Little Honey Homestead: Start of Summer!

Yay it's Summer!! With just a few weeks into summer we've already had some ups and downs for our family. Here's what's been /going on in the past couple weeks...

Pool Party: Molly and Jonny had their start of summer pool party memorial day weekend and it was tons of fun! We are determined to teach Chloe (and maybe Blain) to swim this summer so we practiced putting her face under water, kicking and paddling with her arms. Blain also did a good job putting his face in the water (they were both afraid before) and even jumping into the water. It's gonna be a good summer!

Me and Zeyta her first time swimming! She cried a little getting used to the water but had fun toward the end swimming with mommy :)

Avenlea in her floaties - she had a death grip on me when I took her in the water!

One, two, three, JUMP!!

Family Night Treat: We rarely go out for treats but I'd been eyeing all the slushy places opening up around town and they all look so good! So we went out for snow cones and Blain has since stated that he would like to have a big rainbow snow cone for his birthday.

Genius design having the holes in the table so we don't have spilled slushies!

Sharing and tasting all the different flavors!

Musical Babies! Chloe actually is learning to play the piano! She is basically teaching herself to sound out a lot of the church songs she learns in primary like Follow the Prophet, I love to see the Temple, How could the Father Show the World... She can't wait for piano lessons which we told her she could start when she turns 7.

Chloe's last Day of Kindergarten: What a little cutie all dressed up for her last day and school performance. We watched her and her classmates sing a bunch of songs they had learned throughout the year. She learned her line "we have learned about different kinds of transportation" and was very energetic while singing and doing the hand motions.

Little Beauty

Saying her line

Singing with her classmates

Chloe and her teacher Mrs. Jimenez who taught her so much and ignited her love of spanish!

Trip to Cali: We drove down Friday evening and night to Mom's house for my cousin Mitchell's wedding and to go beach camping! It was a blast and we made so many fun memories!

Swim Day: Saturday we spent all day in the pool! It was so fun to see all the cousins playing together

Zeyta in her early birthday present pool floatie!

Taking a break from the water for some popcicles! What a yummy mess. Uncle Sammy hitched a ride with Uncle David from San Diego to spend the day with the kiddos. It took Sam nearly an hour to convince Avenlea to swim with him, but she did! He is so good with her, she wouldn't swim with anyone but me but he was so patient and fun that she got in the water with him and had a blast!

Chloe was so brave in the water and by the end of the day was swimming with her face under the water nearly the whole width of the pool! She let Uncle David throw her in the water and is ready to learn to swim!!

Birthday party for the June babies! Zeyta did a good job hitting the pinata!

Whack it hard Blain!

Blain with his cake! We tried giving Zeyta a piece of cake and icecream to destroy/eat but she took a handful of icecream and didn't like the cold so wouldn't eat it herself, but she sure liked it on a spoon!

Mommy and the little almost one year old!

Zeyta, Gabe and Matilda!

Mitchell's Wedding: I love going to weddings and I feel like I learned a lot about my cousin Mitchell. I haven't been able to spend much time with him since leaving for Utah but he seems so Happy with his new wife and everyone speaks so highly of him and how kind and thoughtful he is. The wedding itself was really nice, the food was great and it was great spending time talking with my sisters and the brother -in- laws.

Love my man!

Me and my beautiful Momma!

The last picture we'll ever take all together ;P

Our Men - looking good guys!

Camping at Leo Carillo: What a great time camping at the beach! We had 3 campsites all in a row between all 5 of us sisters and momma. It was a little crazy keeping track of 12 kids but they all played really nicely together, sharing scooters, and exploring the little tree area

Avenlea with her s'more - which she ended up not eating because it made her hands too sticky

Still posing every chance she gets - Chloe asked for 3 s'mores every night but I limited her to 2. She had her very own bag of chocolate because most of the hershy bars had almonds. We labeled her package with her name and wrote ALMOND FREE so no one would eat her little stash

Blain enjoying his s'more

Baby's first camping trip! She did really well overall. The first night she woke up a lot but went back to sleep really quickly, and the second night she only woke up once at 5 or so to eat. It was a little rough carrying her everywhere becasue she would put the small rocks, dirt, leaves in her mouth whenever I set her down even for a second. It should be better when she can walk!

