Happy Birth Mother's Day

I love the month of May. We think about Kara a lot on Mother's Day and Lukey's birthday on the 22nd. May is the month we picked to go to the cemetery to honor Luke's birth mommy. Last year it was raining and the pain was too fresh to have much of a positive experience. We had a much better experience this time. Each of the kids had a pin wheel and flower to leave for Auntie Kara. We let the kids run around and explore. We want them to become comfortable in a cemetery. We talked about how special Auntie Kara is and took lots of pictures. Fortunately we talk about Auntie Kara all the time so the kids will always know who she is and how much she loves them. I love these pictures of Luke. Someday he will understand his story and these visits will be more meaningful. For now I enjoyed watching him sit on her headstone and just be cute. We loaded up in the car and the kids waved and yelled, "Bye Auntie Kara" as we left. It's really, really nice to have the first year behind us. Happy Birth Mother's Day this Saturday!

Daddy's 31

 Mark turned a whopping 31 on May 1st. We had a quiet party with Grandma and Grandpa Hamblin. Daddy used his bonus money to buy a new mountain bike. It's fancy and he is in love. Mark is always looking for people to go biking with so give him a call.

9th Anniversary

 Mark and I had our first overnight date since having children. Mark's brother's family took care of our kids at our home to help Sean and Luke feel more comfortable while we were gone. We had the best weekend ever. We went out to eat, stayed at the Anniversary Inn(Lighthouse Room), spent the day at a very crowded Lagoon, fit in some shopping and managed to go to Sees twice in two days! Mark and I realized that we still like each other and breaks from the kids can be very healthy for our marriage. Bring on year 10!

 Before we left we took the kids bowling. The first thing Lukey did was take off down the lane and slipped and fell. Managing three kids in our lane was crazy but they had a blast.

                  The ball was too heavy for Lukey but he carried it anyway.
                                       I love his adorable tiny bowling shoes.

                                   Sean liked waiting for his ball to come up.

 I thought this was a cool action shot. I joined the kids in using the bumpers. It was good for my self esteem.

Tulip Festival 2012

 Tulip Festival with the Hulberts is becoming one of my new favorite traditions. John, Lora and Maya are some of our favorite friends from BYU. John is working on his Phd in Electrical Engineering. Lora taught school for several years before becoming a stay at home mom to Maya. The Hulberts are an adoptive family and are hoping to add to their family through adoption. Please keep them in mind and help spread the news. Their blog is  http://johnandlorablog.blogspot.com/

                     Lora~we should get a picture of you and me next year!