May

We spent a morning in the yard and Ivy wanted to swing, of course.

Stockton’s baseball team played in the Monday Night Lights league again which means that I’m not able to go to a lot of his games...especially if they are earlier in the afternoon.  It’s nice when they scrimmage the older team here in Heber so I can see him play more.  He was pitching this time when I went to see him.

Molly was able to help coach her club’s rec soccer program.  She coached small teams of 4 and 5-year-olds and really had a fun time.  It also helped that she got paid for each game she coached...I guess we can call this her first official job!

The lawn was in desperate need of a mow so I finally got around to doing that the first Saturday of May.  It was a beautiful spring day and felt so good to be outside!  Justin was doing some burning that evening and the kids wanted to stay outside.  I scrounged around in the freezer and found some hot dogs and marshmallows and we ended up having an impromptu hot dog roast for dinner with marshmallows for dessert.  The Anderson kids had been playing with our kids, so they were able to stay as well.  With such a nice day, freshly-mowed lawn, and the spontaneity of the evening, the day ended on a definite high.  We kept telling the kids a time that they needed to come in and shower but then when that time came, we would push it back.  Seriously, some of the best nights are spent in our backyard.

Corbin and Brynn

Raylie and Ivy

Easton and Molly

Brynn, Easton, Stockton, Molly, Corbin

Raylie and Ivy

soccer

swinging and flies up

We took our traditional Sunday spring walk/bike ride to the end of our street and down to the creek to throw rocks in the creek.  Water only runs through this creek when they are diverting water from Strawberry to Deer Creek, always in the spring.  Ivy loved stuffing her pockets with rocks and watching them splash in the water and Molly made some pretty hair decorations with the dandelions and other weeds.

We played basketball when we got home.

Stockton occasionally has 8:30 games on Monday nights.  They are so late for the boys-they go for a couple of hours and he's gotten home past 11 every time.  One good thing is that I can actually make it to these games since piano lessons for the day are over before we have to leave.  I hadn't been to one yet and he really wanted me to take him so Justin stayed home and I went with Stockton.  (We don't take the girls to the really late games.)

at bat

running bases

Justin stayed home and got the kids to bed.  He is a sucker when it comes to Ivy being asleep...I find all the pictures of Ivy sleeping on his phone. Here's #1 for the month.

Brynn came home from school one day with a tooth missing.  She had pulled it herself, on the bus drive home!

Ivy gave us a concert one night, complete with instruments and singing.

 For our May craft, Ivy and I made some toilet paper roll flowers.  She made one to give to each of her grandma's for Mother's Day but we never remembered to give one to April.  The rest sat on my window sill above my kitchen sink for the rest of the month.

In May we have both of our moms' birthdays and Mother's Day.  I sometimes have a hard time thinking of gifts for them but I did come up with some good ideas this year for their birthdays...Ivy and I planted them fairy gardens.  I bought a beginner set on Amazon with the idea of adding to it each year.  Ivy also loved the butterflies we bought to put in them too.

Brynn had a field trip to the ice rink.  I didn't go with her this time since I had already been on one with her last fall.  One of the mom's sent me these pictures.  Brynn loves ice skating...it is what she always wants to do when it is her turn for a mom or dad date.

Ellie Graff, Brynn, Layla Baird

Taylor Judd, Brynn, Ellie

Ivy went through a stage where she found every bag in our house and filled them with different things from her closet and the loft.  Then she would line them up.  It was a pain and so not fun to clean up when it was time.  We didn't get around to emptying and cleaning them up for a few days (I had her put them in the loft and out of the way) and I had a hard time finding any of her shoes!  She had put every last pair in those darn bags!

The pile doubled after I took this picture to send to Justin.

This was just an impromptu photo shoot when Molly got home from school.  Ivy had been outside when Molly got home so Molly stayed outside with her.

Ivy picked me lots and lots of dandelion bouquets from pasture dandelions.  She would run up to me and say, "Happy early Mudder's Day!" ...she said this even after Mother's Day was over.  She insisted that they all be put in cups and displayed on the windowsill above the kitchen sink.