Making the perfect marshmallow!

Relaxing by the fire

Our camp site was right by the store so the kids liked sneaking over there to look at all the fun stuff.

Blain holding the crab and lobster - it took some convincing but he finally picked them up

Avenlea loved just laying in the sand and spent a good part of her day with her face and legs all covered in sand. She liked asking if we were going to "swim in the sea, like mermaids?" and "go to the beach, get in our swimsuits?"

Zeyta's first time at the beach!

Avenlea racing the waves

Chloe stayed true to form by spending a lot of time in the water, riding the little white water waves. She is so funny how getting hit by the freezing cold ocean water doesn't even bother her! She just jumps and splashes and has a fun time!

Grandpa Tony gave that little mermaid to Zeyta for her birthday and Avenlea immediately latched onto it. At first she kept throwing it in the water but I had to tell her she will float away, so then she would (only if holding my hand very tightly) put the mermaid in the waves as they came up to her feet. All the girls loved that little doll!

All the cousins minus Ruby who was having a hard time at the moment

Babies by the campfire!

Blain snug in his sleeping bag!

Nate's ruptured Achilles: We drove back from Cali on Wednesday and went to our Thursday frisbee game the next day. Well, during the game Nate heard a pop and even just looking at his ankle you could tell something was missing... We headed to the insta care where the Doctor told him his achilles was indeed ruptured and would need surgery. They sent him home in a splint with an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for the next day. Dr. Davis saw him that Friday and scheduled his surgery for Monday afternoon. Poor Nate!

Nate hobbled around school the morning of his surgery and we lucked out with having mamma in town so she was able to come and watch the kiddos while I waited with Nate. He was scheduled for a 3pm surgery but they didn't take him in until about 6. The surgery itself was only about 2 hours and I went for a quick icecream run with the kiddos and grandma while I waited. Nate was such a crack up coming out of anesthesia. We now know he LOVES applejuice, his ankle hurts (that one) and that he thinks me and all the nurses working with him are very beautiful, lol.

So far his recovery has been pretty rough on him. The doctor drew me a picture of a normal tear and the tear that Nate has. He basically tore the tendon from the muscle rather than having the tendon have a clean break, which means a longer recovery unfortunately. He is on strict bedrest for at least 72 hours and needs to keep his foot elevated as much as possible. His pain is pretty bad but the medication they gave him does the trick as long as he takes it on time and doesn't get up - even just going to the bathroom increases his pain dramatically. But we are happy to keep him hydrated and full of yummy snacks so he can recover quickly and be up and around in no time, that is, at least 6 weeks...

Summer School and the Farm: Chloe and Blain are both in summer school and are really enjoying it so far. Blain tells me about his recess everyday (he "doesn't remember anything else") and Chloe is reading like a champ and making new friends.

First Day of summer school!

Kitties!! Our pig cat Cuddles had 3 kittens! It was a big surprise but the kiddos (and Marie and Summer) are loving those sweet little kittens. We are unsure what to do with them, if we should try to find them homes or let them hang around??

Beautiful Avenlea in her beautiful dress

Chloe was the one who caught the kittens so everyone else could hold them. What a good big girl!

Piggies getting big! and loving the sprinkler addition to their paddock. One of my new responsibilities is moving wheel lines now that Nate can't walk. The small wheel lines in the pig pen need all kind of tools and strength (according to Nate) to turn on because we don't have end caps. So I opted to just move the sprinkler out there for the night.

I can't believe how big Ferdinand has gotten! He is nearly as tall as Prince Ali and is acting a little Bullish lately. Time to order that bander I think!! He has finally started drinking all Bella's milk and I separated them for the first time 2 nights ago. I got a full 2 gallons of milk even leaving one quarter for Ferdinand. At least now I don't have to milk on any sort of schedule, just when we need it for the house!