Update

 Lincoln is nine months old!  How time flies!  He is such a happy boy, but don't be fooled by that sweet face!  He's a little ball of trouble!  :)  If I even turn my back on him for a second, chances are I'll find him playing in the wet shower or in the ashes of our fireplace.  We put a gate on our stairs long ago and since added one to the entrance of the kitchen.  He finds everything on the floor!  He started choking on a chip crumb the other day, so we had to solve that by fencing him out of the dining area.  He's our busiest baby by far and keeps my constantly on my toes, but I love him in this stage and wouldn't change a thing!  He pretty much never lets me put him down, so I've become quite good at cleaning, cooking, or you name it, with him on my hip.  :)  He still wakes up 2 times a night and does not like baby food...even the fruit kind....sigh...another picky kid.

 Lincoln loves playing with the kids outside.  Lately, I'll have Natalie bring him outside while I'm making dinner.  The kids take turns pushing him around in the car and all the while he's in heaven!

 Work on our kitchen is done!  This was such a happy sight for me when all my kiddos could sit up to the bar for breakfast and I didn't even have to clean the table!  Yay!  We love how it turned out.

It's even better than I imagined!

I'm really enjoying having a working dishwasher, sink and oven.  I won't ever take those for granted again!

 We love being outdoors, especially now that it's nice weather.

 I thank Heavenly Father every day for these four blessings of mine.  Motherhood is not easy, but it's so rewarding and worth it.  I think my heart might burst with how much love it holds for my precious children.

Mother's Day was AMAZING!  I got spoiled rotten.  The kids and Rob took such great care of me.  Rob woke up early so he could catch Jane before she came into our bedroom to wake me up at the crack of dawn as usual.  :)

I came out to the kitchen and Natalie was making me scrambled eggs while Blake was making toast.  It was so sweet.  Then while I was eating they brought me their homemade cards and told me how much they loved me.  My heart was so full at the end of the day.  I didn't want it to end.

Rob made me lunch and dinner too and took me out to the Cheesecake Factory the night before and bought me a giant piece to take home and save for my special day.  He also took me shopping and bought me a new skirt.  The kids were perfect at church as another gift to me.  Can we just celebrate Mother's Day every Sunday?

 Sideways, but these kiddos love playing together.

 I love when the kids dress up and play pretend.

 Jovie, my piano student and the kids' friend, with Jane.  Every Wednesday morning I teach my friend Angel's girls piano and then they stay and play (usually) for the rest of the day.  So fun!

 I have little laundry helpers every week.  What would I ever do without them?  Though it takes much longer to get things done around here, I wouldn't have it any other way.  These kiddos bring me such great joy.

 Lincoln loves to stand up to the oven and look inside when I'm baking cookies.  :)  He already loves sweets and he can't even eat them yet.  Ha!

 We attended a scout fundraiser dinner/auction for our ward a few weeks ago and purchased this adorable picnic table for the kids.  We thought it would be fun to let them paint it since it's theirs.  They had a ball.  It's far from perfect looking, but it's got some serious character and they made lots of memories doing it.

 I went to Natalie's class awards ceremony last week before school got out.  I was so proud of my smart, sweet girl.  She got the award for "Outstanding Student of the Year" out of all the kids in her class.  She also got an award for the "Best Reader". Natalie was a champ and made it through a very difficult year because her personality didn't mesh well with her teacher's method of discipline.  Basically Natalie is perfectly behaved in the classroom and her teacher punished everyone, over and over again, when the few bad kids in the class misbehaved.  Natalie learned lots of lessons that things aren't always "fair" and that we can still learn to make the best of less than ideal situations.  We're still hoping greatly for a good teacher next time around!

 Then I got to go to Blake's Kindergarten graduation.  I pretty much cried through the whole thing.  I just hate that my kids are growing up.  It's so bittersweet.  I can't believe he'll be a big first grader this coming school year.  Time goes by too fast.

 His teacher, Ms. Johnson, was AMAZING.  I want Jane to have her in a few years.

 Ms. B. was a wonderful classroom aid.  Blake had such a wonderful year, mostly thanks to these sweet women.

 Blake with his best friend Vaden.

 Another good friend, Carson, who's also in our ward.

 This was on the last day of school. I always like to compare how they've grown and changed.

First day of school 2015.  Why do they have to grow up so fast?

 Natalie is such a good helper with Lincoln when I need to get something done.

 Lincoln already really looks up to Blake.  They are best buds.

 This past weekend we went to a lake/reservoir that's about an hour from our house.  Rob was asked to help the scouts from another ward learn to kayak and paddle, so we thought it would be fun if we all tagged along.  We brought a picnic lunch and then the kiddos got in the inflatable kayak with Rob and swam while I watched from the shore with the baby.  The kids are already asking when we can go back.  We all had a blast.

 Of course I forgot towels, palm to the face, so the kids had to sun dry.  Luckily I slathered the sunscreen on and made them wear their hats most of the day so no one got burned.

Cuteness overload! I love a baby just in a diaper.  I could eat him right up!