I had my spring recital for all my students.  I currently have 13 students, 3 violin and 10 piano.  Plus I am teaching Stockton piano and Brynn violin-whenever I have a chance.  I sent Molly to a different teacher when she started middle school but I still made her play at my recital so grandparents didn't have to come up twice.  She had her own recital a week later.  I had two students that couldn't come to the recital but the rest did and they did great!  I made them do a memorization piece, a duet piece, and then they were able to pick a favorite song that they had learned over the last year.  It went longer than I had planned (one hour) but I think that's okay for a recital once a year.  It was really rewarding for me to see each of them get up there and perform and I felt very happy and proud.  I feel lucky to be able to teach these kids not only about the piano or violin, but also how to work hard to accomplish something and that they can do hard things.

Chloe Mitchell, Samantha Steiner, Brynn, Molly, Audrey Stout, me, Stockton, Addy, Easton Anderson, Cole Pearson, Kelton Webb, Corbin Anderson, Ethan Pearson, Blaine Mitchell, Jake Webb

Some rollerblading outside.

Stockton and Easton

Brynn and Corbin

Mother's Day-

I was able to sleep in for Mother's Day, although I didn't sleep, but relaxed in bed for a while and then got up and got ready for church while listening to the rest of my family working on a French Toast breakfast for me.  It was very nice.  Justin made French Toast, buttermilk syrup, whipped cream, sliced strawberries, sausage, and orange julius while the kids helped.  They set the table fancy and had all their homemade cards set up by my plate.  For Mother's Day, we had a load of dirt for the flowerbeds/greenhouse delivered and I picked out some flowers for the yard (as per my request) but Justin and Molly also stayed up late the night before to build a flower box for the front porch (something I've been wanting for a while but it was a surprise that morning-he made a matching one a few weeks later so I could have one on each side of the door).  We had breakfast and also had time for a toenail-painting session before it was time to get ready and go to church.

Justin put Brynn's nose in the whipped cream and it looked so funny!

orange julius moustache

 

The priests took over Primary, even the music people, so all the women were able to go to Relief Society.  The Young Women joined us, so I got to go with Molly.  We had a personal Michael McLean concert (he's in our ward) which was nice.  He is very theatrical and sometimes it's not the time or place for that (like testimony meeting or Sunday School) but it was okay in that setting.

After church, we went to Gene and April's in Sandy.  We had dinner and played outside.  Ivy loved the chocolate fondue for dessert.

Brynn pulled out her second tooth for the month...again, she did it all on her own-after we had tucked her in to bed this time.

Our pile of dirt was delivered on a Monday night at 8:00.  We had just sat down to start FHE when the guy came to deliver it.  Needless to say, our FHE got switched to a shovel-the-dirt/play-in-the-dirt family night.  We also planted some petunias while we were outside.  I love how our yard is finally coming together and looking so nice!  There is a long way to go but it's come so far already!

 

 Stockton had his 4th grade Utah program.  I know they've been practicing for several months and it paid off...they did so good!  It made me so glad that I live in this amazing state!  I really loved the whole program but I especially loved the section they did on pioneers and I was also happy that they taught the English students the Spanish song (they usually just make the English students stand up on stage while the dual immersion students sing a song in Spanish and I don't like that).  I really can't say enough about how much Stockton enjoyed learning about Utah history.  He was also happy to see my parents and April in the crowd watching him.

He did not want a speaking part so he didn't even try out for that (although we would have done fabulous).  He was so excited to get to represent Wasatch County on the big Utah State board during the county song and later in his baseball jersey.

Grandpa and Grandma Moyes

Grandma April

Ivy and I went home and I got some work done outside in the yard.  Ivy wanted a picnic, so that's what we did!

Justin started his "golf season."  He is able to do several tournaments for work-probably more than 10 over the summer.  He enjoys golfing and it's a nice little break for him.  I'm glad that he's able to go so often for work because it's free!

