insta may and a little june

may was a wild, full month in all the right ways. 

the following scene is happening more and more. the three of them playing and working together calmly. 

fun food! we've been making delicious popsicles with our zoku popsicle maker. mmm. 

we spent grey's birthday in greenville. it was rainy and cold all weekend so we celebrated inside at quite a few of our favorite places. anita's, mellow mushroom, and yogurt mountain. 

sleeping boys. 

i'm really really really going to miss my peonies when we move. that is one plant i will be buying and planting in our new yard.

this is one of my most favorite places. our deck, with a book, and a boy in my lap.

studying and measuring veggies for vegetable week. 

trampoline tricks. 

camping with friends.

garrett staying with us for a couple of days and spent the night. all the boys had a blast. will almost got to sleep the night with them but was a little too excited and ended up having to go to his own bed. 

tuck finished up 3 year old mothers morning out. he had two awesome teachers that just so happen to be some of my best friends.

tuck and jude are best buds. jude was so excited to give tuck a bow and arrow for his birthday and they wanted their picture together. 

 scout goes everywhere with will.

strawberry pickin' number one. 

our lot for our new house! we are so thankful we got to pick out the very lot we wanted.

ice cream stop for t man's birthday.

dirt and worm cake for tuck's birthday. he got a bug vest, a new net, a brand new bug book, and got to have a creek adventure. 

 a sunny morning backyard bug hunt.

 tuck and luke ready for four year old camp.

will and all of his night night necessities. 

spent one week with these two guys. we couldn't believe how much the dynamics of our family changed while tuck was away. 

we ate popsicles, played with cousins, and grey helped me make lemonade. he was a pro with cutting and squeezing those lemons.

strawberry pickin' again sans tucker. we went to hall family farm this time which was lots of fun. the boys got fresh fruit icees, played tetherball, went through a maze, and rode big ol' trikes. it's the same farm we went to in the fall for a field trip. it was a winner! 

my old soul six year old. we attended lots of graduation parties and he wanted to dress up for all of them. and comb his hair to the side.

i love this picture. we love books.

i thought this was so funny. grey was in charge of drinks for dinner one night and he filled our water glasses up for us. not quite half full. it was precious.

this boy loves a morning snuggle.

we got to spend some time with catilyn at her pool this week. the boys had a blast and it made us all really excited to have a pool to go to all summer long. hopefully they will all be swimming on their own very soon!

after nap

i love getting this little one up from his nap each day. he is always most joyful then. always has been.  on this particular day we had been to the pool that morning so he had slept long and hard. his hair was freshly sun-kissed and his skin was a shade darker. his eyes and his smile were beaming. 

last day of kindergarten!

 yesterday was our last day of school with all of our friends. we couldn't believe we had completed everything we sat down and planned last summer to do this year together. it's still a little surreal. we have been so very thankful for these precious friends this year. our year would have not been the same without our time to learn and grow together. they really blossomed this year each in their own way. they are all such good friends. this top picture is pretty accurate of our time together. we are so blessed to have one another. 

lenna made will her make-over project in which she painted his fingernail and toenails pink, put him in a dress, put bows in his hair, bejeweled him, and fixed his hair. she has four brothers and will let her do it all to him so she just let out her creative outlet on him! he didn't want to wipe off or wash his hands all day because he didn't want the polish to come off!  

 and just as soon as i wrote in my last post that grey would be attending first grade at school next year, we are back to square one of decision making. it will come. all in the right time. we are just trying to be still and wait. 

regardless, i can't believe the grey bear will be in first grade! 

2013 mid-year rundown

i have gotten significantly worse over the years of blogging. i noticed on my sidebar the other day that i am severely lacking this year in posts in comparison to years past. for mothers day my boys made me another book of our blog and i realized how precious these memories are to have and then to have them where all of our hands can touch them and read them over and over. it was good for me and gave me a kick in the pants to get back on this train.

so. there are quite a few reasons i am falling behind this year. most of these reasons deserve their own post but since i've proved to myself that just really isn't going to happen, i will overwhelmingly record some of our life  happenings right now.

1. i am really really really really really bad at balancing things. i mean really bad. i tend to be 100% wherever i am. and i haven't been here.

2. these boys. they keep me moving and shaking in all the right ways. therefore my 100% is mostly going to them. this is for them and us so i realize i've got to balance that in some way. 

3. photo shoots. a lot of them. i have had so much fun this year with all of the different things i've delved into. but it takes time. a lot of it.  therefore in most of my free time i am editing until my brain hurts. again, that 100% thing really gets me here too. i am taking a little break here while we move and such. a lot of the spring rush is over so i am going to clear my head, learn lots in the way of photography, find inspiration for creativity and try new things. i am so excited to have some free memory space and brain power to take pictures of my own children and free time to record things about their little, ever-changing lives. 

4. homeschool. it takes up lots and lots and lots and lots of time. obviously. and i didn't even do it justice. i am so clear and confident in the decision we made to do it this year. it has been a blessing in all sorts of ways. (this really will be another blog post) but, as of now, grey will be attending first grade at the elementary school in our  new neighborhood next year! he is thrilled. 

5. job shift. and seminary. matthew switched roles in our church back in january. well really he was doing two jobs for a few months but officially moved over into his new role in january. his new role is minister of life groups and assimilation. our life has DRASTICALLY changed. it's been weird. good but weird. he was not necessarily ready to move on from student ministry. we thought we would be doing that for years and years. but the Lord has other plans that are becoming more and more clear and concise. it's been exciting, hard, sad, and a little scary. it couldn't be more obvious this change for our church, our family, and our community is necessary. we are definitely growing and learning. 

6. the computer screen. bleh. i hate looking at it for long periods of time. i'd rather be outside and that's where we are the majority of the time. 

7. preparing to sell our house and move. so any other spare second i've had, i've been getting this place top notch to sell and now it's on to packing. thankfully most of these things we can make family events but we knew it would take us months to do the things we could do without 6 extra eager hands to help. i for one, am thankful to be on the packing end.

i'm not sure too much of this will really change but i hope to learn to balance a little better with some of the changes that are coming. this is where've we've been this year. we've attended lots of graduation parties just this weekend and it makes recording these boys' everyday even more urgent for me. if i heard it once, i heard it a million times, "you'll blink and they'll be graduating high school." sheesh. i know it.