memaw's birthday

On May 21st, we celebrated Memaw's birthday!

Couldn't resist taking a photo of me & my cuddly 4 1/2 year old! Such a sweet boy.

Cedar loved celebrating!

Yummy chocolatey fudgey cake!

As you can see, there are always lots of little helpers celebrating & trying to get a close-up view of the cake. :)

Papa & Memaw

Mom & her daughters

I liked this candid shot. Not sure what was so funny, but doesn't Mom look cute! And so happy. :)

Memaw & her sons-in law.
We missed you Erik!

All of the grandchildren!
Tyler (11), Sadie (7 3/4), Ronan (6 3/4), Cohen (5 1/2), Finley (4 1/2), Griffin (almost 4 1/2), Cedar (2), & Tate (6 months!)

Cute kids. :)

visit with miss chelsea

We had Miss Chelsea (the Children's Ministry Director at our church & the Grace Community Preschool Director) over for dinner a few weeks ago so that we could talk about details for the preschool website. But also, we really like Miss Chelsea & we were far over due for having her over!

Chelsea let each boy choose a book for her to read before they had to go to bed. I love the way Cedar is looking at Miss Chelsea. :)

Finley's turn. I think they may have roped her into reading more than one book, but who could deny these boys such a simple pleasure. They love Miss Chelsea & so do we! :)

haley's birthday party

Finley was invited to his classmate, Haley's, birthday party at a fun gymnastics place.

Griffin was there too! Look at their red cheeks - they played hard!
Finn has been such a good sport with his cast. He got it off the very next day!

The birthday girl opening a gift from the Ruddicks & us - a Tangled play set. :)

The babies:
Ismari, Tate & Korbyn

With their mamas:
Erin w/ Ismari, Gretchen w/Tate, & Lindsey w/Korbyn

Silent Auction & Dinner

On May 14th, Gretchen & I co-hosted a table at our church's youth fundraiser - Happy Days Youth Silent Auction and Dinner. It was a 50's theme & there was definitely a lot of Coca-Cola decor everywhere! We borrowed most of our decor from Mom! :)

Some other tables:

Stu & Jacque met us there & we all had a good time bidding on the auction items - some times against each other! ;)

Kenton & I ended up winning auctions for an oil change, a custom leather belt & some chocolates for the kids!

Stu's only auction win was for handmade Barbie furniture! We were all a little surprised at Stu's excitement over Barbie furniture, but they were really cool & the fridge even had drawers inside that opened a closed! Can't beat that. :P Also, he really wanted to set it up for his rats to play in. (I borrowed this photo from Jacque's Facebook page) :)

After the auction, we ate burgers & enjoyed watching the Elvis impersonator perform!

Me & my co-host!

They did such a great job decorating the church. We all had a great time! Special thanks to Carolyn & Jesse for watching our boys while we went out. :)

mother's day

On Sunday, we celebrated Mother's Day with the Henry side of the family.

Finn was feeling especially shy because his Great Grandpa Tenhunen from Finland was visiting for the first time! I had to be silly to sneak these photos. ;)

Hiding out, just out of view of Iso Pappa. :)

Visiting with Outi's Dad, Erkki, while making french toast!

Me & my boys.
Cedar - 2, Finley - 4 1/2

Outi & her boys.

All together
Katrina, Kevin, Finley, Erkki, Outi, Kenton, Cedar & Brian

A peony for Outi.
Happy Mother's Day!

saturday before mother's day

Finley was so excited about the gift he made for me at school that he couldn't wait any longer to give it to me. Kenton had given me my Mother's Day gift early (2 Peonies & a Lithodora plant!) & it was all I could do to convince Finn to let me shower & put on makeup before he gave me his gift. Didn't wanna miss out on the photo op! ;)

Such a cute idea!

That evening, we celebrated Mother's Day at my parent's house.

Baby Tate is working on sitting up!

Tyler is always trying to prove that he's Tate's favorite. I'm still skeptical! ;)

The Mothers

Cohen, Becca, Sadie, & Tyler

Me with my boys & my mom.

Mom, Griffin, Gretchen, Ronan & Tate

We got a fire pot for Mom.

Fun gifts for me from my family. :)

My boys - such a joy to be their Mama.

We finished off the evening with fruit sorbets! So fun & tasty!

four & a half

May 6th was Finley's half birthday! We bought him some small gifts, including socks, stretchy worms, a pair of shorts, and...

sugary cereal! Such a treat! :)

Cedar was equally excited about Finn's half birthday gift. :)