Mother's Day with my boys

Almost every day, I love being a mom. Some days, I feel not so much love for it, and then I realize that the only thing not to like about it is that sometimes I want to be lazy and have my house stay clean for like 10 minutes. Or maybe that day I start to consider what it would be like to not have people whining and crying and screaming at me for a large portion of the day. On those days I have to dig deep and tell myself to suck it up and stop being a wuss and love that the little people feel so strongly about telling me how they feel, that they will scream in my face to make me understand.

And after that pep talk I realize, I love being a mom. I love my boys and their crazy and fun personalities. I love when they tell jokes, or tell me about their plans in vivid detail. I love when they randomly come by and hug me while I am working on some project or other. And I love that as they get older, that I can see in their eyes when they start to understand what makes sarcastic comments so funny. I really love when they pray and when they talk about the eternal blessings of being a family forever, and when they pass on these loving moments to each other, with out me having to remind them to "Be Nice to Your Brother."

They are such a fun bunch, and they know how to make their mom feel loved, and so does their Dad. I couldn't have asked for a better partner in parenting.

One of the great gifts that I got for Mother's day, from Caleb, was tickets to see Nickel Creek! We had so much fun at their show a few days after Mother's Day. Live music is the best, especially when it is the music of such talented artist. So fun.

A May visit from the Marshalls

We love when family comes to visit. We got to have a fun visit from the Marshalls in May. Nana and Vatti went off to Provo to celebrate their wedding anniversary, and Bridgett got to spend a few days hanging out in our crazy life. The excitement included a fun trip to the Discovery Museum. The shadow room was a favorite of she and Wyatt who were both deck out in their neon gear that day.

  

We also did a lot of playing outside and taking walks and also took a trip to the zoo. Finn was spoiled by being able to walk at his own pace since Vatti was willing to stay with him wherever he went.

 

Vatti's hat looks almost as good on that gorilla.

 

 The weekend they came to visit also happen to be when I ran the Provo City Half Marathon. Since Gavin had a soccer game early that morning, All of the men and boys stayed at home to watch the game, while my mom was nice enough to drive me and my friend, Lissa down to start our race in the very early hours of the morning. Then she sat in the car and slept and read her kindle for a while until it was time to watch me finish. It takes a great fan to wait at the end of such a long race, and I was very grateful for her company on my drive home after the race. It was also a pretty nice course through Provo Canyon into downtown Provo, and while it wasn't my fastest half marathon, I was pretty happy with my finishing time of 1:53.

Gavin's Pinewood Debry

This years Pinewood Derby resulted in a much better showing from the Cardon family. After learning a few things from the massive mistakes we made last year, Gavin turned out a decent car. It didn't get first in every race, but it also didn't get last in any race. That was a big accomplishment for us.

The best part was that it looked pretty awesome, and this hand painted design one him a prize for the "Best Paint Job."

 Flames and a fire-breathing dragon. Pretty cool.

Hair Cut Strike 2014

In January Gavin decided that he didn't want to get a hair cut for a long time. At first I was not on board with this idea, but then all of the boys and Caleb teamed up harass me with the idea that they could all grow out their hair. Finally, I told them to go ahead, until Spring Break. The results were a little appalling.

 It was a pretty big relief for me when they finally all got hair cuts. With a house full of boys, I am not  used to taking so much time every morning to tame bed head, so I was relieved to be done with that.

Last Snow of Spring

With the excess amount of Calvin and Hobbes that has been read at our house this spring, it is no surprised that the last snow of the season ended with an "Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons!" 

 Oh yeah, and Olaf was there too.

Arizona Spring Break- Larson visit

We also got to spend a few days hanging out with the Larson's. The kids stayed busy running around the backyard, swimming, playing legos, staying up late being silly and even doing some Easter activities. Not a single photo will indicate that it was Easter, but we did enjoy it. As the trip went on, Finn because even less of a fan of the heat and also less of a fan of sleeping in a play pen, so I also began to be more tired each day. It did not interfere with our fun, but I think it interfered with me remembering to take out the camera.

We took Heidi out for her first taste of Thai food, and it was delightful.

 We left the kids at home with Rachel in charge of babysitting... ok, not really, but she did do a great job of making sure Finn was happy and well taken care of while we were out.

 Heidi and I also got to do some running together, came across this cow in the middle of Mesa.

 One of our big adventures was hiking on the Windy Caves trail. All of the older kids were great hikers, even if they had finished all of their water before we were even half way up the trail. The 3 and under crowd was a bit more of a struggle, but they made it to the top, and most of them did much better on the way down.

Henry fell and cut his knee pretty close to the start of the hike, but he toughed it out and still had a good time climbing rocks and keeping up with all of the other kids. 

 Lots of good climbing for this crew.

 Mark had to be the hike leader of the older kids, while the rest of us stayed a little farther behind to bring up the smaller set.

 This was not one of Wyatt's happier moments, even though he wasn't even walking.

 Same story with Jade, not too happy, tho also not walking.

 Finally, they got to the top and got to have their snacks and then use the help of gravity to get back to the bottom. Much better second half. They really are strong hikers considering how small their legs are.

 These three were the group leaders by far. Not a complaint for one of them, and they had a great time.

 Henry was always off climbing somewhere when the other 3 were posing for pictures, but he was a great hiker too, injury and all.

 Finn gets the loudest and most grumpy hiker award. He proved once again on this trip that he did not like to be confined to the hiking backpack. He could be heard for great distances on the trail expressing his displeasure from time to time.

 Pretty cool view from the top.

Arizona Spring Break- Gardner visit

We had a great spring break in Arizona. Since we are lucky enough to have a sister from each side of the family living in the Phoenix area, we got to spread the love and the cousin time around between the two families. The first and last days of our trip we spent at the Gardner's house. The boys loved the backyard... for the pool, swing set and puppy.

 Finn is a huge fan of dogs and the cute and excitable, Rocky, was a beloved addition to his list of favorite dogs. This is one of the few moments that Rocky sat still in the vicinity of Finn.

Mara also has a couple of pet turtles that provided a lot of entertainment. A lot of it of the variety where all the kids crowded around to watch for the turtle to come out of it's shell and walk around the yard. They would then pick it up to keep it in the yard, which would scare it back into it's shell, and the whole fun process would start again.

 The swimming pool was a refreshing place where we spent a lot of time at both the Gardner's and later the Larson's houses. The weather during our visit was quite hot even fro the locals.

 Check out the long, flowing locks on that guy!

 Finn was not a big fan of the heat or the bright sun, but he did love finding anything he could get his hands on and throwing it into the pool.

Jade loved having Gavin to play with in the pool and she convinced him to catch he over and over as she would dive off the steps and swim frantically into his arms.

Finn and Ella didn't do a lot of chatting, but they had a great time following each other around and playing together, especially in small areas, like this space between the couch and table.

Gavin might be just a little too big for this slide.

We also had a fun visit one morning to a nature preserve near Mara's house. There were a lot of birds and also a lot of turtles in the pond... and a strange number of dead fish floating around, tho we aren't quite sure about the last part.

Jade and Wyatt had fun running around and trying to climb stuff like the big kids.

It is amazing how much time can be spent searching for rocks and then throwing them into a small body of water, but of course, we had to do that for a long time.