Mother's Day Fun

Yep, a bit late, but I've been busy. My mother-in-law was still in town on Mother's Day and we spent most of it at Nathan and Stacy's house with her and Stacy's mom. It was a super rainy day, but the Cardon men made us a great dinner. Nathan was even dedicated enough to stand in the wet and wind to grill for us. We should have taken a mother picture or something, but I didn't think of it until after. Instead here are a few fun moments that we shared with the little people who have made it possible for us to be called mothers in the first place.

Lots of tickling with Grandma

Wyatt made a new friend

An intense game of Garbage with Grandma... I hope no one is cheating.
While his parents were out of town, Jaren found some time to help Caleb and I feel loved. He is such a funny little guy these days and it is always flattering when he just comes up to give you a random cuddle.

I can just imagine what their conversation entails to get a laugh like that.

There always seems to be someone on Grandma's lap.

I can't quite identify why I wanted to capture this moment, but as I watch all of my wonderful nieces grow and change so quickly, I am just amazed at the young women they are each becoming. They all have some wonderful moms to look up to, and I love to watch them together. I just wanted to remember this.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful women in my life. Your impact is astounding.

Water Fight

There are a few things that can make our day around here- Cousins and warm sunshine. We mean the kind of sunshine that makes it warm enough to play outside with cousins and get into a intense water fight. While their parent we off sunning themselves in Hawaii, we got to spend a bit of extra time with the Cardon girls and Jaren. We love any chance to play with them, especially when Grandma showed up with new water squirters for all of the kids to soak each other with.

Libbie was pretty intense and by far the toughest of the kids when it came to be squirted.
Mia takes no prisoners.
Before long it turned into an intense battle between the biggest kid we have around here... and all of the other kids. It was pretty hilarious to see them trying to distract him so that someone else could spray him, and as soon as I got out the camera they would all run to the porch knowing that Caleb would get in trouble if he got the camera wet. Pretty hilarious.

Jaren was not a fan of getting wet and retreated to Grandma after the first few drops accidentally hit him. Mals just seem to think she would wait out the worst of the action and then enjoy herself by the pool later.

Hmm... no idea why Papa was carrying a shovel in this shot, but it strikes me as funny.

Milestones

We have recently hit a few milestones.
First lost tooth- it came out while he was snacking on a granola bar in church. We had to hurry out so that it didn't bleed too much. He said he thought it was just a tough oat and was trying to bite through it until he finally realized he couldn't and spit it out to see it was his tooth. As you can tell the other one was already coming up a little behind, and several more loose.

Mr Wyatt is also a master and standing up. He's in a whole new heap of trouble around the house now. After he started to stand he also sometimes switches from his speedy seal scooting moves to what we can the "big boy crawl". He is super entertaining these days.

Handsome outfits

I had a rough time trying to figure out Easter outfits for the boys this year. Henry loves to wear a tie, but does not like sweaters. Gavin loves sweaters, but does not like ties. Wyatt had a million choices hand down from his brothers. Finally I decided it wasn't worth stressing about, and got them what they wanted. Surprisingly Gavin actually agreed to get a new tie and has worn it several times. They are pretty handsome.

Wyatt was happier on the morning that he previewed his outfit for Nana than he was on Easter, but he looks pretty handsome either way.

His basket was mostly empty eggs and he was really excited until he got it dumped out, then mostly just confused.

Nice to have Dad around on Easter morning.

We have reached the phase of get whatever we can when it comes to group photos, guessing this may last a few years.

The Eggs of Easter

In order for us to take our spring break trip, Gavin skipped school on Friday, which was also the day of the Easter party. He said it was ok if he missed it as long as he got to dye eggs with Nana, so he did. Kaylee and Henry joined in the fun too.

The kids favorite part was drawing designs on the eggs with crayons. Gavin personalized an egg for everyone that would be at Nana's house for Easter.
Kaylee was even nice enough to make a special egg for me. All of hers had a "K" signature on them, and all of Gavin's had a "G", regardless of who they were for.
Henry went for the abstract art version.

Wyatt really wanted to jump in and help too, but this year we decided against it.

Since we didn't bring any eggs home with us, we also had to do some dyeing for ourselves. Yes, both of the boys are in pajamas since we put this off until the last minute on Saturday.

A big H masterpiece.

This is an egg made for Jesus, with stickers and all.

Dad's chicken man.

I even tried my hand at egg art this year.

The new guy

Before I can do any more trip posting it seems only right to dedicate a post to the new guy- Mr Lincoln Parker Marshall. We finally got to meet him on this trip and oh my he is a cutie. I hear that he sometimes gives his mom a hard time in the middle of the night or in the car, but he knew to be on his best behavior for our visit and I can tell he is growing into a great little addition to the family. He loved to talk to us and smile, and I think he really enjoyed all of our outings. Just a few shots of his cuteness. I can tell that he and Wyatt are going to be good friends, especially when Wyatt is at an age where he won't attack him or sit on him.

More Abluquerque Fun

It has taken me a week, but finally made it through blogging about of fun spring break. It seems very far away as it it snowing outside right now, but at least here is a little proof that we enjoyed some sun and sand.
We got in a little hike in Bear Canyon. It was fun, but not nearly as much fun as the trail run that my Dad and I did one morning up this canyon. It was really nice and reminded me that I enjoy running.

We can always count on some fun in the school yard behind my parents house. There was even an attempt at kite flying, but the wind was pretty intense and Vatti had to spend most of the time untangling kites while the kids played.

Wyatt quickly became and Ipad junkie with this piano app. When Henry would try to play with him he would yell and push his hands away. What a control freak.

Just a little evening swing time.
This lion sang a very loud song and Wyatt kept crawling over and yelling at it like they could understand each other.

Tickle fights with Nana are a great pass time. Nana always threatens to put the kids in the garbage can, which they find hilarious... not that she puts them in, but that she threatens. On this trip she asked Gavin once if his choice was to go in head first or feet first. They all got a good laugh about that, and soon it became the week long game. The boys and Kaylee would run in and say, "Nana, Head first or Feet first?" and run away squealing and giggling and wait for her to chase them.

Bridgett celebrated her birthday while we were in town. Fun little party.

I'm starting to think I need a swing set, and a bigger yard to go with it. The boys played in the backyard almost every minute that we weren't out running around town.