Papa Dad loves taking the grandkids on a four-wheeler ride. That's Kody in the middle, she's Aidan & Ethan's future cousin (Scott and Stacy's wedding day is in less than a month!).
Here they are tooting their horns.
I love Sundays. They do seem hectic with getting the kids ready and not being able to hear a majority of the sacrament talks because our kids are so distracting, but at the same time I really enjoy the fact that we can partake of the sacrament each week and feel the spirit. I especially love Sundays because we get to spend time with our extended family. After this past Sunday, I've been reminiscing about how wonderful it is for James and I to live near both of our families. Our children have both sets of grandparents within 20 minutes of each other that they can see at the drop of a hat. Every Sunday, after church, we get together with either Papa & Grandma T-sa or with PapaDad & Grams. Whenever we see the Pruitt's, they also get to spend time with their older cousins Gwen and Alex and Aunt Grace. Ethan has shown a new adoration with Alex. He just laughs and laughs everytime he sees Alex. And Gwen just brings such light and spunkiness to our family. It's always fun to catch up with Grace and all of her work drama and new books she's in to.
When we go to the Stuart's, here is a rundown of our Sunday evening:
1. Grams: effortlessly cooks up a great meal with some amazing dessert that includes fresh fruit of the season.
2. Papa Dad: we can never find "Captain Fun" when it's time for dinner because he has some great project or adventure lined up for us. And when we do find him, he's covered in dirt from head to toe (from feeding the horses or some such thing).
3. Jeff: laughs at his own jokes
4. Julie: always has a witty comeback to James' teasing
5. Hillary: is the light of her nephew's eyes, they are always so excited to see her.
6. Scott & Stacy: their budding romance is fun to watch! It's especially fun to watch Scott interact with little Kody and Jante.
7. James: just like his Dad, we can never find him because he's off doing something else somewhere. But once we do find him, he is quickly taking on the "Captain Fun" role, by taking the kids fishing or out on the four wheeler.
8. Allie: chasing the kids, trying to keep them out of trouble.
9. Aidan and Kody: running around, loving the outdoors.
10. Ethan: trying to keep up with the big kids.
11. Jante: wanting to be mobile enough to keep up with the big kids.
I love sitting on Dave & Melissa's back porch, watching the kids play while we converse next to the burning chiminea. We are so blessed to have our family so close. I'm glad that James' was accepted to a law school here at home so we don't have to move away from our extended family. I always wanted to live closer to my grandparents, so at this time that is possible for my kids. I cherish the times that we are able to spend with our family and am so grateful to know that we will be able to live with our families together forever. We'll have all of these great little moments--and then some--to look back on and to continue to have in the future.
That smile explains it all. Aidan loves being in the pool. He has done really well with his swim lessons (especially compared to soccer). He's the youngest in his class, but he keeps up pretty well. His last lesson is the Thursday. He'll be sad for them to end, but the neighborhood pool opens this weekend, woo-hoo! We'll be doing a lot of swimming this summer for sure.
Kick those feet!
Splash! Splash! Splash!
He kept his chin in the water, like he was told, with no fear.
I think his teacher had a crush on him.
