Emma is in a stage of wanting to wear "simming soups" , "reotards" and "dance" all day. Today she changed her clothes seven times before lunch. She went from a swimming suit put on backwards so that it looked like a wresting getup, to "dance"(tights, leotard and tutu) to clothes, to swimming suit to ...well you get the idea. She got in her "dance" and wanted me to dance with her. So blastin the radio to "You belong to me" by Taylor Swift, we danced all around. She looked up at me and with her huge blue eyes, said mom "I pretty". then while doing her hair she said "mom, I princess." Oh how I hope she always feels as good about herself as she does right now. I know this is next to impossible, but it truly is a life lesson about how we view ourselves. I realized today that at one point, I probably felt that way about myself, because no one had told me I shouldn't. So to all my girls out there, You are pretty and you are a princess!!! Love you just the way you are!

{Baseball 2010}

We are loving baseball this year! We finally got signed up and it only took us three years to figure it out. Baseball in Montana is intensely competitive, but unlike Utah, we have yet to have parents yelling at coaches. Yeah! I really like the friendliness of Montana. The boys love their coach... Max

Caleb


Duggout!

Caleb up to bat!

Their coach is Ryan. He was lucky enough to get both boys on the same team, so there was no fight about whose team he would coach. He was a little hesitant to coach at first, but has loved it just as much as the boys.

Max up to bat!

The cheerleaders on the sidelines!

We have a lot of fun watching them.

Noah who is pretty much anti-sports, even said..."that looks like fun." Maybe next year we can even get him to play.

{I wake up to...}

This right outside my window and the sun streaming in!
Such a feeling of contentment each morning. Love it! So much so that I have started running outside each morning before the kids wake up.
I usually wake up to this beside me. At some point during the night, she usually finds her way into my bed. I am such a deep sleeper, that I hardly ever know when she comes in until morning, when I wake to her. She is such a joy. We have taken to calling her shadow! She follows someone around all day, and don't even think about leaving the house without her...she finds a way to go with whoever is leaving...we really don't mind though, she is so even tempered and patient and quiet that we usually don't mind her around, in fact we love it.
Love that Mara!

Happy Mother's Day

So I was in the kitchen making pie crusts for my delicious mother's day dessert of strawberry pie, when Mara walked in and quite matter of factly stated that I was not to go look in "Sam's broken room" because "there are flowers hiding in there." Chuckling just slighly, while trying to remain serious I said. "Mara you shouldn't have told me, I like surprises." "Well!" she said without missing a beat. "I said they were flowers, but I didn't say which kind of flowers"
Then later when the kids were getting out of the bath, Emma was supposed to be getting her pajamas, but wanted to wear a leotard instead. Caleb was trying to get her to take pajamas, and as she came to her dad she said in a very distraught voice "Dad, the boy took my reotard(leotard).
Hope your mother's day is as great as that!

{Mara's Dance Recital}

I was so excited to see her dance. Finally after all that waiting through boys soccor and baseball games (that I truly enjoyed) it was time for something girly! I was probably just as excited as she was. She loved her costume. I took her to the waiting area with her class and was so excited to go sit with the family and watch her dance. But she had other ideas. She would not let me leave her sight. I had to wait with her the whole time. Bummer was that if you volunteered to help backstage you got a free DVD of the nights performance. I didn't want to be stuck backstage for her first recital, so I didn't volunteer, then ended up back there the whole time anyway. Oh well, she did great on stage and wasn't shy at all. I was grateful for that!

The Prosser's brought her flowers! They were just as beautiful as she was. Emma loved the whole night and has since said multiple times, "Next year, me Mara's dance too. You see me dance." She loved the costume, and Mara was nice enough to let her try it on afterwards.

Love that grin!

It almost fits Emma the same as on Mara.

Love those girls and can't wait until next year when they both can dance!

{Preview of Mara's Dance Recital}

Mara and Cadee

so stinkin cute!

Can't hardly wait...

{Climbing...}

How did they get up there? Where are they? Oh, just on top of the shed that houses our well-pump. They are ingenious, and their imagination never ceases to amaze me. They have the childhood I dreamed of having. Pigs, goats, chickens, free range of land around them, inventing things, building forts, running barefoot, haylofts in a barn, carefree living. I love it. One day I went outside to see they had rigged up their own climbing wall. Who needs repelling ropes?
Ryan is the coach for Caleb and Max's baseball team, and they are LOVING baseball. Of course you can tell by their pose. I hope that they will never change. I love their personalities, how they get so excited about small things like making clay necklaces, learning about the Romans, catching a baseball and making up slides that go off of really tall well-houses. I love little boys, the mischief they make, the constant wrestling and teasing, the battles, and the energy. I love them!

