Pinewood Derby!

So, Randall and I are not scouts experts (to say the least).  Therefore, it was with a bit of trepidation that we approached our first pinewood derby.  However, it turned out to be tons of fun.

Carter chose a star wars theme (shocking, I know), and decorated his derby car ship with crossed light sabers all over.  We learned during our mighty muggs easter craft that metallic sharpies are awe-some, so that's what he used. 

 Carter won 4th place with his derby ship.  He was thrilled! 

Lydia's New Look

Lydia's been really excited to show everyone her "new look," so for those of you that aren't close enough to see her in person, here she is...

Even more than STAR WARS?!

Happy Mothers Day Mom!!!  I mis you when you leave.  I love you eny time of the day.  I hate it when you cry.  I love you more than Star Wars.  And you ar the one. 

This is a drawing of a flower he made for me using a dum dum sucker and some tissue paper.

I just had to share this to show how sweet my little Carter is.  He still hates kisses and saying "I love you," but he gives me hugs and says "I'll miss you" every single day.  Well Carter, I know you don't like to say that you love me, but as the great Han Solo once said..."I know."

Ew

This is what happens when you try to soften butter on the counter at my house.

I do occasionally feed my children...I swear!

Savanna's Blessing

We blessed our beautiful Savanna Rae on April 10th and I'm finally blogging about it!  We blessed her a little earlier than normal because my parents were already here for my cousin's wedding.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn't as cooperative as it was for Carter's baptism so we all had to squeeze into our little house.  It was still a really fun day, but I have to admit I'm a little relieved to be done with the baptism and blessing.  Now I have 2 years until I have to plan another event like this!  As usual I didn't take enough pictures, but here are a few that I did manage to take -

Easter

This year we went to Vegas a week before Easter to see RaeLeigh get baptised and have our Brown Family Easter Hunt. We had lots of fun, and really enjoyed the warm weather. 

 

And I thought getting a picture of my 5 kids was hard!

No, Carter is not a ninja or Raphael...he's an "exercise guy."  Just so ya know.

This is the best picture Randall got of Meleah that day, and yes her shoes are on the wrong feet.  It's should be a 50/50 chance of getting it right, but that just doesn't seem to be the case.  I'm thinking more like 90/10.

The Turpin family gave blank Mighty Muggs for the hunt, and the kids (including Ben) had a great time decorating them.

The following Monday we dyed Easter eggs for family night.  I have a little anxiety over this now that I have so many kids to keep an eye on with countless cups of dye just waiting to be dumped over.  I still love it because it's a tradition.  If my mom could do it with 8 kids every year then I can do it with 5.  Apparently I cut off the top of Randall's head in this picture. He's just too stinkin' tall!

We had an Easter egg hunt on Saturday with the Stewarts and it was so much fun.  The kids loved getting MONEY in their eggs.  Unfortunately, I'm a complete idiot and I forgot to take pictures!!!

The kids loved their Easter baskets.  I think the Easter Bunny might have gone a little overboard this year.  He must be a sucker for a sale like I am. ;)  Carter wondered why he didn't eat the top and the bottom of the carrot he cut up for him because rabbits usually eat the whole thing.  I told him he was probably full since a lot of kids leave carrots for the Easter Bunny.

We also attempted another picture with all 5 kids.  I'm actually pretty happy with this one. 
I love Easter time, with all the beautiful flowers and the trees blossoming.  It's such a great time to think about Jesus being resurrected.  I'm so grateful that because of Christ we can also be resurrected and live with our families for eternity.

SIX!

My sweet Lyddies just turned 6 and due to our new arrival, we celebrated (and blogged) a little late this year.  I think she still had a great Birthday even though Randall and I were at the hospital with Savanna. She was so excited to meet her new sister and have 2 sleepovers with Grandma and Grandpa Stewart. 

We had already gotten together for cake and ice cream with the Stewart side the Sunday before, and we celebrated with her the day we got home from the hospital with some new Barbie sets and balloons. 

 The next day we had my family over, and on Saturday we took her to Olive Garden for her "Birthday dinner."

I have to say a big thank you to Tara and Jackie for making the cakes for her parties.  Also to Taryn for helping find all the princesses in the girl's toy bins and washing them for me.  You guys are awesome!  This year she asked for a cake with "all the princesses" and this is what we came up with.  I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the inside of the cake, because Tara made it have pink and brown zebra stripes.  It was so cool!

I hope she didn't mind sharing some of the attention with her little sister because I'm pretty sure that's how it's going to be every year from now on.  I never minded sharing my Birthday with my "half twin" Ben, who was born at 11:59 pm on my second Birthday...so hopefully she'll be like me. ;)

Lydia's also had some fun things happen at school recently.  Here are some pictures of her receiving her Student of the Month award.

And here she is all dressed up for Mismatch Day.

I can't imagine our family without our beautiful, sweet little Lyddies.  She is such a good girl, and loves to be a big helper.  She loves to play games as a family and always says things like "It's okay if I lose, because I'm still just having fun." in her soft and sweet little voice.  She's very cuddly and loves to give kisses and snuggle on Mommy or Daddy's laps.  I'm so grateful for my Lydia.  We are extremely blessed to have her.