School's Out for Summer!

So, even though I wasn't teaching full-time this year, I was equally excited when the last day of school rolled around!  I LOVE summer!  I like having no obligations and just coming and going each day as we please.  Add to that, beautiful weather and an excuse to eat ice cream, and there just isn't anything better.  We have our usual summer travel plans to visit the extended family, but a couple of weeks here at home to just savor our time together and be bums.  The first two days with everyone home have gone beautifully.  I told the girls they had to take care of a few neglected chores before we could do anything fun. They got busy first thing Thursday and spent the whole day cleaning, organizing and reminiscing in their room. I worked on the downstairs and the laundry,a nd Lincoln "helped" us all.  We had a very successful day.  We did take a mid morning break for some donuts, but other than that, we just worked on getting a few things in order.  Today was equally as enjoyable.  We took care of a few daily chores around the house, and then headed to the library to begin the summer reading program.  After our visit to the library we had lunch out and came home to read.  The girls spent some time reading to Lincoln, and when he went down for a nap, they both snuggled up and read for most of the afternoon.  I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but it was just what we needed to kick off the weekend super relaxed and ready to play. So, I thought it would be fun to see how the girls compared to their first day of school pics, but I can't really see that much difference.  Other than they were a lot hotter and sweatier after school on the last day than before school on the first day. Oh, and due to my inconsistent photography, they look smaller now than they did then.  Oh well!  It was a nice thought:) 

 

Mother's Day

I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day!  I certainly did!  I am always a little sad that I don't usually get to spend the day with my mother, but I always love spending it with my kids.  Kevin has learned to spoil me with a nice gift, and the girls always make me something really special. This year they both made something for me at school. Skylar made a portrait of me, and a fill in the blank page with different things about me. It was pretty fun to read.  One of the items to fill in asked about something I always say. She responded "How was school today?"  I told her I am glad she put that, but was a little surprised that she didn't put something like clean your room, take the clothes upstairs, etc.  She hates it when I mention those things to her and frequently tells me that I ask her everyday. She informed me that her teacher told them they had to write something nice. I'm thankful for sweet teachers that know mother's appreciate hearing nice things on Mother's Day! Londyn made a self portrait with out of torn paper, and lots of cards and signs that said wonderful things about me.  It was nice reading those while I ate breakfast in bed:)  We ate lunch at Shogun, a Hibachi steakhouse, which the kids have been waiting to return to for a year now. We went last Easter, and they all loved it. Lincoln was particularly intrigued by the fire! I had a beautiful day, and couldn't be more proud to be the mother of the three most precious kids I know.  I feel extremely blessed to be their mother, and am impressed how each of them can awe me every single day! 

Emrie

Also, and most importantly on Spring Break, we got to welcome Emrie as the newest addition to the Fredendall side of the family.  The girls were super excited to have a new baby around, and Lincoln thought he got a new sister.

 Trent, Kesha and baby Emrie

Dad and Grandma Vi admiring Emrie. 

Congratulations Trent and Kesha!  Emrie is beautiful! 

Rocks for Sale

I'm going to try to play a little catch up. I'm going back to Spring Break.  While we were visiting my family in Missouri, the girls spent an entire day decorating rocks.  They had gone to the creek and gathered quite a collection, and spent hours on the porch giving each one a unique design.  When they were finished, they displayed them on the tables for sale. They also dressed up and wrote out a little sales pitch to see if we wanted to purchase them.  It was pretty adorable, and I was impressed with the effort they put into their entrepreneurial idea.  They were also quite successful, considering their clientele were all suckers.  I'm not sure I like the idea that they are always trying to find ways to make a buck, but I guess at least they're willing to work for their pay, they're not freeloaders!  

          

A Boy and His Tie

Who is this little grown up looking boy? It can't be my two year old! I think he looks so old in these pics. They are phone pictures of pictures by the way, so the quality isn't great, but good enough:) I rarely buy school pics in the spring b/c we have so many other pictures taken throughout the year, but who could resist this sweet face? Anyway, he really wanted to wear a tie, and his teachers said he wouldn't take it off all day. He was pretty proud. He proceeded to cry for the next couple of days when I wouldn't let him wear a tie with his tshirts.

