Family Pictures

My mom's ward had a service auction a couple of months ago for their YW camp fundraiser.  There is a photographer in my mom's ward that auctioned off several time slots for photo shoots.  My mom ended up snagging one of them.  This was the most painless photo shoot I have ever been to.  This lady was awesome.  We were in and out of there in 20-25 minutes, and my kids loved her.  Here are just a few of the shots she took.

 All of us... and I am happy to say that my brother was very good about looking and smiling at the camera.  (I just have to give him a hard time because he's my little brother.)  ;)

 Preston's smile in all of these pictures cracks me up.  I love it!

 Just the boys.

 The whole family again.  We got just a few minutes where it stopped raining long enough we could head outside.

All the kiddos.

 My sweet hubby and I.

My bro and my mama.

It has been so long since we've had any family pictures taken.  The last time we did was when Buds was just barely 2.  It was high time!

Goin' Walkin'

My baby girl has been taking a few steps here and there over the last month.  Not many, just two or three at a time, then she would drop back to her knees and crawl.  There was one time where she took ten steps, but she had some serious motivation because I was holding her bottle out for her.  (She loves that thing!)  She has a little pink princess car that she likes to push around.  And she would much rather push a stroller than sit in it, so I knew this whole walking business was bound to start at any time.  Yesterday she finally started walking as much as she would crawl.

Last night we all went outside to burn off that last bit of energy before it was bedtime.  We brought Jilly's little car out for her, and she was practically running up and down the sidewalk with it, then she just let go and started walking all on her own.  She isn't walking 100% of the time yet, but today she has been walking more than yesterday.  I bet by the time Trent gets back from Scout camp with the boys, she'll have some new tricks to show her dada.  :)

A Week's Worth of Stuff :)

Last week was a busy one for us.  Nothing unusual with it it being the end of the school year. 

Colson received a couple of awards at the end of the school year for being an outstanding student.

We went to his 5th grade continuation.  Looking sharp!

I can't believe he's going to be a 6th grader next year!

Walking up to the podium to receive his "diploma".

Shaking hands with the principal and teachers.

My boy is so big!

The class of of 2019.

The big exit.

I'll have two kids in middle school next year.  When did I get so old?!

Lovin' my sweet boy.

With teacher, Mrs. Christy, who is absolutely amazing!

With best buds, Jared and Mac.

The same day, Vivi had her picnic lunch at the park with her class.  The grandmas were so nice to go to this with her since Trent and I were at Colson's continuation.

Loving the park.

Vivi on her last day of school with her teacher, Mrs. Johnson.  Colson had her for a 1st grade teacher as well.  We're hoping we can keep the trend going and that Preston will have her when he is in first grade.  We love her to pieces!

Here is our cupcake for the week.  Colson chose molten chocolate cupcakes.  Super yummy!

We have had some gorgeous sunsets this past week.  Even more beautiful than normal.

Jilly had her first ride in the hummer.  She laughed the whole time.  :)

T had some fun borrowing the neighbor girl's purple scooter.  He cracks me up to no end.

Trent turns 37 tomorrow.  He is such a good dad, he is spending his birthday waking up at 5:00 am to head off to scout camp with Trenton.  Since he and T are going to be gone, and since most of the rest of the family are going to be out of town this week, we celebrated last week.  We also celebrated Father's Day.

Blowing out the candles.  It came as a shock to me when they put the number 37 on the cake.  I could have sworn he was only turning 36.  How did I miss a year?  My mom made a super yummy tiramisu dessert, Trent's favorite.

After the BBQ/birthday/Father's Day celebrations, we all went to the park where we played on the playground, swung on the swings, rode scooters and long boards, took Ziggy for walks, and played lots of tennis.  (I couldn't believe how sore my arm was the next day!)  Jilly is getting so close to walking!  She could totally do it if she wanted to, but honestly, I think it is too slow for her.  She crawls at lightning speeds.  She'll take a few steps, then drop to her hands and knees and cruise around like a greyhound chasing after a rabbit.  I'm sure once she has figured out how to run, she'll give up crawling for good.  :)

We are so ecstatic that school is finally out for all the kids.  We have already been to the pool several times, had movie nights, lazed around reading books, had water fights with the hose, and have spent hours playing outside riding bikes and scooters and such.  Our summer is off to a great start and we are enjoying so much being able to spend time together.

Quote of the Day

As we were sitting in sacrament meeting at church today, Preston climbed up into Trent's lap with a sad little look on his face.  He lightly rubbed his hand along Trent's tie and said, "Dad, it's Father's Day, and I didn't even get you a new tie."  Love that boy. 

Sharing the Love/Best Chocolate Chip Cookies. Ever.

