six people in may

may.

where did it go? and why do i always find myself saying that at the end of another month. this much i do know…life passes by too quickly to not live it with purpose. no waxing philosophical here. just feeling like i am happier when i am making life happen not just letting it happen. if that makes any sense.

christian got his band off on cinco de mayo. that was something worth celebrating. it came off just in time for summer because it was starting to get smelly. babies are smelly enough at one end. having it at both ends was a little much. 🙂

we visited another doctor and learned more about Lincoln's eye condition. it's still amazing to me that he finally has a correct diagnosis. i scoured through every picture i have of him to see if i could tell that his eyes were off. i see it now. i see it so clearly. strangely enough, the answer has been staring back at me this whole time.

mother's day was sweet and funny. i always laugh at the fill-in-the-blank answers they say about me. my all time favorite had to be the question dallin answered like this "my mom and i are the same because…we have the same color eyes. we are different because…she sleeps in a bed and i sleep on the couch." i busted up with laughter. not because my child has no bed. he has one. in fact, technically he has two because it's a bunk bed. but he hasn't slept in it for a while now that lincoln is in the same room. lincoln isn't known for being a good sleeper so dallin took the couch so he could get a better night's sleep.
i'm still laughing about what he said. reminds me of that movie, the blind side. i can dallin hear saying when he's 17,
"never had one of those before."
"what? your own room?"
"no. a bed." 
yeah. we're stellar parents.

we were able to drive to the gila valley and take our family through the temple open house. once with our little family and again when my parents came down to visit. what a memorable experience. i love that our children our getting older and can start to understand the importance of the temple in our lives and theirs. i felt the spirit so strongly when our tour guides, a husband and wife, shared their feelings about eternal marriage while we were in one of the sealing rooms. i felt the power of sincere testimony and love. i want to be able to do that someday with jeff.

we loved having grandma and grandpa here with us again. one afternoon i found grandpa entertaining ella and lincoln by wrapping their arms up in paper towels and pretending they had casts on. he was even signing his name on them with marker. i loved watching them laugh and joke and play together. such fun memories.

jeff and my parents made it possible for me to take a weekend trip to minneapolis for a photography workshop. i felt like a fish out of water sitting on an airplane alone with no one in my lap. the workshop was so invigorating.

the end of the school year was full of graduations (that bob parr would call psychotic), recitals, parties, celebrations, and so forth and so on. it gets to be a lot to juggle but we managed to get it all done. even the recital that i almost forgot until about 5 minutes before it started. i'm sure someone took down the license plate number of a crazed woman driving a mini van that ran over a curb and almost took out a tree. but i made it. skid marks and all.

one weekend some friends invited us to their cabin for an overnighter. it was heaven. truly. the kids played. the parents talked. there was fishing, zip lining, swinging, eating, and puking. yeah, puking. dallin got the stomach flu and threw up all over. luckily it was outside on the porch and easy to hose down. otherwise i'm guessing we would not be on the guest list next time. 🙂

i'm sure there are many more details to may that have skipped my mind. but i think this month will be remembered fondly. even the puke.