May Family Fun

May is a crazy/busy month for us. It's recital season and there are many events at the schools as the year comes to a close. I love it, but it sure is hectic.


Emily received an award for writing a song for the PTA Reflections contest earlier this year. Here she is being recognized with all of the other winners from the district.



Here is Andrew at the Mother's Day program at his school. They sang the cutest songs for us!

After the program, I got to visit Andrew's classroom where he gave me many wonderful handmade gifts.

On this day, Michael was up north helping with the tornado clean up. The kids and I were on our way to the YMCA, but I had noticed the day before that the local Geico office near us was collecting donations for tornado victims so we dropped off our boxes. The kids were so excited to get their picture taken with the gecko.

Mom's Morning Out is now over for Daniel (and me!). On the last day, he had a field trip to the zoo. They love to ride the train!

Here is Daniel with his teacher and his class. I know he will miss everyone. Not to worry, though, since we know most of the children from church!

Here is Nathaniel at his bridging ceremony where he received his Arrow of Light and officially became a Boy Scout. He is super excited about it. He went to day camp on Saturday.

Since Nathaniel was at Scout Day Camp, he missed the piano recital. He hadn't ever missed one in the five years he's been playing. Emily performed, however, and she did a wonderful job!

Here are the boys, waiting to cheer on their sister at her dance recital.

My beautiful girl, after the recital.

This has been her fifth dance recital! Every year she gets this same picture with her Daddy.

It's not over yet! Emily still has her Gymnastics/Baton/Jazz recital next week!

Fun times

Apparently, we can't get enough Disney these days. Here are the kids at Disney on Ice. I didn't tell the boys until we got there that it was "Princess Dreams." Emily was pretty excited. Don't the boys look thrilled? They really did enjoy it. The characters did some cool tricks that we all liked. We were in the front row of the balcony, so the seats were perfect for us. It was so much fun!

Daniel must have thought that I didn't do a good enough job cutting his hair. He found some scissors and made an adjustment. I thought about giving him a buzz cut, but he cut it so close to the scalp that a shorter cut would make it even more obvious.

Andrew likes to make "projects" these days. This was his idea for an Easter basket that he can wear. At least this one didn't include glitter.

Here is Jonathan doing what he does best--looking cute and melting my heart with that smile!

Emily's Baptism

Emily was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on March 5. It was such a wonderful day. Michael's parents and his sister, Erin, were able to be there and they all spoke. We also had many wonderful friends there, including Emily's piano teacher. I am so grateful to have Emily as my daughter. She is an example to me in many ways.

The dress she wore is very special to me. My mother had it made for me by a family friend when I was little. I wore it when my mother married my stepfather, and then again a year later when I was baptized. Watching Emily be baptized in the same dress was very special to me. I am so grateful to my Grandma and Grandpa Horsfall for finding it for me. I didn't realize it had been in the closet in their house all these years, but I was extremely grateful that it was!

Small changes and big fun

OK, let's start with teeth. Nathaniel had to have three baby teeth pulled to make room for permanent teeth. I didn't take any pictures; I know he is grateful for that. :-) Andrew had what I thought was a blister in his mouth. It kept getting worse, though, and so I finally touched it to see and I was shocked to find out that it was a tooth! I got him in to the dentist right away and they pulled his two front bottom baby teeth.

Emily needed some early-stage orthodontic work for her overbite. She got a Schwartz appliance. It's like a retainer.

This is the beginning of a week of illnesses. Emily and Andrew were really sick with a stomach virus. Thankfully, they are OK now.

Medieval intrument of torture? Nope--it's Jonathan's "gait trainer." Please walk soon, baby! I'm begging you!

Morning bed head

Nathaniel wanted to go see Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules for his birthday and to go to Stevi Bs for dinner. Here he is with his friend. They had a great time!

We spent the day Saturday working on TWO science fair projects. I'm so relieved to be done with them. I think I'm more relieved than the kids are. They both had the same idea and used the same data, but the projects are very different. We took pulse rates to decide which ride at Disney World was the most exciting. For Emily, it was between Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain won. For Nathaniel, it was between Space, Splash, and Big Thunder Mountains and Big Thunder Mountain won. Well, you know that 97% of statistics are made up, right?

Andrew was sharing a room downstairs with Jonathan. He liked being across the hall from us, but now he wants to be upstairs so he has moved in with Daniel. It's going fine so far. Jonathan decided to crawl upstairs the other day. Within a day, he was an expert in crawling back down, too, and he loves it up there! There was a while today that all five kids were playing happily upstairs. The playroom is a wreck, but it was worth it.

Daniel shows off his moves to Princess Aurora

As Nathaniel said about watching this clip, "This never gets old."

The Big Kiss

There is no introduction. This one speaks for itself. ;)

"We're going to Disney World!!!!!!"

