Lance Turns 1

The day after Oliver's birthday is Lance's birthday.  The first picture was actually taken at Oliver's party, but Lance looked so cute . . . I had to post it.

 One of his presents was this pillow pet - I think I used Grandma Bagwell's money to buy it . . almost positive.  One advantage of posting things almost a year after they happened is you can report on the true results of the presents.  This one . . a huge hit!  He still sleeps with it every night and when I get him out of bed he has to bring it with him and he eats breakfast with it propped up between his head and the wall.  If it falls . . there are tears.  So this present got an A+.

 This elephant . . . B+.  It got some initial fun, but Lance perpetually put stuff that wasn't supposed to go in his trunk, in his trunk.  And the batteries after the first set never seemed to last very long. HOWEVER, it did get a lot of fun for the first month or so . . . . so based on the first month it brought up it's grade.

 I don't have time to look back through pictures to prove this . . . but I'm pretty sure he is the only 1 year old we have had that actually ate their cake.  And . . he loved it.

 THis was a few days later . . . he wasn't quite walking independently yet, but he was pretty close.  I am not sure if he walked sooner than Leah did . . . I think maybe.  Definitely before Oliver and Autumn.  Way to go Lance!  Because my kids are usually quite large, especially Lance, I am always quite excited to have them start walking so I have a little less carrying around.

Oliver Turns 5

For Oliver's 5th Birthday we had a Ninja Turtles party.  Lincoln and his boys came from Pennsylvania to our house and we celebrated with them.

Pin the Nose on the Turtle . . . . . . we get creative.

 Everyone in their masks.

 Presents!

 Using his Turtle water gun pack.

 Pinata

Hershey PA reunion June 2015

In June we had a mini Flake reunion with Levin's two brothers, Lincoln and Taylor and his sister Allyson and their families.  We met in Hershey PA.  The first pictures were at our hotel.  There were a lot of other pictures, but I am trying to catch up here and don't have time to write about them all.  But I thought these ones of Lance were especially cute.  His purple inner tube shows he is a 4th child and gets all hand-me-downs - even floaties.  Autumn is in blue . . .also gets hand-me-downs.

 His cousin Ivy tried to hitch a ride.

 Levin throwing the other kids.

 Lance . . . a little tuckered out.

 Okay - I don't know where the pictures are of us at Hershey Park. I'll try to find them.  I know we have one of everyone together there.  The next day we hung out at a park until late afternoon when we left to drive home.  This is the HUGE pizza we had delivered.  We didn't even finish it.

 I was amazed that Taylor used scissors to carve the watermelon.

Happy Couple Spring 2015

In the spring Levin and I went to the wedding of a friend of ours.  I think it may have been one of the first warm days showing summer was near - and maybe one of the first times we left Lance with the babysitter.  I just remember feeling really free and happy that afternoon/evening.  Also, I've always really liked this picture of us for some reason.  Here is to weddings and being happily married.  Photo credit goes to my friend Stephanie who was their wedding photographer.  

Farmer

We added a sheep to our "collection" of animals. I don't want to brag, but I cook a pretty mean lamb roast thanks to this little lamb.

 Levin grew a huge and amazing garden.  We had to leave in July for a 3 week vacation so we didn't get all the proceeds, but we got a lot before and after.  Levin did a pretty good job of timing things right.

 We may have subsidized our strawberries at a local pick your own.

 Our blueberry bushes were quite prolific.  I've never typed that word before . . .did I use it correctly?

 I was pretty surprised at the size of Levin's strawberries.  They were super tasty as well. We ate some, but also made some jam out of them.

 Lance is our best fruit and vegetable eater we've ever had.  Here he is covered in strawberries and blueberries.

 When Aunt Dani visited we made her help us pick strawberries our second trip to the pick your own.

Farming is not without its problems.  We started getting black snakes eating our eggs.  This was the first one Levin killed.  It had whole eggs inside of it when he killed it with the shovel.  After killing several others we said goodbye to our chickens and gave them to the Hale family.  They occasionally give us eggs and they make sure to give us some of the green ones from our chickens.

