Meet Mole-igan

You see, I have this child who likes to "trick" or "tell stories".

Oh no, it "isn't LYING"..... it's just "tricking".

So when Emerson told me he caught a mole IN the house, kept it for a "pet" for three days but the mole (convientently) got away..... I didn't really believe him.

Trying to hear the WHOLE story I asked what he was feeding him for those 3 days. Without even pausing he told me raisins and crackers. (Man, he's a better liar tricker than I thought!)

A few days later Emerson came upstairs and said, 

"MOM! MOM! I found Moligan!"

Wow. WOW!!!!

Moligan INDEED exists and likes his raisins.

Moligan didn't much like Emerson though and bit him a lot and tried to escape. Which made the whole catch thrill exciting AGAIN and AGAIN. #freeentertainment

Moligan hung out with us for a few more days....

Until he THANKFULLY permanently escaped through one of our vents......

or maybe that's NOT-so-thankfully.

Iris' baptism

This post is all about my little Irisita. 

My inately sweet and kind girl who turned 8 on June 2nd. 

I love this picture because it captures Iris perfectly.....even down the the toe lifting up when she gets nervous with the attention all on her (taking a picture of just her).

My mom flew in before the baptism and brought some games which included some crossword pads....which means there MUST be a competition to see who is the fastest of the kids. (For the record, Camden was.)

Wynn gets an allergic reaction that swells when she gets bit by a mosquito. Lucky for GRAMS (unlucky for Wynn), Wynn happened to get a mosquito bite on her eyelid which made it easy for my mom to tell the twins apart.

I think she was just faking it to get extra loves and sympathy from Grams.

DEFINITELY faking it...

And I don't want to brag or anything with a whole my-baby-is-so-advanced attitude and all but HOW many babies that just turned 1 do YOU know that can wink!!!!! #minecan

Mom and I enjoyed pushing the littles on the swings at the park, while all the other kids were somewhere in the forest behind us, in a creek, I think jumping into it?

Bronson and Camden have a pretty nice gig right now. They went to the Pro at the golf course and asked if they could be put to work in exchange for free golf. So now my two boys are the BEST range-ball-picker-uppers in St. Louis!!!! Anyway, they get a free golf cart with it too, but they are too young to drive it. Enter Grams......SHE can drive the golf cart and they won't have to walk the whole course. So I dropped them off. See ya Mom!

Only to pick them up later to find out that my boys ended up pranking my Mom the whole time. #sheesh #icanttakethemanywhere

Iris' BIG day arrived. 

She was ready, prepared and had even finished reading the entire Book of Mormon that week.

My angel.....

She is wearing a dress our good friend Patti Hintze made that all her granddaughters and daughters were baptized in. I loved it.

With Grams

The idea of the whole family in a picture was sooooo not happening.

(I feel like we were being photobombed....)

That's better.

Iris asked Brooks to baptize her. Here they are all ready.

We told her she could pick RA to baptize her and she quickly said, "NO! RA might try to drown me like he does in the pool!"😂

#tearyeyedgrandpa

Grandma was so sweet to fill in on the piano for us!

And everyone in the audience was great to fill in on the whole watching-all-my-kids-for-me thing.

#greatesthometeacher

Iris and Paxton (a friend from church) were baptized on the same day.

I teared up during her baptism....which kinda caught me off guard. But Iris has the sweetest little spirit. It's how she CAME to us. Pure, never wanting to hurt anyone and kinder than most. It was the neatest thing.

Even though she's probably the only person that has ever gotten baptized in her shoes in that baptismal font. hahaha. She simply said, "I FORGOT!"

After her baptism.....with the Grandma and RA

Then we raced home, ate a giant sub before we rushed to Bronson's first of two baseball games.

My mom left the next morning and with RA and Grandma still with us, there was definitely more golfing for the older ones and mini-golf for the younger ones.

And swimming. Did I mention Iris does NOT like to be in the pool the same time as RA?!?!?! Well, I was SHOCKED because she actually allowed him to give her swimming tips!

THEN he went over to the boys and play the lets-drown-the-grandkids-while-laughing game.

