Randoms

 This month Dylan lost one of his molar's. I really didn't even know it was that loose and the next thing we know it's out. :)

 Maggie and Cadence are such sweet friends. I'm so thankful.

 I was given some tickets to the Diamondback game so Mark was able to take the older two out for a fun evening. They stayed until the end with fireworks and even concert! It was their first concert and all they could say about it was that it was so loud. :)

 Sweet pictures of the girls

 Last day of school for Dylan. A few of us mom's took our boys out that play together for icecream to celebrate the end of year. The sugar bowl in Old Scottsdale. They were all excited for summer fun to begin!

Celebrating Mark - 36th!

 We celebrated Mark's birthday a few different times! 

1st was with his parents and of course was complete with icecream cake. :)

 And then with my family. It was actually Jon's, Mark's and Mothers Day celebration~

 And then Kati and I surprised Israel and Mark for their birthdays and took them to a weekend in Vegas. It was great to get away and the boys of course were excited. So thankful for our friendship!

Happy birthday Mark! Praying this year is filled with great adventure for you and our family. You are such a fantastic father and loving husband. I love you deeply!

Michelle's Graduation from Law School!

We headed out to LA to celebrate with Michelle her graduating from Loyola law school!

We left after school and made a pit stop in Quartzsite and happened upon a rock...well, I guess the right word is store. It was just a big area with rocks all over the place. Dylan has really been into rocks since Grandma R. gave him a geode. Well at this place you could buy a rock and crack it open to see the geode inside. He was so excited and spent his own money ($18) to get a great geode!

Unfortunately we got there just as the sun went down, so terrible photos. But the one he picked out was beautiful inside and he was so generous giving out pieces of it to all the family. I could tell it was really special to him. :)

Michelle moved to a really great home and it is within walking distance to a play park and also Griffith Park. So on Saturday we headed out to check out everything close by. Dylan didn't need a beach to dig in the sand...this playground had perfect soft white sand.

At Griffith Park, Mark convinced the kids to all ride horses. I was especially proud of Cadence for riding! :)

And we took a little train ride around. I have a feeling these things will become a regular for us when we visit.

 

Mark's parents met up with us on Saturday evening for dinner and a little walk. This is a fountain just down the hill from her house.

Sunday was graduation day. 

Congratulations Michelle! Truly amazing all your hard work and discipline!!

After graduation we met up with Mark's aunt Sue, Uncle Wok and cousin Jean. It was great to see everyone. We haven't see each other in about 7 or more years. They are such a great couple, living in China as missionaries to the North Koreans for 11 years. The were recently just kicked out of China for their missions work and are never able to return again. Those are the kinds of things you only read about!!

Then we headed to Michelle's to celebrate Mark's birthday (it was the same day!). A birthday isn't complete without some ice cream cake in the Roberts family. :)

And then Jean's kids came over to play. The boys hit it off right away with their games on the computer...they are both really into a game called Clash of Clans so they were comparing strategy. :) 

And the girls were great together also, right away connected coloring and playing. It was sweet to see them get along so quickly.

Uncle Wok gave Dylan a $100 bill during dinner and said that he had to share with his sisters. You should have seen his eyes light up! It was more than generous.

It was such a great weekend celebrating Michelle's accomplishments, Mark's birthday and reconnecting with family.

Cadence's Graduation

 Cadence had a sweet graduation ceremony last week. They did a few little songs and had a ceremony where her teacher gave a certificate and sunflower to all the kids.

 Elizabeth was one of her closer friends and I am thankful that she will be going to Kindergarten at Biltmore Prep with Cadence! She is so sweet.

Mrs. Lisa was the perfect teacher for Cadence this year. I so appreciate her gentleness in the way she pushed the kids to learn lots of wonderful things. Cadence ended this year with learning to read simple books (quite well actually), Math with counting to 100+, addition up to 10 fluently and counting by 10's. Her handwriting has improved greatly and she is sounding out words and trying to spell on her own. She is so naturally smart and LOVES learning!

Baseball comes to a end

 Dylan had such a great season of baseball, he enjoyed it so much! He had such great coaches that taught him so many great tips and fundamental things about baseball. He ended up hitting a homerun in every single game except for 1...wow!

 This was the last evening and they handed out certificates and little bobble head trophies.

He got the award of "top slugger" :)

Mothers Day

Thankful for my mom's.

Mark and I are thankful to have great Mom's who have taught us to love Jesus. No better gift to be able to give to my kids and for me to be a great Mom.

 

Mothers day morning I was able to sleep in and was treated with breakfast in bed. I think it has become a tradition. It's what Dylan wanted to do for me. :)

It was a specially sweet morning because Mark needed to do a long run for training of his upcoming marathon, so he woke up at 3:00am so that he would be home in time to be there when the kids woke up and get breakfast started for me. It was such a generous gift for him to give to me.

I also had a nice Mothers day event at Cadence's school. Her teacher planned a special "picnic" lunch in the classroom and had the kids learn a bunch of sweet songs to sing to us. It was super cute!

But I have to say that my most favorite thing about Mothers Day came from Dylan...and he really doesn't know just how special it was to me. Someday when he looks back and reads this when he is a Dad, he will understand. Here is the story...
I picked the kids up from school on Friday and like most Fridays we head to the convience store to get a treat if they have stayed on green for the whole week as a reward. I told Dylan lets go and he was acting kinda strange so I asked if he was feeling alright or if something was wrong. He said he was fine but lets just head home, he didn't want a treat. If you know my son at all...you know this is a really big deal. He LOVES anything sweet. So I continued to press and ask, are you sure you're feeling alright. Does your stomach hurt? He answers with, I'm fine. I just want to head home. So I told him that Cadence had earned the treat so we were going to go still but he could stay in the car if he wanted and I would get him a Sprite to drink. He agreed. Once we got home he right away went into his room and I walked by and saw that he was doing something in his closet. A few minutes later I went into his room and looked in his closet thinking that maybe he had gotten some candy or something at school and was hiding it in his closet to sneak and eat later. He comes in and says all frustrated, mom you saw it! I had saw the sweet little decorated styrofoam cup with a few little seedlings growing from it...but I denied it to him! I said what are you talking about? I was just picking up the shirt on your floor. He again says, I know you know. And I again say to him, I don't know what your talking about and tell him I want to wait for whatever it is until Mothers Day.

I then realized that the reason why he didn't want to go get a treat was because he was afraid the plant would die because he had put it in his backpack to surprise me. I had such a huge smile knowing that my son was being so thoughtful and really generous, giving up something I know he really wanted so that he could do something really nice for me. Makes my heart melt!

Kid Letters

 Dylan got in trouble last week for bringing his DS game system to school. He had it in his pocket when his teacher realized he had it and took it away. Never played it...just showed it off to his friends. Part of his punishment was that he had to write a apology letter to his teachers. He woke up the next morning and without a reminder wrote the above letter. It was field day that week and he was super scared he would have that taken away. I love that his letter is a plea to still be able to participate. :) Oh...and the spelling, the spelling is so terrible! Maybe one day.

 These two cuties are from Cadence. She has to write little letters at school to practice her spelling on her own. I just love seeing what she wants to write about and how amazing she is doing with reading and writing!!

The above letter is: 

I love Lincoln, mommy, daddy and dylan and isabelle family.

My dad went to work and I miss Lincoln and I like dylan because he makes me laugh. I love you Dylan. I like this school. Miss Lisa is fun. Today is fun. Everyone is my friends. 

Love this so much!