A Penguin and A Porcupine

Today was the day of Gavin's kindergarten class presentation. His very wonderful and creative teacher wrote an Opera from a children's book, and it was fabulous. The title was "Bessie the Messy Penguin." Our wonderfully talented friend, Lexi had the part of Bessie and she did great. There were also four other solo parts and Gavin was chosen to be the porcupine.

Now just a moment of reflection, this has been a big year for Gavin...
He started school, and happily ran off. I was happy too, knowing he would love it.
This winter he sat down and read "Green Eggs and Ham" to me, and I was amazed, and continue to be amazed, at how much he is learning and how well he is reading.
He learned to tie shoes and even became speedy at it, and I have been so proud of him.
He's grown about 3 inches since the fall. He loves foods that would be strange to most kids, and takes great care of his baby brother. I have witness him befriending people who might be viewed as being in hard situations, and plan amazing little family lessons about the life of Christ.

All of these have happened in a seemingly short time, and not once did I look at him and shed a tear. Until Today.
As I watched my adorable little porcupine come onto the stage in front of all those kids and parents and belt out his 4 lines with confidence and a clear strong voice. I just couldn't help the tears coming to my eyes. He has grown and changed so much this year and I just love the person that I am watching him become. He even looked over and returned my thumbs up as discreetly as he could. I was just so overwhelmed with love for my little baby who is now this big kid.
Luckily I am not just a huge cry baby and was able to appreciate the really amazing performance that they put on. I loved the dancing at the end of every presentation and I loved seeing Gavin trying to skip and dance around the stage in his costume. He had complained that morning about how hard it is for a porcupine to skip. What a great show.
His costume was great, all the kids loved it.

The deer, porcupine, polar bear and monkey.

A few extra penguins joined the photo.

All the penguins onstage.

Favorite crawling moment

What do you do with a baby who is so fast that he crawls right on out of his pants?
Laugh and take a picture, of course.

For quite a while this happened on a regular basis. It was quite amusing for all of us. Wyatt included. He would just keep going and leave a trail of pants behind.

Monstrously Rain Days in May

Nothing helps a rainy day in May like a good art project. I saw this idea in a magazine and the boys were even more creative than I would have imagined.

Henry had to tell me the exact location of every googlie eyeball on his monsters.
Gav is starting to suffer from Caleb's problem of never being able to keep his eyes open if there is a flash. This was one of 5 photos I tried to take.

One of Josh's monsters had a face on each side. very ingenious.

Pretty scary stuff.

Outdoor Man

This guy just really wants to be outside, all the time. He stood at the door and watched almost the whole time Caleb was working on the lawn, and yelling in hopes of being heard and allowed out.

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.