Patrick turns 5!

While I'm on a roll, I might as well post about Patrick turning five!  His request was that his party was purple and pink with superheroes...cool.  I can totally do that?  I changed it up a bit with doing navy and plum colors with batman decorations hanging everywhere.  His response, "that's fine.  I like blue too."  He kills me.

This was the night before when I didn't have all of the food out.  His other request was to have ice cream, cookies and pop.  And then when he went to his cousin's birthday, he decided blowing out candles was needed as well so he settled for a cheesecake.

Aside from the food, I wanted to keep things casual and EASY so we threw a pool party.  We broke out multiple pools, filled up water balloons, bought water guns and let the kids go crazy(although somehow the adults ended up as wet as the kids).

Opening presents before the party.

 Overall I felt like he had a really great day.  Aiden got a little jealous and as he put it, "this is not the greatest day ever" since Patrick kept saying it was the greatest day ever. ha

A few things about Patrick...

-He wears his emotions on his sleeve.  This one is soooo hard for me.  I've always been one not to wear my emotions on my sleeve, and I've always struggled with people who do.  Passion is not my strong point.  He's teaching me to have patience with it and I love how deeply he loves

-He is the most social kid I know.  He would play with others all day, every day.  We just had a garage sale and he would go up to people and say, "Are you finding everything alright?  Anything I can help you with?  Did you see the stuffed animals?"  It cracked us up

-He's soo excited to start kindergarten

-He loves art and puzzles

-He started violin and piano but piano is the one that stuck.  After 17 years of teaching, I can honestly say he will be my favorite student

-He plays hard.  And when I say hard, I mean really hard

-Nothing is half way.  It's all or nothing.

-He can be my biggest helper in the world and I've actually come to rely on him a lot.

-He can be extremely hyper and has a lot of energy.  Another thing I struggle with but it brings a great dynamic to our family

-He loves to read/look through books

-Everyone is his instant friend and if someone calls him a friend back, he is over the moon happy

-Sometimes he's so intense he scares other kids away which is so sad for me to see

A quote that stands out this years:

P: Mom, can I brush your hair?

Me: Not right now, bud.

After several times of him asking I give in so he starts brushing my hair and looking at me in the mirror 

P: I want to brush your hair because every girl deserves to be a princess, mom.

Where does he get that from!?

Man, we love this kid.  He has definitely been a struggle, particularly for me, but I step back and see he's teaching me sooo much.  I love him with all my heart.  Truly.  And I can't wait to see him take that next step in life in kindergarten.  Ahhh!!  That's a weird thought.

Hi.

Where do I even begin?  It's been awhile.  Like, all summer and I have holidays and birthdays to catch up with.  Patrick's birthday will be in a separate post but let's start with a recent photo of the boys saying hi. :)

We've been so busy playing out in the sun so sometimes we look like this:

The best $10 we ever spent provided hours of entertainment

And somehow Patrick convinced us to get a kitten(he's super cute with her, though)

And because of that, someone apparently thought our house was the drop off for spare cats

So now we have two.  Although this cat is seriously the most chill, sweet thing ever

And then the 4th of July happened!

Aside from Christmas, I think we successfully convinced them that 4th of July is one of the greatest holidays ever.

And because I'm always up for an adventure, we went up with my family to West Yellowstone

I LOVE that this little boy still wants to hold my hand all the time

I decided we needed an art wall so we got naked and broke out the paints

Sometimes we are on top of things and remember to do family home evening.  This particular Monday, we decided to talk about temples since Patrick had been asking a lot about them.  I was in a particular crusty mood but 3 seconds on the temple grounds and I felt really peaceful.  And the boys think it's the most beautiful place ever as well and Patrick has since asked if we can go to ALL the temples.  We'll sure try, bud. :)

I've had friends leave the church...I've had my own doubts in the church but seriously over the last few years I've developed such a love for this gospel that nothing could turn me away.  I would literally be lost without the peace the spirit brings and without the knowledge the gospel brings.  I don't even mean that lightly or generically when I say my life would literally have fallen apart without the light of the gospel.  It's made me a better, wife, mother, daughter, and person all around and logically...it does all make sense.  :)

And lastly, I want to remember this little boy's fascination/obsession with green and blue.  Even to the point of having to have one blue sandal and one green sandal.

Man, he just brings joy to my soul and heart.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day was spent with lots of family

 And some big tool shopping.  I loved seeing the boys excitedly going through the tool store with their dad and learning all about that world from him.

 Memorial day 2016

Memorial day for the last 4 years.  It's amazing how much we've all changed over the last 4 years.

Last day of preschool

Patrick's second year of preschool is done and now he gets to go off to kindergarten next year!  I'm a little sad but honestly, I'm mostly really excited.  I think it will be good for both of us and I think he'll love it.
Our traditional selfie

 Patrick with his teacher that he loved.  He's sad that she won't be his kindergarten teacher.

May Randoms

If I were more on top of this blogging thing, I would do several different posts but I'll just sum it up and say that May was full of birthdays and lots of fun family get togethers.

Birthday number 1, althought I can't remember which cousin's birthday this was...

                                      
I just love all of Aiden's expressions in these.

 A little fun at the doctor's office with me.

 Birthday number 2.  Afton's birthday!

 Birthday number 3.  Derek turns forty!

 Jon's birthday was actually the first one in May and this definitely deserves it's own post if I had more time.  But Jon turned 30 this year!  And then I turned 30 at the end of the month.  Really, I think neither of us had as hard of a time as we thought and we just feel more and more lucky all the time to have each other.  He's a good one. :)

 Preschool days coming to an end

 My boys making breakfast on Mother's Day.  It was such a sweet sight to see in the morning.

Soccer

Ever since I started dating and married a soccer player, and then found out our first child was a boy, I have  been fantasizing about watching our little boy out on a soccer field.  This year that fantasy finally came to real life and it has been soo fun watching Patrick run his little heart out.

It was freezing outside on the first day of soccer!

My little stud with his bed head.

This is how Aiden and I chill during the soccer games

 I was excited to be out with our little boy

But daddy was even more excited.

Patrick is definitely a high energy kid and this has been good for him.  Some games, he is so focused and will score multiple goals and other days he can barely focus long enough to keep track of where the ball is but no matter what, I love watching that little boy doing his thing.