March

Molly was invited to play with the U12 Premier team at a tournament in Mesquite.  I didn't want to take all the kids down for just a couple of days so Justin decided that he would take just her. Stockton decided he wanted to go at the last minute.  Brynn was a little sad not to be included but we did a couple of fun things at home that made up for it. (She got to miss school and go birthday shopping with grandma.  She also got her ears pierced but more about that later.)

The team all wanted their hair the same for each game.  Luckily there were some moms on hand to help Justin out.

I think the team did okay.  We just wanted Molly to play with confidence and have fun and she was successful with both of those goals.

Molly is back row, right in the middle

she is front right here

When they weren't at soccer games they went bowling, hit a bucket of balls at the driving range, saw Moana at the cheap theater, and got some Zeppe's.

After Molly's last game on Saturday morning, Justin took the kids to meet up with the Broadbent's who were in St. George with some friends.  He wasn't able to hook up with Jeff and his friend for golfing so he hung out with Ali and the other mom.  Molly and Stockton were happy to play with their cousins at a super awesome park down there before heading home.

Stockton and Grant

Molly and Gavin

On Saturday we had all day with no Dad, Molly, or Stockton.  I told Brynn we could get out all the princess dolls and watch princess movies all day.  I thought that would be something good to occupy her time so I could get the cleaning done.  She picked The Little Mermaid for the first one but after that she just wanted to watch Sofia the First on Netflix.  Not what I had in mind but oh well.  Ivy played with the dolls all day.

Cash getting some loves from Ivy.

Ivy showing Justin how she closes her eyes.

Molly wanted to make this little fairy garden for our neighbor Maive, who is three years old.  Stockton and Brynn helped and they walked it over to her when they were finished.

Justin was able to get the basketball hoop and soccer net set up.  They have been so fun and have already had lots of use from our kids and their friends.

The soccer net has since been moved to a different location in our yard.  We kept kicking it over the fence and down the opposite hill into the horses.

Molly made these cinnamon-sugar biscuits from scratch one Sunday all by herself.  Biscuits can be tricky to get soft and flaky and she did a pretty good job for her very first time.

Ivy with a diaper on her head.  Random.  Of course Justin took this picture.

Date night at the Jazz game with my family in the suite.  Love this tradition.  Gene and April are always so nice to watch our kids late every year.

Jeff, Ali, Erin, Bryce, my uncle Craig, Lucy, Dad, Josie, Erin, Christopher, me, Justin.  My mom was there but took the picture.  Don't know why Craig didn't switch her spots for the picture!

Justin had a birthday.  He turned 35.  I asked him if he wanted anything other than twinkies for his cake but he didn't want to change the tradition.  This was the eighth year of doing the homemade twinkie tower.

We didn't actually give him any gifts because he just wants to finish fixing up his shop so we'll count that for his birthday.  The kids did give him a "scratch-back."

When the weather is nice, we like to walk down to get Brynn from the bus.  Ivy likes to watch the horses and sometimes we take carrots to feed to them.

Brynn still enjoys dressing up.  This picture just sums up her zest for life, her desire to always have fun, and her ability to not care what anyone thinks.  She is also pretty proud that she can make her own sandwich-jelly only, no peanut butter.  If there's no jelly, she'll make a nutella sandwich.

I took the kids to the skate park one afternoon while Molly had soccer practice.  It was busier than normal that day so we moved over to the park after riding scooters for a little bit.  Stockton got some practice on his skateboard.

Lipstick.

Stockton got his Valentine's date first this year and he chose to go with me.  He has been wanting to hike the Y since before we moved to Heber and we have never done it so I told him I would take him to do that.  It is a steep climb, with 13 switchbacks all the way up.  Stockton liked counting the switchbacks, reading the signs at the top of each switchback, and counting all the people wearing BYU gear on our way up.  I liked that he held my hand the whole time and that I could give him my full attention.  You can choose to go to the bottom of the Y (switchback 10), the middle (switchback 11), or the top (after switchback 13).  We for sure wanted to make it to the top and we did and enjoyed some fabulous views.

It was a much easier hike down and then we went to the Creamery on 9th for some ice cream.  Not my beloved Aggie Ice Cream but it is still good.  So glad we got to do this together!

Now that we have 9:00 church, we have plenty of time in the afternoon for doing things like playing with stuffed animals.

This picture was posted to the group page for soccer and I was reminded of how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place.

Molly's in the back, second from the left in the white T-shirt.  This is a combination of a few teams.  She's played with all three and I love that she is comfortable with all of them now.

Brynn is obsessed with lipstick.  Girls keep giving tubes to her on the bus...I wish they wouldn't.  We were at the dentist and Brynn used my phone to apply some pink lipstick.

Back at home, you can see that she continues to apply the lipstick.  We had a tea party that day for our plan and snuggled and watched Sofia the First.  She wore her sunglasses and lipstick the whole time.

After having a warm couple of weeks we had a rainy Saturday.  I knew the kids would get bored inside after having been able to be outside so much plus Justin was at a Scout pow-wow so I knew I needed to have something fun for them to do.  I pulled out the old two-man tent and set it up in the loft.  They got busy setting up their stations and played up there for a while.  And since it was in the loft, I was able to leave it up for a little while and it didn't bother me.

If the lipstick wasn't enough, Brynn started coming home with eye make-up on as well.  A girl would put it on her on the bus when they were driving home.  She was delighted with it.  I didn't love it but didn't see any reason I could object since it was just on her way home.  I always wiped it off if we went somewhere but I was relieved when it stopped.

I took an afternoon and pieced together the quilt kit that my mom gave me for my birthday.  It was already cut into squares so it came together quickly.  Quilting is something that I am not very good at but a hobby that I would love to get better at.  This was a simple project that I really enjoyed doing.  My mom took it in to get quilted and I am excited to get it back!

Ivy was copying me one night at dinner and it was just too cute!

After Justin fixed the washing machine three times last summer, we were doing pretty great in the laundry department.  The knob on the washing machine that adjusts the size of the load had broken and I could only do large loads but it wasn't really that big of a deal.  The dryer was doing fine although it kept getting less and less efficient at actually drying the clothes and I had to dry them for longer and longer periods of time.  So it was the dryer that eventually died on me.  Justin pulled it out and looked at the back of it but it sparked and started on fire so we figured after 13 years, it was time to retire our washer and dryer and get a new one.  Justin shopped around and found the replacement appliances that we wanted but they were on back order for three weeks!  When they finally came, we had the wrong conversion part and had to wait another 1-2 weeks for that. That was a long story just to say that I went about 5 weeks with no dryer.  I hung all clothes, towels, and sheets to dry at various locations around the house.

This is only a sampling...I had them hanging in the loft and over the playhouse too.

Laundry is a chore I don't mind doing but I really started to hate it-especially when we got home from our 8-day vacation and had all that laundry to do.  But they came and were installed and are working great now!  First world problem, right?

March's video is Brynn getting her ears pierced.  Her facial expressions make you want to laugh and cry and give her a great big hug.  She was so very, very brave!

More videos here!