Family Pictures

It was such a beautiful day yesterday. We decided to try and take pictures of the children at the park near our house. It really does change exponentially when you add more children to a picture. Nearly impossible to get all of them looking/smiling/sitting still/not touching each other, at the same time.

Miles, Levi, Corbin, Hunter and Ella-marie
CorbinMiles

Ella-marie

Hunter Levi

It's always a good time when you put five children together to try and get a happy picture!

It's great to be a terrific 2!

Levi is officially 2! He made it! I think that calls for a celebration no matter whether it's his birthday or not!

Levi was excited to see a raspberry cocoa cake with chocolate fudge glaze on it. Who knew he would be such a connoisseur of cake?

(I really love when kids are too young to ask for funfetti cake out of a box and instead I get to make what I want!)

Blowing out the candles. He didn't need any help. There may have been a teensy bit of spittle on the cake, but I cut him the piece closest to him.What a happy 2 year old!

Opening presents, with everyone's help, of course.

P.S. As a side note, I'm potty-training Levi. "Why do I do this to myself" you may ask? It's like torture, no matter how you go about doing it. But I guess I just have to stick with it now, too late to go back to diapers.

Temple Trip

We took the children down the the Columbia South Carolina Temple with us this weekend. It was our first trip there (even though it is the closest!) and boy, did we have a fun time. The first fun thing was the 4 1/2 hour drive through the mountains. And our van decided that it didn't want anything to do with driving. Which is really unfortunate. We just kept praying though, and it made it by the skin of it's teeth.

Spencer took the children swimming at the hotel that evening while I went to the temple...and then in the morning I took the kids to the park while Spencer went. I took some pictures at the temple. They just look so cute and innocent!

Very cute, and very friendly. Look! None of them are fighting!
Another cute picture. Levi is trying really hard to be reverent.

It was a successful weekend. Spencer and I enjoyed our time at the temple, the children enjoyed the pool and the park. Score!

Quote!

We went on a hike today in honor of Labor Day (I think Spencer and I labored the most with children on our backs)! I just wanted to share a conversation we had with Ella-marie whilst on the trail.

Ella-marie finds a beautiful specimen of an acorn and asks...

"Can we crack it open and find out what's inside?

What is inside acorns Mommy?

I think there's a baby squirrel inside."

At which point we all start laughing hysterically, especially Ella-marie, even though she may not have understood why exactly we were laughing.

Overall it was a great hike, only a few scraped knees, a few tears and some delicious granola bars. Who cares that we didn't actually make it to the end of the trail to see the overflow from the lake, it was still a beautiful day.

Happy 1st Day of School!

It is official...summer is now over. Corbin and Miles had their first day of school today. I can't believe that Corbin is in 2nd grade and Miles is in 1st. Where has the time gone. I tried to take a picture of them in their 1st day glory, but would you know, the camera didn't work. I tried to take out the battery and there was something sticky stuck in there with it...hmmm...any guesses? And any guesses on who the culprit was? All have plead innocence, but I know better.

So I rustled around until I found our old camera, and had to find batteries for that. Gee whiz, it's a wonder we weren't late for school. I have the pictures on our old camera, and lo and behold, I can't find the right connector cable. Sometimes I just feel like banging my head against the wall.

Oh well, Happy 1st Day of School to everyone!

Look-alike Meter

I went to this funny website www.myheritage.com and use the look-alike meter to check on our children. The good news is that they don't look anything like the milkman! I tried to post the results, but it wouldn't let me, so I'll tell you instead...

Corbin- looks more like me by 14%

Miles- looks more like Spencer by 7%

Ella-marie- looks more like Spencer by 29%

Hunter- looks more like Spencer by 6%

Levi- looks more like Spencer by 17%

I think the shocking one was that Ella-marie looks so much like Spencer. I never would have guessed that. I thought that Miles and Levi looked the most like Spencer. And since I apparently have the recessive genes in the family, I'm glad I have one child who looks like me.

Miles' Birthday!

Miles is officially 6 years old now! It's hard to believe. We had his party a day early because we left on vacation the day after.

Everyone wanted to help unwrap the presents! This is quite the action shot of Miles. Why is he putting his six fingers beside his face to blow out the candles?? We shall never know. He chose mint chocolate chip ice-cream cake roll for his cake. A family favorite. Perhaps he was swayed by his mother, but I plead the 5th.