May

Parker at his first Fathers and Sons camp-out. He had me draw a tent on the calendar weeks before the event, and he looked forward to it so much. He and Todd had a great time, and maybe next year, Truman will be ready for the adventure.
A milestone in the life of Truman: he's left the crib behind him. Taking apart the crib felt so momentous. He made the transition on his own. He and Parker have bunkbeds in their room, and one night, he just crawled into the bottom bunk and stayed there all night. I gave it a few weeks with the crib still up, just in case. Now their room feels so much more open, and they have a lot more space to play, so it's a win-win-win!
Yesterday, we tried to hike to some waterfalls in the mountains near us. We didn't actually make it that far, though. As we left, I told Todd, "Next time we'll come better prepared with lunch, water . . . and no kids."
This picture represents my goal for a few weeks in May: To prepare all the food for breakfast and lunch and have everything on the table before the kids can eat. (vs. getting them started on a sandwich or cereal while I continue to get the rest of the food ready, or feed late-comers, and bring them drinks, and then second servings.) What I learned: It saved me constantly getting up and down (or standing the whole time), and I got to actually eat, but we had more left-overs. I think they ate more though, and wanted fewer snacks.
I took this picture because I liked the color contrast on the plate. It was also my first Persian cucumber (tasty - the size of a pickle) and my first ghost sandwich, which was my attempt to get the boys to eat cheap, dried-out bread. And it worked.

Disneyland birthday

I have to do a quick post about a great day. Emma and I went to Disneyland by ourselves to celebrate her birthday. (The matching outfits weren't quite intentional.) This was a long-awaited trip for Emma. She had stored up quite a wish list of things she wanted to do unencumbered by her little brothers. I am pretty sure we did it all. It's been awhile since I spent 12 hours there. The highlight of her day was eating dinner at Ariel's Grotto restaurant, where the princesses each come to your table and sign autographs/ pose with you for pictures. The lowlight of the day was realizing I was spending a bundle of money on bad food, and I didn't have my camera to take pictures of Emma with the princesses. I did use my cell phone, but I really have no clue how to get them off of there.
All told, I have fond memories of the day. I loved having fun with Emma. She is the greatest little girl. I cannot believe she's 7 already. We're so lucky to have her in our family!

Arizona Trip

Emma, Aunt Stephanie, and Tyler. (We're so excited Steph found out she's having a girl! Girls are terribly outnumbered on Todd's side of the family.)
Katie (turning 5 this year!), Emma, Tyler, Parker, and Truman. Kellen wasn't in the mood.
Truman on the double-decker carousel at the mall.
Emma, also on the second floor. Parker stayed closer to solid ground and missed his photo op.

I haven't done a real post in a while. The last weekend in March we went to Arizona to visit Stephanie, Tom, Shannyn and their families. It was right before Todd went back to work and Emma was on Spring break, so we figured we'd better get out while the getting was good. It was really nice to spend time with family and for our kids to see their cousins. We also got to see old friends, which was really fun. (Link the Trendlers on the right to see some great college photos of me and the roomies.)

Our Easter Best

I just love this picture. I never would have imagined how happy it would make me to convince a four-year-old to put on a tie and belt! It was a real victory rush -weird, I know. He looks like such a little man. Hope you all had a happy Easter! We are finally over the sugar high.