotlight. If he has an audience or a camera is on him, he goes wild!

Olivia had to jump in the water every time we stopped the boat.

Jackson said he was going to take it easy on his first wakeboard run of the season, but he was getting pretty good by the end of his turn.

We started wakesurfing while Andrew was on his mission, but he picked it up so quickly! He is already better than me, and I did it a lot last year.

Hayden rocked the wakesurfing on his knees and had the best time!

A Lot of Catch Up!

Last week was my friend Taraka turned 30! This picture was taken on her actual birthday--May 20th--at a girl's lunch. We teased her a lot about having a birthday week, because she had like 7 or 8 different celebrations. I love this girl, and yesterday she gave me quite a scare! We were at the park, and she was laying on a blanket on the grass. We looked over and she was sweating and hunched over in pain. She could hardly move and said she had never felt this much pain before. I left all the kids with our other friends at the park and I rushed her to the emergency room. The nurse there thought it was her gall bladder, but after she and Ben spent 3.5 hours there, the results were inconclusive. Poor girl! Last night she told me that she was going to take me to lunch sometime for everything I did for her yesterday. Seriously, you only take someone to lunch if they help you out when you are doing something fun! She took care of my kids until after midnight two weeks ago when I went to the Taylor Swift concert. I'm pretty sure the emergency room is not on the same level as a concert!

On Tuesday my parents had a runaway truck crash into their yard. It took out a few trees and made quite a mess. Crazy!

Today was Olivia's last day of preschool, and it was a very, very sad day! She has been a little tearful the past few days when she thinks about leaving Teacher Barbara. She is the greatest! The only way I could console Olivia was to tell her that we could visit Teacher Barbara anytime she wanted. Look out Barbara! Olivia told me this morning that she probably wouldn't visit everyday, because she goes to church on Sundays. These pictures were from preschool graduation on the 16th. They had a farm theme, and everything was adorable. I actually just watched it on video, and Eric took her. I was at the boy's soccer tournament that morning. A couple days before the graduation, Olivia told me that when I saw her up on stage I was going to think,"Oh! Why do I have the greatest child in the world?" Ofcourse it was because, "I have the best singings--way better than everyone else!"

On the 9th was Jackson's very last soccer game with his team he has been on since Kindergarten. They had 10 seasons together. It was a little sad now that everyone is splitting up for different select tryouts in U-11. They were such a good team, and the mothers were some of my best friends--so we always had a great time. One of the mothers gave coach Rudy a picture of the boys from the first spring season in kindergarten. I actually got a little choked up looking at it. They were so darn cute! I wanted them to be 6 again.

My family has been doing a huge garden up at my parents house, and all the families have put in a ton of work (Myron for sure the most!) These pictures were taken at the beginning of May, so it has come a long way since then. I will have to put updated pictures of it and the garden Eric has done at our house on the blog.

Eric did a lot of work on the garden boxes and the deer fence.

On May 1st, Olivia's dance class performed in her dance teacher's ward talent show. It happens to be the ward all my family is in, so she had lots of people cheering for her. Her recital was a few weeks later, but I can't figure out how to download her class pictures. They will have to be on a future blog post. Olivia's friend Katie is 3 1/2 months younger than her and about twice her size!

Their 2 numbers were so cute! Her teacher Mauressa does such a great job! Olivia is very sad that dance is over for the summer.

Olivia is such a fun, crazy little girl! She told me last week, "Mom- sometimes you ware me out, but I love you!" I told her that it was funny, because that is exactly how I feel about her. Last week Uncle Parker came to town for a golf tournament with Eric. He had absolutely no voice, and he told Olivia that he had lost his voice. Aunt Carol told her that maybe she should help him find his voice. Evidently Liv hadn't ever heard the expression of losing your voice, because she started looking around. She looked under the kitchen table and came up and said, "I don't see any talking under there!"

Cupcakes and such

Olivia got a cupcake maker with her giftcard from Aunt Carol to Toys R Us. It is kind of a pain to make them, and they don't taste very good--but she loves making them. They sure didn't turn out pretty like the pictures. Olivia's friend Ella came over after dance one day, and they talked me into making cupcakes.

These pictures were taken at Olivia's soccer practice back in April, but I haven't blogged in over a month--so here they are.

This was before Carter got his haircut. I guess I didn't realize at the time how bad it looked. He is also really dirty from the rocks around the playground, so he is quite a train wreck.