March

Here are some pictures of the snowboarding and skiing.  You can see that there is very little snow but they were making it work.  I wish they would have figured out how much fun they would have earlier on in the year so they could have played it more (it seriously entertained them for hours on end) but there's always next year!

Justin shoveled some snow from the grass onto the stairs going off the deck so they had a bit of a ramp.  It lasted one day.

FHE skit by the kids.

And then, just like that, the snow was gone.  Stockton got his badminton set out and the kids played that a lot.

Happy Birthday to Justin!  He had to get up early and be gone that morning but I made him a sausage and egg casserole the day before so all I had to do was pop it in the oven.  He is an egg guy way more than a pancake guy.

Brynn's class went on a field trip to the Aquarium and I was able to tag along.  I didn't ride the bus because I drove Ivy down to hang out with Grandpa Gene so I didn't have to take her.  Then I met the bus at a park for lunch and then the Aquarium.

I had never been to the Aquarium and it was such a neat place!  I am glad I got to go with Brynn-it's so fun to see her in that setting and she was happy to have me come along.

I made it back in time to prep an easy birthday dinner for Justin before teaching three piano lessons.  Justin had Young Men's that night so he actually didn't even get to eat until he got home from that.  He had requested curry so that was super easy.  We filled out our March Madness brackets while he ate.

For his birthday he got some vacuum hoses for his tool shop.  They excite him.

Then we had his homemade twinkie tower.  I asked if he'd rather I make him a cheesecake (his favorite) but he said he liked the twinkie tradition and I shouldn't mess with a good thing.  So that was that.

Happy Birthday to our favorite guy!

*I also had a birthday at the end of February but it was as normal of a day as you could get.  Also, I turned 36...aging hasn't really bothered me but I don't really like the idea of being 36.  Life is pretty good, though, so I can't really complain.

Two little fishies.

School was catching up to Brynn and I could tell she needed a relax day.  She was getting over a cold but it wasn't necessarily bad enough to keep her home from school but I kept her home one day anyway.  I didn't tell her and just let her sleep that morning.  She slept almost 2 hours longer than what she would have had I woken her up for school.  I told her that I was going to let her stay home with me and Ivy and that she could pick a plan/activity every hour.  I wrote down some ideas for her and let her make all the decisions.  Her eyes lit up and she watched the clock very closely!  The first activity she picked was to have a tea party (she got a ceramic tea set for her birthday).

She would have liked to go from activity to activity but I told her I had to have a little bit of time to get some stuff done at home.  She was okay with that, although she still alerted me to every hour as soon as it was time!  Her second activity was to get makeovers.  She loves to wear makeup, especially mine.

Then we played Uno.

The 12:00 hour was lunch which means books.

Then we played outside.

Our last activity before the older kids got home was to paint nails.

We had such a good day and it made a world of difference to her-she had her day at home and was ready to hit the books again the next day!

We went to Gene and April's on the Sunday following Justin's birthday for dinner.  April is the world-champion roll maker and we made it in time for the kids to get some lessons on rolling out the dough to form the rolls.

I saw this idea in the Friend and decided to try it at home, with some adaptation...

Stockton had the lesson for FHE one night and we worked on it together.  He read through the story of the crucifixion and resurrection and wrote down different items from the story on strips of paper and put them in a jar.  That night, we gathered around the kitchen table and everyone drew one or two pieces of paper and their job was to make the item written down out of playdough.  When everyone was finished, Stockton read the story through again and we used our playdough props.  He had gathered up different people to use as the people in the story.  (We didn't use anyone to be Jesus; I thought that would be taking it a bit too far.  Stockton used an actual picture of Christ.)  It was fun to have a more hands-on approach that night although the kids did get a little giggly about Stockton's choice of figurines to stand in as the disciples and Mary...all characters from Star Wars.  Imagine Princess Leia as Mary and Chewbacca as one of the disciples.

Molly making a crown of thorns.

Brynn got some help from Justin making the tomb

This is a picture I snapped so I could remember to document this exciting time for Molly.  I think she feels like she in on the brink of being all grown up.  She went to New Beginnings at the end of February and we got her all registered for middle school in March.  She is so excited for these changes and I guess seeing her get excited makes me excited for her.  I would be more sad if she was scared or nervous or not wanting to do these "grown-up" things but she is ready for them.  Less than 2 months of elementary for her and less than 5 months of Primary and then she is moving on to bigger and better!

Here are the kids' spring pictures.  I always take a picture and send them all back.  I should just opt out of having them done but I do like to see how they turn out before I send them back.

Stockton and Brynn spent a Saturday morning and afternoon setting up a magic show in Stockton's room.  It made a mess but these faces are too cute!  (And they were in charge of cleaning up, so no biggie.)

Stockton got the idea to turn the wagon into a bobsled.  Brynn and Ivy were on board.  It didn't work exactly how he was thinking it would because the wagon didn't go very far without someone pushing it but it was a nice idea and a nice try.

We don't make it down to Orem very often but occasionally we have to do some things down there that we can't do here in Heber.  We are always reminded how busy it is there and are relieved to come back to the relative quiet of the valley.  Anyway, we were walking through Al's Sporting Goods and they had these base layers for $4 (for the top and bottom).  They only had 4T and smaller so we bought one for Brynn and one for Ivy-we figured Brynn would still fit in a 4T and she did with plenty of room to spare (they run really big!)  Brynn wore hers for two days straight and loves to wear them for jammies.  Ivy wore hers also but thinks they are new clothes and refuses to wear them for bed.  She was so mad at me a couple of weeks ago when I wouldn't let her wear them to a nice dinner with my parents in Park City.  She just wanted to show Grandma her new clothes!

 

I pulled out the bin of plastic eggs a couple of weeks before Easter.  Even Molly loves to have pretend egg hunts and hide a bunch of eggs for her siblings to find.  I went to get some real eggs out of the fridge one day when they were all at school and found this surprise.  It sure put a smile on my face!

Brynn got a boost up to the counter with her carseat.

Brynn is so pretty.  Her hair is getting long (even after I trimmed it) but she wants to cut it short again.  The cat scratched her cheek, she got a frisbee to the forehead, and she had another scab there on the top of her forehead that we don't know where she got it.  She kept picking and picking at it that I finally bought some small, clear Bandaids to put on it so it could finally get better!

After having the tea party with Brynn on the day she stayed home, Ivy was hooked.  She's not allowed to use Brynn's ceramic set but we've had a plastic set for years that has been used nearly every single day since then.

On the way to Grandma and Grandpa's!  Sometimes the drive gets long for little kids.

Molly had an assignment called Easter Bunny Beauty Contest.  I was unsure of the details but she is always amazingly independent in all of her school projects and this was her final project.