Hangin' at the park...

For Memorial Day, we went to the park.

Original, right?

But OP was working and it was such a perfect day that I couldn't stand to stay inside... I also wanted to cry when I thought about bringing my four monkeys anywhere where there would be crowds.

Thus, we ended up at the park. With Del Taco for lunch.

Pure awesomeness.

I had to show what I can see in my rear view window while waiting at Del Taco's drive thru:



Pipes helping Porter find Men In Black on the iPod. So sweet!

After eating, I set the oldest three free to climb, hang, swing and generally run amok in the playground. I then took these pics of Wyatt performing his latest trick.

And when my kiddos see the camera come out, they all crowd into my camera lens's view and won't leave until they get their fair share of photography.



Have I mentioned what a little Mama Pipes is? She loves this little guy and is always trying to pry him from my arms.



She also always makes sure to play with Porter and share with him. That is why if you ask Porter who is best friend is, he'll answer: "Pipes."




Little Nae is thinking that she is an adult. She'll choose to hang around a group of adults rather than play with kids her own age.

I am hoping that this is a phase.





Don't you just want to kiss that little face?

Well, back off- he's all mine!




Aren't they so stinkin' cute? And they look so sweet and angelic in this pic. You'd never know that they were strangling and pinching and stepping all over each other.

Memorial Day

Is it weird that I take pictures at the cemetery? I think that it just might be.




But I still wanted to share this since I love and miss Nanny (Francis Pauline, which is where we got the "Pauline" in Pipe's name from) so much. I never knew Papa (Virgil Clark) before he had Alzheimer's, but he must have been one cool dude since OP wanted to name little Wyatt after him!

Another milestone...

Mr. Wyatt is now sitting up by himself.

Mostly.

Ok, so I still have to stay really close and kind of push him back up when he starts wobbling, but he can stay sittin' up alone for a couple of minutes.



And since he is so gosh darn cute doing it, I had to take about a hundred pictures.




Luckily I narrowed it down to just a few that I really loved.



Believe it or not, it's really hard to prevent your baby from falling while trying to take a picture of him sitting up.




Don't you just love those baby blues?

To the Zoo

A couple of weeks ago (has it really been that long?), Orrin's cousins came down here to escape the horrible, horrible cold of Utah... and to spend some time with us, of course.

Since we are having unseasonably-cool weather for Arizona, we all decided to visit our awesome Phoenix Zoo. I love this place. However, it would have been even cooler had we seen some of the big animals, but I guess I don't want to get too greedy.

So here's the gang:



Orrin's cousins Eli and Seth (pushing Sophie and Julia), and of course the Merrill Bunch.


And here's my little fashionista Piper. She even dresses all up for a trip to the Zoo.



These two kiddos were completely smitten with Eli and Nessa's little baby girl Peyton. (She's hiding back there in the stroller).



OP was pretty good about leading with the chillens so I could hang back and play the photographer.





Here's Vanessa and lil' Peyton.




I felt so bad for these guys' momma that was stuck at work, so I wanted to make sure I got plenty of pics for her (I have more, Emily, that I can email you!).




Pipes brought along her Hello Kitty digital camera and her and Adi busied themselves the entire time snapping pics.




And I had to get one of these. I tried to get Porter up here too, but he was busy playing with the gorilla statue's pecs.




I don't think the kids ever found the animal in here...





I think the tortoises were my kids favorite part of the zoo... other than the tractor that is.




The whole group of kids. It's still hard to believe all these kids belong to us, right Lopez Ladies?




The Phoenix Zoo has an awesome Little People play area. Which is where the kiddos probably would have stayed all day if the Dad's hadn't been very hungry and a bit grumpy.




And here's the tractor that they played on for over 30 minutes.

We seriously need to get one of these for our backyard.




And here's proof that Wyatt was actually there:




And, once again, here's Vanessa and Peyton:





Eli and Sophie:




And yes, it actually rained on us. And I mean rained. It was like someone turned on the shower on top of us. You know, for like three minutes.



