Brennan and Rachel: May

Time for another month. We seemed to regain our ability to use our camera and actually document things this month so it's kind of a big one.

I finished my first family cross stitch. I started with my brother's family. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out although there are definitely a couple things I would do differently.

Declan, the blur. He is ALL boy. And rarely stops moving.

I began working on the patterns for more families.

Just down the street from my parents' house is a skate park. It became a favorite for the kids. They loved riding their bikes and scooters down there. And then riding around and sliding down the big half pipe on their bums. Papa came once and gave them both handlebar rides. He had given Tatum a ride before but I was pretty nervous about Declan doing it. I was ignored, which Declan was quite pleased about. :) I can remember my dad giving me a ride to school on his handlebars when I was too late to make it on time walking. My elementary school was right down the hill from his work. It's just one of those things I will never forget and seems so small town-y. As nervous as I might have been I loved watching him do the same thing with my kids.

This picture has no business being in May except for the fact that that's when I finally thought to take a picture. My dad made Tatum a doll house for her birthday. I believe he pretty much finished it by her birthday, but my part (the sanding, painting and wallpaper) took us way past her birthday. She didn't seem to mind. I think it turned out super cute. I love having a handy dad!

Davis park is another Mt. Vernon favorite, just a few blocks from my parents' house.

Every year Mt. Vernon has a festival called Chalk the Walk. It has quickly become a favorite of ours. There are always lots of impressive pieces of artwork. They also do one large image that is broken down into a grid and has lots of contributors.

Helping with the big image. His chalking stance looking slightly uncomfortable. :)

The chalk they sell up there is quite potent...

Some of the work done by individual artists or small groups:

It fell over Mother's Day weekend so we had to take a picture by this one. Mom with here kids in the area...plus Declan....and an awkward photo bomb from the man in the gray shirt.

Me and my kiddos.

I really liked this one!

More of that strange stance.

You can still see the evidence of this day on her shorts. Potent, I tell ya.

My mom asked me to make some mini bundt cakes for her one day while she was at work. She needed them to give to a few people for birthdays. Unfortunately my experience with mini bundt cakes is zero. And her instructions may not have been super thorough. The end result was that I over filled the pans and despite greasing and flouring the pans the cakes stuck. This is how the first couple came out:

They tasted delicious but weren't exactly gifting material haha.

Luckily my dad has much more patience than I do and managed to get two out looking pretty decent.

Walking into the library like they love each other. Which they do. But they don't always show it. I just want to freeze moments like this. Forever.

We closed on our house at the beginning of May. We got our storage unit emptied that first week and all of our excess stuff from my parents' house moved into the new place. But we didn't start living there for about two weeks. We wanted to get the kids' room painted and get them beds before we started staying there. I painted all the trim and baseboards white so this was my view for a long time. It took a lot of coats.

This was there room before. Maybe one day you'll see an after. haha

Our last day of preschool group was my turn to teach and we ended the lesson outside pretending to be firefighters. It was a gorgeous day so the kids continued to play after the rest of the moms got there. Unfortunately the playing was too fun and too long and Declan had an accident. Like a full blown accident. He will occasionally go in his pants just a little but he hadn't had an accident like this since the first couple of weeks. And I of course had nothing for him. And the pee was even in his socks and shoes! Luckily my friend Jo came to the rescue with a t shirt for him and Crystal lent him her hat just for good measure. He remind me of Dobby but wasn't in the mood for a picture.

While I was teaching preschool all the other moms went to my parents' house did some fun chalk work to say goodbye. I didn't realize it was supposed to rain that afternoon so I didn't get pictures taken before it started to get wet.

Declan got to go on his first father son camp out. The weather was less than ideal. It was sooo cold and rainy. But he seemed to love it. Funny side story with this that I just thought of. The night of the campout my mom and I decided we would run to Costco (a 30 minute drive or so) to get a rug I wanted for our house and still get back in time to do something fun with Crystal and some other ladies while the men were out. Well mom and dad's van had been doing this funny thing where she wouldn't be able to shift it out of park and dad would have to come wherever she was stranded and rescue her. I think they both thought it was fixed but we came out of Costco and she couldn't even get the key to turn! We tried and tried and nothing would work. So dad had to come and save us (which in the process made him late for the camp out which I don't think he was sad about haha) and of course as soon as he got there it worked just fine. Grrrrrrr.

Tatum loves a good workbook.

I was actually proud of the kitchen looking this "good" and sent this picture to my sister because you could actually see counter. Ha!

Oh look! It's kind of an after picture of the kids' room.

We're having a baby! And in May we found out it's a girl! Tatum was over the moon excited that it's a girl. Grandma made hand and foot cookies with the kids and frosted them pink while we were working at the new house. I took about a bajillion pictures to try to get one I could post for our announcement but now that I look at them there are too many priceless expressions so I am including far too many.

I love the way Declan is looking at Tatum in this one. It completely illustrates their relationship. He so often looks to her to see what he should do.

And look at them look at each other! It makes my heart grin!

And this one is just too hilarious.

Tatum's crazy eyes. Are you kidding me?!

More Davis park fun with friends.

Summer reading kick off party at the local bank.

Caleb's family came into town for Kelbie's graduation. I'll do a separate post about their visit but I love this picture of Henry and Declan at the graduation ceremony. Declan was sure Henry was interested in whatever he had to say about the Cars book he was looking at. Henry was a good sport.

Kelbie graduated. Say what?!! It is so crazy when I can so clearly remember her at the same age as my kids. It really does go by fast! :(

Worn out one day after all the cousin and family fun.

We painted the legs of our table and benches to go better in our new dining room.

Declan looked sweet one night cuddling with Dukey.

We got to go to Matthew's birthday party. He is such a good friend and we miss seeing as much of him now that we live a little further away.

The kids slept over at grandma's house one night and I got this picture of them in bed together.

We got to spend Memorial Day with grandma and papa and the Eskelsens. It included some morning tennis, of course.

Grandma is always full of fun and pulled out some squirt guns. She would spray the kids as they rode past on their bikes. Declan especially thought it was the greatest thing ever.

The fun continued with the sprinkler. The kids didn't have swimsuits but Declan's pants were a little big and wouldn't stay up after they got wet so they were soon running through in their underwear. Oh to be a kid again.