Beautiful May

It looks like May was a good month. To me, it seems like FOREVER ago so I hardly remember the general feeling, but these pictures make it look like fun. And if you got to see this face every day, how could anything be less than awesome?

I took Jude and Adele to visit Matt at work one day while Josh was in school. It was important for Adele to meet some of Matt's co-workers while she was still teensy and could wear these yummy leggings.

The Smiths had us over for a little Star Wars party on May the Fourth. (Get it? I had never heard of this holiday before and it cracked me up.) They had supplies ready for everyone to make their own light sabers. It was brilliant.

In my many hours of couch time, nursing and resting with a tiny baby, I learned to make quite the variety of balloon animals. It became a little addicting over those few days. And I think I enjoyed it even more than my kids did.

Little Miss has been growing and smiling and babbling and sleeping like a pro. She's a pretty good baby, and she's kind of the cutest thing I've ever seen. She makes me wish that time would pass very, very slowly.

Once the weather finally got nice, we spent a lot of afternoons at the school playground after picking up Josh from kindergarten. It's a great way to wear the boys out. Jude was so tired this day that he fell asleep crying on the bathroom floor. Why? Because I wouldn't let him have a second popsicle before dinner. AND I made him wash his hands. I'm the worst!

Let's take a quick look at my family in California for a minute. A bunch of them drove down toward L.A. one weekend to visit my grandma and introduce her to her namesake. I just love her expression when she meets Melissa's brand new baby Elsie. I'm so sad I couldn't be there!

But we managed to have some fun to distract ourselves here in Michigan. We had some new friends over, the Corles, who happen to be building a house right next to us and who happen to have three adorable boys to play with.

We also went to a Loons game on Star Wars night and got to stay up late watching the fireworks show with the James, Carn, and Hess families.

My dear friend and neighbor Emily had a baby shower on Mother's Day weekend. She really was the cutest pregnant lady. Later in May, she and I took Sarah to brunch for her birthday at Cafe Zinc.

We were lucky to have Elder Holland come to Lansing to train ward and stake council members one night. It was a great meeting. I just kept saying to myself, "Elder Holland gets it! He knows how the church should be!" To me, his message was about efficiency in meetings, discussing and teaching things that actually matter, focusing more on Christ and His example, involving women more in the church, being considerate of family time, sharing responsibilities. It was so great. Above is a picture of my sweet friend Melissa helping me with Adele during the meeting. She was one of only a few babies there.

Josh had an Author's Tea at school one afternoon. This is when the families get to come in and read all the stories the kids wrote and illustrated during the year in Writing Workshop. It was fun to see his excitement, and to see how far his writing has come since September. Most of his stories were about video games or movies, but he did write one about Jude's birthday and one about a shopping trip to Meijer. They were cute.

Matt and I finally got to start some more outside projects in May. We built this garden on the side of the house (because we had to do something with all the extra dirt we dug up last summer for the patio). It's now been stained, planted, and is exploding with vegetables. I love it!

Those pictures on the right are from a fun barbecue we were invited to at our Smith neighbor's house. They have the best yard for kids. 

Oh, what's that? You need to see more pictures of Adele before I go? Okay, fine! And here's some proof that Matt is actually home sometimes.