Summer

 I'll admit, I was a little nervous for summer to begin.  I hadn't had all five kids home all day every day until now. I felt like I had big kids down to a baby I needed to entertain, and I was nervous I would feel overwhelmed and frustrated and end the summer I'd feel like a failure.  Honestly, I hit my knees and I hit the internet.  I came up with a brilliant summer routine that worked so well for our family.  We loved our summer- let the summer pics begin!!  Above, the kids are doing a window word search while waiting for Clark to wake up so we could go swimming.

 We had some friends who needed some help while mom was in the hospital, so we had three extra boys for a few days.  This is what a family of eight kids (Tanner must have been in the bathroom) under seven looks like!

 One night while we were getting ready for bed, Clark had the whole family as audience as he crawled for the first time!  He's on the move trying to keep up with this crowd!

 Our cute neighbors were moving and were kind enough to sell us their piano.  I was so excited to get a piano and so were the kids, but it kind of made me feel old- kind of like when we first got a minivan, but more exciting!

 This summer the boys went to Fishing Camp and loved it!  They learned all about fishing and had lots of opportunities to fish during their camp week.  When we went as a family, they were great to show us the ropes, so excited to teach us and show off what they learned.  We had a nice morning at the park putting worms on hooks and being super loud, so as to scare away any fish that might want to gobble up our wiggly worms.

I love that she has her fingers in the worm!

 So, I love taking slefies of the family in the car.  I tote these five awesome kids everywhere with me and I love the view in my rear view mirror.  I feel like these years are flying by and before I know it, those seats will have teenagers in them!  Have to capture my peeps while they're little.  And, to keep it real, above is a picture coming home from church, don't they look sweet?

 This is also a pic coming home from church!  It makes me laugh just looking at it!  They boys were hot and took shirts off, Amelia was wound up, and Clark had pooped out and is sitting in only a diaper and shoes in his seat!  This is real life, people!

Here are pics from fishing camp, protective eye wear and all.  

 Also keeping it real with this picture.  Mike is such a fantastic daddy and husband.  I really needed a break from this sweet baby, as I was trying to finish a project.  He had a great ride and enjoyed the fresh air and quality time with dad.

Last pic of the post (still working hard to get caught up)- I love that our kids are getting old enough to play games we enjoy!  Don't get me wrong, I can play a mean game of Elefun and Candyland, but it's kind of nice that they can play a game that's a little more challenging.  Love these kids!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the best daddy ever!!  Do you see these kids, they adore their daddy, with good reason! 

 Best gift ever!  Mike has been missing one hubcap on his car and it looked super white trash, so I found a circa 2002 Toyota Camry hubcap at a salvage yard!  Doesn't he look super excited?!

 Traditional microwave game.

 And the arm wrestling...

 This year we rounded out the competition using Mike's new croquette set.  It was such a lovely evening int he backyard celebrating our awesome daddy.

Mike is such a fantastic daddy!  He works really hard at work and serving as bishop, but he does such a beautiful job balancing his work with our young family.  He's so great to get down with the kids and truly engage with them and enjoy them.  They love and adore him because the feel the same love and adoration from him.  Love this man!!  So grateful he's the daddy with mama!

Oh, and then we went for a walk.  Such an ideal day!

My zoo at the zoo

 These boys love their maps, they always have!

 I might be a bit of a zoo snob after living near the Omaha and Cincinnati zoos.  It's the longest stretch we've gone since going to a zoo, but it was time.  I realized the kids just love the animals they get to see, who cares that it's not an awesome, beautiful zoo!  We had such a fun day, only wish our daddy could have joined us.

Love this view of mine!

Summer Starts

With the start of summer, there are a few cute faces I have to post.  Clark is such a smiley and happy baby, he's such a fun little person to have around.  

 On the last day of school, Andrew's teacher sent home a whole grocery bag full of activities for the summer and you can guess what Andrew was doing the very next morning.

 Andrew is my early riser and one morning the two of us headed out to the yard to get a little work done before everyone was up.  Andrew found this weird fungus growing in our flower bed.  He had so much fun pulling it apart and looking at it in detail.  Then, we came in and looked it up online to find out what it was.  I love how Andrew loves to learn about things, truly, he's always curious and constantly learning.

Reading is definitely one of Andrew's favorite things.  This particular morning, I thought it was so cute that he wanted his stuffed animals to get to read too.  So cute!  I'm loving this stage of childhood!