Lydia's Baby Blessing

The day of Lydia's baby blessing was beautiful.  It was so nice to have lots of family and friends around as we celebrated the beginning of Lydia's life.  She is wearing the same dress that Abby and Freebairn cousins Brynne and Brylie wore for their baby blessings and the same hat that lots of family on my side wore,  including me, and has the blanket made for Grandma Z's baby blessing.  I love when we can add more history to the family story!

Look at that proud big sister!

I love our beautiful, peace-bringing angel baby!  We are incredibly grateful for our Lydia!

Ohhh

This is what happens almost every night after we put Sam in bed:

(from the top of the stairs)
"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy..." 
"Yes, Sam?"
Then comes the excuse for getting up (water, lost car, something scary, etc).  We say to go back to bed.
"Ohhhh!"  (the whiny, that's not fair sort of oh)

Then the slow sliding down the stairs, thinking if he moves slowly we won't hear the bump of his body on each stair.
"Sam, what do you need?"
"Mommy lay down with you?"
"In a minute, buddy"
"Ohhhh!  I'm sad now!"

You gotta love and hate 2 and even feel both at the same time.

Happy Fathers Day, etc

We love you, Roy and Far Far and Baba Z!  Thanks for being great dads!                                                                                               (This DAD letter idea idea was stolen from Becky and I've been waiting for 2 years to use it.  Thank goodness for a creative sister!)

We blessed Lydia last weekend and it was so nice to have both sets of grandparents in town for the occasion.  The baby blessing will have it's own post filled with pictures, but here's a sneak peek of three generations on my side.

It's really lame that of the five full days my parents were here I took just one picture on my camera.  I'm so bad.  But we had a great time and visited Hidden Pond (aka "Turtle Park" in our family), the zoo, the sprayground, parks, watched "Rio", went shopping (Freebairn female tradition), and had a fun time.  

Please note that all my kids are wearing orange stripes.  Yes, we are that coordinated...or it was just a good day for orange. :)

And on a completely unrelated note, we wrapped up preschool for the year with our good friends.  It was such a fun group of preschoolers and their wild, crazy, fun younger brothers!  Abby was spoiled with great lessons, fun field trips, and a set time with friends each week.  She loved it.  Sam got to have fun playing with other boys and learn how to play with friends.  We wrapped up the school year with a trip to River Farm Garden one week and a swim time the next week.  I love River Farm!  Check out these cute kids!  

   

 Abby in her natural state, surrounded by friends. :)

 Sam in the mud.  Of course.

 Sweet Lydia.  How can you not fall immediately in love with that face?

Memorial Day Fun

We finally got a picture with all 5 of us in it!  Aren't we cute? :)

We kicked off summer by doing the traditional activities of beach, pool, and BBQ.  I loved it!  It's so nice to be able to spend time outside with family!

Okay, Sam is just looking so grown up these days.  Look at him! 

 Roy spent all his pool time helping one or two kids swim (or cart them around, as the case may be)

 Proof that Lydia did in fact join us for the weekend :)

On Tuesday we headed up to Baltimore and met up with two of my BYU roommates and their families.  It was so fun to see Steph and Lori again!  It's been way, way too long and it was fun to catch up, even in the sweltering heat.  Our kids got along, the two husbands in attendance got to chat, and it was so great to see each other again.  It's amazing how there are people in our lives where you are just like a family...that's how I feel about my group of BYU girls.  They are my sisters...it's always nice to have a few extra sisters around.

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo!

We had a nephew's third birthday party today that included a train ride.  I just had to share how cute the kids were on the ride! :)

As we were all attempting to eat dinner, it was chaos.  Five adults wrangling six kids and finishing dinner led to lots of "time for dinner"s.  Sam waited patiently at the table for several minutes before loudly saying, "AMEN!"  There were several doubled over adults.  Funny boy.

Bedtime

Without fail, each night after we put the kids in bed, Sam will come out of his room and call down the stairway, "I'm scared, Mama."  Since I'm feeding Lydia, Roy gets to go up and put him back in bed and talk about not being scared.  On a side note, I don't really think he's scared of anything...he just wants to get out of bed.  Roy wasn't home tonight so the honor of putting Sam back in bed was mine.  When I got up there, Abby explained that she had taught Sam to say a prayer if he got scared, but he was still scared.  I handed each kid the teddy bear they got from Bedstemor (my grandma) when they were born and told them it was their brave bear.  If they got scared, they could say a prayer and hug their bear.  Five minutes after I got back downstairs, Sam called down the stairs again.  I reminded him about not needing to be scared and he could hug his bear.  His response was, "Bear go night-night, Mama!"

He has really reached this hilarious stage and cracks me up all the time.  The great thing is that most of the time the humor is intentional.  Love it!

Family Time!

Sam is so funny.  I seriously love watching him as he plays and love listening while he talks because he is just so funny.  A couple weeks ago, I told the kids that they had done such a great job eating lunch that they got a cookie (not normal at our house).  Sam held out both hands and said, "One, two?"  Sad for me that I can't resist that huge smile and the two hands.  What can I say...I'm a sucker for my boy!  It's so fun to watch him grow up and show off how strong he is at the playground by swinging from bars, hear him count his cars or animals, and go up to strangers to say hi and tell them some random information about his monster truck, ball, or stick he is holding.  Love him!

Abby gave a talk in Primary today and did awesome.  I'm so proud of how much she understands and remembers.  Sometimes, though, it doesn't work out so well with what she remembers because it gets me in trouble. :)  Yesterday as we were leaving the zoo, Abby declared, "I want to be an eagle scientist when I grow up!"  Roy was a little panicked and said, "You want to be what?"  Now, if you say it really fast in a 4-year-old voice, you'll understand that Roy heard "evil" scientist.  Abby thought it was so funny. :)  She is so happy and friendly, has 200% enthusiasm, and is incredibly creative and imaginative.  I love her!

Lydia, my perfect angel baby, has us all wrapped around her finger.  All she has to do is breath and she has a sibling at her side demanding she be fed, changed, or cuddled.  Seriously, the siblings adore her.  She is a cuddle bug and is growing up so fast.  I feel so spoiled by her!


We went to the zoo yesterday and enjoyed some turtles,

snakes,

gorillas,

turtles,

and more turtles.

(Okay, maybe the last two are tortoises, but we are obsessed with turtles and I had to stick with the theme.)