Family Pictures 2014

We have a giant empty wall in our living room, and I knew that I wanted a big canvas picture of our family to go over the piano.  I bought a canvas deal and had to use it by the end of April; as April came to a close, I got desperate to have family pictures taken.  Uncle Riley, Aunt Kacie, and Grandma were kind enough to meet us at Chapungu Sculpture Park by Centerra to take our pictures.

My good friend Katie is a professional photographer, and she saved the day by offering to edit the pictures for me.  I think between Riley's skill as a photographer and Katie's skill editing, our pictures turned out great!  A huge thank you to Riley and Katie, Grandma and Kacie!!

Easter

We started our Easter festivities by hosting our co-op preschool and having an Easter theme.  The kids sorted Easter eggs by color, made bunny faces out of marshmallows, and created their own bunny snack.  Emma and Joely showed theirs off for the camera before devouring them.  (Emma got to be at preschool because she had afternoon kindergarten.)

The bunnies were made out of mini powdered donuts, jelly beans, sprinkles, and paper ears that I made ahead of time.  Pretty cute!

At kindergarten,  Emma made bunny ears she hopped around the house with.

Our ward held an Easter party on Saturday, complete with an Easter Egg hunt.  Our neighbors and friends Kolby, Justin and their mom Lisa came.  We had a great time eating lunch, listening to the primary kids sing, and then hunting for those eggs.  Joely even won the coloring contest for her age group and got a giant purple bunny!

Happily hunting for eggs.

Showing off their prizes.

We took Easter Sunday pictures before we left for church, while they still looked good!

Easter dresses (at least one is a repeat from last year, but it still fits!)

Aw, my handsome man!

We went straight to Grandpa and Grandma McClure's house after church for Easter dinner.  We did our family Easter Egg hunt there.

Getting ready to go out for the hunt.

She found the Peeps!

All Finished!

Uncle Riley's Court of Honor

We drove home from Orem on General Conference Sunday and made it home just in time to grab some dinner and change into our Sunday clothes before heading back up to Fort Collins for Riley's Court of Honor.  I'm so glad we were able to make it!

The Court of Honor was awesome.  We especially loved one of the speakers who presented each of the Eagle Scouts being honored with an axe.  It definitely caught Carson's attention!

Way to go, Riley!

Best Friends

My favorite of the night.

These two are alike in a lot of ways.

The Miracle of the Rocks

Once spring finally settled in, it was time to begin landscaping.  The mud and dirt needed to go!  Our first step was doing the rock that is required by our HOA.  We are required to have a significant portion of our yard done in rock, I guess as a water-saving effort.  We placed our order and the dump truck came and dumped a LOT of rock.  I kept looking at that pile and dreading the work that it was going to take to move it.  I knew if Dave did it alone it would take a full, back-breaking day and I was dreading it, probably almost as much as he was.  

On Friday night Dave worked to get a lot of the landscape fabric laid down where the rock would go.  He didn't get it all down, but most of it.  Saturday morning he jumped out of bed early and headed out to begin.  I was still trying to wake up when I heard voices outside that weren't Dave's.  That gave me all the incentive I needed to haul myself out of bed and get ready for the day quickly.  Sure enough, we had a whole bunch of ward members show up out of the blue (we had NO IDEA) with their gloves, wheelbarrows, and shovels and they set to work moving our rock.  There were enough people and wheelbarrows going that Dave could barely keep up with the landscape fabric.  It was amazing, and our friends are amazing!  I was talking with Dave about getting to Emma's soccer game at 11:00 and the Bishop said that the goal was to have our whole family make it by then.  I chuckled, thinking, "Yeah right, that would take a miracle."  Well, by about 10:15 all the rock had been moved and our once-giant pile was nothing but a wet spot on the street. I've dubbed it our Miracle of the Rocks, and I hope our whole family remembers it. 

The pile started out even bigger than this...

And then our friends came and manhandled it!

The rock goes all the way around the house.

Someday we'll build a deck in the back, but for now it'll just be rock. Gotta love HOA requirements!

I didn't even know everyone who came and helped, but I was sure grateful.

Getting smaller...

We had one area that was missing landscape fabric.  Sister Reese had some she gave to us, but while we were waiting the wheelbarrows were filled and ready.

Raquel, Ethan, and Emily.  They were so happy to help!

Mariah, Rachel, and Raquel.  These girls are superheroes.

Coneheads! Goofing around always makes the job more fun.

Katie took Joely to the park to play so we didn't have to worry about her.  Seriously, our neighbors and friends are incredible!

Nothing left but a big wet spot.  I call that a miracle.

Joely's First Day of Preschool

We randomly started a co-op preschool in April when there were six weeks left in the school year.  It was perfect to have a couple of field trips and let everyone take a turn teaching the kids.  Joely was ecstatic!  She couldn't wait to go to school.  She's pretty darn cute, I think!

It's fun because it's the same backpack the older two wore to preschool as well.  Tradition.

Baptism Photo Shoot

Sara's sister-in-law Jamie is a photographer and she agreed to take Carson and Anna's baptism pictures while we were in town.  It was a cold day with storm clouds looming, but in the end the pictures turned out great.  I took a bunch of pictures of all the fun while the real photographer was working...

My handsome boy!

Watching Anna's photo shoot.

Emma wanted me to take lots of pictures of her around the temple grounds.  She'll be ready when she's 8!

I love these two...

BFFs, as Emma calls them.

These two really do love each other.  I'm so glad they get to grow up and be buddies all the way.

Yep, that's exactly what I bought the new suit for...crawling around outside.

Did I mention it was cold?

Sara and Anna

Sara and Henry

 Okay, I went a little crazy with this one... I like to joke that Carson and Anna will get married someday because they have the same birthday and then Sara and I will be connected for forever.  So Carson had his CTR ring and Anna didn't.  Her Aunt Jamie suggested she borrow Carson's for a CTR picture.  He was totally okay with that and started pulling off his ring while she held her hand out.  I thought it was too cute!  A little ring exchange on the temple grounds...who knows, maybe someday it'll happen for real!  (I really am teasing about this!)

Trying to get it on the right finger.

His hands were SO chapped.

Success.

Man, I love him.

I think this is my favorite picture of the day.  They just have so much fun together.

Keep your eyes focused here, little man, and you'll be alright.