Mother's Day

Mother's Day was pretty much perfect this year.  My one and only request was to have breakfast in bed.  So this morning Dave and the kids delivered stone cut oatmeal, chocolate croissants fresh from the oven, and banana, and sparkling lemonade to me.  It was great.  Even greater, I got to to eat as much as I wanted in peace.  (Other than a little baby smiling up at me contentedly, but that part was pretty great too.)  Then the kids and I walked up to the playground and "played" a little morning tennis.  Next was Church and then a fantastic taco salad dinner at my sis-in-law's house.  A really fun day all around.

I got some gifts too, this one from Enoch is one of my favorites.  It reads: 

Dear Mom,
Ever since I was a BABY RUTH you were always MOUNDS of fun.  Sometimes I act like an AIRHEAD but you HUG me and remind me I'm a real SMARTIE.  Even when I act like SOUR PATCH KIDS I still know I'm a SWEETART in  your eyes.  You are my LIFESAVER sent from heaven.  You make life complete BLISS.  So on this Mother's Day relax, put your feet up TAKE% and enjoy M&Ms (Mom moment) with me the STARBURST of your life.  What better RIESEN could you have?  Love, Enoch HUG and KISS

FIVE months old!

 Has it really been 5 months already?  May 1st came way too fast.  This month Freya developed some more cute rolls and we now love to squeeze those chunky, chunky, chunky thighs (as we call them around here).  She is doing a lot of drooling and sucking on fingers, hands and toes this month - hers or yours, she isn't particular.  Enoch showers attention on her and even Phinn has joined in the fun, asking to kiss her every morning.  She is so happy when she wakes up.  I love lying her next to Enoch in the morning and having him wake up next to her.  They just smile and look at each other adoringly.  Or she laughs hysterically and loudly, either way it is cute.

We often think of Freya as being different from our other three kids in appearance.  To test that theory out, I tried to find pictures of the other three at the same age.

I think that the shot of Hilde at the same age is remarkably similar, what do you think?

San Diego Sunshine

I could be easily convinced to move to San Diego.  We just spent a whirlwind weekend there, approximately 36 hours in town, and it was fantastic.  Two of Dave's high school friends married each other there and we decided to go.  One of them he is pretty close to still, and had come to our wedding so we thought it was important to support her as well.  We stayed in a boutique hotel called The Pearl, and it came complete with our own fish!  Jaws was pretty easy to get along with.  We strolled the beach the first morning we were there and ate at a yummy Mexican place that Dave loved 3 times.  We probably won't get a chance to eat there again, so it was worth it.  MXN gave me an out of this world breakfast burrito both mornings, and a delicious chicken platter.  Dave tried 3 different things and loved them all.  I might convince him to go back just to try more yummy food.

This is us at the wedding.  Dave's parents were gracious enough to take the 3 younger kids for the weekend so it was just us and Freya.  Unfortunately exactly when the wedding started Freya decided to compete with the music and everything else for attention.  She let out some seriously loud squeals.  I had to excuse myself into the house and didn't get to hear any of the ceremony.  She was super happy, just not wedding watcher material.  I ended up camping inside the house that the wedding was at and watching through the big windows.  I had to ask Dave for a bunch  of clarification later since there were parts of the ceremony you really had to hear to know what was going on.  It was a lovely ceremony and I am glad we went.

 Freya takes after Phinn sometimes with her scowls.  I love these pictures.

Is it summer yet?

 After we moved in, we discovered that we had a sprinkler system.  We discovered it early one morning as we were driving in.  Now we can put it to good use watering our kids.  Notice how big Enoch is getting, he has some pretty strong calves in the top pic.

 My very favorite part was when we found Phinn curled up on the couch asleep.  I can pretty confidently say that he has never done this before.  He must have been pretty worn out!

Bubbles bubbles bubbles

 For around $15 we have been able to provide Phinn his own personal version of heaven. BUBBLES galore.  He loves attacking them with his sword, and dancing around them like a mad man. We love this kid!

Family Pictures

 Special thanks to Dave's sister Kari who took some family pictures of us on Easter Sunday.  This was while she was finishing making a big family Easter dinner for all of us.  For many, many reasons Kari rocks.  I love how these pictures turned out, especially the silly ones of the kids at the end.  They do love it when they can let loose!