Back in the Saddle Again

One of the luckiest things about where I live is that my best friend (Brittanie and Nathan West) since high school and her family live just 50 minutes away.  What luck for me!  We try to spend all major holidays that can't include family together.  For Easter we went to the West's house.  All the kids were making bug antenna's and this was too hilarious not to document!  This is what Thomas would look like as a bug. 

Katie and Keslie at the park.  So fun to have cousins to play with! (Brittanie is my 2nd cousin)

Here they are, the best friends we Soter's could ever ask for!

Here are my cute little friends on Easter Eve morning after the big hunt.  The kids had a great time and the Easter bunny did not disappoint. 

Thomas the Easter bunny.

The other day I went to pick Katie up from preschool and this is what I got.  Isn't she the cutest?!

We took the kids to the park between the 1st and 2nd session of General Conference (Every 6 months our church; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, holds a conference where we get to hear from our beloved prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, and all the other general leaders of our church.  It is on the top 5 of my most favorite things that I love and look forward to!)

Just hangin' around

How could I not include this picture?  This kid is hilarious!

Lizzie and her daddy.  Daddy calls her "LuLu". 

My little monkey and her, "nana"

Not the cutest picture of me, but we were having a fun time taking pictures.  I love her bucky teeth!

So, here is our little nature boy.  He was outside and just happened to discover a squirrel with a broken leg.  Imagine our surprise when he asked us to come outside and lo and behold!  It's a squirrel.  He is so amazing with animals and loves them so much. It's really quite a shame that he has parents with the opposite view of animals. All I could think about was, "Gross!  Does this thing have fleas or something?"  I have to admit that I was proud of Nicholas and it was a super cute little guy.

My beautiful little Katie girl finally turned 5! (finally for her, not me)  She has been waiting for this day for a long time. 

When our kids turn 5 they get their first birthday party with friends.  Katie only wanted girls at her party  (she didn't get a choice about her brothers, but luckily she worships the ground they all walk on so they were invited anyway). These are cute little girls from church: Rylee, Katie, Sophie and Macie.  We went to see The Lorax in the theater and then we came home for corndogs, cake and ice cream.  This was Katie's choice. Nothing beats a $5 box of corndogs!

Happy Birthday my Sweetest Girl!  Notice that her pink cake also had an orange frog on it.  Anyway who has known Katie for more than 5 minutes knows that she is obsessed with frogs. 

This is me trying to take pictures of Lizzie in the flowers.  Not quite what I had in mind, but she is cute no matter what. 

We had a picnic at the park on Katie's big day.  Lizzie was feeling pretty big on this bench. 

So, I had much better luck getting good pictures with Katie because she was willing to cooperate.  I think these pictures turned out so pretty of my Katie girl.

I also lucked out with Thomas.  He was quite cooperative.  Like I have said a million times...he is hilarious! 

So sweet.

Have you ever read the childrens book Ferdinand?  It's about a big bull in Spain that is forced to be in bull fighting.  The problem is that Ferdinand is a softie that just wants to smell the flowers and be left alone.  Well, meet Thomas, my little Ferdinand. 

Just funny!

This was Katie in the morning on her birthday.  I can't even begin to explain how lucky I feel to have this little girl.  She has been such a joy to me.  She is so loving and fun and friendly and happy and quirky.  She can be the girliest of girls, then head upstairs to put on a dinosaur outfit.  She, along with every one of my kids, makes me so happy!

My little Thomas has a BIG head.  You add his massive mop of hair to that and well, sometimes his shirts are hard to get off.  You get the idea.

My wonderful mom got to come and stay at my house for a full month in from Feb to March.  It was so much fun.  We had fun every day she was here and I would give anything to live by her so that I could have that every day.  I miss her so much.  This was us on her last day here as we were getting ready to drop her at the airport.  I hate goodbye's!

Lizzie is my little girlie girl.  She brought me this dress the other day and I think she looks beautiful.

While my mom was here over spring break we went to the zoo.  It was a beautiful day and the kids had so much fun, except Thomas.  He doesn't exactly stay with us and the zoo was crowded so he had to ride in the stroller.  I think by this point Steve had given up on Thomas's screaming and had headed to get the van. 

Probably not supposed to be climbing on this rock, but it made for a cute picture.

Here's my big 7 year old Matthew on his big birthday.  Up until this sweet ride that he got for his birthday he was still riding a 12" bike that he was not so proud of.  P.S.  I scored this sweet bike on Craigslist for $40.  Awesome!

My isn't he so handsome!  The colors on his cake weren't what I saw in my head, but notice the very masculine Lego Star Wars characters on top.  Matthew is my little guy that just wants to do the right thing.  He is very concerned about making the right choice and he is so loving and sincere. If Matthew says something nice about you, you know that he means it.

This is Matthew at Open House at school in his classroom.

Nicholas is in 3rd grade and the 3rd graders do a live museum where the kids pick someone to write a report about, then they dress up like that character.  Nicholas chose to be Leonardo da Vinci because he was a great artist (Nicholas loves to do anything artsy) and he was an amazing inventor.  Nicholas intends to invent lots of amazing things when he grows up.  Doesn't he look just like him?  We had a beard, but he felt embarrased wearing it so this is Young Leonardo. 

I can't decide if he's thinking or just mad. Cute either way.

Lizzie having Grandma time.  She got to where she often preferred Grandma to me.

"Darth Katie!" (see what I mean?)

"Ha!!!"

She is such my beautiful little dolly baby!  I could just squeeze her (and I do, a lot).

"OH"

For all the manly boyishness about my Matthew, he has the most tender spot in his heart for babies (he will hold anyones baby if given the invitation).  His most tender spot is for his baby sister Lizzie.  He is the sweetest little guy.

This is Nicholas's first Pinewood Derby. His car did not make first place, but I can tell you that it had to have been the most creative and the most awesome car by far!  There is blood, sweat and tears in this thing.  I love my Nickelby.  I am so lucky that he is my oldest little boy because he is such a good example to my other kids.  He is so sweet and plays well with everyone (when he isn't teasing).  I just love this little man (and he's getting there.  He will be 9 in July.  My goodness!)

And because I am retarded for some reason this didn't make it up there with the Easter pics, but it couldn't be forgotten.  This is me with Brittanie's adorable and squeezy little Sawyer.  She wasn't sure how she felt about me considering I am not her mommy and she was hungry, but she was very good to let me love on her for this picture.  I am so glad we live close enough to know this sweet little thing.