Mother's Day Weekend.

I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. My boys are always good to me, but it's fun to have a special day to be spoiled by them. On Saturday, they smoked lamb for our dinner on Sunday. I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about lamb, but Sterling assured me that it would be good. Here are the boys helping out.

While the boys were smoking, they also helped dad get my pots ready for my garden. They were really good helpers, especially Little Man.

Little Man was very excited to give me this darling gift that he made at school. It's a darling wind chime that he painted all pretty.

Here are my boys testing out the lamb. It was amazing. It completely exceeded my expectations. The boys clearly thought so too. Look at them just going to town on it.

Before church with my boys. I am one lucky momma.

My Mother's Day dinner with my boys. Lamb is probably what I'll request from here on out. It was truly delicious.

I feel so privileged and lucky to be a mom to these four darling boys. I don't know what I did to deserve them, but I feel a huge responsibility to raise them up right. These boys are the future. They are future priesthood holders, missionaries, husbands, and fathers. I can't wait to watch them grow up... Just not too fast! I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful husband who teaches them to be good to me. I am truly blessed!

AUNT MARILEE COMES TO VISIT

My sister Marilee came to visit us this last week and we had such a great time. She is three years older than me and has five kids. Last time she came to see us was 5 1/2 years ago. A lot has changed since then. She got in on Tuesday afternoon, and Sterling left on a boys trip with his dad and brothers the next day, so it was perfect timing for me to have her out here.

We hit up all the fun stuff while she was here, including The Ribbon Outlet, Lucketts Antique Store, Georgetown Cupcake, and many other girly things.

We got frozen yogurt everyday, went shopping, and ate lots of yummy good. We cut. colored, and straightened each others hair, and watched lots of girly movies. I introduced her to my love of thrifting and yard sales. She spent lots of time reading and playing with the boys. The adore her. Obviously.

Us.

We were all in tears as we dropped her off at the airport. I kept telling my boys that we were lucky to have her for five days. Now her kiddos need her too.

Thanks for coming to see us Mar. I know that your family all made sacrifices for you to be here. Thanks Brandon for sharing her with us. Can't wait to see you all this summer.

I am so lucky to have three beautiful sisters who I love, admire, and look up to.Being the youngest girl in my family has always had it's perks, but having three sisters for best friends is the best by far.

Sourdough and Jerky

The boys have been making some fun and yummy projects around here. Sterling sent off for a sourdough start a few weeks ago. He started he with the boys. Here they are with our start. 

We've made lots of batches of pancakes with it and one batch of bread. The pancakes are out of this world. The bread needs a bit of tweaking, but the taste was still delicious. Sourdough pancakes are our new Sunday dinner. Easy and delicious!

Sterling has been dying to smoke some jerky with the boys. They finally went to work and made a couple of batches. The boys were thrilled to be part of it. Sterling is always so good to let them help with the whole process. He loves working with his boys.

After Sterling smoked it, he put it in the oven to finish drying out. Here's Little Man helping his dad.

The boys and their jerky. 

Our house has smelled like jerkey for two weeks. Not to mention the fact that someone packed it as a snack for church. The boys sat on the bench chomping away. Yes, we are that family.

Here's Sterling with his second batch. He did almost three times as much, since the boys pounded the first batch in just a few days. 

 I love that Sterling loves to do projects. I love even more that he lets the boys help so much. They love it and always have such a great time. I love my man and my little men.

FIRST FAMILY HIKE (SNP)

Sterling does a decent amount hiking with the scouts since he's the Scout Master of our ward. After his last hike with the scouts, we decided to take the boys on a hike. And there is no better place to go than Shenandoah National Park. We had driven through there before in the fall, and that's where Sterling went black bear hunting, but we'd never taken the boys hiking all together before. We talked it up all week and the boys were super excited to go on Saturday morning. 

We found a good trail that was one mile up and one mile back with a pretty good incline. We started out having the three big boys walk and I carried Israel in the carrier. We hoped that Gouverneur could make it the whole way, but we weren't entirely sure. He took off and never looked back! He was all business.

