the tadje family: May

Now that we have kids in school and activities, May is a crazy busy month. And I'm sure as the kids get older it will even get busier. So here's our mega-May post:

Brennan finished his soccer season. He is a little soccer star and has no fear to get right in there and fight for the ball. We love watching him play.

Brennan was on the same team as Briggs Lemmon and Luke Paskett and his buddy Max from school. Callie loved getting to play with Tagg and Marshall during their games. Amanda took this picture and it's pretty much the cutest :)

Aiden started baseball in May too. He's only had a few games so far but he really enjoys it and we love watching him play. I'll take more pictures of him at his future games throughout the summer but he looked really cute as the catcher one day so I snapped this:

Graham is still the sweetest and happiest little guy. He started smiling a bunch at the beginning of May and it is adorable!

Callie loves her baby brother!

For Mother's day this year, Nate made me waffles with strawberries and cream. The boys helped him make them and they were so excited to surprise me with breakfast. It was the sweetest thing!

After breakfast that morning, Nate realized he left his brand new Surface Pro at a Cafe Rio in Salt Lake. So he quickly drove up there to happily find that someone turned it in and it hadn't been stolen. That was happy news!

My family showered me with love and attention and new couches so it was a happy Mother's day indeed! I love these little kids of mine!

We spent the evening with my parents. We love my mom and feel so blessed to live so close to her! We are so grateful for Nate's mom too and her love and example.

The weather finally started warming up and staying nice so we spent a lot of time outside. We'd walk to the park or walk through the cemetary up the road or play outside in the cul-de-sac. Good weather is good for the soul!

Callie and Brennan had a lot of fun with dandelions one day as you can see..

Nate took Aiden and Brennan to Fathers and Sons. The boys LOVE going and kept counting down the day til they went. It's hard to tell in the picture, but Aaron found a snake and the kids took turns touching it. They also did a candy cannon, roasted marshmallows, did a potato gun, went on a bike ride, went on a hike, and ate a yummy breakfast before coming home early so Aiden could make it to his baseball game.

Nate has been doing a lot of bike rides now that the weather has warmed up. He sometimes goes mountain biking with his brothers to prepare for their long ride in Idaho later this summer. Nate goes road biking often too and has done some really long rides all ready this summer.

Aiden had such a wonderful teacher this year for 2nd grade - Mrs. Radulovich. )Both my boys had great teachers...we loved Mrs. Crockett too in Brennan's kindergarten class! Aiden had her in kindergarten too and we were lucky to have her a second time!) Anyway, Mrs. Rad went above and beyond as a teacher and it was a great year for Aiden. She had the kids learn little speaking parts and songs (with actions) for a little class play called "Creepy Creatures." Aiden was a snake for it. He did awesome and knew every word and action to every song. As weird as it may sound, I got emotional watching him perform this little play because I realized how fast he is growing up and how proud I am of the little man he is becoming.

We blessed Graham in May (posted about a couple weeks ago). I could look at this happy picture of him all day. I love this sweet boy of ours!

The kids had their end of school dance festival. It was so cute to watch them. Brennan and all the other kindergarteners did a cute dance as little bees. Aiden was a pirate with all of the 2nd graders. I love that their school does this.

The cute little on-lookers:

Even though Aiden isn't 8 until June, they invited him to Cub Scout day camp. Nate went too as a leader. It's crazy to think I'm old enough for a cub scout soon! He had a blast doing archery, bb gun shooting, panning for gold, and some other fun "Wild West" activities.

The kids had field day. I took Callie and Graham to go help out and hang out with Aiden and Brennan there. The kids were in heaven being able to buy snow cones and cotton candy and popcorn and gum and soda pop and face painting and little carnival games. It was a fun day tagging along with them.

Callie got a pink balloon and she LOVED it. Well she loved it before the wind carried it away and we lost it for good.

My neighbor Sarah invited Aiden and Brennan to go with her and her son Matthew to see the new Angry Birds movie. After the movie we had a little BBQ with all of us at her house.

We had another end of school BBQ with a bunch of friends from our ward. My friend Crystal just had her baby Juniper. Graham and Juniper are only 2 months apart but look at the size difference! He is HUGE! Pretty sure he eats cream instead of milk.

We went up the canyon to roast hot dogs and marshmallows with the Tadje family one night and then hiked a little bit of the Timp Cave trail. I love being in the mountains and nothing is prettier than AF Canyon!

Two days later, on Memorial day, we decided to hike to Upper Silver Lake. We thought it would be a couple hour adventure...well we must have forgotten how long of a hike it is with little kids. It's 4.4 miles round trip. Nate carried Graham and Callie for the majority of the time and he was exhausted! Luckily we went with Becca & Swen's family and Aaron & Samantha's family so part way through the hike Swen and Joe took turns carrying Callie. But since it is so early in the season, we had to cross a river with fast-flowing water and then walk through a ton of mud and little streams and even walk through snow! When we got to the lake, it was frozen! We weren't expecting a frozen lake. But it sure was pretty up there! By the time we got home, it was past 5pm and we were all exhausted. We all fell asleep soon after and decided we'd pick a shorter hike with kids next time :)