KINSLEY'S PICTURES

The day before I went to the hosptial to have Dallin I took Kinsley to JCPenney to get these pictures taken.  This is my favorite dress.  My mom gave it to Ava for Easter one year and I loved it because it was so cute and it reminds me of the Ukraine.  The Ukrainian flag is two colors: yellow and blue.  The top half is this color of blue to represent the blue sky and the bottom half is this yellow to represent the grain fields.  My friend took pictures of Ava in it back in Chicago so I knew I had to do the same with Kinsley when it fit her.  I almost talked myself out of doing it because there were so many things I wanted to get done before going to the hospital, but I'm glad I didn't because they turned out adorable.  I knew I wanted a few certain poses to match the ones I had of Ava and I love how we were able to do the same thing with Kinsley.  They are both such sweet girls with fun little personalities.

Kinsley loved having her pictures taken.  She was a natural model.  She thought holding the picture frame was too fun!

The photographer kept saying, "Oh my you are the cutest thing ever!"  Kinsley would smile and say, "I know.  Pretty much everyone tells me that!"  She had sneaked some shopkins into her purse and thought it was so fun that the photographer even took a picture of them.  From start to finish it only took 30 minutes to get the pictures taken.  It was so much fun watching Kinsley just be in heaven.  She is such a fun girl and I absolutely love her personality.  Even when she is mad or crabby she is still so cute.  Jed and I comment all the time to each other about how much we love her and this stage she is in.  Even though she won't be our baby she still gets to be our baby girl forever - which all parties involved are happy about!

MAY

BABY JAXON - The first weekend in May my dad was coming over to a farm auction and brought my sister Abby and her new baby Jaxon.  We hadn't been able to see Jaxon yet so we were all really excited.  Jaxon was only 6 wks old which to us was basically a newborn.  He seemed so tiny and cute.  The kids went crazy for him.  Abby was such a great sport and let the kids feed him, help with his bath, hold him, etc.  As a first time mom she was much more relaxed and calm than I remember being!  When they first got here we met them at Blaze Pizza for Kasen's birthday dinner. 

Saturday my dad spent most of the day at the farm auction.  The rest of us hung out at home snuggling and playing with Jaxon & Abby (well we didn't really snuggle Abby.)  Kinsley literally didn't leave Abby's side the entire time she was here unless she was forced to.  She even asked if she could sleep with Abby.  Abby is such a great aunt and it didn't bother her at all.  We met my dad down at the auction Saturday afternoon to discover he had bought a fishing boat.  My dad is pretty adventurous and always trying new hobbies and had decided recently that fishing on the Snake River would be fun - hence the buying a river boat.  The kids all thought it was pretty cool.  We'll give Grandpa some time to figure it all out and then we will let him take us on a boat ride. :) It was fun to have them come if only for two days.  Being around Jaxon made us all very excited to welcome our new baby soon!

KASEN'S 8TH BDAY - I can't even believe this day is here.  Kasen turning 8 - wow!  I know it sounds cliche, but I feel like I blinked and 8 years went by.  We love Kasen so much.  He is really such a great kid.  He is so kind and thoughtful.  Generally speaking, he is happy and fun loving.  He looks up to Ava so much and works really hard in school so he can be smart like her.  He also has become quite the rule-follower thanks to Ava which we as parents do like and appreciate.  He takes good care of Kinsley.  He is still pretty shy, but when he feels comfortable he can be silly and says a lot of funny things.  He has been looking forward to turning 8 for so long and was so excited for his birthday.  For his birthday this year he got a new bike! He also got his first suit and a set of scriptures. Instead of cake again he asked for cinnamon rolls.  It just so happened that his birthday this year fell on Mother's Day so he and I got to share the day together.  I felt a little guilty about it and said something to him about feeling bad he had to share the attention that day and he replied, "Mom I don't mind because in two days you are going to give me the best present in the whole world - a new brother!"  That comment right there sums up Kasen's character to a T. 

Mother's day was great for me.  Church was really great and being literally days away from having another child made it pretty special.  I love being a mom and really feel like I put everything I can into it.  I'm obviously not the perfect mother and everyday I can think of 100x that I messed up, but my goal is to be present.  I hope my kids will be able to know that out of all the things I could choose to do with my life I choose them.  The kids made me cards (I always love the kids' renditions of me.  This year we all enjoyed the "weapon hands" as Jed called them Kinsley put on me.) Jed got some pretty flowers and candy for me.  It was a very nice day. 

Love these 3 kids!  They all were so sweet with their cards.  Ava had also made me a necklace at school.  I had to laugh at a survey she had filled out about me.  On the line that said "Her favorite game to play with me is..." Ava wrote "the quiet game."  I think that gets filed under the quantity time we spend together vs the quality time!  haha.

