Last year for Christmas Grandma and Grandpa (Pumpkin) gave us a karaoke machine. The kids love it. Ashlynn especially loves singing the songs from the new movie Moana. Ashlynn has so much personality coming out recently; sometimes its crazy and sometimes its just a lot of fun. 

Kaylee also loves to sing. She likes "performing" in front of people. She get's nervous, but is a lot more brave and willing to get up in front of people than I ever could as a kid. For one of my YW Mia Maid lessons awhile back I asked Kaylee if she could sing the song "Gethsemane" to my class. My class has around 18 mia maids along with 4 leaders, and Kaylee not only sang but she brought the Spirit into that room so quickly. It was such an amazing experience. 

Connor also has quite the talent in singing but he doesn't like all the attention. He does really well when he participates in Up with Kids singing and acting after a lot of practice in front of the group, but he is not one to volunteer to sing or perform on his own.

For Memorial day this year we met up at my Grandpa Parker's grave and then I took the two older kids to Cherry Hill while BJ stayed home to work on framing the basement. Unfortunately Ashlynn tried to "help" daddy out more than he needed and put a screw in his saw while he wasn't looking so when he turned it on, the blade got ruined. He couldn't go buy a new saw blade though because I had the car with Ashlynn's carseat. Needless to say he didn't get to work on the basement that much until we got home. 

The kids were excited to start our summer out with good ole' Cherry Hill.

We are just so excited to enjoy this summer after everything that happened last summer. Here are some pictures of the kids at their end of school water day with their class. Since we are walking distance to the school I took Ashlynn over and snapped a few pictures of the kids while they were playing in the field.

L-R (Zoe Johnson, Chase Christensen, Jaxton, and Taylor is facing the opposite way.

Connor and Jed trying some tug a war

Kaylee and her friend Saydie all wet after running through the sprinklers while playing a game.

For BJ's birthday this year we invited a few family members to come over before the kids choir concert for some cake and ice cream.

No this is not just a birthday tradition to eat ice cream from the container. BJ does this almost everynight. He has a routine where he scrapes the ice cream off the top and makes it an even flat area, then when I come in and take a scoop of ice cream he has to eat more to make it all even again. He got this from his dad, who still does this from what I understand.

The kids did great at their choir concert. The room was hot hot with no AC and Ashlynn was crazy running around, but we made it through and had a good time.

We even got to enjoy having Uncle Spencer there to support. He had left for his mission not too long ago, but was suffering from some depression and other things he needed to come home for. We sure love Spencer...especially the kids as you can see.

Uncle Nate decided to make it a tradition to break your foot at the beginning of the summer and did it almost exactly a year after I had done it. Such a bummer. He broke it playing basketball but luckily didn't have to get surgery on it. No fun at all!

The kids are going to love this picture when they are older I'm sure. Kaylee got a bath bomb at her friend Emmie Scott's birthday party and her siblings were dying to try it out as well. So Kaylee so kindly shared a few minutes with them in the bath. They only stayed in the bath together for a little bit before I had them get out and let Kaylee enjoy her bath on her own. I'm glad they are still pretty good friends and are willing to share. I hope that continues.

The kids earned a free frozen yogurt from reading extra books in school, so we took those coupons in on the day they were having a fundraiser for the school and got frozen yogurt as a family. This picture makes it look like we were having a blast, but shortly after this a lot of whining occurred and then a lot of wind happened. I then got frustrated and put everyone in the car where we then enjoyed the rest of the yogurt at home while watching a show.

Pictures of their last day of school vs the pictures below of their first day of school. They have sure grown a lot in this past year.

Ashlynn and I enjoying a Popsicle while the kids are at school.

For Father's day daddy requested that we all go camping and fishing together.

I wasn't too excited to go camping because I had been not feeling well with the pregnancy. I had a pretty bad scare with bleeding and the doctor told me to take it easy. I took time off work and layed around a lot. BJ gathered pretty much everything for us to go, so all I had to do was pack my things and get in the car pretty much. He made it a lot more doable.

No fish were caught, but the kids had a good time trying with their very own fishing poles.

I can't speak enough high words about this man. He is such a good dad to these kids. He is patient and always finding ways to teach them and have fun with them.

Here is a few pictures of BJ singing "Going on a bear hunt" with the kids and getting them all giggly.

By far the two most favorite things the kids enjoy while camping is roasting things over the fire (hot dogs and marshmallows), and hanging out in the tent. These kids were in heaven as you can see.

Checking out our garden this year. We planted raised garden beds next to the house and planted some carrots, peas, and tomatoes. Everything did really well. This picture doesn't show very well how good the carrots did because we picked this one too early.

Kaylee came home from the last day of school with her shirt all colored on. I wasn't too mad since it wasn't her nicest shirts, but I will remember to take note of what shirt I let her wear on her last day for the end of this next school year. Kaylee was soo worried about me washing this shirt because some of the names might get washed off, so she had me take a picture beforehand.

My belly bump is starting to show. Here is a picture of me at 16 weeks 4 days. At 13 weeks we had a HUGE scare and thought for sure were were going to miscarry this baby. I was getting Ashlynn out of the car and felt a gush. I ran to the bathroom and found out I was bleeding and it wasn't a small amount. I was trying so hard to think straight and not totally lose it, but my mind was soo fuzzy and it felt like the room was spinning. I tried to put Ashlynn down for a nap, but my mind couldn't focus. I let the kids watch a show on the tv and went and texted BJ and my neighbor. I then called the doctor's office who told me they could get me in for an ultrasound. I called my mom and through tears I somehow got out what had happened. She sent my grandma over to be with me and the kids and BJ got home shortly after. The drive to the hospital was tough. We both thought we had miscarried and were really distraught about it. It felt like we had just barely let our guard down and then BAM everything was going wrong. When we got to the ultrasound and they saw the baby's heart beat and that everything looked good, both BJ and I cried happy tears. I was still nervous of what was going to happen since we didn't know why I had started bleeding. The nurse was not very helpful and kept telling me that it was a "threatened miscarriage" and there is nothing we can do to stop from miscarrying and whatever is going to happen will happen. THAT did not help me at all. Obviously I knew I couldn't stop a miscarriage, but hearing that over and over again just made me more stressed and sad. I took time off work and really took it easy. I had some spotting on and off a few days later that stressed me out, but it finally calmed down. At this picture I was 16 weeks and starting to gain hope again that maybe things were going to be okay. It was quite the roller coaster of events.

At this point in the pregnancy I was craving a lot of salads and at them pretty much everyday.

Here is a picture of Kaylee suffering eating the beef hot dog she did not want.

BJ taught the kids to plug their nose when they were eating something they didn't like. Poor Kaylee was not too happy about dinner tonight.

The kids helped a lot while I was taking it easy after the scare with the pregnancy. They came out and were weeding for me. Such good helpers.