And here is Sophie after I ran over here with my stroller when it started to rain and we took off running for shelter.



Seriously, I am so sorry for that.

You've got a little something on your face...

This probably should have happened a while ago.

I wasn't ready to start my tiny baby on solids. I still don't think I am.

But since Orrin noticed that all Mr. Wyatt does is demand more and more milk all day, he told me that it was time.

*sigh* Fine.

So here's the first feeding in pictures (I am, of course, quoting Wyatt):


"What the..."



"Hmmm, maybe..."



"This is actually..."



"This is AWESOME!"



"MORE!!!"


And that is exactly how it went. You know, pretty much.


**Please excuse the poor quality of these here photos, they were taken with my old camera. My new camera has temporarily been replaced in a specific location that I am not currently aware of.**

Never Grow Up

The girlies had their dance performance last night, and they were awesome (as always).

I tried to upload the videos of their dances on here, but Blogger just never seems to like my videos. But if your friends with me on Facebook, you can pop over there and check them out (and the video of Porter-Pot dancing to "Play that Funky Music White Boy"- pure genius).

And if we're not friends on Facebook... why the heck not?

4 Months!

Now that our Clarky-Boy (Porter's favorite name to call him) has achieved 4 months, he thinks that he's a big boy.

He is rolling all over (mostly towards the TV still), crying a lot more, trying to stay in the sitting-up position and generally chewing on his fingers.

Cute, ain't it?



He still sleeps like a dream, but when he awakes he pretty much demands to be held. We play a lot of "hot potato-baby" around here. Everyone takes their turn:


Porter,



Pipes,




Adi,



Even Dad helps out a bit,



I did say 'a bit'.

This little boy is changing so quickly! I can't wait to see what this next month will bring...

Mudder's Day

(My lil' sweeties while they sleep)

Ah, another "Mudder's Day" (that is how my sweet Porter-Pot says is) has come and gone. And how wonderful mine was this year. Piper and Porter awoke me with Adi's plastic barbie coloring tray loaded with Poptarts and a big ole cup of water. Piper also woke up at 5:30 just to make sure her room, Wyatt's and Porter's were clean. Amazing right?

OP and the kiddos got me a blender (which I wanted) and some candy. Orrin brought me home some beautiful flowers and a card to match. The three kiddos drew me mountains of Mother's Day cards starring me and them (some even had glitter on them!). Wyatt let me sleep in until 6:30.

Adi, Piper and Porter then made dinner (by adding already chopped-up veggies and meat into the crock-pot). They then played so nicely together before church that I hardly dared to breathe for fear I would start a fight between them.

They were awesome during sacrament. Porter went to class without crying or claiming his head hurt and needed to go home.

And all of church the men praised me and all of my wonderfullness (or they were talking about all mothers, I'm still not sure).

After our dinner of Southwestern Beef Wraps, OP made us all customized-candy milkshakes with my terrific new blender. We all snuggled in my armchair and read Little Town on the Prairie together.

In all honestly, it was an awesome day.

What made this day so great wasn't the gifts or the breakfast-in-bed (which, or course, helped). It was watching my children put someone else's needs before their own. It was watching them sacrifice their own desires and wants for another person's. I saw the three of them working together to make me feel happy. And oh, how happy I did feel.

Piper chose not to throw a fit when I started doing her hair in a style she did not agree with. Adi didn't pick a fight with Porter over who got to brush their teeth first. Porter refilled my drink without being asked and even changed his comfy-old church clothes that are too small for him into the ones I laid out on his bed. Not even a tear was shed. Pipes held Wyatt while he was crying so I could finish my hair and Adi wiped up the water she spilled without being asked. They all ran for the dishwasher when I started to unload it.

It was truly amazing. These kiddos gave me glimpse of a future where they will all get along and maybe even be bestest friends. I saw a day when things will get done around here without me standing behind everyone, fists on my hips, demanding them to do it. They were kind. They were considerate.

I was given the gift of feeling a sense of accomplishment. I thought maybe, just maybe, I'm not completely failing at this mothering-thing.

And I'll take that over diamonds any day.