Here's their set up. It all started with Noah...he has always been my monkey! At nine months he couldn't walk, but he could scoot a chair and get on top of the table. He just liked to be high...I guess it has stuck. He still can climb a straight tree with no branches sticking out...we figure he must be part Polynesian. He is the instigator in this little climbing adventure, but Caleb has no fear of heights, and is sweet enough that after they got their set-up on top of the well house, he mad a smaller slide for the girls off the hitching post. No wonder they love him.

My polk-a-dot lady! I hope you never change. She is just enough shy to keep her reserved, but when she gets to know you watch out, she is all "TUDE" {short for attitude}. She loves mud, sidewalk chalk and her long polk-a-dot skirt! She is a tough girl who follows me around just like my shadow. I love it! She can fence with the best of them and loves the animals. She is such a hard worker and is still helping long after the boys have gotten distracted. I love her! I hope she will always like me as much as she does now.

{Guilley Monsters}

Caleb and Max had baseball practice with Ryan tonight, so Sam and Noah, Mara, Emma and I went to the mall to hang out with Sarah! We had Orange Julius, and then walked back through Sheel's.{a huge sporting goods store} There was a full size mannequin dressed up in a guilley suit. It is camo with lots of hairy weed like strings hanging off it. When we saw it I froze and slowly started walking toward it. The girls, sensing my caution instantly were on edge. Then they say it, we slowly got closer to it, and when we were close enough to touch it I jumped at my girls! Boy oh Boy did they squeal! Then they laughed. I promptly showed them that it was just a mannequin and they were just clothes, but Emma was still not going near it. Then Sam pretended to be caught by it. Emma really did not go for that. Sarah was holding Emma and she just kept sayin' "scare me" I was totally giggling! What can I say, I'm warped! I get it from my mother, she would always jump out at us!
As we were leaving, Emma just kept sayin' "freaky monster" like 40 times.
This morning when she woke up, I said "Emma did you see a freaky monster last night" her eyes got big and she said yah! "Sarah save me!" She is so funny!

Savoring each Moment

I can't get the computer to upload my pictures, so I will try later, but I have the feeling lately that I need to savor each moment of each day. The kids have decided to go back to school next year, and I am trying to just savor each late morning, and each bit of day that I get to be with them and teach them. I have to admit, I love being the one to introduce them to new things and teach them cool tricks. I will miss it terribly. I also realize that if I am going to get this school thing done, something has got to give. I am trying to not feel like a failure, but have such mixed emotions. I actually am looking forward to some time with just the girls, since if I tell the truth, they don't get my attention like the boys did, because I am always helping the boys with school. I really loved the leisurely schedule of home school. Loved getting to read to my kids everyday, have devotional and do arts with them. I am hoping that I can get my school done, and then do home school again when I can really focus on just them.
I am loving the easy pace of life and the satisfaction I get from our land and animals. There is truly a peace that I feel here, even if it is mixed with longings for home. I am thinking that those feelings are probably stronger now because I miss my parents while they are on their mission. I am content in our surroundings and love each one of my kids so immensely. They bring so much pure JOY to me. They are so GOOD. I don't know where they get it, but they are inherently good. They never cease to amaze me with their abilities. I bask in their perfection, because to me they are perfect, and a great reminder of what is truly important in this life.
I watched the primary kids sing is sacrament meeting "I Know that My Saviour Loves Me" the new song they are learning this year and I saw Mara, only four, sing every word with such conviction that I couldn't help but feel her knowledge: that she just knew. I was struck by how innate that knowledge comes to these kids. They do know, and what a great responsibility it is to help them keep that knowledge.
I am grateful for each day and each moment that defines my life-good and bad, for they are all experience and I will take it! I am so far from getting there, but each day I just keep trying! and that trying is all that is required.

{Garden Service}

We went out for family night to help our friend's the Birkeland's till their garden. The kids all had a hay day...riding 4-wheelers...

wheelin' rocks in the wheel barrow...


and playing "night games" with the big kids!