Memorial Day! 

Started early with one huge family snuggle-

 Then some early morning wagon rides...

And some matchy-matchy!

But actually we worked on projects most of the day, including these desks for the kids.  they LOVE them and have already played school a thousand times!

Summer's Here!!

 Hallelujah!  we can get out of the house and head to the park!

 And explore a whole new 'summer wardrobe'!

 And Plant a garden!!

 And of course head to the lilac parade...

 With good friends...

 and glow sticks!!

We can't wait for more summer!!!

11 MONTHS!

Believe it or not this little rag-a-muffin is 11 months!  Seriously, I don't usually let my children wear dirty clothes(okay, not that dirty)...this picture was taken right after eating Hailey's birthday cake, and she was lovin life!

11 months has brought on some new skills! Maren says "Hi!" all day long, she can also say "uh-oh", dad, and mama...although she really only says mama if she's sad or wants something...hmm.

She waves, pants like a puppy, and drinks from her sippy all by herself.  She'll stand without holding on to anything for a few seconds, and if pushing something like the bench, trash can, etc. she'll walk!  She has 9 teeth and one on the way!

WE LOVE THIS GIRL!

Happy Birthday Hailey!!

 Miss Hailey is 4!  I can't believe it! She is the sweetest girl!!  Hailey is a great helper at home- she loves to be right next to me on the counter while I cook.  She is a perfect older sister to Maren and a wonderful snuggler!!

 Hailey had a small (VERY small) party on her special day- 2 friends came over for mani/pedis, dress-up, some cake, and presents!

 That night Grannie joined us to celebrate Hailey one more time...we had rainbow cake in Sundae glasses!!

And this was by far her favorite present- Thanks Grannie!!

We Love you Hailey!!

Super Secret Easter Weekend!

 The whole Ditto family was together for "Easter"...at least that's what we told Grannie we were getting together for! Saturday we played at the park together and the girl cousins did a lot of posing...the picture of above is hard for me to look at without feeling like all the blood in my body is rushing to my head...

 More posing...

 Grannie organized several games for our Saturday Easter picnic...Hailey was particularly intense during the egg-on-spoon-balancing race. She and Jane (her partner) were last by far...but they didn't drop that egg!

 Maren just gets to sit around looking cute all the time...it's a tough job, but she's got it down.

 There are 4 pictures like the one taken above, and Addison is doing the same snarly face in all of them...where did he learn that?

 And now we come to the REAL reason that all the Dittos came together on this super secret weekend...a SURPRISE PARTY for Grannie! for the record, her birthday isn't for another couple weeks, but this weekend was the one that everyone could make work- so we planned, videoed chatted, emailed, snail mailed, and phone-called for months planning the giant shin-dig! My job was the decorations...clearly our color scheme was yellow and silver- and thanks to pinterest, we had some great decorations!

 And was Grannie ever surprised! and actually we were all surprised that one of our 500 children didn't spill the beans!  Way to go kids!!  We put on a "program" for Grannie, but that is all on video- no pics of the LOVELY costumes, dances, lip-syncs, etc. SORRY!

 Speaking of video, here is the videographer himself! Maybe we'll watch the footage of the party on the actual birthday :)

 The festivities didn't end with the party...Easter Sunday our newest nephew- Emmett- was blessed!  Welcome to your HUGE crazy family Emmett!

Easter dinner at Grannie's was delicious and entertaining! Games, candy hunts, makeovers, you name it! Such a fun weekend!!

10.months.old!

Our Maren is 10 months!! and growing up so fast!
She shakes her  head 'no' , she pulls herself up on everything!, she loves all food, and she LOVES her siblings!

She is full of personality and loves to make us laugh!

We love you miss Maren! It is so fun to watch you grow!!

One Fine Day!

The first day of April was one fine day at the Ditto house!  Laynie got her first dollar from the tooth fairy!!  Congratulations Laynie!

We also started a new general conference tradition...conference pancakes! ...in the shape of ties! everyone got to decorate their "tie" and they were delicious!

Addison's tie was clearly more for taste than looks :)

Personally, I think mine should win the prize...

But Kelly thought his were clearly superior.

That night we finally had an evening of NO RAIN and could let off our lanterns in memory of grandpa Ken!  Birch and Sara started this tradition and invited everyone to participate- it was a very special experience and a great evening of thinking of and remembering grandpa Ken.