May

May is usually my favorite month of the year....

Spring has finally arrived and I get to celebrate my Birthday!

This May started off with some not so good news that our pool liner had ripped and needed to be replaced.  We were somewhat expecting it seeing that the pool liner is 14 years old, so it wasn't too much of a shock.  Still, you don't like to have to spend money when you don't need too.

Jamison had his first official teeth cleaning at the dentist and did great!

May is also a fun month to go and pick strawberries.  The little ones and I went to a local patch with some other moms/kids from MOPS and had a great time.  Surprisingly (for probably the first time ever!) the little ones were more of a help than a hindrance and we went home with two buckets full!

The things these boys do sometimes....here they all are sitting on one tiny little chair.  Somehow it managed to hold all of their weight.

Maverick graduated preschool and Derek was able to attend.  This was the first preschool graduation that he hasn't been out of town for!  Amazing considering the change of job and how much more traveling he is doing these days.  

Birthday dinner with the Sauls family.  There is not a shortage of boys around here.

Thankfully by the end of May our liner was replaced in the pool and we were back in business!  Summertime here we come!

April

April is such a special month because Jamison and Chandler have their birthdays on the same day!

We started the morning by opening presents!

Jamison at age 3 really understands how his birthday is a special day for him (and Chandler!) but it was confusing not having his party on his birthday.  Hard concept to get.  Jamison is still very much the baby in our house in that he generally gets his way.  He can be very persuasive with his constant whining/talking and cuteness too!  If Jamie is awake, he is TALKING.....NON stop most of the time. Or singing.  Or just making noises.  We all love him so, but we also like a tiny bit of peace and quiet. Jamison is still taking a 1-1.5 hour nap each day that I wake him up from.  He would nap longer, but then bedtime would be an even bigger battle.  He loves his older brothers, but especially Maverick who he plays with the most when the others are in school.  Jamison LOVES Paw Patrol and that's about the only show he wants to watch.  He enjoys riding his bike and playing with musical instruments and playing dress up.  Our little clown...he loves making the family laugh.

I can't believe my baby is NINE.  That's half of the time till he is 18.  Chandler is growing up so fast and becoming a man.  He is very athletic and loves all sports.  He is the typical oldest child and is a rule-follower and enforcer.  He is very caring and thoughtful and I love how he really looks out for and sticks up for other kids that may need that.  Chandler loves being outside, but he also enjoys reading.  Below is a picture of the boys at church.  The flowers on the altar were celebrating the 3 spring birthdays.

Later that day, we had Chandler's birthday party at a local arcade, etc...

Chandler and his friends played at the arcade, mini-golf, laser tag, and rode go-karts.  The only problem was that only Chandler and one girl were tall enough to drive go-karts.  Oops!  I ended up taking several rides around the track so everybody could have a turn.  Even Mimi pitched in to help with driving. 

We held Jamison's party later in the week at Pullen Park.  The weather was looking iffy and was unseasonably cold for this time of year.  This meant that we had the entire park to ourselves.  The kids didn't mind and all the moms were joking with me that I must have paid a lot of money to reserve all of Pullen for just us!  ha!

We had a private carousel, train, and boat ride for all the kids.  They all had a blast!

Later in the month I took the boys to the NC State Farm Animal days.  Always a hit, especially with the tractors and the free ice-cream.  My advice is to get there early!

Derek and I don't get many dates, so when I saw Jimmy Buffet was in town I bought some tickets and said we were going.  It was a nice concert, but I think the majority of the fans are a few decades older than we are :)

Maverick is getting ready for his hip-hop dance performance in June.  He got his costume (pictured below) and we went to get his pictures made on a Saturday along with the rest of his class.  The big boys came along and posed with Maverick for a quick photo op.  

March!

March was another sickness filled month....YUCK!!  We all came down with the dreaded Norovirus.  It was absolutely terrible and somebody (if not multiple people) were throwing up for 2 + weeks.  Is is spring yet???

Maverick turned FIVE.  How can this be?  Time please slow down!  Maverick is such a fun, loving boy.  He has a personality that is truly Maverick.  He is really enjoying his hip-hop dance class and is really into drawing, coloring, and art.  It's hard to believe Kindergarten is on the horizon of this boy!  Maverick had an Easter Egg hunt with his preschool class, MOPS friends, and neighborhood buddies to celebrate his birthday.  We had a really good turnout and I was SO THANKFUL that the rain held off and that our neighbor graciously held the hunt in his yard and hid all the eggs for us.  

Nanny turned 80 this month and we had a party for us in our home.  Some of her friends came more than ONE HOUR early to the party....

YIKES!  Really??  Who does that??  I wasn't even home!  I was out picking up some of the food.  The party was a success and everybody had a lovely time.

Easter was early this year and I somehow bribed the children into taking pictures for me.  Chandler is usually the hardest to convince this is worth it.  I tell him that he'll appreciate these one day!

Maverick's MOPS class has been working on the armor of God all year and they finally completed their outfits.  They were all so cute and proud of their hard work!