However, the older two boys were ALMOST an even battle for him.

RA yells, "BREATHE" before he dunks Camden.

Aleeya absolutely loves this man.

It was nice to have RA and Grandma around when my friend let us go pick peaches off her trees!

And Pat is so sweet always giving me foot massages. 💛

Good bye Grandma and RA!!!!!

Now you can go home and enjoy some peace and quiet!

For Iris' birthday party she asked for a fox piñata......which made it so the "What does the fox say?" song was constantly being sung in my house. That doesn't get old at all! #photobombingbaby

Iris even made her own birthday hat pictured above!!!! (part of me feels proud that they are so resourceful when they do stuff like that, and the other part thinks, "darn, guess I missed that!")

Iris wanted brownies, with ice cream and M&Ms on top. She was SO thrilled about how it turned out, especially with the Trolls.

Iris and her friends at her pool-party.

On her actual birthday we celebrated Iris as a family where she got a very large stuffed cow (that girl LOVES stuffed animals......Brooks hates it. haha)

She kept getting mad that Emerson and Bronson were getting in her picture with the cow, so of COURSE they had to lean in closer.......older-annoying-brother style. (Iris and Bronson are twins)

Aaaaaaaaaand her junkbox.......and no, the mustard wasn't a part of it.:)

HAPPY SPECIALEST OF BIRTHDAYS IRIS!!!!!

Family Pictures

GAH!!!!

I love those babies!!!!

Okay, but now that I got your attention with the that kind of level of cuteness (Wynn-right, Iley-left.... seriously their little feet are melting me.)..... Here are some pictures my friend took for me of my family.

Before we moved from St. Louis we wanted some family pictures done by the temple since we figured we would probably never live in the same town of one again. ;) 

MAN, I love that group.

 My sweet friend Danna actually did these for me for FREE!!!!! But her level of awesomeness knows no bounds. She even brought our friend Amy Rahm who owned a fart-gun to produce smiles from my potty-minded kids! 

These aren't all of them and she never showed me all the out-takes, as I'm sure she had a bazillion. But I'm so pleased with how they turned out.

My handsome boys. I can't decide which pose I like the most. Opinions?

 Royce holding Emerson's hand is the best. (It turns out Royce is only wearing one sock too....and no undies. But I expected that.)

 My sweet girls. So many things to love about this. (By this time Everly already kicked off her shoes. Iley looks in a little angelic daze.) Oh and Danna ALSO did Aleeya and Iris' hair too.....because I stink at hair. hahaha. Seriously, my friends rock.

 I jumped in the back of the picture just to make sure the estrogen was at max capacity. I love Kellyn's smile in this one. (the fart-gun was in full force for this picture)

 We were NOT planning on getting couple-pictures. But since most of the kids prematurely ran to the fountain to jump through it Danna insisted we snap a few. I LOVE them. I'm surprised I do so much.

Probably because it has me with my favorite person in the world in them.

Danna suggested we kiss. I started laughing when she said that because I knew Brooks would NOT do THAT (he's Captain of the Anti-PDA club)...... well he sneak-attacked me while I was laughing. Then again, he always makes me laugh.

We didn't have her take individuals of all the kids because Brooks is too practical and the whole family was itching to leave. But Danna snapped this of my fun little Everly. 

 The SAME Everly who was BAWLING before we got our pictures because the dress was itchy (she insists on wearing it at least every other Sunday now)

Everly ALSO wouldn't sit by Brooks, on his lap or anyone else's except mine in group pictures EVEN though her gold dress (from a color perspective) needed to be someplace else.

My sweet Iris feels uncomfortable in pictures and would usually lift up her big toe to abnormal heights. A few pictures I got back showed the toe. haha

Aleeya already jumped in the water shooting fountain area and came back to pose.....because she loves doing that......hair flat and wet and all. 

I wanted a sister-pic for their room. 

All in all, the whole process didn't kill anyone (much to my kids' SHOCK) and they all got their promised-bribed-milkshakes afterward and now I have a giant family picture above my mantle like I wanted. YAY!