These are the cards the kids made for Grandma Foster.  Ava was really on point with her poetry this weekend. She wrote the best poems on the three cards she made.  Because she did, Kasen also wanted to write a poem on his cards.  His poem for Grandma Foster said: You're as sweet as candy, you're nicer than anything, you're as pretty as a mermaid.  :) 

These were the cards to Grandma Erickson.  Again Ava wrote an amazing poem.  Kasen's was also fantastic.  Kinsley drew pictures for both grandmas that I didn't get a chance to take a picture of.  They were cute and both grandmas had "weapon hands" as Jed calls them.

BABY - Our baby boy was born May 10th @ 1:20 pm.  He weighed 7 lb 4.5 oz and was 20 1/4 inches long.  We decided to name him Dallin John Erickson.  He is the sweetest thing.  I'm going to do a whole post just about Dallin's birth with a lot more pictures soon.

ACTIVITIES - Extra activities were in full mode for May.  Both Ava & Kasen wrapped up their spring sports the week I was in the hospital with Dallin.  I was sad to miss the last few games.  May is definitely not the most calm, relaxing month to have a baby with older kids I realized!  Ava finished her spring volleyball season.  She improved a lot from fall, but her team wasn't that great and they lost most of their games.  This was really frustrating for Ava... and Jed.  Ava had a lot more fun this season and wasn't quite so stressed out because she understood the game better.  She got a lot better at serving and returning balls.  She even served overhand a few times successfully.  Her coach had a friend do these pictures and they turned out really cute. During her last game she got frustrated with how she was playing and Kasen wrote her a card while he was watching from the stands. He gave it to her after the game. He is such a nice brother.  I'm not sure Ava appreciated it at first, but later she told me it was very thoughtful of him.

Kasen finished his 2nd season of flag football.  His team won the championship game this year.  They got giant trophies the team named the "Blue Beauty."  Kasen thought it was incredible that in the fall the championship team was the Raiders and then in the spring they were the Raiders and they won!  So he is really hoping that next fall they get to be the Raiders again even though he doesn't like the "real Raiders."  Kasen thinks he is really great at football.  It is fun to listen to him talk about his athletic ability because he is very proud of it and confident.  The really good person on his team is Ace.  Jed told me on the way to the last game Kasen said to him, "Dad I think I'm really good at football.  I think I'm even as good as Ace.  Actually I know I can be even better than Ace I just have to figure out how to unlock all my talents inside of me."  Jed said, "You are really good Kasen.  Who told you all of that about unlocking your talent?"  Kasen shrugged and replied, "Myself of course."  Jed said it was hilarious.  In one of Kasen's last writing assignments at school he wrote: My favorite sport is football because I like to play it.  Also, my team beat the number one team so now my team is the number one team.  Finally, I am usually the qb.

Now that Kasen is 8 yrs old he started scouts as well.  He was super excited about it - Jed not so much.  I'm not sure why Jed hates scouting so much!  Kasen was pretty nervous for his first activity, but once he saw some of his friends there he has been really excited about it.  While Grandma Erickson was here she helped sew on his patches.  Ava was looking through Kasen's scout book and said, "Why can't Activity Days be like this?  They get to do so many cool things and we do things like braid hair!"  I remember thinking the same thing when my brother was in scouts.  It really is a great program.

STATE TRACK -  Samantha's track team qualified to come to state this year so the week after the baby was born Jed's parents and Susan and her girls came to Boise. My sister Abby, Jordan, and their new baby Jaxon came too and stayed with us because Jordan coaches track for Ririe. I was pretty nervous for so many visitors right after having a baby.  I've never had to do visitors with any of my kids before except Ava so I was feeling a little anxious.   It was fun to have visitors but I think people forget how much of an adjustment a new baby is for the new mom with establishing a milk supply, weird hormonal fluctuations, no sleep, and wanting to get a baby on somewhat of a schedule so life can function when it isn't happening to them.  I had to give myself some pep talks and deep breaths that weekend but we made it through.  I knew everyone was just as excited as we were about Dallin and wanted to be helpful and see him so hopefully I didn't come across too overwhelmed or ungrateful because I do love everyone for being so excited about our baby. Also and much to my surprise, our ward was so thoughtful and people brought in meals often enough I didn't have to cook anything for two weeks.  It was the greatest thing.  

Ava was really excited that she officially was taller than Grandma Erickson for the first time! Samantha's relay team ended up doing really good that weekend and got 1st place which was exciting for her.  The kids loved having Morgan around and the two baby cousins Mason/Jaxon.  One night we even had a dance party provided by the kids! 

