April

The kids came home from school one Friday afternoon and decided they were going to do a little street cleanup and pick-up trash from our street.  They kept at it for a good 90 minutes...and they picked up a lot of garbage!  They must have been feeling patriotic as well because at one point I heard them through my windows marching down the street chanting, "We love the USA!" over and over.  When I finally walked down to find them, they had all filled their garbage bags and needed the wagon to help them haul it home and to our garbage can.

Easton Anderson, Stockton, Molly, Corbin Anderson, Brynn

These were notes the kids wrote to me back in January after a FHE lesson Molly did on mothers (from Elder Holland's fall conference talk).

Stockton thinks that I make "good diners", read good books, and I didn't take a picture of the back so I don't know what else he said.

My favorite part about Molly's is where it says, "Whenever you get frustrated, remember that Me, Ivy, Brynn, and Stockton are children of God, and that you ARE a good mom, because Heavenly Father trusts you to take care of His children."  A good reminder, for sure. 

Brynn just says that she loves to do plans with me.  So do I, Brynn, so do I. 

During the Saturday afternoon conference session we all went down to the basement for some sanding.  It is not fun but the kids were excited to work on their future rooms.  We turned conference on the iPad and they were actually really helpful!

Brynn was in a stage where she wore her sunglasses everywhere.  You know, because it was so bright that day down in the basement.

Sanding = dust everywhere.  Stockton helped out by sweeping down the walls.

We took the shell off the truck and Brynn immediately made it into her fort.  She was disappointed when we hung it in the barn out back.

Conference Sunday sticky buns.  A tradition that goes back to Justin's childhood.  I love that our kids now get excited for it as well.

Along with the sticky buns, we had creamy scrambled eggs with ham, bacon, and my mom's most delicious bottled grape juice.

Sunday sessions are watched together as a family.  Molly gets excited for the women speakers and took notes all through Sister Oscarson's talk.

They do okay sitting still although I'm not sure how much they actually get out of the talks. But at least they know it's important to us.

After the first session we decided to go for a drive to Strawberry Reservoir and see how far it really was from our house. (We usually go to Justin's parents for the rest of the day but they were in sunny San Diego with some friends.)  It ended up being only about 20 minutes from our house.  The reservoir was still frozen-we were a little nervous to walk on the water but there were some ice fishermen out so we figured it was safe.  We stayed close to shore though!

 

(Ivy was asleep in the truck.)

We also drove a little further down and found the spot where other rivers flow into the reservoir and Ivy discovered how fun it is to throw rocks in the stream.

Ivy desperately wanted to be outside with the other kids this day.  I was upstairs getting ready and she just stood at the door and watched them.  I was nice and took her out when I was finished.

April 4th - 8th was Spring Break.  Monday was pretty warm and I sent the kids outside early (they didn't need a lot of encouragement).  When Ivy and I finally made it out we saw that they had been working on making a fort out of the climbing dome.  They had carried/rolled some big cut logs over for their seating and were playing some sort of game.  So that was a fun way to start the day.

Later on, Molly wanted to invite a friend over.  She was able to have Ali Parke over for a few hours.  They wanted to do a bake sale but our street doesn't get much traffic so I tried to steer them in a different direction.  They had grand plans about making a whole bunch of goodies from Molly's cookbook but I was low on groceries so they ended up making a batch of peanut butter no bakes.

 

Ivy catching a ride with Brynn.

On Tuesday we drove to Salt Lake and met my family at Temple Square.  It was a bit chilly but didn't stop everyone from having lots of fun and enjoying the beauty surrounding the temple.  I say this every year, but it is still one of our very favorite traditions that we do each year.  We were lucky that our break fell on the same week as all the cousin's break so they were all there.  That doesn't happen every year.

Grant and Stockton

Grace and Brynn

they always love the fountains

Ivy, Ben, Stockton, Gavin, Grant, Chloe, Seth, Brynn, Grace, Abby, Molly, Tessa, Spencer, Harper

Chloe, Molly, Abby-I don't ever think we've timed it just right to see these popcorn trees.  They were all over and so, so pretty!

