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. 

Happy Easter!!!

This is not professional by any stretch, but I think that auto picture taking is quite the handy little option. This is the Soter's saying, "Happy Easter to you!"

I love trying to get 5 little friends to cooperate! The end result is always a bit of a chuckle for me. Aren't they the cutest little Easter friends! I love them! Hope you have all had the happiest Easter! Love, Matthew (7), Katie (5), Lizzie (20 months), Thomas (3), and Nicholas 8 3/4).

Going Un-Private!

Sorry to all of you! I decided to not go private afterall because it ended up being a big pain in the foot! Welcome back reader friends! Have a great day! Here's a cute pic just for good measure. A post is not a post without a picture!

Oh What Do You Do In The Summertime?

Give haircuts. Oh how this boy would have rocked the 70's!

I will tell you what we do. What do you get when you put a sprinkler...

... a super nice plastic pool...

and a slide?

You get the thrill of a lifetime, that's what you get!

Let the games begin!

Add a popcicle to the fun that was already being had and WHOA!!! Stand back!

This was Lizzie's first popcicle and she took it very seriously. I could not get a single smile out of her until she was done with this thing.

When this boy is happy he is HAPPY! I wish you could hear his squeal of delight.

I found this to be a bit of a brave venture since the end up the pool was like a foot away from the end of the slide, but try it he did and he succeeded.

This wonderland was fun for all ages. Nicholas had just as much fun as any of them.

Lizzie was not allowed to participate fully for the sake of her safety and well being, but she loved watching the kids and was a good sport about being splashed every now and again.

"My, what a happy day!" (song courtesy of Mickey and the Beanstalk for those of you who remember the singing harp)

Yet another super sweet feature of out water wonderland. Our grass is little more than patchy sprigs and so where there is water, there also is mud! Not many kids would complain about playing in the mud. Especially not my little Thomas buddy. More than once I have caught him outside with the hose covered in mud and I must confess that at those times things didn't go over so well for him as they did on this one.

I would challenge any public waterslide to give a better splash and reaction than our very own private slide.

They continued to slide for over an hour and never got bored. I was the one who first threw in the towel. Thomas did not appreciate the fact that it was naptime. I thought about skipping naptime, but since it's my salvation for the day I overruled that thought.

Oh bliss! Yes, that is Thomas catching some serious air on the sweet slide! Several time he flew out and landed flat on his little face in the mud. Luckily the mud was squishy and he would get right back up and go back at it. It was hilarious for me and I felt sorry to enjoy such sights on my own with no one to appreciate. Thanks to my handy dandy camera you can now appreciate a little bit of the fun with me.

Yet another Soter original water wonderland creation. Where else can you find a swimming pool with not 1, not 2, not even 3, but 4 diving boards (aka plastic chairs, a picnic table and an overturned truck), and a sweet bar to hang on? Nowhere, that's where!

Lizzie's first big-girl piggies. I love it!!!

This is Lizzie in her too-big swimming suit. Man oh man is this a pinchy little thing! She spends quality time staring out this window while the kids play outside. It's rather pathetic, but she dearly loves her big brothers and sister and will crawl to anywhere she can hear their noise. What a cute little Miss!

Look at this naughty little adorable thing! She loves to dig in the plants and I caught her in the act with the camera. She thought that was pretty funny.

Nicholas got to go to his very first cub scout camp and he had such a great time! I volunteered to help on the last day and got to bring Matthew as a "tagalong". It was such a fun day hanging out with the boys and watching how they interact with their buddies. I love those little men of mine!

It's sad to watch my kids get big, ut I love to see Nicholas becoming a big boy. He tells his little brother Matthew all the important things he knows and because Matthew worships Nicholas he hangs on ever word, even when some words may be just a tad bit exaggerated. What a great guy this is!

The boys got to make marshmallow shooters as the last activity of the day. Awesome!!!

Matthew putting his shooter to the test on a soda can. Lucky for me the boys haven't thought to shoot anything out of their shooters since they've been home and I have chosen to remain silent on that point.

This was at the egg drop. Each scout troop had to pack an egg into a styrofoam container and hope that it didn't bust. Well, our troops egg busted, but it was a little boys dream come true to watch the watermelons and canteloupe get chucked from way high and splat!

Nicholas and Matthew goofing off. So cute!!!

Lizzie turns one on Friday and this is her latest skill as of last week. What can I say, she is advanced!

Matthew graduated from kindergarten. Way to go Idaho! We loved his kindergarten teacher and cross our fingers that Katie gets her.

Nicholas made the honor roll the entire year and recieved "Most expressive reader" in his class awards ceremony. Way to go Mr. Almost 3rd Grader!

Thomas loves being a pirate. You should hear his little "ARGH!"