The Coates Family: April May June

Honestly I mostly don't have a clue which of these three months these picture go to (Except matthew's birthday, Easter, etc) because those months FLEW by and blended together but here they are.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTHEW!! my big 7 yr old!

Matthew's end of year 1st grade musical. It was so cute and he had a speaking part that he did so well! "Knock it off guys! I'll do the needling around here! I am a needle fish you know"

painted himself a beard instead of a picture.

Trying to eat the hard boiled egg we were dying for easter. the shell was still on...

Sometimes I get really excited when I have a good run :)

growing his beard

Massive burger at The Hickory BBQ

here's her full princess bed we got at a yard sale last summer. I've been waiting for a year to set it up for her! I love it and even better she loves it but she looks so small on such a big bed! lucky luxuriously spoiled little girl!

yup, shameless selfie. I highlighted my hair blonde early summer but I think it went too much blonde and I looked funny. I also wasn't a fan of the shade, too bronzy.

So these next pictures have a story. One Sunday we decided to take a little drive up in the mountains. It had been good weather for a while so we assumed the snow would be melted off. What we forgot was that while it might be melted it will still be muddy...We played in this meadow and then wanted to continue on our way. Right after this meadow was a steep hill down. Just as we crest it and start descending we notice it's muddy. So I start covering my eyes going oh no oh no oh no. We slip and slide to the bottom of the hill and bury the front wheels! AHHH. We tried all sorts of things to get the car out no luck. So then we thought we'd have to hoof the 8 or so miles back to phone service to call my parents. With the three kids remember. And it was just about dark! By the way we went up here so Curt could scout for black bear, because there's a lot up here and he has a tag. So needless to say we were nervous. No gun. No water even. Curt stops us and says we'd better say a prayer. So then we went on our way and had just walked up that muddy hill when off in the distance we hear motor revving. Really loud. But there's roads that criss cross through this area and on a quiet cool evening sounds could carry and echo. So we stopped to listen for a bit. It sounded like it was getting closer! So Curt runs back down the road and low and behold a big huge tough Ford comes right up to our car!! They had been out 4 wheeling and had just decided to take our route home instead of through Heise. These were three rough looking fellows, smelled like smoke and whatever but they were kind and they helped us and somehow that day they listened to a prompting to come our way. It sill took over 2 hrs to get the car back up that muddy muddy hill but I am so grateful we had that experience. It gave us a chance to teach our kids the power of prayer and even more so it fortified my testimony on prayer and God's love for each of us.

Matthew wanted to eat out at the Chinese Buffet for his birthday.

He got a scooter among other things but Hailey thought she'd quickly claim it! Santa better bring her one for Christmas :) Matthew has gotten really good at riding it! He also got a bike but he prefers the scooter. I think he's still a little cautious of the bike because of his hearing loss balance issues. It doesn't help that kids Hailey's age are riding without training wheels so he feels silly riding a bike with training wheels but doesn't dare not have them. I know he'll get it one day. And if not who cares, he's a good scooter rider! Even keeps up with us on bike rides. He went about 2.5 miles the other day actually.

Curt and I went on a long date hiking above Heise looking for antlers. We found one but mostly we just got our legs scratched to pieces because we both wore shorts! DUH it's sage brush country what were we thinking?! Actually we thought we were going in another area that's not so dense but last minute changed our minds but didn't think to change our pants :) It was still so fun and I love being out in the fresh air.

Matthew lost his first tooth a week or so after his birthday!!

We got a couple of kittens but they both died not too long after dang it. I think they were too little. Actually Hailey's died for sure but Matthew's disappeared. It may have just gotten lonely and wandered off but who knows.

When they are fighting over who's turn it is to swing....probably not safety code acceptable but they had fun.

I've got soccer stuff scattered all through a few months. This was after his last game though. They give medals to all participants, but his team was actually really good! 1st or 2nd in division I think. Matthew improved a lot since last season too.