Adam Taylor May

My brother, Taylor, and his wife, Jen, had their 1st baby this past week. After I dropped the kids off at school today Carley & I drove up to see the little man. Jen is a natural, she's doing so awesome. I wish I'd been that comfortable with motherhood when I brought Luke home from the hospital!

First day of school

Emry was soooo excited, she barely slept. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Gaiter.

Luke's teacher's name is Mrs. Hodges. Luke was really happy to have kids he already knew from church in his class this year.

It's going to be a great school year!

last week of summer vacation

It's the last week of summer vacation. We're trying to cram in as much last minute fun as possible. The kids and I made a list:

• make peanut butter play dough...check
• go to the pool...check, check
  
• get school supplies...check
• go to the beach...check
• make crafts...check
  
• drive mom completely nutz...check (then she'll be ready for school to start too)

We did everything on the list and then some. Here are a few photo highlights from our last week of summer vacation. Enjoy!

This is what Luke & Emry did during quiet time one afternoon.
This is a bird feeder!

Translation: lunch time

Emry painted.

Our Leeche nuts are in season

our lone ranger in the garden...the only pumpkin that's not rotten

one hot afternoon + 2 buckets of water = at least 2 hrs of entertainment

& early to bed because school starts on tomorrow!

Saturday

Luke's last day at camp.

It was so fun to drive up to camp and see the old west atmosphere! I was so excited to see everything, but mostly I wanted to see Luke. We walked down the main street and saw all the buildings that he hung out at during the week. Emry & Carley were all smiles!

This is where letters were sent and later received by an actual pony express rider.

This was Luke's bunk.

Then the rodeo started. Some kids showed the animals they'd been taking care of (goats and sm horses). Then we saw some kids practicing their tricks on the back of a huge Clydesdale, it was fun to see. Next the older children showed off their riding skills. We even saw some barrel racing. Finally it was time for Luke to bust some mutton! He came out into the ring dressed in his fringy chaps and waving his arms. I was so proud and really excited for him!






Luke won 1st place! He was a little bummed because he really wanted to win the grand prize (it was a small trophy) but he was grateful to have gotten 2nd place.

He had such a great week. I'm expecting to be hearing about it for a long time to come. He didn't want to leave today. What a cool cool experience, I don't think he's ever going to forget this. That makes me feel really happy!

Friday

Luke's 5th day at camp.

My mom is staying at my brother's house b/c his wife, Jen, is expecting their first baby and she's helping out. The girls and I drove up to get her so she could see the big rodeo show tomorrow when we pick up Luke from camp!


Don't even ask about the mailbox...it was empty.

Thursday

Luke's 4th day at camp, I'm starting to get a tiny bit anxious. I feel like he's MIA b/c the boy can't seem to send me a letter. I guess no news is good news, at least that's what I hear.

I had to work today, so we played around the house and made a quick trip to the park. To top the day off we rented movies! Girlie ones, of course! Trent about died when he saw what the girls had picked out...but he did say they could rent whatever they wanted (he won't make that mistake again anytime soon!). They got Barbie Thumbelina & Barbie and the Nutcracker.

Guess what I found in the mailbox today? A letter! I was so excited, I ran up the driveway so I could open it up. Here is what I found......

this teeny tiny folded up 12-times piece of paper in the corner of the envelope

And this is what it said....

(feel free to click on the image to get the full effect)

That was it.
No elaboration. No, what I've been up to. No, I'm having so much fun. No, I'm still alive. No, I miss you. No, I need more money. No, my horses name is. NO NOTHING!

After the initial let down, I had to laugh because
what did I think a 7-year old BOY was going to write me anyhow????

Wednesday

I took the girls up to Disneyland today. We met up with our good friends the Mathews and hung out for a while. The girls were very excited to see Tinkerbell. The park was sooo busy today, busier than I've ever seen it. The lines were so long and it was hot out. Kind of miserable, but we were making the best of it. We went slow and took our time, I let the girls lead the way. Then to top it off, my stroller got stolen while we were in the Disney Live On Stage show. Can you believe that! What a bummer. I didn't know what to do. I decided to stay a while longer hoping that the said party of thieves might realize that they had the wrong stroller and bring it back....no such luck. I stayed as long as I could hoping to get a phone call from the park lost & found, but it never came and we went home.

Went to the mailbox today...nothing again. I'm really sad.
I thought for sure I'd have a letter today. (I've sent one every day!)

Tuesday

Luke's 2nd day at camp. It's very very very peaceful around here today. The girls have just been playing and playing, so cute to have 24-7 girl time!

Trent came home and wanted to do something "girlie". He actually wanted paint nails! Ha! I laughed so hard, he's so cute. It was a little late for nail painting, so he settled for a jump on the trampoline with the girls.

Went to the mailbox today...nothing again. I'm slightly bummed out.