When I married Trent, I married into the yummiest chocolate chip cookie recipe ever.  It's so yummy, I have shared the recipe with dozens and dozens of people over the last 14 years of our marriage.  There have been several people though that swear I have left out a "secret ingredient".  (I promise, I haven't!)  They always say they don't taste the same when they make them.  I still stand by the fact that nothing ever tastes as good when you make it yourself.  Anyway, for those that have asked for step-by-step instructions, here they are!  :)

I always start with the sugars.  (Oh, btw, the pictures I have are of a quadruple batch, so the bowl looks REALLY full.)  The recipe calls for 1 c. brown sugar and 1/2 c. granulated sugar.

Also put in 1 c. shortening.

Then you're going to mix the sugars and shortening together really well.  If it looks like this above, it's not quite done.

Once it looks nice and creamy, it's ready.  Sometimes I'll go do a load of laundry while it mixes away.  Seriously.

Then you're going to mix in 2 eggs,

and 2 tsp. of vanilla.  Let that mix for another minute or two.

Then mix in 1 tsp. of baking soda,

and 1 tsp. salt.  I let my mixer keep running as I add the ingredients.  You're going to let all of that mix in really well.

I scrape down the sides several times through the whole process.

Next, add in 2 1/4 c. flour.  I don't let it mix for too long once I get the flour in.

Once you're all done, it should look like this.  YUM!

Then stir in (by hand) 1 1/2 c. semisweet chocolate chips.  Now is the time to grab a spoon and dig in!  That's what we do at least.

Then load up your cookie scoop.  I think my cookie scoop is 1.5 inches.

Here they are, ready for the oven.  Bake them at 375 degrees for 9-11 minutes.  (My oven cooks pretty hot, so I only put mine in for 8 1/2 minutes.)

Voila!  A tray full of yummy, scrumptious chocolate chip cookies.

Now all you have to do is pour yourself a nice cold glass of milk and enjoy!

The Past Week

Here's a little recap of this last week:

 The grandparents came over one night and we had pizza and watched "Brother Bear".  Jilly enjoyed a few tastes of Vivi's lollipop.

 She didn't want to give it back.  Once she had one taste, she thought it needed to be hers.

 I made some valences to go above my kitchen windows.  I didn't notice how bare all my windows look with just the blinds, but now that I have these valences up, I'm thinking I need to get going on making some window treatments for the other windows.

 This is one of Jilly's favorite new toys to play in.  Preston and Vivi pretend it's a wheelchair all the time and pretend they have broken legs and wheel each other around the house.  They decided to put Jilly in it the other day and she LOVED it!

 Trenton is done with school now.  YAY!  Can't wait til Viv and Colson are done, then we can really get our summer started.  Trenton's been such a wonderful helper.  He has also spent plenty of time pushing Jilly around in the dump truck.  He's so good to her.

 Preston and I got to go on a little date the other day.  It was so much fun.  He chose lunch at Good Times.  He loves the spoon benders there.  What am I saying, I love their spoon benders!  Although I'm trying to quit.  We also went to a toy/learning store so I could get the kids some summer workbooks.  He loved it.  They had these little car/scooters, and he was cruising all over the store in it.  He found this giant bear while we were there and had to have a picture with it.  While we were out, we also ran to Target to get a few groceries.  As we were 

strolling through the aisles, he saw a woman who was pretty heavy and he said, "Whoa, mom!  Look!  Her butt is really--" and as he looked and saw the expression on my face, he exclaimed, "Cool!  She has a cool bum!"  Oh my goodness... It was all I could do to not burst out laughing!  That boy cracks me up.

 The kids had their recitals on Saturday.  They did so good!  This is their amazing hip hop teacher Mr. B.  I wasn't able to get a picture of Vivi with her teacher, Miss Holly.  She took tap and ballet this year with Miss Holly.

 After the recitals, we headed over to the pool for some fun in the sun.  We all had lots of fun jumping off the diving board.  Here's Viv in the middle of a twist.

 

 Trent has still got it.  He did a front flip with a full twist, a 1 1/2 front flip into a dive, and lots of cannon balls.

 Here's Trenton finishing up a front flip.

 And this crazy little boy here decided he was going to do a front flip, and just went up and did it!  I couldn't believe it!  Colson was done swimming by the time I pulled the camera out.  However, he was the one that got me up on the diving board.  During adult swim, he told me, "Mom, go and jump off the diving board."  I looked around and noticed that the pool was all but empty, and there was nobody over on the diving board.  I asked him, "Now?"  He responded, "Come on mom.  This is your only time to shine!"  Once adult swim was over, I went and jumped off the diving board several times with the kids, then asked Colson if I was "shining" yet.  He told me that since I hadn't taken the opportunity to jump during adult swim, I missed my chance.  Oh well... Maybe next time.

 

My little Lou looks so cute in her tutu suit!  She's funny about the pool.  She loves it as long as she doesn't get splashed too much.  Which is funny to me, since when she is in the bathtub, all she does is splash the whole time and practically drown herself.  She's a funny girl.

For our cupcake this week, Vivi chose May Day Basket cupcakes.  She decorated them all herself.  They turned out so cute!