My mom had booked a hotel in downtown Salt Lake for all of us so we were able to really take our time looking around and doing a few things that we don't normally do when we are trying to make it home the same day.

Grant, Abby, Stockton

Grant wanted to see the waterfall that came out of a building.  Tessa, Brynn, Grace, Grant, Stockton.

The kids really wanted to take a tour of the Conference Center.  We didn't want to take a long tour (we had 14 kids total) but thought it would be kind of fun, especially for the older kids.  We found a nice man who agreed to take us to the top and show us around.  I had never been on the top so that was neat to see.  Also, this man was so nice and so good with the kids.  His name was John and he was from the Netherlands and he had all of us laughing.

Harper, Grandma Kay, Erin M., Spencer, Ali, Seth, Megan, Molly, Abby, Stockton, Grant, Tessa, Brynn, Grace, Chloe, Ivy, Gavin, and Ben (we were missing Erin W. who was recovering from a nasty bought of food poisoning but who met us later at the hotel)

This is what it looks like for all of us to get ice cream.  Luckily, the the kids were well-behaved so it wasn't too much trouble.

Ivy finally fell asleep when we went to get ice cream.

When we made it to hotel the kids were anxious to go swimming so we postponed dinner for a little later and immediately hit the pool.  We had the whole pool to ourselves.

Abby, Molly, Gavin

My mom had arranged the sleeping arrangements according to the cousins who like to stick together.  In room 1: Erin Walker, Chloe, Abby, Molly, Tessa, Harper.

These girls were excited!  Tessa, Molly, Chloe

Room 2: Ali, Erin Moyes, Ben, Gavin, Spencer, Seth.

Room 3: Grandma, me, Stockton, Gavin, Grace, Brynn, and Ivy.  These rooms worked out well minus one melt-down in Room 1, I think. :)

On Wednesday we ate breakfast in our rooms and then headed straight to the zoo.  We were there on the same day as virtually everyone else in Utah.  I have never seen the zoo so busy.  I knew it was a bad sign when I pulled into the parking lot and saw all these buses.

The kids, however, didn't seem to notice the crowd.  They loved exploring the zoo with cousins and seeing all the animals.

Grandpa met us at the zoo!

Molly, Tessa, Abby, Chloe

Stockton and Grandma

Molly and Gavin

Stockton and Grant-these two are never too far away from each other

Ivy was the cutest.  She got so excited over each animal.  She would point and start to bounce and laugh.  She was slightly hard to contain in her stroller and she kept wanting to get out.

Stockton brought this home from the 100 days of school party.  This is what he's expected to look like when he's 100.  I about died from laughter!

This is his interpretation of what he'll look like at 100.

America First was giving out tickets to employees for a Bee's baseball game.  We never pass up an opportunity to go to a baseball game and we figured it would be a perfect way to end our break.  The weather was amazing for early April and we didn't even need jackets until toward the end of the game.

Stockton sat right next to Justin the entire time and really followed the game.  He would ask questions or Justin would explain things to him and he soaked it all in.  He loved the game-and Justin loved that he loved it!

Molly was anxious for a treat so I took her and Brynn and we got a couple of Swig cookies and a drink to pass around and share.

Probably the most exciting part of the whole night was after the game when they let any kids who wanted to go down on the field and run the bases.  This was so cool for them and fun for us to watch!

Back at the never-ending basement project.  Justin sprayed the closet shelves on April 9th.  The floor got sticky with paint and he was slipping all over the place.

He also ended up with paint splatters all over him.

Rachelle drove into town with all her kids for their Spring Break. It was the week after ours which was a bummer but we did manage to see them a couple of times.  We went to dinner on Sunday after church.

