Before I had kids, I would have 100% told you winter was my favorite time of the year. I loved it being cold, I loved wearing coats, I loved snuggling up with a hot drink.

Now, I am 100% in love with summer. Mostly because the kids can be outside from dawn until dark, they don’t need jackets, we are rarely sick and it’s just awesome. I love that Jon only has one job in the summer and everything just feels relaxed and great.

This year, we’ve been killing ourselves trying to get this backyard done. When we first were looking at our house while it was on the market, we were thinking we’d do a good clean and then remodel the backyard first. Well, insert the rodent infestation and priorities quickly reversed. 😉 So, we ended up spending our yard budget on the kitchen and had to put the yard off for a few years.

We finally have the cash for the yard, which we are so excited about, but my muscles aren’t loving it. 😉

Father’s Day 2018. We are so thankful for this guy!!

Nathan had the idea to spell “Dad” with bacon and I thought it was genius. Ha! So cute.

We went to Wecks for lunch and then spent the afternoon and dinner time at Gammy and Pops’ house. They have the best driveway for bike riding!

Jon and I were working in the yard (because what else do we do) and the kids took a board and connected two giant dirt piles to make a “mountain bridge”. It was SO cute to listen to them play on it – it sounded like they were trying to cross Niagara Falls. Love it.

We finally had the sandbox area dug up and framed out and it was time to move the playset! Nathan has been the BIGGEST help. That kid lives for yard projects. We called in a few friends and they moved the whole thing in like 30 seconds. It was amazing.

It’s coming together!! We put the final bricks on our fire pit area. The sand is on it’s way!

Nathan took a break from running wheelbarrows full of sand and I caught this sweet brother moment. They are SO excited for the new yard!

We took a break from the yard to celebrate our sweet Junie’s birthday. Parker loves Junie with all his heart. Such sweet friends!

We hit up Costco on the way home. Not sure there’s a more accurate picture describing how tired we all are after all this yard work. Ha!

Summer time is the time when I work outside all day and then come inside just in time to bake a few dozen cookies. We try to spread them around the neighborhood so we don’t eat them all. 😉

We celebrated Memorial Weekend with ice cream and apple pie and now it officially feels like summer.

Little cuties sitting in a VERY overwhelming backyard. Ugh – we are still in that place of constant work with very little to show for it.

Eisley dressed herself to go with me to Hobby Lobby. She cracks me up. Multiple people stopped me to tell me how cute she was as she stomped loudly through the store. I told Jon we gave birth to Ramona. 😉

Parker Bear finished up his T-ball season! He was so shy and proud of his trophy.

Pretend play is in full swing around here now – I LOVE this stage! She is just the busiest little mama taking her babies everywhere. She told me she took them to the store and they were so “WOWD.” Yep. Been there, sister.

Swimming in the desert. Oy.

Speaking of pretend play, I had three kids camping on the Oregon Trail this morning. So funny. They play in their forts for HOURS.

Little Miss loves herself some coffee. She’ll even drink it black. I guess I shouldn’t have expected any different with my girl. 😉

A sure sign of summer… out come the freckles! I love this time of year.

After graduation, Caleb and Nicole came back through Albuquerque on their way to Dallas to his new job, so all the cousins got to see each other for a few days!

It was SO fun. There were kids everywhere. Everyone had the best time!

This little one was definitely the star of the show. 😉 Nora is the sweetest, cuddliest little love. All of my kids asked if we could keep her. Ha!

The other star of the show was Nama!! We love, love when she comes to visit! SO fun to see her and spend some good, quality time with her!

The final star of the show were these tiny hands we gave Caleb as a joke graduation gift. I mean…hysterical. My sides hurt from laughing.

Goodness, I love my family.

This past weekend, I headed out on a 27-hour trip to watch my brother, Caleb, graduate from dental school. What a huge accomplishment! I’m so proud of him!

Such a wonderful time! I absolutely loved that I got to go.

Cutest family EVER. The kids are just adorable! I love seeing them so much! They are coming back through Albuquerque after graduation, so we’ll get to spend lots of time with them.

The four originals. Love, love, love these people!! Congrats Caleb!!

We made it!! It was such a fun, exhausting, GOOD school year. Nathan did a ton of work – he ended up doing two years of schoolwork this year and finished a grade ahead. I’m so proud of him! Parker learned to write his name and entertain himself without his brother (a big feat for this one!). Eisley just kept on excelling at being a little sister. 😉

Goofy kids.

