Sweet Moments and Amy's Birthday

We'll get to the birthday in a minute, but first I wanted to share this adorable moment - brought to you by Derek and Clara. Derek often asks to hold or feed Clara and he does a great job. This time, I propped her up with a few more pillows than normal, but they still had a sweet interaction.

 Proud big brother!

 Clara loves her big brother

 She loves to look around while she's eating.

Sometimes Derek gets creative with his bottle hold. :)

Now on to the birthday celebration! Amy is older! Actually, I think she barely broke 22. Everyone graciously came out to Prosper to celebrate with cake and presents and fun. Boy did we have fun. Derek and Bryce recorded a sweet message on a squeeze-activated stuffed apple that we found for Aunt Amy. She can squeeze it anytime she misses the boys and she'll get a laugh. Isaac and Andrew shared their artistic talents and made a cute little card for her. Tammy made an awesome cake that Amy has been begging for ever since her first brownie bomb.... a brownie bomb studded cake. It was AWESOME!

 The crew! Nana, Clara, Papi, Amy, Emeri, Liz, Austin, Mitchell and Danny. The other kids are somewhere.

 Amy's thing is flying pigs, so I made her some flying pigs. :)

 It wasn't the prettiest cake in the shop, but it sure tasted good! Happy birthday, Amy!

 Isaac, Aunt Amy and Andrew with the cute card

Clara and Aunt Amy

 Nana and her Brycie Bryce

 What party is complete without face painting? We had a blast! Derek wanted to be a red dragon and Isaac (with some subtle suggestion from Liz, lol) wanted me to turn his mouth into a snake. Turned out pretty cool!

 Emeri's face painting turned into butterfly meets Lucha Libre, but it's still pretty cool. :)

 Danny and Bryce. Wow, if bromance was ever a thing, this is the poster for it. These two adore each other and it's so cute to watch them play. Bryce loves his Danny!

 Danny tried so hard to get Bryce to do "duck face." It was hilarious to watch Bryce try to get his lips in the right shape and then this was the only picture I got while he was doing the right lips. I call it "Drunk Duck at the Party." Whoopie! Neighborhood! - name that movie!

Eating Pickles!

Derek's attempt at eating a pickle

Bryce was less interested

Sweet Little Lady

This sweet little lady is almost six months old! She's still tiny, but I think I kind of like having a little baby. She's very portable and lifting her is a cinch compared to lifting the Brick. We should probably start calling him the Boulder. Here's our pretty little lady bug!

 Little Ladybug

 Derek adores her

 Don't bite the back of he who hugs you!

 Got your face!

 She grabs her toes a lot... one of the perks of having long, skinny legs.

Clara kicks when she's excited

Drawing Eyebrows on Clara

 Found this crazy idea on Pinterest - and I still can't stop laughing!

High school baby picture right here. You're welcome.

Pudding Face!

 Who me?

 I hear pudding is a good hair conditioner

Shhh.... don't tell mom!

Hanging with Amy and Danny

We headed out to Keller again this weekend. We love having family so close! The kids had a blast with Amy and Danny. It's always a ton of fun when we all get together. See?

 Danny finally gave in and held Clara. He has a fear of holding tiny babies, but I think she helped him out. :)

  A pair of mourning doves nested in Mom's backyard. Amy and Derek were both fascinated and Derek insisted I take a picture so he could see closer. Smart kid. 

 The bros

Incoming!

 Aunt Amy and Brycie Bryce

 These two are adorable.

 Derek started squishing Aunt Amy's face...

 ...but she can dish it right back!

 Amy is going to be an AWESOME teacher. She didn't mind reading to Derek at all and took Clara along for the ride, too. 

Father/Son Camp-Out

This was Derek's first time camping! He was so excited when Mitchell told him they were going camping. He was even more excited when Mitchell explained what camping is, haha! Mitchell was excited, too. He spent a couple days sorting through the camping stuff in the garage and getting everything ready to go. Austin took Isaac and Andrew and Jon took Nathan, so Derek had plenty of friends to play with. The overall report was positive, if brief. The boys went to bed at 10 and slept well through the night. No problem.

 Posing next to the camp-out vehicle. For posterity's sake (and continuing the family tradition of photographing and naming cars), this is our awesome Malibu. We call it Malibu. The van in the back is my van, called Vanna. Original, I know. Hopefully we'll be more creative with car names in the future.

 Derek trying to figure out how to cook hot dogs on a skewer. He's at least roasted hot dogs before.

 Want a bite?

Yay! First camp-out a resounding success! Roasting hot dogs and cooking campfire meals (see the aluminum foil dinners?)

Park Fun

Aunt Lizzie took us to a cool new park today. As we pulled up, the fire department was doing a demonstration with their rescue helicopter for the kids at a nearby elementary school. Derek just about jumped out of the car when he saw it and went nuts. Unfortunately, I was driving and couldn't get a picture, but the boys were fascinated with the helicopter, fire truck and police officers walking around. The demonstration ended as we pulled up, but we had a cool park to distract the boys. 

 Katelyn, Isaac and Derek - these three are best buds.

 Our sweet princess enjoyed the fresh air

Andrew chowed down on carrot sticks

 Emeri and Bryce wanted to swing at the same time, but there was only one swing available. Luckily, they both fit into it!

 Bryce didn't mind facing backwards. He just loves swinging.

 Emeri was all smiles playing with Liz while she was swinging.

Riding in the Rain

What a gorgeous day for a thunderstorm! We had a few little May showers today and Derek insisted we go out to watch the rain. Pretty soon, he pulled out his bike and started riding around the patio. Not long after that, he whooped a battle-cry and charged out to make a circuit out in the yard... in the pouring rain. He thought that was fun til we heard thunder, haha! Bryce was content to watch the rain fall down while he stood in the puddles on the patio. 

Bryce was happy to just stand in the puddles and watch the raindrops hit the patio

 See Derek out in the yard? Fearless!

Mother's Day Surprise

This year, Tammy's kids had the brilliant idea to do some overhauling of the front yard for Mom. The idea was to weed and mulch the front beds (with some awesome rubber mulch that is guaranteed to last for 12 years) and mow the grass.  Austin and Liz basically put together the whole thing: taking care of getting the materials and even putting out a call to the ward for volunteers. We had about a dozen people come to help out and it was a fantastic experience. The original plan called for about 20 bags of mulch and a couple of rolls of landscaping fabric. We ended up using a little over a roll and a half of landscaping fabric and 65 bags of mulch! WHEW! It was quite the job but many hands make light work. The kids had a blast running around and playing in the front yard, too. Mom loved it. She saw it when she got home and I think it made her day. :) She certainly seemed very moved by the group effort. As an unexpected bonus, she made her magnificent marble bars to take to thank those in the ward who helped and we got some of the left overs. ;) Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

 The kids went nuts when they were allowed to have one of the doughnuts provided for the workers

 The brilliant master minds!

As a little surprise, we found a cute little perfume jar that the boys got to give to Mom.