One Last Time

Devin's brothers, Mason and Vance and their families, came to visit us right before we moved.  It was so fun to see them all again and to visit Nauvoo and our other favorite places in the Midwest one last time.

Carthage Jail

Devin and I had a fun opportunity to watch all of the kids while the other adults went to the temple. 

It was so fun! We sure love all our nieces and nephews!

Mckenna loved having cousins to play with.

Jace had just woken up... not the best time to take a picture I guess.

Brennen wanted to feed Brielle. He was a good help

We took the walk down Parley Street. I can't imagine how the saints felt as they were leaving their homes  

and their beautiful temple.  I am so grateful for the sacrifices my ancestors made. They were so faithful and went through so much.  

Graduation

Devin graduated the end of May.  Can you believe it? We can't either :)

(don't mind our tired faces... it was a long ceremony for all of us!)

We are so proud of him! I can't even describe to you what he has been through the last 2 years.  It has been hard! I don't know how he did it!  I couldn't have done it if it was me going through what he did. We are so proud!

Preschool Graduation

I was in charge of Mckennas Preschool graduation. It was a lot of fun!  We made up these graduation caps for the kids to wear.

It was a little windy outside :)

My awesome friend Kim made up a slideshow with pictures taken throughout the year. It was so fun to watch the kids watching the movie.

Oh, my wonderful Iowa friends... I get teary eyed just thinking about them! How I miss you!

... as a side note... Mckenna just went through all the pictures in this post and said, pointing to everyone, "This is my favorite friend, and this is my favorite friend, and this is my favorite friend... I miss them! I want to play with them again!" Me too Mckenna, me too.

Friends :)

Jacob and Mckenna have been buddies since... well, even before day 1!  We were friends with the Conovers in Rexburg before either of us had any kids.  We were lucky enough to both move to Iowa for school.  Mckenna and Jacob are the best of friends.  

and Brielle and Landon were just becoming friends. I'm sure we will have a forever friendship with the Conovers no matter the distance between us! We sure miss you!

May

So once again, I let our blog fall by the wayside... story of my life :).  But I'm going to do a quick update to catch up. And then once again, make a goal to stay on top of it

My girls love books!  Mckenna loves to "read" books to Brielle.  And Brielle loves to listen.

May was full of boxes, boxes, and more boxes!  

... and a little bit of fun :)

Sleeping Like a Baby

This girl demands to pick out her own clothes these days. Can you guess what her favorite color is? :) 

All dressed in pink, drinking her pink milk

Mckenna hasn't been taking her usual afternoon nap lately. I have held on to it as long as I can!  But, occasionally, she falls asleep during "Quiet Time".

 

I wonder how she is able to sleep with all that stuff on her bed!  Every night after she falls asleep, this is how we find her bed.  She has to have every stuffed animal she owns on it and many of her books too.

And sweet Brielle is turning out to be a hard sleeper just like her sister.  She still sucks her thumb like crazy and we often have to put Aquaphor on it because the skin is peeling and red.

This is her way of telling me she is done eating :). It's actually pretty close to the sign for "all done". But I haven't really taught her any sign language.

This is one of Brielle's favorite things, getting into the cupboards.  I haven't put child safety locks on them because we are moving in a month.

For now, I'll just have to keep cleaning up after her.  Good thing she's cute! :)

Omo-ha

Every month, we take a trip to Omaha, Nebraska (Mckenna demands that it is pronounced "Omo-ha"). Our temple is the Winter Quarters Temple and we made it a goal to go every month this past year despite the 2 hour drive. We are so grateful to have a temple close enough that it is possible to go every month. And honestly, the time sacrifice because of the drive has made me more appreciative of the temple and it feels good to have to sacrifice more to go there.   We have been greatly blessed because we made the temple more of a priority even though we (and when I say "we", I mean Devin haha) are busy.

 On a few of our Omaha trips, we have been able to spend a little more time there. Omaha is a fun place! They have an Old Market District that has lots of cool antique shops, an old fashioned ice cream shop, brick streets, and a pedestrian mall that has this awesome slide!

This is also a part of the pedestrian mall

and we get to go there one more time with Devin's brothers and their families when they come to visit in a week and a half :)