it's birthday month (already?)!

It's already May and I seriously can't believe it! 

A few highlights of the week:

Helping Tosh with his poster to be "Star of the Week."  I snapped a couple of photos of him for the poster (and had a little fun editing this one):

Liv and I made some butterfly bracelets one day.  She loves 'helping' me do anything and everything:

 Seems like I did LOTS of laundry this week and happened to wash all four of these blankets on the same day.  My mom gave each of her grandkids a pillow quilt for their third birthday.  Because she was so on the ball, she hurried to make Liv's last year and gave it to her on her second birthday instead.  I've mentioned before how much I see my mom all around me...this is an example of what I'm talking about (Burke's quilt is on the bottom, then Hewitt, Tosh, and Liv's is the one on top, obviously).   

 I just started a rather big project myself...  For years I've wanted to create a big family tree (to hang in our living room over the piano) that our kids would be able to look at and be able to learn the names of their ancestors.  My vision has been rather blurry, but I finally came up with something that I was excited about.  I bought a big piece of fabric canvas (about 4.5 x 5.5 feet) and have cut out a leaf to represent each member of our family.  Next, I will be stitching around each leaf and then sewing the name and birth year (with embroidery floss) by each leaf.  I am a little obsessive when I get going on a project.  I started this when I put Liv to bed on Friday night (the boys were at the Fathers and Sons campout) and worked until 11:30 or so and then started up again at 6AM on Saturday and skipped breakfast (yes, I need more balance in my life).  I am anxious to get going on it again and finish it, but this is a very busy week (two birthdays and a slew of other things) so we'll see.  I took a photo so I wouldn't forget how I had things laid out.  You get the general idea:  

Speaking of the camping trip, here is a cute shot of H and T that Rob took with his phone.  The kids LOVE this camping trip and look forward to it every year (Burke's second favorite day of the year, second only to Christmas Day). 

The boys came home from camping and swam and then we cleaned out the cars and house (and did lots more laundry).  Little photo of Tosh and me (yep, already hot enough that Tosh rarely wears a shirt unless he has to):   



I took a couple of photos of the kids before church today since I missed getting an Easter group shot this year.  I just noticed today that Liv's bangs are finally about grown out since she chopped them at the root almost six months ago:

These photos of the four kids ended up being cuter than I thought they would since no one was listening to me or following directions (this photo session was actually cut very short when Hewitt hugged/squeezed Liv's neck too tight and she started crying and Rob started yelling... Fun stuff):

After dinner tonight we listened to a tape I made when I was eight years old... It was of me singing and pretending to be doing a radio show (including groovy hits like "Tomorrow" from "Annie" and the theme song from "Fame"- yes!).  The kids thought it was pretty funny and Rob and I were literally crying with laughter (even funnier now that I'm a mom, for sure!). 
 
I think that's about it for now.  See you back here next week!