The BIG Conklin Fam

In early July the NE Conklin 5 headed out to Ohio to reunite with Mimi and Papa, the PA Conklin 5, AND the Taiwain Su 2 (Brian's sister Alison and her husband, Nick). It was great to have everyone together! Here's a pic of the entire Conklin (and Su) crew.

The boys wasted no time and picked right up where they left off with wrestling. :)

We certainly were never bored.

A big goodbye hug.

On our last full day there, we visited and ourdoor animal park/safari and got a super close up look at tons of animals.

Jonah wasn't quite so sure about it all.

We had so much fun and are very blessed to have such a great family. Love you guys!

Summer Fun

The last two months in pictures....

Mother's Day! Brian surprised me with a day off in a hotel (I ordered room service and it was A-MA-ZING) and then dinner with the kids and a carriage ride. Fun was had by all (except apparently Levi). I am blessed.

We finally worked up the nerve to cut Levi's baby hair off. He has now entered the Conklin boys 6 week hair cut rotation. Would you say it was time?


Jonah offically became a preschool graduate. Here he is with his buddies from church again, Andrew and Ben, who were in his class.

and his teachers.

We drove to Scottsbluff for an FCA camp and then continued on to Copper Mountain, Colorado to vacation with my side of the family. While I have basically no pictures of our time there as my arms were almost always full of an 11 month old stud, I'm hoping a kind sister-in-law will pass some along my way. Here's Levi ready for the ride.

And Jonah and Abby were also excited to hit the road. They all did great with the 22 hours of car time there and back.

We stopped and ate at Ole's Big Game Steakhouse on our way out. Abby was not a fan of the stuffed polar bear.

Chimney Rock. Moderately impressive. :)

And on our last day in Colorado, Jonah lost his second tooth as he was brushing his teeth.

Abby just continued to be cute. In a side note, however, Abby is missing one of her lower four middle teeth and actually seems to be missing two of her permanent upper teeth. I understand it's quite common.

And finally, just last night the kids were flowergirl and ring bearer and Brian and I were host couple in a wedding of some sweet friends of ours. It was a beautiful ceremony and a super fun wedding reception. We are so happy for Greg and Bethany!

The kids may have had the most fun of their life dancing at the reception. Lets just say that on more than one occasion Jonah was breakdancing in the center of a circle and Abby worked her way down the middle of a dancing line. They had a blast.

Daddy, our non-dancer, "reluctantly" kept Levi company on the side.

Mother's Day Tea

The 4-5 year old class in Jonah's preschool has a tradition that could possibly be the cutest thing ever. Each year they have the children prepare a very special tea party for all of their moms. The moms are each given an invitation to arrive (sans their other children) at a special time in the middle of their class. The door is blacked out, and once they are all prepared, each child comes to the door one at a time to escort their mom to their assigned seats. Jonah repeated the teacher's promptings to me, which were something like, "Hello, mom. I'm so glad you're here. May I please escort you to your seat?" He then led me to my seat (in a room filled with lit candles and other special decor) which looked like this:

They sang songs, we shared a snack, and they even gave us gifts.

Jonah has two buddies from church that are in his preschool class. There is Andrew, pictured here with a very special family friend "Bernie". Andrews mom (a dear friend of mine) had just begun her fight against breast cancer a few days before we had this, so was unfortunately not able to come. If you think of it, pray for her. Her name is Jenny and she is doing really great, but still has quite a road ahead.
Another friend from church is Ben, here with his mom and two! week old baby brother.
It definitely was a most special day with a most special guy.

And speaking of most special guys, this year we once again continued the Father's Day tradition of Brian having an FCA camp on Father's Day. :) We surprised him this year though by bringing a kid selected lunch- tacos and a gift to camp. The kids love to do surprises like this and Brian enjoyed getting to see us earlier than he had expected in the day. He is an amazing father and deserves much more than a few tacos and a gift. We love you daddy and as far as we're concerned there isn't a more fun or wonderful dad around. Thanks for working and playing so hard!

Kindergarten Roundup

Big day today! There were many things to celebrate in the Conklin home. First, Abby is a "get out of the bed and sit at the top of the stairs until we notice" kind of gal. We have tried almost everything to get her to stay in bed at nights, but nothing has worked. A few nights ago we tried something new. If Abby stayed in bed, she would get a tea party in the morning. The first night, she just couldn't do it, but still tried to sob her way into a party. Tough cookies, Abby. :) The next night, however, she did manage to stay in bed, so this morning we celebrated! Our "tea" was hot cocoa, but really it's all about the leftover princess cups.

Doesn't this look like such an awesome party? I will buy unlimited princess cups if it keeps the girly in bed. Night two is already working!

Boys are not too cool for tea parties.

The sleeping beauty herself.

Jonah wanted to get a pose with daddy.
On to the next celebration, off to school! Jonah was a little nervous walking in for Kindergarten Roundup, but mostly he was really excited. The principal met him in the lobby and walked him to the kindergarten rooms to start the morning.

Two hours later, here was our special guy! He had a blast and said "Now I know that Kindergarten isn't scary at all!" The teachers were super nice he said and they even made alligator hats, since that's the school mascot. He is so excited for next fall now he said. :) We are so excited for him.

The final celebration of the day was at the Lauritzen Gardens, where Brian and I reminisced about our wedding nearly seven years ago. The gardens had free entry today and we haven't been back to visit in at least five years and a few kids ago. Who knew what seven years would bring for us! The kids loved taking in the scenery with us and even posed for a few pictures!

Precious!

There was the COOLEST outdoor miniature train set. Actually, there were seven different sets on seven different tracks, all built to look like part of nature. The kids went crazy over them.

They even had miniature, nature replicas of buildings around town. They were gorgeous and detailed.

This guy is also impressive. Clapping and drinking from his sippy cup, finally!

Did I mention the bridges that drove the trains over your head? So fun!

"This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

Resurrection Sunday

While we want to be in a state of thanksgiving of the death and resurrection of Christ our Savior everyday, not just during Easter season, it is fun to celebrate the traditions of Easter. I think it's been a few years since the last time I worked up the nerve to dye Easter eggs with the kids, but this year as I was looking through our storage I came across what must have been a clearance dye kit purchase from last year. So, on Good Friday, we dyed some eggs. And they were beautiful!

Look at this crew. Even daddy made it into the picture, in a freaky sort of way.

The finished eggs. Aren't they gorgeous?

I told Jonah he could draw whatever he wanted on the eggs and without our prompting, he drew this. I asked him who it was and he said it was Jesus "see his crown of thorns?" So precious!
Not too bad for writing on an egg!
What a blessing it is to raise our children in light of the Gospel and to the glory of God!

Random April

A few random pictures to post and then I think we're all caught up!

Mimi and Papa came for a quick trip around Valentine's Day this year, so we decided to have our party tradition with them. No heart shaped pizzas this year- instead we had cheese fondue and soup. The kids had fun dipping in the cheese and it was a tasty way to celebrate. Thanks for coming to visit Papa and Mimi! It was fun!

There also was a Valentine's Day party at church. Abby decided to go dressed as Rapunzel. Jonah came as the Most Eligible Bachelor. No one else dressed up. What's up with that? Here is one of the only pictures from Abby's dance class. Unfortunately they don't take very well in that room. The class is over now, but Abby loved it!! We are thinking this isn't the end of dance class for her.

And this is from a few days ago. Two of my boys in matching jammies. We have never done matching before, so this was an exciting day. Aren't they handsome?