As he approaches three, he's learning so much constantly. I love listening to him talk, which he does a lot! He is so much fun to be around!

Robber's Cave

I previously posted video of the girls' climb from this trip, but I thought I'd post a few photos as well. I've never really considered myself much of an outdoor person, but I have to say, this trip along with our camping trip last fall rank at the top of my favorite family outings. Maybe because they were both so laid back and I had little expectations for them, but they were both genuinely relaxing. Of course, the kids favorite part of any overnight excursion is the place we stay. They really couldn't care less if it's a nice hotel, or a tent they love it just the same. Our accomodations were pretty bare bones, but we managed to stay pretty comfortable. The first thing they all wanted to do was to climb up to the top bunk in the cabin.

In attempt to keep Lincoln from falling off the cliff while the majority of the group were training to rappel, we found a few smaller rocks for him to climb. He was pretty proud!

Kevin preparing to rappel.

Skylar practicing...

Londyn pracicing...

The girls at the top of the cliff. Skylar on her way to the top.

Londyn tryin to beat Skylar.

Kevin and Skylar enjoying a smores after the devo.

All packed up and ready to go back home. Not really.. the escape from reality was quite nice. I could have stayed a little longer.

POPS

Posts being out of order sort of drives me crazy, but I'm attempting to play a little catch up since I've been so negligent. I guess that's what I get for getting so far behind. Anyway, a while back, while Kevin was still in his busy season, I needed a fun outing. I had heard about POPS, but didn't really know much about it. It sounded interesting, and I love a good road trip, so the kids and I along with one of my good friends took out one Saturday morning and headed to POPS for the day. It was quite crowded, and from what I understand, always is. We enjoyed the beautiful weather, a delicious lunch, and an incredible dessert that included pretty much all of my favorites! The kids loved all of the different flavors of pop, and the all around experience. It was a super fun day, and we can't wait to take Kevin with us next time!

Happy 33rd!

We are quickly approaching our mid-thirties, and thankfully, Kevin's birthday comes before mine each year! I won't go into any details, but Kevin's birthday last year was pretty much the worst day of my life. It's unfortunate when horrible things come to fruition on good days. However, I decided that it probably wouldn't be the best idea to dwell on that, so we decided we should at least celebrate a little, even though Kevin couldn't care less. The kids were beyond excited to gather things around the house to give as gifts, which usually consists of candy, coins, and maybe some toys. The thought of buying a gift is absurd to them. They also feel they need to make a cake rather than buy one. I don't know where they come up with these crazy ideas. I don't make anything, and unfortunately, I'm all about convenience. I know what stresses me out, and I try to avoid these things. BUT, with my work schedule being a little less demanding these days, I thought it would be fun for the girls and I to make him something special. We decided to make reese's pieces no-bake cookies and some ridiculously good reese's pieces cupcakes thanks to pinterest. Kevin isn't all that interested in food, but he does like reese's pieces, so we just went with it. The goods all wrapped and ready to go. In case you were worried, I did get him a real present along with all of the goodies from the children.

All the kids with their Daddy. They adore him. And who are we kidding? A party for him is a party for them, so they were ecstatic all day and couldn't wait for the "party". As you can see, the term party is used quite loosely.

Kevin and his sidekick blowing out the candles. I'm not sure Lincoln ever became aware that this wasn't all about him. According to Lincoln any kind of celebration is for him.

Lincoln enjoying his yummy cupcake!

Anyway, we had a fun time making treats and taking time out of a busy weekend to celebrate Kevin's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Kevin, We love you!

Prayers for Gavin

Today, our family is praying for the bravest little boy I know. He will be having a fourth open heart surgery this AM to have a pacemaker put in. He has been through so much, but is much more aware of what will be taking place this time. Please pray for him and his family today if you can.

