pat-a-cake

libby loves pat-a-cake.  it makes her laugh which is sooo cute.  but every time i make her laugh she gets the hiccups.  you'll notice she has the hiccups in this clip.

beautiful baby

here are some pictures of liberty i took just two days ago.  they are pretty similar but i couldn't decide on one so here are four.

i just love her smile.  how can anyone's mood not be lifted looking at that beautiful baby?  she's so awesome!  

wearing shorts!

check this out - hudson is finally wearing shorts and short sleeves.  i didn't take too much convincing either.  i started out with a gradual introduction to short sleeves - i made him wear a short sleeve shirt under a long sleeve button-up shirt.  a couple times it got hot enough that we actually took the long sleeve shirt off.  he'd protest but got over it.  the shorts came from maria's example.  she loves to wear shorts and one day hudson was just okay with wearing shorts like her.  looks like he will survive summer after all.  

spring gardening

today we started planting our early spring vegetables.  gardening with kids is hard!  i only got one thing planted today - i felt like i spent most of my time breaking up sandbox fights and keeping track of hudson (we don't have a fenced yard and hudson likes to wander).

planting peas.

taking interest in a worm.

hopefully we can get the rest of our early spring garden in while it is still early spring.

shannon

funny kids

we went to visit my brother yesterday.  on our way back to the van i lost track of hudson.  after getting liberty in the van i realized i didn't know where hudson was.  i figured he was just somewhere around the van but he wasn't.  just before the "oh no where's my boy" moment i spotted him.  he was on his cousin's girly purple bike trying to get it to go.  his little legs weren't even long enough to push the pedals while sitting on the seat.  it was pretty funny.

libby doesn't join us for family prayer every  night but tonight happened to be one of those nights she was there.  we were all kneeling and maria began to pray.  it made me smile when she started praying because not only was hudson praying (he usually prays when someone else is praying) but libby started making cute little baby sounds.  about halfway through the prayer libby started laughing which made everyone else laugh.  i love my kids.

shannon

sleep talking

maria and ethan have something in common.  they both talk in their sleep.  maria has been sick the last couple of days.  because of this she woke up several times last night crying or calling for us.  the first couple of times i got up to help her.  she'd always mumble something i couldn't understand.  the third time ethan went to help her.  he came back and just sat on the side of the bed.  i asked him what was going on.  he said, "maria says she needs to find the green plastic thing to help grandpa stop the sun."

this reminds me of when ethan and i were first married and i woke up in the middle of the night because ethan was going through the drawer in the nightstand.  i asked him what he was looking for.  "the green lights," he said.  what?  "the neighbors need to borrow the green lights."  i have learned since then that when someone is talking, or walking, in their sleep you do NOT tell them they are asleep.  that just makes them irritated.  "i am not asleep!"  and now more insistant, "i need to find the green lights!"  "okay," i said, "i'll help you look for them in the morning."  and with that he went back to sleep.

he doesn't talk in his sleep nearly as much as i would like.

on a totally unrelated note, here are some pictures of the kids:

i love that hudson's hands are in his pockets.  so cute.

hudson loves his little sister.

"i pick daddy"

last week ethan gave the family home evening lesson on temples.  we were explaining to the kids that mom and dad got married in the temple which means we all get to live together forever.  i thought it would be fun to tease maria about getting married some day.  i said, "maria, someday you can get married in the temple too.  what do you think?  you could meet a boy, get married, then live together forever".  she laughed and then exclaimed, "i pick daddy!"

new addition

here are some pictures of our new addition.  her name is liberty elizabeth and she is a joy!  she is such a happy girl and a very good baby.  her brother and sister love her very much!

with hudson.

with maria.

always smiling.

what a beautiful baby.