We had a super, FABULOUS time at Disney World for Spring Break. You would think that after spending six days there that everyone would have been ready to go home, but we weren't! On the first day the kids were a little whiny, but they were angels after that. On our way out of town, we discovered that we had a flat tire. The kids were troopers, though, and we were back on the road soon. Monday--Hollywood Studios--We saw a bunch of cool shows and a parade. First was Disney Junior (in the picture above), and then Ariel's Voyage. We were about to see the Indiana Jones stunt show, when we got a disturbing phone call. "Mrs. May, this is ADT calling. The fire alarm is going off at your house and we are sending fire trucks now." Aaaaaah! Thankfully, there was no fire. And we did get to see Indiana Jones, which was a highlight for Nathaniel. Tuesday--Magic Kingdom--This was a big shock, because it was way more crowded than Hollywood Studios. It was swarming with people! Thanks to Fast Passes, though, we were able to do most of what we wanted to do. First we took the railroad. It wasn't until we passed the first stop that we realized it was the *only* stop because the entire Toon Town section was closed. So we rode around again to Frontierland because everyone (except me and the two little ones!) wanted to ride Splash Mountain. After that we went to Space Mountain. Michael went with the two big kids and I took the three little ones to the People Mover. Then, Andrew and I went on Space Mountain together. I really wasn't sure about it and I was terrified for him, but he really wanted to go. I sat behind him and put my hand on his shoulder for the entire ride. He loved it!! After that, we all went on the Teacups together. It's a family favorite!

Wednesday--Magic Kingdom

We got an earlier start this day, and our reward was to wait in a much longer line for the monorail. The kids wanted nothing to do with the ferry. Right away, we went to Pirates of the Caribbean (only a five minute wait--yay!) and the Haunted Mansion (just Michael and the three big kids went on that one). Then Michael, Nathaniel, and Emily went on Big Thunder Mountain. After that, we got some Fast Passes and headed back to the condo. It was a really awesome condo that sleeps ten and has a full kitchen. I had intended for Jonathan to take a good nap, but he wasn't interested. He was an angel and he took naps in our double stroller. On Wednesday afternoon, Dad and Debbie and Troy and TJ (my stepbrother and nephew) joined us at the condo and we headed back to Magic Kingdom. We went to Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, and Big Thunder Mountain. Then we watched the light parade and fireworks.

Here are Andrew and Jonathan enjoying the light parade.

Thursday--Magic Kingdom

Our favorite picture spot.

Another crazy, crowded day, but we still got to do a lot of fun stuff. Besides riding on all of the "mountains" again, we went to Tom Sawyer's Island, It's a Small World, and Mickey's Philharmagic, and watched the afternoon parade.

This is at It's a Small World. Daniel wore that hat everywhere. It's a miracle we didn't lose it.

Friday--Animal Kingdom

This was a favorite for Papa. It was much less crowded and there was a lot of shade. The weather was nice during the whole week. I made sure everyone had sunscreen, and only Nathaniel got a little burned one day. There was a Fast Pass "error in our favor" and so we got to do all of the things we wanted to do that day. We were taking a break in a small cafe, and an African music group started performing. They were asking for volunteers, and so I told Emily that she should go. The guy motioned for me to go, though, and so we both went up and tried to follow the dancing. I will not be posting photos. I have no rhythm. Emily did great, though. We then watched a bird show and went on a safari. We all loved it! Then after lunch we went to Expedition Everest, which was a very exciting roller coaster. In Andrew's words, "That was so cool!" We also saw Nemo the Musical, played at the dinosaur playground, and rode the Triceratop Spin, which was the same thing as the Dumbo ride without the wait.

Saturday--last day--back to Magic Kingdom

We started out going to the Speedway. I saw a little girl in line who had the princess makeover and I decided I really wanted to have it done for Emily. I was afraid that the boys might be jealous, but they weren't. They loved it, too! They loved watching her have her hair and makeup and nails done, and she loved being treated like a princess. I think that was my favorite moment of the whole week, watching my boys supporting their sweet sister. I had told Nathaniel that he could go somewhere with Dad or Papa instead of watching her makeover, and he said, "No, Mom, I want to watch. She deserves this." Be still my heart!

My second favorite moment was when we met the princesses. Dad and I waited with Emily and the two little ones for an hour, but once it was done we knew it had been worth the wait. First, Emily met Cinderella. Then she met Princess Aurora. We asked the boys if they wanted their pictures taken, too, and the only one who did was Daniel. You can see he wasn't shy!

She gave him a big ol' kiss, and he loved it!

We had fun on Saturday letting the kids have one last time on their favorite rides. Nathaniel and Andrew chose Space Mountain and Splash Mountain, so they went to those with Daddy, Emily chose Big Thunder Mountain, so she went with Papa, and I took Daniel and Jonathan to Daniel's choice, the teacups.

I loved the shirt Papa chose for me. It has a picture of a glass slipper and it says, "And she lived happily ever after." Boy, isn't that the truth!

I don't think it could have been more perfect! Thank you, Papa and Nana!

Dad, I'm guessing you're the only one who will actually read this entire lengthy post. I love you!