SCHOOL - Like I said earlier, May was not an "easy" month to have a baby.  When Kasen was born Ava was 3 so I didn't have to deal with school or extracurricular activities.  This time though was the exact opposite.  And can I just say that school really crams in a lot during May!!!  Ava had her 4th grade music program a few days before the baby was born.  Since 4th grade is when they study Idaho History the program was all about music from Idaho's History. They also had a few songs where they played their recorders. Ava tried out for a speaking part and was given a really long one to introduce the state song.  She did great like usual. 

 Ava really stepped up her art game this month because she was doing an art unit at GT. I'm always amazed at her & Kasen's art because I don't have any skill in the area whatsoever, so I'm not sure if I'm just biased or they are as awesomely talented as I think they are.  Ava had her last report due in her home class and she turned it into this cool triangle thing. 

 Below are her other art projects from GT. One evening she drew this self portrait.  I thought it was awesome.

Kinsley had some fun activities in May for preschool.  On May 4th (Star Wars Day), they had a Star Wars party and she wore Kasen's costume to school.  Every single kid in her class had real full-on Star Wars gear and costumes.  I still can't believe sometimes how popular Star Wars is (because it seems so dumb!)  The week before baby I got to take her to kindergarten orientation at Willow Creek.  She was so excited to do some things to get ready for kindergarten.  I will be sad when she goes next year, but luckily it is only half day for her.  Kinsley also got to go on a fieldtrip to the fire station.  This was while I was in the hospital so I didn't get any pictures of that but she said she had a great time and got to drive the "big truck!"  The last week of May was Kinsley's last week of preschool.  She has had such a fun year and I'm really glad she was able to go.  It was worth every penny.  She loved the social aspect and improved in so many areas.  She can even write her name!

Kasen had some fun activities at school also.  All the classes in the school had a competition for Creek Cruisers and his class won so they got to have lunch with the Mayor of Meridian.  Kasen thought that was so cool.  I think Kasen has really grown up and matured a lot this year.  He has LOVED 1st grade and thinks Ms. Hobson is the greatest teacher in the world.  (She is amazing and so nice and kind to the kids.)  I will never be able to say enough how thankful I am that we waited to send him to school here.  It has made such a difference in his confidence. 

The last two weeks of May all the 1st grade classes worked together and did a camping theme for everything they did.  The kids got assigned groups and went into different 1st grade classes for different activities.  Kasen was in a group with his friend Drake.  Kasen brought home a lot of cool craft projects they made and they learned about water safety, fire safety, the outdoors, different animals, etc.  He had a lot of fun - we even had to send in a care package just like we would if he was really at camp.

Kasen and Ava both were involved in STEM club again this spring.  On the last day Kasen brought home a marshmallow catapult he had made.  I also took a couple of pictures of Kasen throughout the month.  Even though Kasen is pretty happy most of the time we still get to see his pouty/grumpy side more than we'd like.  I also wanted to get a picture of Kasen's Creek Cruiser necklace.  Creek Cruisers is a club they started where during one recess the kids can run around the track and collect sticks.  They turn the sticks in to their teacher and she logs their distance.  4x around the track is a mile and once they reached 25 miles they got a shoe charm to put on their necklace.  Kasen really got into Cruisers and did it every recess it was offered all year.  By the end he had ran 104 miles!  The most out of anyone in the whole school.  It was a huge accomplishment and we were so proud of him.  He was probably the most proud of anyone.  He wore his necklace every single day to school after he got his first shoe.

MEMORIAL WEEKEND - The week leading up to Memorial Day was the first week since we brought Dallin home that I actually felt was somewhat calm.  The kids all had school and their wasn't anything going on out of the ordinary and we didn't have any visitors so I was able to feel like I could actually handle this 4 kid thing.  Then at the end of the week I realized that the Ewell's (a family we have made friends with here) were moving away in a few days.  I had had big plans to help my friend clean her house and get packed and have her kids over but I wasn't able to do any of that!  Luckily she understood.  However, the last Saturday of May we had their kids over most of the day to play.  My kids all have someone their age and both Ava & Kinsley's friends are actually their best friends so we had to have them over one last time.  We will definitely miss the Ewell Family!  Later that night we went to a goodbye bbq for them at the park with some other families.  We had great food, good conversation, and a kickball game.  At one point I couldn't see Kinsley and her friend Brelyn anywhere.  We all got worried and started calling to them.  They yelled back right away from up at the top of a tree!  They were seriously right up at the top.  I didn't even know Kinsley knew how to climb trees!  My relief from finding her didn't last long as I had to watch her climb down the tree.  It was a really nice day and my first time out of the house so it was nice.  Memorial Day we had another quiet day home and ordered pizza from Johnny's to test it for Kasen's baptism.  It was pretty tasty, but a little on the small side. :) 

May was quite the month for us!