St. Patrick's Day

The leprechaun left some fun treats at the end of the rainbow!

Blakely fell asleep on the floor of my room...

Fun leprechaun drink for dinner.  

Dyer wanted to try corned beef for dinner so we gave it a try.  I'm not sure it was a huge hit though.

Field Day

Blair and Dyer's school had field day in March this year and it was so much better!  All the other years they wait until the last week of school and it is so hot and humid. 

Dyer's class tug of war

Here comes trouble!

She sure is cute but sassy as can be!

Blair's class tug of war

Happy Birthday Handsome!

Nathan was still deployed for his birthday so we sent him a birthday package.  He didn't tell anyone that it was his birthday but shared some of his birthday goodies.  One of his coworker's birthday was a day or two before or after his so he thought the goodies were for him!  Haha!  His coworker was a little upset that Nathan didn't tell him it was his birthday.  He found about about a week later.

The kids singing to Nathan.

Easton made me breakfast in bed on Nathan's birthday!  It was really sweet!  It probably would have been for Nathan if he was here but I'll take it!

Happy 2nd Birthday McKK!

McKinley woke up and was a little confused what was going on.

She loved her trampoline

This thing was a pain to put together.  I thought it would be an easy thing to put together but boy was I wrong.  I'm pretty sure it took me over an hour to put it together and by the end I had rope burns on my hands and I was sweating like crazy!  Who would have thought it would be a workout putting this thing together.  By the time I finally got it together, it was all skiddywampus so I took it apart and put it back together again.  Even after taking it apart and redoing it, it was still off.  She still had fun with it.

Ready for church

Easton helping her open her cards.

McKinley loves ice cream and doesn't seem to care too much for cake so I decided to make her a mud pie cake.  

Gift from Gma and Gpa Earnest

Apparently this is what happens when someone turns 2!

Going for a walk with her baby and stroller.

Movies, playground, and Barnes and Noble

I took the kids to the Lego Movie 2.  I should have known better than to take McKinley because she is the worst in movies.  She definitely doesn't take after her siblings when it comes to screens.  The only thing that keeps her in a seat for any amount of time is popcorn.  Once the popcorn is gone, she is done!  I'm not sure if her and I even watched half the movie.  The rest of the kids enjoyed the movie.

Afterwards I took the kids across the street to the new playground they built.  It's a crazy maze contraption thing.

Where's Blakely and Blair?

Where's Dyer and Easton?

For Christmas Mr. Roger gave the kids each a gift card to Barnes and Noble.  Since we were over in Destin we decided to stop in and use the gift cards.  I thought all the kids would get books but apparently I was wrong!  I would have encouraged Dyer and Blakely to get a book but McKinley was throwing a massive fit (past nap time!) so I hurried them along as fast as I could.  They all seemed happy with their purchase so I guess we'll go with it.

Broken Toe and Valentines Day

Blair was outside playing with some neighbor friends.  She came in almost in tears saying she hurt her toe.  It was bleeding a little from the tip and nail bed so I put a band-aid on it.  Eventually she told me she was running off the porch (bottom porch) onto the trampoline (it's only about a foot off the ground) and then landing on the grass.  The last time she jumped she hit her toe on the metal bar of the trampoline on her way to the grass.  This happened Saturday.  By Monday she was still complaining that it hurt really bad and was walking on the outside of her foot.  I made a same day appointment for her.  The practitioner she saw didn't think she broke it but because the nail bed was damaged she sent Blair down to get an x-ray.  The practitioner said she would call us later with the news.  I brought Blair back to school only to turn around an hour later and bring her back to the hospital.  She did in fact fracture her toe and she had to go and get a tetanus shot.  Poor thing!  I felt really bad that I didn't get her in sooner, but really there wasn't anything to do other than buddy tape.

 Dyer and Blair had to make their Valentine's boxes for school.  Dyer wanted to do a minecraft spider.  I think it turned out pretty well.

Blair wanted to make a wolf.  I didn't want to go out and buy anything extra so we used only what we had on hand.  The only grey spray paint we had was more metallic than either of us wanted.  We ended up saying her box was a robo dog!  Blair seemed pleased with the end result.

Nathan made me this amazing video for Valentine's Day!

100th day of school

A couple of 100 year olds!

No teeth!

This little one claimed that she wasn't tired but I think it is safe to say that she was wrong!

Things got a little too quiet and I eventually found her like this.

Yes, I started potty training her right before she turned 2!  She's doing pretty well.  As long as there is candy and stickers involved she does fairly well.

Shannah comes to visit!

Shannah came out to visit with her daughter Sydney.  It was a short but sweet visit.  I thought I took more pictures and I thought Shannah sent me some of us together on the beach, but for some reason I can't seem to find them....I'm wondering if they are on my old phone.  I'll have to charge it and check...

On Saturday we took the kids to the Gulfarium.  This was Easton's first time which is kind of funny since this was probably Blakely's 5th time. 

Blair was so excited to take pictures/videos but I guess I should have given her more instructions.  Apparently she didn't push the button down hard enough most of the time so she was pretty disappointed when we downloaded her pictures and there were only a handful of what she attempted to take.  In a way I'm glad because I thought for sure I was going to have a million pictures because she thinks she needs to take pictures of everything!  And not just one picture of everything but about 50 pictures of the same thing.  

On Monday we took the youngest girls to the beach to play for a little bit.  Sydney was a little unsure at first but ended up having fun and didn't want to leave.  Her and Blakely really hit it off and I wish we lived closer so they could hang out more.

Easton gets the Priesthood

The church decided that come January 2019 that all young men turning 12 in 2019 would receive the Aaronic Priesthood and be able to pass the sacrament.  It also meant that Easton would be starting Young Men's and be able to attend the temple and do baptisms for the dead.  In the past you had to wait until you turned 12.  This was a big change!  Unfortunately Nathan was deployed so we had a big decision to make.  Do we wait until Nathan gets home or do it right away?  As much as Nathan wanted to be the one to ordain Easton, he felt Easton should get ordained right away.  Luckily Nathan's grandpa was more than willing to come out with Grandma and ordain Easton.

Easton got ordained on January 12, 2019

I bet not very many young men can say that their Great Grandpa ordained them to the Aaronic Priesthood.  I'm kicking myself that I didn't get a picture of Easton and Grandpa.  I'm not even sure how that even happened...

Nathan was able to face time us while Grandpa ordained him.  I'm not even sure if it is allowed but I guess Grandma can get away with it!  Haha!

Christmas at home

As soon as we got home the kids wanted to open their gifts.  I was mean and made them wait until McKinley woke up from her nap.

Stocking stuffers:

McKinley loved her slide.

Dyer really wanted new Chewbacca pjs but we had trouble finding some so we opted for a Chewbacca robe.  I was a little nervous how he would take it but luckily he loved it!

Easton's bow and arrows.  Unfortunately for him I couldn't figure out how to adjust it for him so he had to wait until Nathan got home from deployment to use it.  Poor guy!  Luckily he's easy going and was willing to use Blair's while he waited.

Presents from Gma and Gpa Earnest:

Presents from Aunt Chandra and Uncle Blake:

Presents from Aunt Bethanie and Uncle Drex:

Game from Aunt Jacqui and Uncle Brandyn:

Game from Aunt Kaity:

Gma Gretch and Gpa Jerry sent a Christmas Eve box to Valerie's so the kids got to enjoy all the fun things while at Valerie's.

Gpa and Gma Whiting sent money for the kids.