Molly ended her season with the premier team.  This is the team that she wants to play with the very most.  She is their first sub and usually gets an okay amount of playing time.  She loves playing with these girls.  I have come to realize, with both my kids in sports, that my job is to be their #1 cheerleader (even if inside I am disagreeing with the coach on something).  If Molly was happy after a game, then I was happy.  She had tryouts at the end of May and was really wanting to be put on the premier roster.  There were a lot of new girls that tried out and she was worried, but she did make it and that was a relief (and a confidence booster) for her.  She has great ball control but needs to work on her aggression a little...I think, when she plays with this team, she is easily intimidated and isn't as aggressive as she can be.

Regan Heywood, Caroline Turner, Molly, Natalia Wagstaff, Kylie Bishop, Jordan Gibby, Lucy , Coach Mark Davis, Lexi , Carley Anderson, Brigitte Ferreyra, Aspen Ivie, Hannah Risto, Kate Giles

This last game was in Kaysville so super close for my parents to come cheer her on.  They have to be my kids' #2 cheerleaders, after Justin and I.  They are so supportive and truly enjoy watching all their grandkids play.

The girls were on a high because they won their last game.  They stayed at the field longer than usual playing games and then went to dinner together before heading home.

Not sure what we were watching here but I took advantage of some snuggles with the kids after baths and before bed.  I can tell it was a Saturday night because of Ivy's curlers-I only do those for Sunday.

I made some naan bread for Sunday dinner one day and these girls wanted to help out.  They were very good at rolling out the dough!

Brynn and Ivy, aka Dorothy and Belle

I finished reading a book to Molly called, "The Secret Language of Girls."  She picked it out-it's a hand-me-down from Tiana that she had already read.  I liked it okay although it wasn't anything fabulous.  But it did talk about how friendships can change when girls enter middle school...and that is something that Molly understands because she saw a little bit of that this past year.  Molly couldn't stop laughing at my poor attempts at a selfie that included me, her, and the book!  It took four attempts-I don't like the way I look in selfies so I was trying to make a goofy face or cover my face with the book.  Also, I had braided her hair in a crown that night so she could have wavy hair the next day.  It looked so adorable but I have yet to convince her to wear it like that for real.

Ivy made us some special drinks for lunch one day...using fruit snacks on the rim of a couple of cups.  I don't have a clue where she saw this!

We had a crazy hail storm come through one evening.  Our back deck was so covered in white that it looked like it had snowed.  Luckily it didn't damage any of these plants...currently, they are about 4 times as big as they were in this picture.

Molly finished her season with the select team a few days after the season ended for premier.  This was a frustrating experience this time around.  I had no complaints about the coach (she was great and so patient) or the kids or the amount of playing time Molly got...quite the contrary because they didn't play one game where they had a sub and more than half the time, they played with one or two less players on the field than they were supposed to.  It was very frustrating to see girls not show and then to watch the girls who were committed have to work so hard and get beat just because they didn't have enough players.  We will not do that again, if we can help it!  The one plus side is that playing for the select team always boosts Molly's confidence for when she plays with the premier team.  I was also proud of her dedication and commitment to this team-every bit as much effort put into it even though the playing level is totally different.

Rayner Wolfinger, Adelyn Hall, Zoe , Amberly , Makenzie , Caroline, Carmen Flores, Coach Jill, Molly, Sarah Cope, Chloe

The KSL Weatherman came to Stockton's grade and gave a presentation and then they were on the news that night.  We always tell Stockton he should grow up to be a weatherman because he loves learning about weather and checking the weather.  He will say things like, "The pressure is low today so it's going to be..." and tells me what the weather will be based on what the pressure is outside.  A couple days after this, he spent all his school money on a weather system.  He put it outside and checks it everyday.

He is the fourth in from the right on the bottom row.

#2 picture of Ivy sleeping that I found on Justin's phone.  It really is almost irresistible not to take a picture of her in this state.

Ivy and I helped in Brynn's class every Friday for an hour.  Brynn loved it when we came.  Ivy was very well-behaved and mostly stuck close to Brynn's side the whole time.

