Water fight!

I have a lot of catching up to do...but not tonight :) All things considered we had a good move. The truck was too small but we knew it as soon as we saw the truck and were able to leave enough of our "hand me down" furniture to the side of the truck to get everything else to fit :) We had such awesome friends who watched kids, helped load the truck and helped clean the next day...you guys are seriously the best...THANK YOU!!! And let me tell you...I'm missing you!!! :) My inlaws flew in and helped us finish the cleaning and make the drive to Utah. They were such a great help...with all the craziness of the several days before we moved (the kids last day of school festivities and Daddy's graduation) we were pretty tired. We made it and had awesome family to help us unpack, somehow fit ALL of our stuff in a tiny storage unit (with room to spare...I am still amazed!) and watch kids so we could unpack. And through all of that we survived everyone getting colds. I'm glad that it's all done and we're settling in. It all doesn't seem real yet though since we're used to being here for a week or two for summer vacation...it's hard to believe we won't be coming back!

There are lots of graduation pictures and such to post but instead I'm putting up pictures from a few nights ago...it was a warm evening and we had finished dinner and were going to play outside. I found our squirt bottles and filled one up for everyone (including daddy) and positioned the girls outside the door to get him. He instead run upstairs, filled a bowl of water and dumped it on me. An all out water fight ensued. Daddy got the hose. From the safety of inside I taught the girls how to kink the hose so I could turn the hose off. Let's just say Daddy didn't like that and the squirt bottles were forgotten and all got wet :)







And last night we were house sitting (cat sitting) for my parents and enjoyed this beautiful rainbow! Hooray for thunderstorms :)

We're off!

Our family is officially moving to Utah next week so Daddy can begin working for Dr. Westenfelder at the University of Utah. Their research lab is currently conducting a phase 1 human clinical trial investigating the use of mesenchymal (adult) stem cells as a treatment for acute renal failure (kidney damage). Daddy approached this professor over a year ago because he was excited about being a part of this research and we're thrilled that he will be able to join this lab! We'll be living with his parents for the summer while we look for a place closer to his job before the kids school year starts, we're thinking maybe the Sandy area. We're REALLY sad to leave our family and friends and life here but we're looking forward to living closer to the Utah family and friends. We're not sure how we feel about Daddy working for our rival univeristy but at least either way "our" team will win the football game :) We'll keep our same email addresses and can get you updated address that way (especially for the kids...they would LOVE some mail!!!). We're grateful for the wonderful time we've had here in Davis...we'll miss you guys!!!

Pool Party

Mg was invited to a friend's birthday party and the older sisters were welcome to tag along...M had lots of fun on the water slide...

E with the birthday girl's sister (one of E's best friends)

Mg with the birthday girl and her dad...the party was during A's nap so I took the girls and Mg had a great time with her friend's dad who was so awesome to play with her! (I brilliantly left my bathing suit at home...hello!!!)

M, E and the birthday girl's older sister...the three of them play at school together all the time...such a great family!! We're grateful for such good friends!

Another Saturday bike ride

Now that we can get our bikes on the car we're enjoying exploring more places...this time we rode to a park by Arroyo pool and had fun on the climbing wall...

Notice she is taking off his sunglasses...a favorite game of hers...

The family sitting on a UFO that crash landed in Davis (they spent the rest of the day discussing what might have happened to the aliens...thanks Daddy!)

May's randomness

May was bike month here in the area and each Wed after school they had a bike activity...this day they got to try out the old fashioned bikes with the huge front tire...

Isn't she cute! She is growing up so fast! She's starting to use words more and is getting better at imitating her sisters...they have caught on now and love to do silly things so they can watch her try. A loves to make people laugh so she laughs as much as they do! I love it! This is her special kitty that Grandma gave her when she was a few months old (and it was about as big as her!). She always goes to sleep holding the kitty's tail (and the tag which she would rub and recently fell off...so sad!)
The highlight of the afternoon is watching for Daddy to come home...as soon as he is discovered the yell goes out and there is a mad stampede to the door so they can ride his bike around to the back of the house where he locks it up...small things but they love it!
Yes, that is all 4 on his bike :) and yes the oldest is pretending to read her book...
The girls loved making their own pizzas one night...hooray for Fridays!

Sprinklers

Our neighbor had a birthday and his mom thought it would be fun to put out a sprinkler and enjoy popsicles...we never thought to have them put bathing suits on so through the sprinkler they ran and had a marvelous time!

"What's this?"

"I like it!"

Um, thanks big sister!

They found a mud puddle so off with the muddy clothes and into the bathing suits!

And after awhile they decided that washing the cars would be fun!

Maybe they should wash themselves, too :)

Happy birthday Ben!

Game night

I had tried to play "Battleship" with the girls one day...they had played the game on the computer so I thought I could help them play the real version. However, they didn't totally understand the graph idea at first and trying to help them and keep A happy proved to be a challenge so the next Friday game night we enlisted Daddy's help (being a daddy of 4 girls isn't that bad!)...here are some fun pictures...the M and Mg team (Mg would point to where they should try and M would call it)

E and Daddy made a great team and had the first "hit"
I love the look on E's face (mommy...we're trying to play a game here!)
This picture is too fun...Daddy thought they needed to "argh" like pirates :)
Hooray for Friday night game nights!

Schhol Fun!

These last few weeks have been busy with lots of fun end of the year activities. E had her music concert that we enjoyed going to...her Friday music class was always one of the highlights of her week...
We were able to get a picture of E and 2 of her really good friends from school...
These two friends that E has both happen to have a younger sister the same age as Mg and they are all really good friends as well...here are the three of them...
A week later M had her music concert...she was so excited that she got to introduce one of the songs...
Here she is with two of her really good school friends...
We're still having lots of fun with Mg's preschool...this week we were talking about animals that live in the forest so we decided to go "camping" lots of fun!!
Mg and two of her good preschool friends...
And of course A loves having preschool at our house...such a big girl!
I can't believe there is only 1 week of school left! They've grown so much this year...it truly amazes me! I'm looking forward to them being home though this summer!