At one point he got a bit a head of us and then freaked out when he saw other people behind him. He wanted to be carried the last 100 yards, but other than that, he was a machine. Everyone that saw him, commented about how cute he looked walking up the trail.

The view from the top was pretty amazing. You could see all around and the boys really loved it.

Sometimes it's still hard to imagine that one day these little boys are going to grow up to be big men like their dad. They all look so small in these pictures. I'd like to keep them this size forever if I could.

My men. Both big and little.

Here we are at the car after we'd finished. The boys did such a great job and were really worn out.

We bought the yearly pass to SNP and look forward to lots more hiking trips this year.

6 MONTHS OLD BABY ISRAEL

Someone is six months old. Not sure how that happened so fast. It seems like the more babies I have, the faster they all grow up. I wish I could just push pause and or at least slow motion. Being as I can't, I will just sit and soak up every second on their lives.

6 Month Stats

Weight: 18 lbs. 9 oz. (75%)

Height: 28 1/2 inches (Off the charts!)

Head: 17 1/2 inches (90%)

Israel started solids right before he turned six month and he loves them now. At first he wasn't so sure what to think. 

 As you can see here.

The boys love that he is eating food. They are always asking what I'm feeding him and Gouverneur likes to try a bite or two or whatever the baby is having. I love watching the boys with baby Israel. 

Israel is now sitting in a highchair some. This was on his actual six month birthday. (taken with my phone.)

Israel is at such a fun stage. He is laughing and giggling all the time. He loves the exersaucer. He make us all so happy. He loves watching his brothers. He has gone back to sleeping 8-12 hours at night. He loves to roll over on his stomach but can't get back onto his back. He grabs everything in site. He is such an angel baby and we just love him.

OUR DADDY TURNED 35.

Our dad had his birthday on Saturday. He spent the whole day in the car, driving us home from Florida. We had the official celebration a couple of day later.

The boys and I picked out a sweet pair of Nascar tire cufflinks. They were a hit. The boys also make some little cards and things for him. 

He grilled us up some yummy steaks for his birthday dinner. They were delicious. Our dad is the grillmaster!

I snapped this picture of the boys that night with their dad. Here they are reading scriptures with dad. The boys like to pile on top of him. He is so great at teaching the gospel. I'm so grateful for such a faithful, fun, amazing father for our boys. We're all lucky!

Happy Birthday, Love! 35 has never looked better!

ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH TIME 2

We spent the whole last evening at the beach. It was dreamy. It had rained earlier that day so the beach was empty. The boys ran and ran and ran. Sterling and I sat back and admired our darling creations. Israel spent most of the week in the Baby Ergo strapped on to me. We both loved it.

 The boys played a game where they'd run along the surf and try not to get wet. Best game to watch!

 Cutest boys.

The whole trip was Heavenly. I have never been more relaxed in my life and cannot wait to go back. There is nothing like the beach, and nothing better than beach with family.

The Castillo de San Marcos

 We went into St. Augustine and toured the Castillo one day. This fort was built by the Spanish between 1672 and 1695 to defend themselves from the British. It is right on the water and really well preserved. It was fun going back with the boys and Jake and Tyra.

Of course the boys had to sit on every canon possible. Gouverneur thinking he's big stuff. AND he is.

Most of the boy cousins. 

Here we are on the drawbridge.

Family photo up on top of the fort. Beautiful view.

Here I am with my four boys just walking back to the car. It feels so normal to me, although I can see why other people comment all the time. I look like a baby wrangler.

                                    It was a great day in St. Augustine. What a fabulous city.

ST. AUGUSTINE ALLIGATOR FARM 2013

 We were thrilled to go back to the alligator farm with Jake and Tyra and their kids. Our boys were thrilled to see the gators again. They are pretty awesome.

Feeding gators with my boys.

We were standing right above these guys. 

I can't get enough of this family of mine. I'm one lucky girl. 

Cheese balls. 

 

All the cousins on the big gator. (Isaac is sitting right in his mouth.) My boys had such a blast with all these cousins all week long. 

I highly recommend the St. Augustine Alligator Farm if you're ever in the area. It's a lot of fun. Thanks Jake and Tyra for making it such a great day for us.