April Happenings 2015

April was a very fun and busy month.

1. We started the month out with Easter weekend. The Easter Bunny comes to our home on Saturday morning so that we can keep our Sunday all about the Savior and his Resurrection.  We also do all of the traditional Easter activities on Saturdays as well.

The kids baskets are always hidden by the Easter Bunny so they have to spend some time looking around for them Saturday morning.   I love that they found them, and went through them, all before I had even gotten out of bed.

So… then I wanted a photo, and I wanted it just the way they were.  This is them.  This is real at our house in the morning.  Crazy socks and hair.  It’s just us.

One of the important gifts in their baskets was a piece of jewelry that represents our church, and some of the beautiful thoughts and sayings we use.  It’s important to me that they have something in the basket that actually reminds them about what we are really celebrating.

Tessa’s say: “I am a child of God.”

Stella’s is a little different.  It is a locket, but it also says, “I am a child of God.”

Isaac’s is a tie clip and says, CTR which means “Choose the Right.”

Jex’s is also a tie clip, and his says, “Called to Serve.”  Which is something that we use and say for boys that our serving missions for our church.  I bought it a little early for him to serve as a reminder that we can always be missionaries, and it’s always important to serve.

I decided to invite my family up for the weekend.  Kristin and Jared were able to make it, and the kids were so excited to spend Easter Weekend with a few of their cousins.

We started Saturday with the traditional egg dying.  The kids really enjoyed it.

I always go a little over board on egg buying; and then we never eat them.  None of us like hard boiled eggs.  After I had thrown them all away, someone told me about the tradition of rolling them down old main hill at the University.  I think we will try that next year.  Then the seagulls clean up the egg mess.

Easter Weekend also happened to fall during our LDS General Conference weekend so we watched Conference and enjoyed Easter activities in-between the sessions.

After Saturday Conference was over we had an egg hunt.  The kids loved it.

We hid about 170 eggs so there was plenty to find.  Some had candy in them, and some had quarters.

 

It was a great afternoon.

I also hid giant eggs that looked like carrots.  Each child was required to find one. 

Each egg had a word in it.  They were required to put the words together and make a phrase.  The phrase was “The good news is he lives.”  Just another simple reminder of why we celebrate Easter.

The kids spent the rest of the day hanging out with each other.

Then when it finally got dark we did our annual glow in the dark egg hunt.  It was fun for Luke to be a part of this because he had never done it before.

It was a beautiful weekend, and we loved being able to spend it with some of our family.

2. The weather in April was so unpredictable.

One day we had this….

Then a few days later Jonathan was out playing BBall with the kids; because it was so warm.

I think the old mans still got it.

3. In mid-April, we made the journey down to Utah County to see this cute little baby be blessed.  It was a great weekend.

It is so nice that we can come down to share special events like these with our family.

We also enjoyed some time at the greatest park that weekend.  It’s called Neptune Park; and the kids loved it.  It was once again fun to share it with cousins.

Tessa decided she was completely in love with Cade, and wanted to hold him all day.  She then decided that we should adopt a baby.

So…. with that in mind, one day on our way to dance she said, “Ok, mom after you pick me up from dance, we should run and adopt a baby at the place that you adopt them.”  We need another mommy baby, so get one.

It’s so funny to me how easy she thought it would be to just adopt a baby.

4.  Jex started Spring Baseball again this spring.  There are lots of practices, and lots of games going on.  It’s always nice to get away from the house and just sit at a ball game. 

Once again, some games were cold, and then some were warm. 

Ugh!!! make up your mind weather.

I really enjoyed my blankets, and I was so thankful to have lots of them in my car one evening when the weather turned off really cold.

5.  I always make Strawberry Freezer Jam in the month of April.  The kids count on it.  On this particular day, I had a few helpers.  My sis-in-law needed some help with her kiddos; so my niece and nephew got to help me out.  They were actually very helpful.

Jane, my niece enjoyed eating Strawberries the most.

I think strawberry jam is so beautiful once it’s all put together.

We love having it all done and in our freezer throughout the year.  It makes great PB&J’s and it’s even better on ice-cream.  I can’t stand store-bought jam.  I am all about the homemade.

6.  As we got closer to the end of the month, Teacher Appreciation week snuck right up on me.  I really wanted the kids teachers to know that we appreciate all they do for our children.

I think being a teacher is one of the hardest jobs.

This is what we came up with.  I love flowers, and I thought it would be nice for the teachers to get something they could take home and add to their yard.  Maybe something they could look at all summer, and be reminded that we love them.

