May in Pictures

On May 4th, my dad had training in Sandy, and my mom tagged along. We picked her up for a visit, and Gabe helped her with her bags:

 Chelsea and Taryn met up with us for lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Sandy. It was so great chatting with my sisters.

 For May the Fourth, we made cookies and cream candy melt figures with our Star Wars Molds.

 I think we've all decided that candy melts aren't that amazing after a few bites. We need to come up with something better to fill those molds with!

In May, we planted a Macintosh apple tree. Our other Macintosh died.

 Gabe didn't want to be planted in the hole!

I planted my pathetic garden. It sort of grew. 

We also cut down our aspen trees in our front yard after mostly successfully killing them. Our neighbor Scott helped and supplied a chain saw. 

 We even hauled both trees away the same day. We were pretty proud of ourselves. Michael made a sign for the back of our trailer.

May meant lots more swimming lessons. 

 Rachel finally started learning her back stroke!

We worked Gabe so hard, and finally, just before we left for Texas, he figured out how to float on his own. He was always so worn out after swimming! 

One time after swimming--I think it was release night--we went to the BYU Creamery for dinner and dessert. 

 We love the Creamery!

Brian's friend from marching band, Katelyn, and her husband Josh, stopped by to see us on their visit to Utah. It had been so long since we'd seen them! Jared and Mark were also able to stop in, as well as Amy--all French Horns. While they were here, Katelyn's daughter pushed her other daughter off of our trampoline. Our net had been torn but was still attached, giving her a false sense of security. We felt so bad because she broke her arm in the fall. We bought a new net immediately.

 We got haircuts. Gabe wasn't so sure that was necessary.

 My old roommate from Aspen Grove, Will, asked me to take pictures of him in his L.A. County Sheriff's Office uniform. I took his family pictures also, and it was so great to see Meagan and the girls again and to meet their two boys. It's been too long!

The week leading up to Mothers' Day brought me this mess:

Rachel accidentally knocked a jar of salsa off of the shelf, and the jar broke and splattered salsa all over the pantry. What a mess! This led to finally putting my jumbled mothers' day thoughts into a Facebook post, which I have published here on our blog in a separate post. 

I woke up to this wonderfulness on Mother's Day. 

 Brian tried to single handedly get everybody ready for Church. He even got dinner in the oven. For the record, it was delicious! He's pretty amazing!

 For Mother's Day, one thing I want is a picture of me with all my kids.

 And our family.

 Michael finished soccer, and I took their team pictures.

Michael loves to go out and practice soccer in the yard. 

So we got this new target when we ordered a new net for our trampoline.

I took all these little shoes to Deseret Industries, our local thrift store. I got a little choked up letting go of them. 

The kids had some chariot races.

We finished up dance with friend day, and Rachel brought her friend Ceci.

Gabe remains our cutest eater:

 

And sleeper. And sleeper in the middle of being an eater:

A bird did this:

Gabe found my shoes:

One day, I went in Gabe's room and found him like this. 

 

At first glance, there's nothing out of the ordinary, except that he pulled this shirt out of a box that was on the floor by his crib and put it on all by himself.

At one point in May, the kids got a hold of my phone.

Gabe and Rachel had some fun with sidewalk chalk. If you look to the left, you will see that Gabe also drew on our wall. It's still there, last I looked.

We played.

Sometimes while we were supposed to be sleeping.

Here's Gabe watching Rachel's dance recital.

The kids love to play on the treadmill bar while I'm getting ready in the morning.

We made sugar cookies together. I love baking with the family, especially when Brian's around. Gabe clearly didn't understand how the cookie cutters work.

These two are the best when they play together. It's one of my favorite things.

We are pro-popcorn advocates. We take our popcorn eating seriously, and here's some proof:

Brian and I made it to the temple in May! We drove all the way to Provo to make it happen, but we made it!

For some reason, it is really hard to make these trips happen, but we're going to try to be better. Our goal is to go once a month, but we haven't always reached that goal. Okay, we rarely reach that goal!

It was a busy, busy May, and then all at once, it was June...