WE LOVE YOU GAVIN!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from our family to yours! I hope you enjoyed a wonderful day celebrating with family and friends!

So...

In case you're on pins and needles wondering what has been going on around here, here's a little summary...

* Kevin is no longer in his busy season! YAY!!

* The weather is amazing, and since my children are completely activity free as of this month, we've been able to thoroughly enjoy it!

* We've visited POPS which is a super fun place with lots of flavors of, you guessed it, pop! We also indulged in a delightful burger lunch there as well as an incredible ice cream cookie, brownie, candy dessert.

* We celebrated my nephew Malachi's birthday and welcomed my new niece, Emrie to the family!

* We enjoyed a weekend away on a church retreat where we rappelled and climbed (as you saw in the previous post). I was hesitant to go because it was supposed to rain through the weekend, but we decided to stick it out and I'm so glad we did. The weather ended up being beautiful, and we were able to relax and experience a lot of new things that we wouldn't have otherwise had the opportunity to do.

* As a result of a weekend in the mountains (OK mtns. that is) Lincoln decided it was time to be potty trained. So, pretty much since that weekend he has been diaper free! That may not be exciting to some of you, but I am thrilled to be past that stage. I have heard horror stories of trying to potty train boys, and I'm just glad it wasn't excruciatingly painful, and we're moving on!

* That dog that you saw a few posts ago, well, we still own her. She's still alive. Lincoln adores her, and he tells me often that she loves him. I guess she's here to stay, at least for a while.

* SPRING BREAK!! We went to visit my family for the first part of the break, and then left the kids there. Kevin and I came home to spend the end of the week hanging out together. We attacked a few neglected projects around the house, and took the opportunity to sneak in a couple of date nights. Nothing too exciting, but just some time alone with each other to do as we pleased.

When I make the effort to go through the photos of each event and decide on which ones are eligible for posting, I'll add some visuals to the exciting things going on around here! I hope you are enjoying your spring and all of the amazing spring, almost summer like, temps!

Londyn's Climb

Skylar's Climb

ABC's...or something like that!

If you are my facebook friend, this is redundant, but Kevin insisted it was blogworthy, and to be honest, I've got nothing else, so...Lincoln's current version of the alphabet!

Be Mine

Well, well, well, wouldn't you know I'm posting about Valentine's Day two weeks late. At least I still made it within the month. That's success in my book:) Anyway, I generally am not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, mostly because Kevin is always working crazy hours and things at home are out of whack. However, I decided this year we were going to have a fun night regardless. Kevin and I celebrated on the Saturday before, so it was a family Valentine's night at our house. I had this genius idea that I would decorate the house before the kids got home from school, make the family favorite breakfast for dinner, and make some yummy treats for us all to indulge in that night. Well, due to my procrastination, I wasted away the day and had nothing done when the kids arrived home. (this should be a post all it's own of how I can't manage time when I actually have it) Anyway, it threw me off schedule, and I was in a frantic mood trying to get everything ready for the perfect evening. I may have raised my voice a time or two and I may have made a lot of unnecessary demands of my children. Thankfully, they are resilient, and I was able to pull myself together, and we had a great evening. Maybe not the perfect evening I had planned in my head, but good nonetheless. I had gone to buy Kevin some chocolate covered strawberrries at Godiva earlier in the day, and a box of 6 was $50! I thought that was insane, especially since I had ingredients to make my own at home, so we made our own. They're not as pretty, but they were all eaten, so they must have at least tasted good.

And then, I made these neopolitan cupakes that I found the recipe for on pinterest. They were good. Really good. They were also actually really easy unlike most things I've attempted.

Unfortunately the best picture of the two of us from the evening. It was a long day for both of us.

Lincoln posing with his favorite person in the world.

So, when it was all said and done, I was exhausted and grouchy, but I think I hid it fairly well (which is quite an accomplishment for me), and that it's safe to say, we enjoyed a few treats and that we will be looking forward to the day of love as it approaches again next year.