This is what we wrote on the tag:

“Thank you for helping me bloom.” Love, Isaac/Stella/Tessa

April was a great month.

7. We ended the month on a little bit of a sour note.  I ended up seeing a neurosurgeon for the pain that I was having in my arm, neck, and head.  We had figured out that I had a cyst growing on my T1 nerve.  This neurosurgeon decided that I should think about going through with having the cyst removed.

So as April ended, we moved on to May with a lot to think about.

It was a very risky surgery, and I needed to process the whole thing.

May Happenings will answer more of that for y’all in a few days; so stay tuned.

Thanks for being here; and seeing what we have been up too.

March Happenings 2015

1. We started out March with a mommy taking an alone trip to Houston to see her bestie.  This was another surprise gift from the Hubby, and he arranged it all; even the childcare.

I was so excited to go.

I left on March 6th.  It was a very  long day.  I left the house at 10:30am and I didn’t end up getting to Houston until 9pm.  There were some delays along the way.  I didn’t think that when I left my house in the am, that my view out the airplane window would be this:

Once I got there, it was so good to settle in.  Krysta’s house feels so much like home to me.

This is me all settled in on the first night in Ady’s bed: 

Ady was so kind to give up her cute pink bed for me.

This is what I wrote in my journal/trip notebook that night:

“Today was a long day, but I am finally all settled in at my bestie’s house.  It is amazing to me that it has been 8 months since I saw her and all is the same; as if I saw her just yesterday.  I love her children like my own, and Casey(her husband)is like a brother to me.(such a wonderful man) I am so thankful for their family.  What a blessing it is to know them.”

That night just before I went to bed I had some very special thoughts about Krysta.  It was as if God was telling me how wonderful she is, how lucky I am to have her in my life, and that she is a gift he has given me.  It was fun to start off my trip knowing those things.  I think I savored each moment more.

We did lots of fun things while I was there.

We started our weekend with some girl shopping, of course.

Krysta took me to Old Town Spring which full of fun boutiques, and antique stores.

We also had lunch at a cute little tea cafe.  I ate this delicious bread pudding for dessert.

 

During the weekend, we took on a few projects which is totally like us.

We helped Kaylee(oldest daughter) start redecorating her room, and we even did some re-decorating in the game room.  This was all so Casey could buy a bigger TV.  It was fun to help her with these things.

It’s what we enjoy doing for sure.

We also had some down time.  We did lots of talking and listening.  We have always been each other’s sounding boards.

The last full day I was there, happened to be Krysta’s birthday.  Jonathan made sure to treat us right on her birthday.  He bought us tickets to the Houston Livestock Show to watch Justin Moore.

We started the morning with a cake pop from Starbucks for breakfast.  What?

It’s a party day.

Then some more home decorating shopping.  This is our haul in the car:

A little birthday cake for dinner.

She is about 6 months older than me, so I’m pretty sure she turned 27; because that is how old I will be this summer. (wink wink)

Then it was time to get ready and drive into downtown Houston for the rodeo and concert.

We had so much fun, and got the best seats ever.  Thank you Jonathan.

Here are a few selfies:

…and some of Justin Moore, and the excitement in the arena:

He actually got down off the stage and walked all the way around.  Here he is so close to us:

It was the best night.

When we got home, we took off our boots,

 

had another piece of cake and went to bed.

Then the next day, it was time to go home.

It was the best weekend, and I always enjoy every minute with Krysta.

Once again, I thank God for the blessing of a friend who “gets me.”

2. Tess is still enjoying our unseasonably warm weather.  She really enjoys painting with water outside.

Today, she is painting the house.

For some reason, it also needed to be blow dried.

3. I got a new lens for my camera. 

I had been wanting one that would work for sports shots.  One that could zoom in quite a ways.  Jonathan was so kind and helped me pick it out and order it.

Then Tessa was even kinder as she insisted that she posed while I tried it out.

I have really enjoyed seeing how far I could zoom it out.  This is a pic of the Logan Temple out a window of our home.  The temple is quite far away in real life, and it was neat to see that I could zoom in quite a bit.

I have always said that Hyde Park has the best sunsets, and it was fun to zoom in on one.

This new lens also has an amazing Macro feature.  I have really enjoyed trying it out.

This photo is a favorite of mine.  It is a macro shot of an old time camera I have.