 The peas were my FAVORITE.  I don't know if we have a picture of this, but one day Levin made the kids work on the beans - black beans and kidney beans.  For a long time after they both referred to it as the worst day ever. But I think I took care of shelling all the peas.  I didn't want to risk that any would get lost or wasted.  I LOVE raw peas and frozen garden ones are so good too.

 These are the black raspberries, but we had red raspberries and some blackberries too.  Lance crawled over to the raspberries one day while Levin and I were working by tomatoes and just started pulling them off and eating them.

 I think Levin was most proud of his watermelons - and he doesn't even like them. They were pretty good, but most got ready while we were gone so we didn't get too many of them, but other people did.

Cute Kids Spring 2015

Okay since this is catch up posting and I'm so far behind, there won't be much explanation.  And yes, it is probably too many pictures, but I just love these kids so much it's hard to cut out pictures.

We went for a walk and Oliver pushed Woody and Buzz (his favorites) in the single stroller while I pushed the two little kids.  Seeing all these pictures with Oliver in them that we took during the day makes me realize how much I miss having him home!  He's been in kindergarten almost a full year now and these days seem so long ago, but they have me really missing my little boy who isn't so little anymore.  Kids grow so much in one year.  Sad!

 Oliver was playing with Buzz Lightyear when he got carried away and fell off his bed hitting it on something hard.  Poor kid - he still has a scar so I assume it'll be there forever.  I probably should have taken him to get stitches, but I didn't realize you had to do that right away or it was too late.

 We love our tea parties!!

 Levin's birthday - always a fun time!

 We had an Easter Egg hunt with the Cusic children.  We had a great time.  Too bad it was soo cold the eggs all had to be hidden pretty close to the house so it didn't last too long.  It was still fun and our kids love playing with these guys.

 My cousin was in town and we met her at Mount Vernon.  Here are the kids hiding in a huge tree.

 My best vegetable and fruit eater sharing some asparagus with me.

 The kids got into Barbie Princess Power movie and asked me to make them all super capes.  They still use them so I call that a win!  Very few things get used for long around here.

 We didn't take a picture of the event so I made Leah let me take a picture of the book that inspired it.  Fancy Nancy gives her mom a day at the spa so Leah did a little spa for me.  She washed my feet in soapy COLD water - brushed my hair and a few other things.  Fun times!  I think Lance may have been screaming on the other side of the door.  We couldn't let him in, but he loves his Mommy.

 So handsome!!!

 The ward had a hoe down activity with line dancing.  Autumn stole Leah's hat.

 Story time at the library had a day with sheep!

 We have a similar picture of Oliver with spaghetti all over his face and I swear their smiles are so similar.  Maybe it is the bald head . . .

 This is why you take pictures!  I had completely forgotten we played mini golf as a family once.  I think I spent most the time shuttling kids back and forth to the bathroom.

 Costumes have always been a hit at our house.

 Grandpa Flake built us this awesome picnic table.

 Oakridge park near our house.

 Grocery shopping with 3 kids is always a joy . . . or something.

 Yes, we feed the kid . . he just really likes to eat.

 Backyard fun.

 Aunt Dani came to visit and we went to a Blue Crabs game.  All I remember about it is that she and I went to buy snacks.  I put down my root beer while I got ketchup on the hot dog.  We went to go take it to everyone else and I realized I forgot my drink by the ketchup dispenser.  Dani went back to get it and my root beer was now Diet Pepsi.  My guess is someone else set their cup down and got the wrong drink . . . oh and I got in trouble for letting my kids play in the playground area . . turns out you have to pay to go in there.  No one stopped me when I just walked right in.  There was a crowd by the booth you pay in and I didn't really see it.  If you can't tell, I didn't get to watch much of the game.

Is this really the only picture we have of Aunt Dani's visit???  I was probably talking too much to take pictures.  I love when Dani visits us.  I wish it could happen more often.