The end of April

 Everyone had dental check ups in April. Look how they put the kids to work cleaning their own teeth.

 This is Sienna, I didn't make the other kids pose for pics. Actually I think I had to drop them and run, then pick them up when they were done. Some serious craziness was happening at the time!

Baby Gracin was born! A new addition to Katt and Andy. He is just so cute! I was ready to jump in the car to hold him as soon as he came out.

 We drained the swimming pool. Yay! It was time. This is Ashlynn getting the last of the water out with the shop vac.

 The kids thought it was positively thrilling to have the pool empty. We were totally freaked out on eof them were going to fall in and hurt themselves. Needless to say it was filled up quickly. Well as quick as you can with one hose... A few days.

 Gunner had a little accident while riding his scooter home from a friends house. He hit a rock and flipped over the front of the handle bars landing on his shoulder. Some of our friends saw it happen and gave him a ride home. Thanks Sean and Christine Merrill!

Of course we were waiting for his so we could go hang out at Jody and Angela's. He said he was ok. We thought we would wait and see how he was feeling in a little bit.

The pain kept up, although he could lift his arm above his shoulder. ANdrew ended up taking him to an urgent care and they said it was indeed a broken collar bone.

A trip to the Dr. on Monday told us it would heal on it's own and he would just need to keep it in a sling for a while

 Ashlynn went in to get her braces off!

But then discovered something had happened to the wire on the bottom, so only the top could come off.

 She wasn't too upset. She was upset about her discovery that we all seemed to match that day! I didn't notice till we got out of the car:)

 Of course the next day.... They were matching again! I think she actually likes to match!

 I made it to the butterfly release at school. Sienna was so excited.

 There were butterflies everywhere.

And so another April is checked off. Good times.

It sure is different as the kids get older. I find that I spend most of my time in the car, thus making it difficult to get to the shopping and cleaning that still needs to be done.

Cultured weekend

 Why yes that handsome young man is my son!

This weekend was the performance for the Mormon Choral Organization. They had a concert on Friday and 2 on Saturday. They sure are a good looking group. Gunner discovered the ladies like a boy that smells good. I hear that is what two girls told him anyway before they laid their heads on his shoulder....

 We came with Grandma and Grandpa White. to see the show.

It was amazing as always and such a good experience for them.

 The next night was the Spring ballet. We are so sophisticated around here.

 Sienna was a blue bird in the Sleeping Beauty part of the show and had to be there early to run through .

 Of course she always loves to get some makeup on!

 Shake your tail feather!

 Such cuteness! She did a fabulous job and we loved every minute. The weather was perfection by the way:)

 All who came to the show!Granpa White, Grandpa and Grandma Gillespie, and Aunt Julia.

Happy Easter!

 Say What?! Oh Ashlynn loves to take pictures of herself with my phone. ha!

I am on the HOA board in the neighborhood (self preservation) so I get to fill 500 eggs with jelly beans for Easter and hide them at the park.

Ashlynn helped me fill them and I had help hiding them:)

We had our own egg hunt inside this year so I could put in yummy candy... you know the good chocolate kind.

 Ashlynn took the longest and felt all the frustration any older child feels as they have the hardest eggs to find. I remember this feeling well. (Uncle Gary was the egg hunter professional!)

   I really wanted a white skirt for Sienna for Easter to go with her cute shirt but hadn't found one. What to do? I'll just whip one up myself! It turned out pretty cute, just don't look too close.

 Oh, another shot of Ashlynn, What a doll:)

Surgery

 Surgery before and after...

Andrew has been having a lot of pain in his shoulder and had seen two Dr's and a friend who all seemed confident that surgery was the answer and would get rid of his pain.

The day of surgery March 28th we dropped the kids at school and headed over to Scottsdale to the surgery center. Hurry up and wait, you know how that goes.

Once they got him in it wasn't very long. They went in and took off some bone spurs and cut off some of his collar bone to keep it from rubbing and causing pain. They also said he had some damage to the tissue but they cleaned it all out and he should heal up fine.

He has been a trooper and iced and rested and is healing up nicely. He still has pain on the shoulder but they said it would take about 6 weeks. He has already started therapy on it.

Arrow of light.

 Mason received his arrow of light, thanks to his wonderful scout leaders!

 Gunner also became a den chief... so I guess we still have pack meetings in our future.

I would have some awesome pictures of this event if only I could find the safe place I put the CD of pictures my parents so kindly gave me... I'll add them when I locate it:)

After the baby shower....

 So after the shower for Emilee, about 2 hours later we had a birthday party for Mason!

this was his first "friend" party. I just like to do family parties because it's so easy to stress me out.

We went to the park with water balloons and 2 ice chests full of water and these awesome squirt guns. I thought it would go pretty fast.

The ice chests took forever to empty! The boys were soaked to the bone!

They had a great time, and were THRILLED when I told them they could each take their guns home.  Cannon said it was the best day of his life. Although I have heard him say that before:)

 Mason wanted Monkey bread for his cake. Easy! They all pulled it apart and ate two whole pans before we knew it!

Happy Birthday to Mason!
He gets to join the 11 year old scouts now. yay! no more pack meeting for a bit.
Mason is the bast guy to be around if you want someone to laugh at your jokes!
Andrew told Gunner recently that Mason was giving him an inaccurate idea of how funny he was because he laughs at everything!
Mason is a very good brother and loves to play!
We love Mason and the fun spirit he brings into our home.

Baby shower time!

A little postponed but we had Emilee's baby shower March 23rd.

Like my decorations? I was trying to come up with something cute, why not toys?!

She received so much cute stuff and we had such fun looking at all the tiny stuff.

I had to get a picture with my sweet sister and baby Porter's blanket.