4. I don’t do too many things for St. Patrick’s Day.  I know some mom’s go all out and do green feet, and green toilet water.  Some even do pots of gold at the end of the green feet all over the house. This mom is too tired for green feet so, this is about as good as it gets for our family:

I made green dinner.  We had green crepes with rainbow sprinkles, green eggs, green grapes, and of course bacon and sausage(because who really wants breakfast without the meat?)

5. I took the kids to the new movie Cinderella.  Jonathan was out of town, and I couldn’t wait to see it.  It’s not often that I splurge and pay full price.  We are usually cheap theater kind of people.

I was so thankful that I took them.

The message has resonated and stuck with me:

Have Courage and be Kind.

We could all be better at that.

Then the beautiful lesson about forgiveness. This silly movie has actually helped me work on forgiving someone that I was struggling to forgive.  Thank you Disney for teaching some character traits in your new spin of Cinderella.  I highly recommend seeing it, if you haven’t. 

6. The end of March/beginning of April kicked off Spring Break.

We decided to have a little Utah Stay-cation.  We had never taken the kids to Salt Lake City before.  We decided that would be a fun little trip for our family.

Here we are caravanning to SLC from Logan.  JB is in the lead.  We needed two cars because we had to separate mid-week.

We stayed in a hotel that had an indoor water park.  That was a hit.

The first day, we headed to the zoo, and it was a madhouse. We made the smartest parental decision to find a new option. So we drove next door and checked out “This is the Place state park.”

It was full of history about the pioneers and how Utah came to be.

 

I took this picture of a picture in their little shop.  It was a good reminder of the sacrifices that the Mormon pioneers made to find a safe place to settle down.  They crossed the plains in the coldest of times.

These are all things I want the kids to know about.

Understanding how they pulled handcarts to get here, and built a city from the ground up.

It was such a beautiful day.

You can tell the kids were thrilled to have their picture taken in front of this train.

We bought the kids these magnets as a souvenir and something cool to play with.

It turns out, Jonathan realized they were some pretty strong magnets; and he got a little creative.

Still a kid at heart for sure.

I am thankful for my ancestors who crossed the plains, and for Brigham Young, who discovered, “This is the Place.” 

It certainly has been the place, a wonderful place to live, and our Mormon culture and religion thrives here.  I am so thankful for that, and thankful to have grown up here.  With that being said, I am also thankful for my many experiences outside of Utah.  I learned so much about who I am as a Mormon, and why I still want to be one.  I also learned that no matter where you go, the gospel of Jesus Christ is true.  There is nothing that I am more grateful for, that the gospel has spread all over the world.  Thankful to missionaries and their service each day.

The next morning, we got up early and went to music and the spoken word that is held in the Tabernacle on Temple Square.  It is the longest running radio broadcast.  It was fun to be their live.

The kids loved hearing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform live.

The Tabernacle is a beautiful old building with so much history.

Then we enjoyed our afternoon walking around Temple Square.

There is so much to see.

Stella and I enjoyed taking pictures of flowers and all the beauty.

At one point, I handed my camera off to a complete stranger and got a family shot. 

Needless to say I was a little nervous.  It turned out nice, and I’m glad we have it.

We also walked around the visitors center and then took the time to watch the movie “Meet the Mormons.”

We had seen it once, but wanted to see it again.

If you haven’t seen it; you should.  Mormon or not.  I think it helps you understand more about Mormons and their culture.  It is actually on Netflix right now.  If you want to know more about the Mormon culture check it out on Netflix.

The funniest part of the day was running into some of Arkansan friends.  Friends who we can totally relate too.  We went through residency together.  They live Mississippi now, so it was amazing we saw each other while they were here visiting.  Here we are taking shots of each other over the reflection pond. So fun to see you Smith family.

The following day, we checked out of our hotel, and drove to Lehi to the Museum of Natural Curiosity.  The kids had been once before and loved it so, we promised we would take them again.

I have two pictures from that day.  Snuggling on the lawn with my oldest.

…and consoling a very tired 5 year old when things didn’t go just her way.

We ended the night at my kids all time favorite spot, the Provo Rec. Center.  It really is the best indoor swimming pool. 

My sister’s met us there and we had a great time.

 

Following our rec. center experience, Jonathan had to leave and drive back to Logan for work.  The kids and I were able to stay with the kids at my mom’s for a few days and enjoy a couple of days with my sister’s and cousins.

It was a nice Spring Break for our family.  It’s fun to be back in Utah again and close enough that we can spend a few days with cousins.

Overall, it was an exciting March.

…and even more exciting to have it blogged.