I had four boys (just not all mine) for the day this month and we went on an egg hunt at the Arboretum.  I love having lots of kiddos around.  It can be quite the juggling act sometimes, but we had fun!  It's going to be lonely for me and Jamison when Maverick starts Kindergarten in the fall.

As a spring break surprise we took a day trip to Busch Gardens.  I've only been there once before as a child, so it was all pretty new to me as well.  It was hard doing it all in a day....we were EXHAUSTED when we got home that night.  The boys had a great time and we hope to take a two-day trip sometime this summer.  Chandler is getting brave and riding some of the mature roller coasters.  I finally have somebody to ride with me now.  Jamison and Maverick are also pretty fearless....just lacking in height.

For Chandler's ninth birthday we wanted to do something special.  We offered for him to have his own room for a year since he always mentions that he wishes he didn't have to share a room.  Surprisingly he turned down this offer and asked for a cooking class.  We also let him have his first sleepover at the house and he invited a friend from school.  

February 2016

February 2016 was a rough month, sickness-wise.  Poor Chandler had pneumonia and ran a fever for nine days!  In the picture below (taken at MOPS) the big boys were off from school, so I had them join in for the picture.  Chandler was diagnosed with pneumonia later that day.

Here's part of the Cherub Choir getting ready to sing a song about Love for Valentine's Day!

Posing with Lexi

The annual pinewood derby was a success.  The boys enjoyed building their cars and both won a trophy for their efforts.  Brighton was for originality in design, and Chandler was 2nd place in speed for his division.

The Cub Scouts at the Derby!

Lexi became a momma this month.  Five puppies survived and were all males.  No surprises there!

January 2016

January 2016 is here!  We started off the New Year by having fun with some of our Christmas presents.  A family trip to the Launching Pad was a fun treat and a workout (for mom and dad) at least.  

We also went out with Grandma and Nanny to Kanki to celebrate.  The boys love the show and the food too!  Wish we had a chef that would cook like this for us at home.

The most eventful part of January was the long-awaited birth of baby Sauls!  Jett is finally a big brother.  I agreed to be on call for when Kim went into labor, but an induction was scheduled so I never did get the call in the middle of the night.  Jett spent the day with us while mom was induced and had a great time.  I love how these boys are best buds!

Dinner time with lots of testosterone!

Baby Allie arrived that afternoon, and Jett waited till the next morning to meet her.  He was more excited about spending the night and playing with our dog than his baby sister, which was a little funny!  I know he's going to be a great big brother!

The new family of FOUR!!

January also brought some snow and fun sledding time for the family.  

Both of the older boys participated in Upward basketball at a local church this winter.  They really enjoyed playing and being part of a team.  

Brighton gained confidence each game and towards the end of the season would shoot a few baskets rather than just passing the ball away as soon as he got it.  Hopefully next year, 3 boys will be on teams!

November & December

For November and December we did many of the usual holiday activities.  

One of my favorite things is taking the boys for our Christmas card picture in November.  I like to have my Christmas cards in the mail on black Friday!  The boys are usually cooperative to a point...

For the past few years we have gotten together and walked around the lake on Thanksgiving morning.  This was our largest crowd yet.  We had a great time!

Right after Thanksgiving, Derek and I took our FIRST TRIP EVER away from all four boys!  We went on a cruise!!  We flew out to California and cruised to Catalina Island and down into Mexico.  

A view of Catalina Island at sunrise.

Here I am on the boat with LA in the background.

While down in Mexico, we got to hold a lion cub.  Her name was Chanel and she was about 5 months old.  The power in her paws was incredible!  A local group was raising money to help make improvement to a zoo nearby.  The best thing about Mexico was the fish tacos!  They were SO GOOD.  Derek was not adventurous enough to try them.

Immediately after coming home from the cruise, we jumped right back into "normal" life with 4-boys and took them to the Pullen Park Holiday Express with some friends.  Derek and I were both very jet-lagged, but managed to do it somehow!

Ever since Maverick was born, we have gotten a live tree.  Here I'm unwrapping the growing-too-fast collection of ornaments for the boys to help decorate the tree with.  There is hardly any room for ornaments that were Derek's or mine.  I'd love to have a second tree, but I'm not really sure where it would fit!

In mid-December, I had a baby shower for my sweet friend, Kim.  She is having her first girl and is super excited to say the least!  I made her the cake we are about to cut and it was quite the under-taking.  I think it was FIVE layers of my grandmother's wedding cake recipe.  When I started it, I didn't think it would take so long, but then I ended up spending a good part of a day (and night) working to finish it.  Oh, and our kitchen sink facet broke in the middle of this process, so that certainly didn't help!

Here are the gingerbread houses that we decorated with family when they came to visit in December. We had so much fun!  Hopefully this will become a tradition!

Here's Joel and Ruby.  She is a cute little doll!

Christmas morning and the boys were excited to see what Santa had brought!  Of course there is usually always one (or two, three, or four) that is unwilling for a photo-op.  Guess who that was below....

We had a lovely Christmas and everybody was so thankful for their gifts.  The older boys are really showing their appreciation more with thank-you's and hugs instead of the "gimme, gimme" attitude we are hoping to teach them not to have.