Riley, Brynn, Luke, Andrew, Jake, Sam, Stockton, Cameron

Jake, Cameron, Sam, Stockton-these boys are just 10 weeks apart from oldest to youngest

Brynn, Cam, Stockton, Andrew, Riley, Evie

All the kids were excited to see their cousins, but this is the funniest cousin-combo to me.  Brynn really loves Andrew and was so excited to see him again.

Gene and April with all 16 of their grandkids.

Lizzy, Evie, Tiana, Eli, Molly, Luke, Gene, Cam, Jake, Ivy, April, Riley, Andrew, Brynn, Sam, Stockton, Grayson

Justin and his siblings tried to recreate an old picture of them.

Justin, Eric, Rachelle, Brett, Camille

They are missing the groovy clothes but a good try nonetheless!

Spending some time with Brynn jumping on the tramp.  I taught her how to play "motorboat, motorboat" and she thought that was a great game!

Brynn also wanted to get Ivy's water table out a couple of times when the weather was a little warmer.  A bit premature if you ask me, but she had fun and this will be something that Ivy will enjoy this summer.

Stockton wanted to play soccer again so he started that in April and had games every Tuesday night and Saturday mornings.  I don't think soccer will be his game, but I'm glad he can go run around and get some exercise.  He made contact with the ball a handful of times each game, had a few fast breaks here and there, and scored one goal.  He also was the very youngest since it was 1st and 2nd graders playing and he is the youngest of the 1st graders with his June birthday. 

He's getting excited to start baseball in just a few weeks.  Now that is something that might very well turn into his game.  Next year (2nd grade) he wants to do basketball and baseball instead of soccer and baseball.

Rachelle brought her kids up to our house one afternoon.  Camille and Heidi came up with their kids as well so we had a packed house.  It ended up being a rainy day so we mostly stayed inside.  Lizzy was anxious for Molly to get home from school so to kill time her and I made snickerdoodles and played the Harry Potter Lego game.  I enjoyed talking with Lizzy about young women's and books she has read.

Cam, Brynn, Lizzy, Andrew

We let the kids play and make a mess (and a mess they did make!) and then we had breakfast for dinner because we knew that would go over well with everyone.

Andrew, Stockton, Cam

Riley, Sam, Andrew, Luke, Stockton, Cam, Jake

Then Justin had to school his sisters in a game of Foosball.

Both Molly and Lizzy were sad to say goodbye.  The Brown's aren't planning on visiting this summer so we're not sure when we'll see them next and that was hard for them to hear and there were tears involved for both of them.

Ivy enjoying an Oreo.

I have a picture of Molly about the same age enjoying the same treat with the same pigtails.

Stockton selfies.

Brynn learned how to go cross-eyed and does it all the the time these days.

Also, for our plan that day we used the Battleship boards for our own personal "computers" and typed emails back and forth to each other.  She sat on one couch and I sat on the other.  Our conversation was quite lively and it made me smile.

Stockton brought his spring pictures home and he looks so handsome.  I already bought school pictures this year but I was seriously tempted to buy some of these too.  But I didn't and settled for a picture of a picture.

Brynn calls dandelions "daisies."  We have a plethora in our yard and on our street and in our pasture so she has been able to pick me lots and lots of bouquets of daisies.

We had Korean Beef lettuce wraps for dinner one night.  Justin pulled out the chopsticks from his mission and gave everyone a lesson on how to eat with them.  They gave it a good try but they all ended up resorting to forks.  Also, all kids ate these as lettuce wraps-a first!  Glad that they are becoming a bit more adventurous in the eating department (namely, Stockton-Brynn is getting there-Molly has been great for a while now).

that extra kid is Molly's friend, Faith Hendrickson

Ivy got wet paint on her feet.  Those footprints were pretty cute-but they probably wouldn't have been had they been on the carpet!

Ivy wearing Dad's hat.  That is the cutest face around!

My parent's came up to see the kids play soccer and stayed to help out in the yard.  My dad brought up some raspberry starts and some of the flowers from his own yard to plant in mine.  The kids got in on the action and loved looking for worms and snails in the dirt.

