Abundant Recompense Copy

We were delighted to have Shauna's family out for a last-minute trip at the end of April. It was under sad circumstances, though. Doug's dad passed away unexpectedly, and the family all gathered in Utah for the funeral. Doug, being the oldest child, and also an attorney, was his mom's right-hand man, so he was away on family business for most of the trip, so we got to party with Shauna and her little ones.  We had so much fun! I wish we lived closer to each other, because these cousins didn't waste any time. They were all fast friends and played and played together. It was so much fun for me to have Shauna around, too. Our family cannot wait to play with these guys again. Bri and Mason spent some time visiting too! We had to do a little hiking together, of course. Bryn and Juje. I love these two and their friendship! Addison and Jackson spent hours playing with the little guys from Risk. Lucy helped me cut a lovely bouquet of tulips and daffodils. Bryn and Juliann got c...

At long last, I finished Asa's quilt back in May. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I love the colors and the pattern (it's called a Candy Jar quilt), and I made it plenty big so it's not a pain to keep tucked in. Most importantly, he loves it!

Our sweet little Leah is seven years old! She had a great birthday and is as cute as can be. We decided she should get to open one present before school. Balloons from Daddy. PRESENTS! Nate and I had fun putting together a teacher binder for Leah. She is in her bliss when she's at the front of her classroom, teaching her stuffed animals all they need to know. And of course she needed some pretend glasses to look the part. Another in the lineup of "cute animal" birthday cakes, Leah requested an ermine this year. She used her special birthday straw from school to slurp up her ice cream. We love our sweet Leah. She's full of creativity and spunk. Happy birthday, Leah!

Asa is five years old now! We had a great time celebrating our little buddy back in April. As a family we went to Rush Funplex, which is his version of heaven. We all agreed it was totally awesome. I cannot express how much delight this video brings to my heart. These are my favorite people. And I feel like they look so grown up! He also had his first friend party. It was fun to have his buddies over. He loves all things outer space, so that was the theme for his party. Pin the rocketship on the moon Addison was in charge of running the astronaut training program. Let me tell you, he sold it! Those kids were so pumped to become astronauts! The cupcakes were supposed to look like teeny solar systems. Lots of fun presents. Later that day there were family presents to open. We have reached maximum coolness level. And a birthday supper, fettucine alfredo with shrimp in it, just like last year. It's worth noting that he requested purple jello. We never eat jello, but we made the purple ...