May Happines

May ended up being a very eventful and wonderful month, so I was thinking of calling this post "May Madness" off of the March Madness term, but everything that happened was so wonderful, I thought May Happiness was more fitting. With that said, I wanted to express sincere gratitude for all of our many choice blessings and experiences. Truly our cup runneth o'er!

Feel free to skim/browse the mountain load of pics. Be sure to stop when you see sweet Isla though - you don't want to skip over her!

Micah found this frog statue that was the perfect size for climbing at a Harvard Law Latter-day Saint Student Association picnic.

Winnie the Pooh and Piglet too can be found at the Newton Public library. Our constant search for new libraries continues.

Curious George made a visit to Watertown. I think Micah thought he looked a lot different in person than he does in the books!

 We visited the "Dear Boston" exhibit at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square. It was "a curated collection of artifacts left by mourners" following the bombings last year.

We were so grateful to be able to all go to the temple together before we move west. We sure do love you guys!! Coincidentally, we saw our wedding photographer, Brandon Osmond, coming out of the temple after us, so we asked him to take this picture.

Micah busting out a fun dance move - a regular occurrence in our house!

Our good friends the Hoyts came over for dinner right before they headed to Seattle for an internship. Their son Wes is 4 days older than Micah! We are so grateful for the wonderful friends that we have made in Boston and are excited to stay in touch with them all!

A little family picture on Mother's Day. Michael does a great job making me feel like one special mom!

The mothers and daughters after a delcious dinner prepared by Scott, Michael, and Rob.

A fun trip to the Children's Museum with the Kelleys. It has been great living close to them!

Ivan and Micah driving the car at the Children's Museum.

Visiting the magnificent mansions in Newport, Rhode Island the day before Isla was born. This one is the called The Breakers and was owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt

This mansion is called The Elms and was owned by the coal baron Edward Julius Berwind. They were quite magnificent and I am really glad we were able to go and see them.

The Green Animals Topiary Garden in Portsmoth, RI is also part of the Newport Mansion tour. These were some pretty cool plant sculptures!

The next day, May 24th, sweet Isla Grace was born at 11:41 am at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. We will give her the honor of her own blog post, so we will keep things relatively brief here. She has stolen all of our hearts and we are so happy to have her in our family!

We were so grateful to have Michael's parents here to watch Micah when we were at the hospital. He sure adores them!

Micah was excited to meet his little sister and loves her a lot!

What a proud dad!

Micah is quickly learning how to be soft with his delicate baby sister!

Five days after Isla was born, Michael graduated from law school. He sure looked good in his robes and hood. We are so proud of all his hard work and dedication.

Our judge in the making, laying down the law! We were so glad Scott was able to make it to the ceremony.

My dad flew out for the graduation and was happy to meet Isla also! It was really great to spend some time with him and have his help with Micah and Isla!

January - April 2014

We've made a new goal to blog once a month. We're hoping this will help us to take more pictures as well as keep better track of what has been going on in our lives. So, to kick off this new goal we have posted pictures from January through April -- sorry for the overload!

Micah loves music, especially dancing and singing. As you can tell, he is also a ham on the piano!

January 2014

 We have LOVED having Grandma and Grandpa Robertson so close. We often get to go on "field trips" with them -- the highlight of our week! This trip was to Chuck E. Cheese. Micah loved all the games and machines and didn't even need them to be turned on to enjoy them!

January 2014 

January 2014

 Reading with (or ON) dad - a favorite pastime.

January 2014

 Micah got these Oregon Ducks pajamas for Christmas 2012 from Michael's good friend Vinnie (aka Uncle Vinnie). At the time, we couldn't imagine Micah ever being big enough to fit into them! They are his favorite pjs now. Thanks Vinnie!

February 2014

 We had a great time celebrating Grandma Robertson's birthday! We love you!

