April 2016

April...it came and went so fast!  I was without my nice lens for almost the entire month!!! And so other then a few pictures I took on my point and shoot, I only got a few nice pictures taken at the end of the month when Nathan bought me a new lens.  The rest of the pictures I took in April were on my phone.  I guess I need to get them off my phone and do a whole blog post of just cell phone pictures.  

April is kind of a blur to me.  We celebrated Ruy's birthday, played outside, and spent a lot of time taking walks, or being inside from the rain.  But other than that, we really didn't do much.  We took a break from sports this season to just kind of keep things simple.  Life was getting pretty busy and with adding another baby to the mix we just decided that it was best for our family to take a season off.  I'm glad we did.

Well here are the few pictures I did manage to take in April....

One day I took Alanna out back to play in the creek with the boys.  She thought it was the best thing ever.! 

Liam picked out his outfit this day...

"Spurspenders" as he calls them, Superman shirt and sandals (on the wrong feet of course)! 

Jude is always smiling and is probably the happiest, most easy going baby I have ever met .

Ruy was trying to look tough here :) 

Alanna is getting so big I'm not really sure what to do about it.  She is just about the sweetest thing.  She loves swinging like a big girl now. 

Liam likes to help Nathan with anything he does outdoors.  He had a blast helping Nathan wash his truck. 

And then I finally found Alanna a pair of rainboots!  We were grocery shopping at Aldi and we saw these and I grabbed them up for her.  She was all sorts of exciting!  They are so adorable on her! 

This is one of my favorite pictures of her ever.  I know it's not totally in focus but this picture completely captures her sweet playful personality and so I love it so much!

And looking at Jude playing with the "big kids" makes this mama's heart feel happy and sad all at the same time.  How can he be growing up so fast?!

And just like that...April is over and so little to show for it. Breaking my lens and then just forgetting to take pictures on top of all of it...makes me sad and ready to get all caught up on May's posts and then stay on top of blogging!

RUY'S 9TH BIRTHDAY & LEGO PARTY

I say it every year but I really just can't believe how big Ruy is getting!  NINE...that's just one year before he hits double digits!  And then after that he's officially a big boy and I just can't handle that!  It feels like yesterday I was holding him for the first time and now he's nine.  

For Ruy's actual birthday it was just our family.  We had a quiet little party for him on that Sunday evening with cake and presents.

And then the following Saturday we had a birthday party for him where several of his little friends came.  Ruy wanted a Lego Party so I did the best I could on a tight budget to make that happen.  We hung legos up, used legos to hold the forks, put legos on the table to play with and...I attempted to make my own homemade lego cake.  It didn't come out perfect but the boys knew what it was supposed to look like and Ruy loved it so that was all that mattered to me.

I was all worried about maybe I should have planned games for the boys to play but running around in the woods and playing legos on the table was all they wanted to do.  Ruy loved all of his gifts (which was mostly legos of course :)  and all the boys had such a great time playing.  It was a really relaxing party and I'm so happy with how it turned out.

The only thing I was bummed about was that a few days before Ruy's birthday party my nice camera lens got broken and so I wasn't able to use my "big girl" camera for pictures on his birthday or his party.  So the old point and shoot camera had to do this year.  But I'm thankful to have the memories saved through these pictures anyway!

Happy 9th Birthday Ruy!!!
We love you so much and are so proud of the little man you are growing to be!

MARCH 2016

These past few months have flown by and sadly I have fallen WAY behind on blogging about the kids.  I feel so sad that I let that happen but I'm determined to get caught up and to start blogging about the kids weekly again.  Even if it's just one blog post a week about how our week went!  Poor Jude... my fourth child and he definitely has the least amount of pictures out of all of my kids.  That makes me sad too.  I feel like I missed documenting so many important things and moments with him.  I'm trying not to hold onto that guilt though and just start to do better from now on.  

March was a busy month but it feels like so long ago that I've forgotten most of what happened in it...

Jude got this toy from Nathan's parents for Christmas.  He really loved it.  He doesn't hold still long enough now to enjoy it.  He's rolling and crawling now so he doesn't use it any more but when he did lay still he really loved this. It's from Ikea and isn't it just adorable!

It snowed in March and Alanna sat here for a good while just looking out at the snow. 

 

These two...some days they are best friends...other days I can't keep them from fighting. 

 

Alanna's smile...I can't even!  And Liam...that would be his Buzz Lightyear stance!  Ruy is so good with Jude and such a big helper with him.  

We spent an afternoon at my best friend's house with all of her girls.  It was nice to get a break from the cold March weather and have a day in the 80's!!!

The kids loved running through the field and getting muddy! 

 

Liam's jeans got wet right when we first got to their house and he freaked out.  So he had to wear a pair of Ruby's shorts.  He looked so silly running around in those short shorts but he was happy as could be and that was all that mattered to me lol :) 

 

Ruy was in the Awana Olympics this year and he had so much fun.  I loved watching him play and was so proud of him! 

 

March had several really really warm days and we soaked up as much time outside as we could. 

 

Alanna is in love with chapstick.  My mom got her some chapstick one day in March and she had used it all by the next day :) 

This little man turning five months.  He's my handsome little man! 

 

The life!  It's rough...enjoying some more warm weather. 

 

This little man loves his big brother! 

 

Ruy is SUCH a great big brother to all his siblings! 

 

 Alanna took her baby doll outside and pushed her on the swing. 

Ruy has his favorite little spot outside by our creek where he loves to read and play. 

We painted rocks one day for school and the kids loved it. They got paint all over the porch and Liam painted Alanna's leg but that's ok! 

 

Easter weekend we went to a church that had a bounce house and some animals and the kids loved it. 

 

And Jude loves his little bouncy seat.  He plays in it all the time.  I can't even handle how cute his smile is and how beautiful his eyes are!