Family Pictures

Several weeks ago we had some family pictures taken.  Stephanie Ryan also took these pictures.  She was great with the kids.  These are just a few.  

I am going to brag just a little. . . I have dang cute kids.  I know I am a little biased

Mother's Day

I would have to say this Mother's Day was the best.  Dean took care of the kids so that I could sleep in until almost nine.  For breakfast I got one of my favorites, fresh from the oven cinnamon rolls. 

My family attended our ward to see Abby sing with the primary.  After church Dean barbecued some yummy hamburgers for my whole family.

That evening we went to visit Dean's family.  Dean was so great letting me have a break.  Any time the baby would crawl to me crying he would come over and pick him up. 

I also got a sweet sewing machine.  I am so excited to use it.  I already made a skirt for my sister and hope to improve my sewing skills. 

I also want to acknowledge my mom.  She is a strong woman.  Her life has never been easy but she always did what she needed to do to take care of her family.  She always put her children first.  She sacrificed a lot for us.  I am grateful that she was brave enough to make hard choices that have helped our family to a happier place.  I love you Mom! 

This year for Mother's Day we took some family pictures for my mom.  Here are a couple of them. 

Stephanie Ryan was our photographer.  She did a great job.

  

I had to learn it the hard way

Sunday I left my camera at my sisters house.  That evening she was attempting to look at the pictures and somehow all of the pictures on the camera were deleted. 

I had not uploaded the pictures onto my computer.  I lost all of my pictures  since the beginning of the year. 

My sister felt awful.  I should have been clearing them from my camera on a regular basis and then saving them onto our external hard drive or a disc or my online storage. 

I can't imagine what it would have been like to lose all of my pictures.  (It was only four months of pictures) 

Luckily I have somewhat kept up on my blogging so I have some pictures. 

So now I feel like crap because I should have been saving my pictures and my sister feels like crap because she accidentally lost the pictures. 

I have learned a lesson.  Backup, backup, backup. 

Abby's 6th Birthday

This year for Abby's 6th birthday we had a fairy themed party for her.  The party included a "Fancy Fairy Beauty Shop," cupcake decorating, wand making, a pinata, and lunch.  Abby had the best time doing girly things with her friends. 

At the end of the party we gave her the gift we ordered online.  She had been asking for a doll house for a while and I think she was pretty happy with it. 

(Due to an unfortunate accident these are the only pictures I have from the party.)

Easter

The Dockstader boys are early birds and Easter morning Carter was the first to wake up. I was hoping to let him play in the living room and I could catch a couple more winks on the couch.

No such luck. As soon as he saw the gift the Easter Bunny left he was very excited.

Abby with her "Barbie in a Mermaid Tale" doll
Carter with Harold the helicopter
Grant with his chatter telephone
After morning conference my family came over as well as Samantha's in-laws. We had a really yummy brunch. (I wish I had a picture of the food it was so good.)

Then the kids had an Easter egg hunt.

Cousin Jacob show off all of the eggs he found.

Savino playing catch.


This is as much of a smile you can get out of Eli

Most of the grandkids (Grant was napping)

Dying Eggs

Update on the family

Our family is doing great. We are happy, healthy and keeping busy.

Abby is still doing good in school. She is now a member of the ABC Club. Over spring break she was complaining that she missed school. I am hoping her love of school will last.

Abby was blessed with her mothers coordination (or lack thereof) but has been doing better at riding her bike. On nice days I take Abby and Carter out to ride their bikes and they love it.

Carter is also doing well. Apparently I am a total flake because it took me two years figure out Carter is allergic to apple juice. It is weird, he can eat apples and he is fine but apple juice is a no go.

Grant is growing so fast! He loves to eat and will eat just about anything we put in front of him. He is also a big boy. He mostly wears 2t clothes. Grant started army crawling at eight months and crawling a couple of weeks later at nine months. He pulls up on everything and walks around the furniture.

I now have two calling: Ward bulletin and Primary Secretary. I spend most of my time doing the "mom" thing but I have also kept busy working on projects around the house (painting, gardening, etc.) and when the stars align going to the gym.

Dean has been busy with his calling with the Young Men. He also has been working around the house. For some reason we have a lot of projects going on right now (kitchen revamp, new base boards through out most of the house and front yard landscaping)

Random Stuff

A couple of weeks ago we went to have family pictures taken at Woodward Park. After we let the kids feed the ducks. I took the opportunity to take a couple of pictures.
The boys have been taking baths together lately. Grant loves to watch Carter be wild.
Carter was helping me put switch plate covers back on after painting. He is surprisingly skilled with a screwdriver.
For some reason it is really hard to get a picture with all of the kids together. So far this is the only one I have of all three kids, all happy and looking at the camera.