And, just because I like to cry at how fast time is flying by, here’s our first day of school picture back in August:

Please slow down, time. Please, please.

We love, love, LOVE when Nama comes to visit!!

There’s a little market that has come a couple of times to Albuquerque that gets set up at the State Fairgrounds and it’s just the cutest thing – all kinds of farmhouse-style home decor. Mom, Nama and I went and walked around for a while one afternoon and it was so much fun!

We celebrated a late Mother’s Day with her too – Parker had to help her open her gift. His little face is so cute.

The boys BEGGED and begged to get to “camp out” in their room one night. I finally said that was fine and I think this picture captured the twelve minutes they actually slept that night. Needless to say, we did not camp out the following night.

This is how Eisley sleeps every night. Hands under her cheek, bunny right beside her. Her days in the crib are numbered and I’m trying to soak up the last of the baby days. As excited as I am for the days of all big kids, the new chapter on the horizon will be so different than this one. Motherhood is a constant teeter-totter of loving the stages we’re in, excitement for the stages to come and grieving the days that are gone.

Well, it had been a bit, so I guess it was time for another round of strep for my girl this week.

Bless her heart. She went from totally fine to a sky-high fever and down for the count in less time than I could really process it. We got her in right away and they started her on antibiotics. Third case this year already. Poor baby girl. At least we have the road to recovery worn in pretty well.

A day or two of Doc McStuffins marathons, medicine and some pink popsicles and she was back to our smiling Eisley girl.

Once we reach the heels and princess dresses, I am usually convinced she’s all better. Ha!

I walked into the office and found this on the desk and could not stop laughing. SO funny. Nathan draws all the time now and this picture is absolutely priceless. Ha! The details kill me!

Today was such a sweet, hard day.

I woke up to a delicious breakfast that everyone had worked hard to make for me. Nathan found this recipe for breakfast egg muffins in his recipe book (a subscription gift from Gammy!) and made them almost completely on his own! Such a sweet boy!

Sweet babies. I am so so blessed!!

After our Mother’s Day breakfast and church, where we heard an amazing sermon, we headed over to my parents’ house for lunch. We had been working so so hard on these for months and so, on Mother’s Day, Bryant and Nicole and their kids, Cayce, Pops and us all showed up at Mom’s door and surprised her with our new shirts.

Mom was so surprised and immediately burst into tears. Then we came inside, gave her her shirt and told her to check her phone and she found all of these on there:

We worked very, very hard to get everyone done for Mother’s Day! I love this so much.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!! We love you!

(I’m finally getting to those backdated posts! 😉 )

Nathan has done basically nothing else except reading Boxcar Children lately! Our dear friend Leigh Ann let us know that a few theaters around the country were doing a one day only special showing of Surprise Island, the second book in the series, and Nathan was DYING to go. It seemed like good incentive for him to read, so I told him if he finished the book first, we could do it. He finished it and we left for the theater!

We were the absolute only people in the theater. And Nathan was SO excited when Jon showed up to watch it with us. He was giddy the entire time we watched it. It was a good thing we were the only people there because he kept shouting the spoilers. Ha!

Such a happy day for our biggest boy!

Apparently this is how we have to call which banana belongs to us now. Good grief.

I pulled out the Instant Pot to make dinner and this one took that opportunity to play in the cabinets. I feel like she’s changing from baby to big girl in front of my eyes. She’s all about the accessories right now. And I love seeing all the curls she’s growing!

 

Today, I sat down to start writing and looked over and saw this.

I think it says a lot about how far I’ve come as a mother of boys that I just sighed and moved it.

Parker has been asking for MONTHS for Maila to get to come to watch him play t-ball and finally, one Saturday morning, Jon and I had Maila hop in the car with the kids on our way to the game. He was SO happy.

Maila is insane. And annoying. Basically she excels at being a puppy.

This kid adores her with all of his entire heart.

That night was Little League night at the minor league stadium in town and someone was very hopped up on sheer excitement and Dippin’ Dots. 😉 He was SUCH a grouch the next day. Too much people.

Apparently this post is going to be all about Parker. Ha! This is what Parker prefers to do. He LOVES one on one time and lately, he’s been very into Legos with Gammy when it’s family dinner night. Almost every Sunday night, he walks in the house and while all the other kids are running outside, he’s going for the Lego box and yelling, “Hey Gammy?! Want to play Legos?” So cute. And so sweet of Mom to always play for a little bit, even when her medicine has been making her legs hurt. Please keep praying for my mom!