Monday

Today is Luke's first day at camp. I'm doing better than I thought I would. I'm glad we have company here to keep my mind from wondering how he is.

It's Kristene and her kids' last day with us so we went down to the Oceanside Pier. We looked in the fisherman's buckets, but no luck today. We walked down the pier and ate a late breakfast at Ruby's diner. It's such a fun little place to eat and see the ocean, great atmosphere!

Once home, we just hung out while Kristene loaded up the car. They left in the early evening and it was sad to see them go.

Went to the mailbox, hoping for a letter from Luke.....it was empty.

"Gitty Up Partner"

Today Luke is off to Rawhide Ranch for a week long overnight cowboy camp! Am I crazy? Maybe.

While I was on my marathon trip, Trent heard about this opportunity. Someone was paying the tuition for military kids to attend this camp. We thought a lot about if it was the right thing to do. He's never even been to a sleep over. In the end, we felt like the positives won out, so off I went to get all the paperwork and stuff one needs to attend camp. (We purchased Luke's boots 3 days ago and he has only taken them off to sleep. He's even wearing them with shorts. I'm trying to look the other way.)

He is totally pumped about going to Cowboy Camp, as we've been calling it. He's always liked cowboys, but really got into them while we lived with my parents because my dad collects old wax sets from when he was little. My dad always let Luke look at his stuff, all the teepee's, wagons, Indians, cowboys, horses, snakes, barrels, towns etc. Anyway, they're like 2 peas in a pod when it comes to cowboys.

At the camp he's going to be able to take care of a horse and other farm animals, shoot guns, bow & arrow, climb a rock wall, swim and who knows what else. The camp looks really cool. I'm having a hard time letting him go. I was a little weepy today, so I'm glad Trent dropped him off. He's such a big boy. Going to a sleep away camp is a really brave thing for him to be doing and I'm really proud of him. I hope he uses the opportunity to make new friends.

Happy Birthday Carley! 2 years old!

Today is Carley's second birthday!
I wanted to wake her up singing Happy Birthday at the top of my lungs, but we currently have a house full of guests, so I refrained...I whispered it into her ear instead!

I have to say, in Carley's defense...miss CeCe is coming around less and less often.
This last year has had moments of struggle, strife & plenty of conflict but we got through it
and have come out much happier on the other side!

She's such a girlie girl. She loves to copy whatever Luke & Emry are doing.
Her favorite things to do are:

• play dress up
• get her hair done
• play Polly pockets
• get lip gloss put on
• color
• watch Cinderella
• play with her Tinkerbell doll
  
• and she wants to wear a dress everyday

Carley is a very good helper to me around the house. She puts things away when I ask her and she likes to help unload the dishwasher. I am really looking forward to being able to spend one on one time with her once school starts for the big kids.

She couldn't hold up 2 fingers on the same hand, so we taught her to say 2 this way. We had a potato bar with all the trimmings b/c that is her favorite dinner.

It was a Tinkerbell party.

Natalia helped me make these yummy cupcakes. She'd never done anything like it before...so I had to break her in. She was lucky too b/c I didn't even go overboard...this party was so tame.

We had a mini celebration for Addi & Emry since their birthdays are also coming up and they wouldn't be able to be together. They exchanged gifts and each had a special cupcake.

The suckers were a huge hit!

House Guests- The May Clan

The next few posts are going to be out of order a bit because they all were going on simultaneously...and I'm just not that good at keeping every little detail straight. Just roll with me here.

My brother was going to be out of town for 5 weeks, and since Kristene's sister also lives by me...we talked her into coming down for a visit! She stayed with Lori for a few days and then with us for a few days. The kids had a really great time. It's so nice to have family around.

This is Kade. He came to play at our house for the day while Kristene & Lori
took the other kids down to Sea World. It was fun having him to play.
He mostly followed the big kids around and played with Luke's trucks.
He's a really good boy, a little crazy in the climbing department, but a good boy.

Zack is such a sweetie. He'll probably hate me for saying that someday.
He's a little comedian, and was cracking me up all the time!

My brother, Taylor, house sits for his good friends every year, so this year we decided to invade. Kristene & Co. stayed there a few days to enjoy the pool! We of course joined them!
It was really fun. The kids played in the pool ALL DAY. I love this picture of Carey b/c she's drinking the milk out of this bowl and it's bigger than her head...so funny!

Kristene really wanted her kids to see some tide pools and collect shells, but the tide was so high while she was here and it was low at like 3am...not good for site seeing with little ones.
Despite the lack of treasures, we had a great time on the beach anyway.

You can see in this photo, everyone enjoying themselves.....except Emry...she was a sourpuss the entire time. She was upset b/c she couldn't wear her swim suit when we left the house and she never got over it. It was about 65 degrees at the beach and super windy. Then she got her shorts wet and oh man, was she mad. She was having "a no good, very bad, terrible day"!