Lydia lately

Lydia is just too cute... so I take so many pictures that need somewhere to be documented.

November 2015

Back in November when she was just beginning to wear her cute bows.

She loves to take baths!

Just learning to climb the stairs!

Seriously so pretty.

Lydia loves to play with her brothers' legos... and she is so good at not putting them in her mouth.  Mostly, she likes to carry around the minifig heads.

December 2015:

She's a girl who knows what she wants.  If the pantry door is open a crack she will help herself to any snacks!

Playing with Legos again!

Her first little pigtails!  It's so hard because she won't hold still!

Little Cindy Lou Who

Lydia loves to draw... it's a great way to keep her occupied during church.

Lydia is always holding my legs and nuzzling her head between them.

January 2016

While I was visiting with my Visiting Teachers Lydia helped herself to the markers and figured out how to take the caps off.  I guess she thought her outfit needed a little more purple.

She is just so cute.

Lydia took good care of her baby while we waited at the doctor's. 

I love her kissy lips and her pig tails!

February 2016

Trying out Aunt Rachelle's tractor!

She insisted on feeding herself ice cream.

Such a little phone talker.

One day I went looking for Lydia and found that she had reached up on the table and grabbed some catchup from Henry's lunch.  She was actually really happy until I scolded her... and so this picture looks like she is a bloody mess instead of a happy, finger-painting (with catchup) baby.

She always finds a way to get what she wants.

My little artist... always drawing.

March 2016

Playing with Alex at the park.

Lydia never falls asleep anywhere but her bed... so this was pretty amazing.

Lydia put herself into the shopping cart and thought she was pretty cool.

Lydia's hair is getting so long... and William decided she needed a mohawk.

Easter

We had fun with all the Easter activities during early Spring.  Our ward had a Easter Egg Hunt... and Lydia was too cute for words.  She was just barely walking and was so sweet as she slowly made her way to each egg and picked it up.

The boys were there too :)

The Saturday before Easter the Easter bunny made a stop at our house.  The boys and Lydia had a good time searching for eggs and their baskets.

We also had a fun time dying eggs.

The Easter season is so wonderful... but we always love Easter Sunday where we can reflect on the real reason that we are celebrating!

Spring Break: Historic Railroad Tunnel Trail hike

Most of our Spring Break was spent hanging around the house because  Alex was sick.  We did manage to get out on Saturday and go on a hike.  There was a company sponsored hike down in Boulder City so we decided to tag along on that.  It is a pretty easy and unique hike.

We had a great view of Lake Mead the entire time.

I always love the wildflowers in the desert.  There is something extra beautiful about something that can bloom where not much else can.

This trail is the only remaining section of the Hoover Dam Railroad that is not destroyed or under water.  It is really pretty cool to walk through those tunnels.

The boys found these crazy bugs and needed to take pictures of them.

We made it through the first tunnel!

For such an easy hike the boys sure were extra whiney that day.  In fact, not many of them made it to the end of the hike.  William, Lydia, and I kept at it though.  William kept grabbing my camera to take pictures of things he found interesting.

William climbed up these jagged rocks overlooking the lake...

And we made it to the end (the Hoover Dam parking garage)!  William thought it looked like it could be a prison with the barbed wire.

Eventually we found the rest of the boys waiting for us.  We even saw a bat fly out of the tunnel!

When we were nearly done with the hike I realized that I didn't have my phone anymore!  I had it in a pocket of the baby carrier and when I took Lydia out it fell without me noticing.  I felt so bad.  I kept going with the boys until we got to the car while Rich ran back to find it.  Luckily, another hiker saw it and picked it up.  Rich called my phone, he picked up and they were able to meet up and get the phone back.  Hooray!  It was an answer to prayers.  We played a guessing game to see how long it would take Rich to get back to the car once we made it and it was less than 10 minutes... he was so fast!  Plus, we were watching The Lego Movie in the car so it seemed like no time at all.

We will have to go back here again sometime--when everyone is in a better mood and can make it to the end.

Spring Break: Great American Award

At the start of Spring Break I found out about a leadership summit for Elementary Students.



It was sort of a last minute thing but they were honoring the students who earned their Great American Awards... so we decided to go.  In order to earn your Great American you must memorize the President of the United States in order of office, recite the Gettysburg Address, know all 50 states and their capitals in alphabetical order, write the Pledge of Allegiance in cursive, and recite or sing the National Anthem.  When we arrived and checked in the Mayor Pro Tem pulled William aside and asked him to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.  It was pretty awesome.

As part of the program they let the kids ask questions and explained how local government works.  Then they passed out the awards.

After the awards were passed out all the students stood and recited the Gettysburg Address.

It was a nice way to honor these students who worked so hard.

William and Steve Ross (Mayor Pro Tem)

Rich's birthday

Rich's birthday is usually low-key because it follows right behind James.  This year he requested a chocolate cake and whipped cream frosting... and look at all those candles!

He opened presents after work...

Then we lit all those candles and ate cake!

Since it was during Spring Break we did something we haven't done in forever--went to a movie together!  William is always a great babysitter.  Rich really wanted to see 10 Cloverfield Lane which came out right around his birthday so it was perfect.  It was fun to do something out of the ordinary for him.  Happy birthday, Rich!

Birthday Party for James

Back in December James asked if, instead of a party, he could take some friends to a movie.  That sounded like a great idea to me!  We decided to take them all to the drive-in.  Before the movie we had pizza and cupcakes at home.

James wanted to make sure no one blew out his candles.

Three of his friends (Andrew, Zach, and Cooper) were able to make it.  We passed out popcorn and water then settled in to watch Zootopia.

The boys all had a great time!  The next day, Sunday, was James's actual birthday.  He opened presents before church and just had a pretty easy day.