School stuff

So Parker has finished kindergarten. WooHoo!!! My little boy really is growing up. (Maybe it's just me but I feel like there is a big difference between kinder and 1st grade) They didn't have a kindergarten graduation (how lame is that?) but they did some fun things towards the end of the year that I was able to be part of. (Just in case you were wondering...I took advantage of Keeper not working BIG TIME!!! I always wanted to be the room mom or the one who brought up fun things and ate with your kid for lunch. Just in case you were wondering, unless you want to take advantage of every "somewhat friend" within the whole city on San Antonio or make every authority figure in the school duck every time you even drive by, you can't do everything with 3 little kids at home. Lucky for me I had a husband who was willing to let me go spend some time with Parker at school and a sister-in-law who stepped in to watch the monkeys too. Thanks Celeste).
Anyway, I went with Parker's class on a field trip to the children's museum. It was a blast but the 6 kids I was in charge of got away with anything...oops...I want to be the fun mom, remember:)


My group was Parker, Micheal, Jade, Nadia, Sinai, and Maddox. A fun but wild little group.

The whole class and Ms. Ramirez. She was great! Parker loved her. He came home his last day of school in tears because he didn't want a first grade teacher. He didn't want to leave Ms. Ramirez. It was her first year teaching and it was fun to see her and the kids learn and grow together.


They had a "dress as your favorite storybook character" day at school. The only costume that we had that isn't a Disney character is a cowboy so Parker went as Super Cool Max. This book is called "Mom Says I can" and I love it.

The last thing I went to and actually took pictures was field day. What a fun morning with Parker.





I loved being able to participate in Parker's fun activities at school. He's such a fun kid and I love watching him learn and grow.

Blanco State Park

We went camping out at Blanco State Park and it was fabulous! There weren't very many people there and it was fun to get away from it all. I think that's my favorite part about camping...getting away from everything! We took the kid's bikes and they went to town! It's hard keeping an eye on four kids riding bikes all over the place with our stupid neighbors who fly down the street and don't care whatsoever! It was fun to not worry about them getting hit by a car or something crazy like that.
By the way, Parker has learned to ride his bike with no training wheels. When Keeper was out of work we were able to practice a little more often and he took off and hasn't looked back. He's doing great!

Carson's still a fan of the training wheels:)

Camy tags along where ever she can squeeze in.

Camy liked going up and down these stairs

Bryn enjoyed being carted around.



The true joys of camping!

Mmmmmmm!!!

Carson loved this lizard. He's my wildlife boy.


This camping trip went so smoothly! We went on another one this past weekend and it didn't go quite as smoothly but I'll get to it sooner or later.

Update on the little one

Obviously I am behind on the blog and trying to catch up but our "little peanut" keeps doing new things so I thought I'd jot down a few things about Bryn at 10 months. Keeper went on a business trip a few weeks ago and that was when she decided she would take more than one step at a time. Little stinker! Now it's pretty common to catch her walking somewhere...unless she's in a hurry or gets scared. She definately took her time on the walking thing. She has been standing up for a while now. She would go from the floor and stand straight up and then just stay there for a couple minutes. I guess she had to master that before moving on. Brynlee doesn't say many words yet. Occationally she will say "mama" or "dada" and she even says "pa" for Park. She LOVES all of her siblings but when they are wild she runs for cover. She thinks she's funny and hams it up for anyone who will laugh at her. Recently she has decided that she won't smile normal for the camera. She has to be a big goof. She also started fake laughing. She's so funny! Bryn is the bully in Relief Society at church. She doesn't realize how tiny she is. She will take anyone on to get what she wants. Also, she is LOUD!!! I thought she was going to be this quiet little thing but instead she is a loud little bully. Oh well! We love our little girlie more than anything. She's so fun!
Hammin' it up!

Struttin' her stuff

Walking

Not a great video but it's what I have right now...oh well.

easter

We had a really fun Easter! It seems like the older the kids get, the more fun each holiday is. I love it!
Bryn really liked the candy around the house. She would attack their buckets as soon as they turned their backs.



We went to quite a few Easter parties and activities but for some reason I didn't get any pictures. I did get a few of the kids hunting here.

Fiesta Parade

Parker had his Kinder Fiesta Parade and we asked him what he wanted to do. He said something with sports...maybe basketball stuff. We had a lot of fun making his float. It was a working basketball hoop.


Unfortunately...the back of the float broke off before the parade even started. I think the kids kinda attacked it in the morning before the parade but Parker REALLY loved that float!
Also we were wrestling the other little ones when Parker came by and didn't get the camera out in time so this is the only picture we got. Oh well.

Fiesta Farms

After we got back from Idaho my sister-in-law invited us to their playgroup at Fiesta Farms. The kids had so much fun and Camy was so excited to see her "best friend Molly".



Also, on a side note, a couple months ago Little Miss doscovered the fun of toilet paper and now we have to keep bathroom doors shut or else it's everywhere! I love that little girl!

Idaho

Another long post...mainly for journal sake, not because I think many people will read it. They'll just look at the pictures:) So, like I said in the last post, Keeper was laid off on March 23rd. One of the big bosses flew in, told his boss the department was not needed anymore in San Antonio and about 70 people were out of jobs by the end of the week. Wells Fargo did actually pay them as if they were still employed for 60 days and then they got a severance package for a certain amount depending on how long they had been with the company. Keeper, not knowing that this was happening, was at the temple that morning and when he got out he had a ton of messages on his phone. His boss' message pretty much said get your butt in here, we're done!
Although it was stressful on both of us, I think the hardest part on Keeper was worrying about everyone else. He knew that we would be ok but having people he managed out of work and looking to him for advice was pretty hard.
It was a fun 6 weeks having him home. It's hard having him around all the time and schedules get thrown out the window but it was a real bonding time for all of us. We were able to cash in some credit card points and fly to Idaho to visit Keeper's parents and little sister. That was so much fun! We all love going to Idaho.

The kids loved feeding the heifers pellets. It was fun for them to get so close to them.



Keeper was able to get reacquainted with his upbringing. When his parents found out we were coming, they decided to "DO" the cows that weekend. They give them shots, dust them with powder (I think it helps keep flies away), and castrate the little bull calves that had been born that winter. I was worried that it would scare the kids (it scares me) but luckily it wasn't too bad and it was freezing cold so they hung out in the truck most of the time anyway.





Getting more pellets

"hanging" in the truck

Cool whip baby

Four wheeler rides

Bryn was so good!!!

acting like dogs...pretty normal for us:)

Reading books

Singing songs around the piano


We also were able to see Keeper's grandpa. Keeper worked a summer up at his grandpa's ranch and loves him so much so letting the kids see him again was really fun.





We also went to Kaylee's birthday party where we were able to hand out in Uncle Mike's AWESOME pool!!! Carson was a madman jumping off the diving board with no fear. It was so fun!
Parker idolized Kaylee. He was her little shadow the whole time. She is so sweet too. She makes him feel loved and special. Thanks Kaylee!
We love going to Idaho and were so excited that we were able to take advantage of Keeper's time off and let the kids get to know them better. It's hard being so far away from them.