My dad also brought stuff to show Molly how to make slime.  She is going to take the equipment to her class and show how to make it there.  I remember my dad coming to my own classes as a kid and making slime, so this was fun to see.

I have loved watching the leaves come back on our trees.  The light green of the quakies up against the dark green of the pines is really beautiful.  Our yard needs a ton of work but we are so happy to have it and we love all the trees!

We took a walk one Sunday evening down to the end of our street, then down the hill to the still dry creek, and then we walked along the creek until we started getting into people's backyards.  The views were really beautiful there too.  In the summer these fields will be full of sheep and the creek is already full now so we won't be able to make it back.  Glad we explored the area when we had a chance.

Brynn getting ready to go down and help Justin paint.

Ivy was helping out in the closets as well.  (I was sick this day and Justin took the day off and took care of the girls for me.)

Stockton has been waiting forever to lose a tooth.  During our walk on Sunday I noticed that his front tooth was looking crooked.  I asked him why it was so crooked and he felt it and it was really loose!  The next day he got home from school and asked Justin to pull it.  It came out easily!  He was most excited for the tooth fairy to come (she did) and to put a tooth on the tooth chart at school.

Brynn told me she was bored one morning so I told her to go make all the beds.  She said, "Okay!" and headed off to get the job done.  She ended up only getting my bed done before she was even bored of that but we'll take it.  I did have to exercise a little self-control not to straighten it.

Glad I caught this moment between Molly and Brynn.  They seem to get on each other's nerves a little more these days.

Later that day, Molly put every single bow that she could in Ivy's hair.  The best part was that Ivy thought it was really funny and didn't want anyone to take them out!

Ivy likes to sit at this little table and munch on crushed ice or Goldfish crackers.  This gets us through many nights when it's the busy dinner/homework rush.

We had a stomach bug that went through our whole family the last week of April. Luckily it was short-each person only had it for about half a day.  It was a pain anyway and I was happy to say good riddance to that bug!

Stockton had his 1st grade program at school and he was supposed to dress up as a nursery rhyme or fairy tale character.  We went with Peter Pan and kept it very simple-we cut up an old T-shirt of Justin's, tied a rope around his waist, and borrowed a hat from Ali.  The note that his teacher sent home explicitly said to keep it simple since all the kids would be standing close together on the stage for the performance.

Brynn, Ivy, and me, along with Gene and April who came up, went to the program.  (Justin was at the credit union convention in Salt Lake.)  It was so adorable.  They knew lots of songs that I had never heard of and they sang them well.  I was a little bothered that the mother of the boy next to Stockton didn't read the note about keeping the costumes simple-you can see that she built a Humpty-Dumpty prop out of a huge cardboard box.  The boy kept swinging it around and covering the kids next to him.  It is really cute, but not the place for that.  I was a little annoyed.  But I still enjoyed the show!  I have been very impressed with the programs I've seen from this school.

And after the program we were able to get ice cream with Grandma and Grandpa and Dairy Keen so that was a fun day.  We appreciated them driving all the way up to support Stockton.

Spring soccer=brrr!  We have had a lot of cold, windy, and/or rainy games.  I had to keep pulling the winter bag out so the kids would have gloves and hats to wear.

Stockton had a game early the morning after Brynn had been sick.  Molly had a game at the same time in Orem so Justin took her and I took everyone else to Stocky's game.  We sat in the car the whole time.  I made Brynn a comfy bed in the back of the Pilot.  She was done throwing up but was still tired.

I felt bad, though, because this was the game that Stockton scored his one and only goal.  I also missed Molly scoring two goals that day.

After Molly's game that morning she got to go on a golf date with Justin.

This ended up being Molly's second date with Justin in one week.  A few days earlier, she played with the premier team again in Orem and went to Culver's after for some burgers and fries.  She is a lucky one-she's had more dates with Justin than I have lately!