February 2014

 One Saturday in March we decided to go on a drive at the last minute and ended up at the North Bridge in Lexington. It was a fun little adventure. We are going to miss living in the middle of so much American History (we'll have to make our own instead!). This picture was inside the Visitors Center.

March 2014

 Our future rock star. A perfect combination of Micah's two favorite things: music and dogs.

March 2014

During Spring Break we went to a couple museums in the area, including the Museum of Science.  Grandma and Grandpa Robertson came with us, and we had a great time. Micah especially loved the dinosaur exhibit. He enjoys pretending to be a dinosaur -- stomping around the house and yelling, "Roar!"

March 2014

 Micah and mom reading while baby sister grows (and listens).

April 2014

 Micah has always been a great and thorough eater. He especially loves pasta with red sauce (probably because of the mess it makes)! This picture was taken at La Galleria in the North End when our friend Eric came into town.

April 2014

 Matchy matchy Micah and Daddy!

April 2014

It wouldn't be Easter without a bunny cake! This is the fourth year in a row we've been in charge of the bunny cake for Easter dinner. This year we went with a strawberry nose, blueberry eyes, and licorice whiskers instead of the traditional jelly beans -- the healthiest bunny cake we've ever made!

April 2014

Grab Bag

What's been on the camera reel the last couple of months:

Happy Birthday!

We had a great time celebrating Janelle's birthday!

It wouldn't be a party without a game of HedBanz!

Alan is by far the best at this game!

Micah and I were able to be in Houston for Ivan's 1st birthday! This was the awesome toothbrush cake his parents made for him!

Ivan sure did enjoy his cake! It was so great to visit Kristin, Taylor,  Lucas, and Ivan.  We are so excited they are moving closer!

Boston Marathon

Though things seem to be back to normal here in Boston, our hearts are still heavy for  all those affected by the Boston Marathon bombing. The whole experience was quite surreal, scary, and sad for our family. We are so grateful for all the emergency responders that worked around the clock to keep us safe.  In our short time here we have come to love Boston and Massachusetts and there will always be a place in our hearts for Bean Town!

I was so excited to go and watch the marathon! And it really was fun, though the bombings have indelibly changed the memory. We went to mile 21 - the bottom of Heartbreak Hill.

Micah loved watching the runners. I think we have a future endurance athlete! (Well maybe he just likes to smile...!)

Its hard to tell, but Ana Dulce Felix from Portugal is pictured here. She had a commanding lead at this point in the marathon, but the pack caught her and she ended in 9th place. Random fact: Micah Kogo from Kenya got second overall -- we like his name!

Book Group

This month for book group we read Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne.  Sarah made a fruit cake/sugar cookie world map to bring for dessert!

Rachel took this picture of the group!

Micah :)

Micah loves to swing! We are so excited that the weather has gotten warmer and we are able to go to the park almost every day!

Micah is getting closer and closer to crawling! He loves to scoot around on his belly and often pushes himself under the couch along with the toy he is playing with. If we can't find a toy, we look under the couch and it is almost always there!

In Loving Memory

A dear friend of the Skidmore Family, Nancy Gayder, passed away this last week. Sister Gayder and her husband, Steve, were always so good to us and I always felt like we were family! We celebrated every birthday at their house. I remember how excited I was whenever they made their homemade french fries--yum!! Brother and Sister Gayder were favorite primary teachers in our ward and we all waited eagerly to be old enough to be in their class. Each week we would get a new button from the treasure box with different pictures or sayings on them. Thus began my button collection. At Brother Gayder's funeral, some of his former primary kids sang an arrangement of primary songs, including his favorite--Popcorn Popping! I have wonderful memories of going to "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" with Sister Gayder. It was always so fun to see where she worked and spend the day with her. Nancy always made lots of time for our family and made us feel special and loved. She was an example to me of showing love to all those around her.

We love you so much Sister Gayder and will miss you. We look forward to the day when we will see you and Brother Gayder again!