Adam Gets His Wolf

At his last Pack Meeting, Adam finally received his Wolf Award along with a couple of Arrow Points. He has been waiting to get this award for about 3 months now (they still forgot the Mother's Pin), but we are glad he was finally recognized for his hard work! Adam loves Scouts and we are proud of him for working on his requirements so diligently. 

A Look Back at March

March was another busy, happy and exhausting month. Well, exhausting for Mommy. Here's a quick look at some things that happened during March.

We woke up on March 1st to snow! The kids were so excited! Tessa ran out in her pajamas and played for a bit. We were sad to see it melt by the afternoon. We are bummed about our lame winter this year.

Adam's class finished up their unit on the 13 Colonies and had a fun Culminating Activity where they made butter, wrote letters with quill pens, made silhouettes, and they did a few other things that I can't remember. Adam loved it though!

Tessa brought home this beautiful Sun God she made in Art Class. I hope someday she and I can sit down together and giggle about the way she loves to dress herself. Her Great Grandma Lemley would sure have gotten a kick out of Tessa and her "fashion". 

March madness brackets of all kinds adorn Adam's bedroom walls during March.

This month, Adam celebrated his one year anniversary of piano lessons. His teacher wrote this note in his assignment book one week. She is constantly amazed at how good he is and is telling me he needs to be rewarded with ice cream or something. Which Adam is totally loving!

 Snuggles and Selfies. Gwen is always telling me to hold 2 babies. 

 Life with Gwen is never dull. She loves to dress up and play princess. She wears her royal clothes everywhere we go. 

She loves her sunglasses, but she insists on wearing them upside down. 

 This shirt needs no explanation. It's my life...

 While she waited to get her pictures taken, she got to watch Frozen for a few minutes and was thrilled to do so!

 The crash after the photo shoot. 

 Caleb loves books. Not to read, but to eat!

 He is seriously the cutest thing ever!

 Now if we could just get him to eat and sleep.

 His other favorite thing to eat...a remote control.

 I got to share my love of memory keeping with some of the women at church for a Talent Show. I don't really consider memory keeping a talent, but I am good at it and I love it. 

 We celebrated Pi Day. Everyone got their own individual pies this year.

He is started to scoot himself backwards and wedge himself under the furniture. 

Mommy helped throw Aunt Gillian a baby shower. We can't wait to meet baby Gia. 

March Madness....what more can I say?

 Mommy and Daddy were helping grade some tests for Adam's teacher when Daddy came across Adam's history test and found this....

He added option D to question 22 with the answer, "BYU". 

 Spring soccer began. 

Never again! It has been so cold. We will stick to fall soccer from now on. But he is loving it. 

Adam has been teaching Caleb how to dribble a ball. These 2 are going to be the best buds someday!

Adam brought home a bunch of math tests the other day. I took a picture for his scrapbook. Every test has an A on it. (He's doing 5th grade math).

One of the main things we needed to do for Caleb to recover from his surgery, was let him soak in a bath daily. Well, Caleb HATES baths! If he hears the water running, he starts screaming. It takes 2 of us to bathe him because he goes stiff as a board and won't bend his body. So there wasn't a lot of soaking going on. One morning, I let Gwen get in the bath and decided to try getting Caleb in there too. To my complete surprise, he didn't make a peep. In fact, he loved it and was laughing his head off at Gwen the whole time. So, now everyday they get to take a bath together and Caleb hasn't fussed about it once. Weird, weird baby!

 Tessa has been a great cheerleader for Adam's soccer team.

 Caleb is big enough to sit in the shopping cart with Gwen. We still haven't decided if this is a good or bad thing. She tends to smoother him just a bit.

 Mommy surprised Tessa with her favorite spring flowers. 

 All the Lemley girls came over to watch Women's Conference. 

It was fun to get together with everyone. 

Festival of Colors 2015

Adam, Tessa and Daddy have been looking forward to the Festival of Colors for weeks! They didn't get to go the last 2 years because of Dad's school schedule. Uncle Ben and Uncle Andrew joined them this year and they all had a lot of fun! 

 Aunt Angel said Daddy looked like Tinkerbell throwing her fairy dust in this picture. 

 Tessa dumped an entire bag of pink powder on her Daddy's head. It took several showers and baths (and days) to get it all out. 

These kiddos are so lucky to have an awesome Daddy to take them to fun events like this. We love making happy memories and having such fun traditions together.

Welcome Home, Uncle Ben!!

We have been anxiously waiting for this week to arrive. (Little) Uncle Ben returned this past Wednesday from serving a mission in Chile. In some ways it seems like he has been gone for years and in other ways, it seems like he just left. We have been so excited to have him home again and are so proud of him for serving so faithfully for 2 years!

Tuesday night, the kids all made posters to hold up at the airport. 

 They were proud of their signs. Especially Gwen. Adam's sign says, "You missed my first game!!" (His first soccer game was the evening before Ben got home.)

 Some of the Welcoming Committee. 

We waited for what seemed like forever to see Ben. There were like 15 missionaries coming home, so the airport was busy!

 Such a happy site! She was a happy Mama to have her boy back!!

 Gwennie was just a baby when Ben left. She wasn't too sure about him at first, but now she loves him!

 Ben says Mattman has changed the most since he has been gone. He isn't used to seeing Matt with hair. 

 Adam was so excited to see Ben again! He is excited to have another sports buddy around. Adam is our sensitive boy and cried when he hugged Uncle Ben. These 2 boys look so much alike!

 Meeting Caleb. 

Caleb just wanted to grab Ben's mission tag.

 Tessa was shy, but happy to see Ben. 

 Gwen was tired of being at the airport and not in the mood for pictures. 

 Sometimes I feel like these brothers of mine are my own children. I am a protective big sissy and am so grateful they have all returned home to us safely. 

 He came home all grown up! He's a good looking Elder!

 We had to stop at In-n-Out for lunch on the way home. No one complained about that!

 They wasted no time we got back to Ma and Pa's house. Adam is so happy to have uncles to play with!

 Mommy got to go with some of the family to meet with the Stake President and participate in Ben being released from his mission. It was emotional as always, but I loved hearing his testimony and seeing the growth in him. I am so glad he was able to serve the whole 2 years, despite a lot of health problems. It was a hard 2 years for Ben, but they are 2 years he will never forget or regret!

 The boys never like this part. They take their picture off the missionary wall and Mom gets to remove their tag. 

 Dad got to remove the tag off of Ben's shirt. 

It was an emotional day for all of us and totally overwhelming and exhausting for Ben. But, we are so proud of him for serving so faithfully and we are so grateful to have him home with us again. We have a few years to gear up for our next missionary, which will be Adam. But this Mommy can't handle thinking about that yet. I know it will go by so fast!