It was Brynn's turn for her date with me this month.  We were wanting to go on a hike but we had two solid weeks of rain which nixed that plan.  Aladdin had conveniently come out the night before so I took her to the movies instead.  We went early and got our tickets, then drove to Walmart for some treats.  We still had some time to kill before we needed to go in and get a seat, so we walked a few blocks to the park and I told Brynn she could pick 3 things to do at the park.  She did her three and then we walked back to the theater, bought some popcorn and Sprite, and found our seats.  Brynn struggled through the entire movie not to have the seat fold up on her and her poor little legs were sore by the end of the movie.  I kept asking if she wanted to sit on my lap but she always said she was fine.  We really liked the movie though and the time spent together, of course!

Stockton also got his {April} date with Justin that day.  We got a little behind.  Justin had a free round of 18 holes at Crater Springs golf course (at the Homestead) so he took Stockton and used his pass for 2 people to play 9 holes.  Stockton is naturally a really good golfer.  They had burgers after.

After church on the Sunday before Memorial Day, I drove the kids up to the cabin for a quick over-nighter.  Justin was going to come with us but he woke up with a horrible head cold that day and didn't ever get out of bed.  It wasn't looking like it was going to be great weather but Sunday evening ended up being so pleasant.  We went on a walk around the golf course...the setting was so beautiful.  My parent's seriously have the best set-up there because at night we have the whole golf course to ourselves and the kids love playing night games out there.  They played a new one that night that Abby taught them.  The parents sat around the camp fire and assisted in roasting marshmallows.

The sunset over the lake was gorgeous.

The next day (May 27th) was my mom's birthday.  We (me, my mom, Ali, and Erin M.) left all the kids at the cabin with grandpa/dads/uncles and went to some of the houses for the home show and to lunch.  When we got back, we sang happy birthday to my mom and had cake and ice cream.  I love these pictures-those kids love their grandma so much and are so blessed to have her.  And I know, for her, there is nowhere else she'd rather be or anyone else she'd rather be with.

Grant, Stockton, Brynn, Tessa, Grandma, Molly, Abby, Grace, Gavin, Seth, Harper, Spencer

Ivy, Chloe, Grant, Stockton, Tessa, Brynn, Grandma, Grace, Molly, Abby, Spencer, Seth, Gavin, Ben, Harper, Lucy (missing Josie since the Walker's had to go home a day early)

Ivy sleeping, round 3, courtesy of Justin.

I got half of the lawn mowed one day and then the mower quit on me.  It took Justin a little while to find the time to look at what was the problem...the grass got quite long in the meantime!  Then he fixed it but before I could finish, he mowed a "track" around the whole house and that proved to be so much fun for the kids.  Their imaginations came up with all sorts of fun things, mostly different types of races.

On the second to last day of school, the school held a chalk art festival so we went to see Stockton and Brynn.  Stockton drew an awesome Utah landscape with a big arch and Brynn teamed up with a couple girls to draw an adorable carnival.  It was a super fun activity to end the year with!

Mrs. Hall and Stockton

Brynn, Mari Freeman, Layla

Mrs. Young and Brynn

Ivy got herself dressed to come outside and water plants with me.  I noticed later that her pants were on backwards!  I didn't have the heart to tell her since she did it on her own but I snuck a picture.

And finally on the last day of May came the last day of school.  Molly was first-she has started to be in that stage that she cannot believe that I have to take a picture of her.  But she went along with it.  Molly's first year in middle school treated her fantastic.  She thrived.  She really loved the change of pace from elementary school...the social scene (her favorite!), the different variety of classes, and probably just the feeling of feeling older.  She did great and ended the year with a 3.9 average GPA.  She was really wanting a 4.0 but we assured her that a 3.9 was awesome!  It was fun for to me to watch her this year.

Stockton and Brynn were an hour later.  They also had great year!  Stockton loved 4th grade.  His teacher, Mrs. Hall, was so, so, so amazing.  You could just tell that she loved being in the classroom and she made every day fun for the kids.  Stockton loved Utah History so much.  He will miss 4th grade a lot...moving on to 5th grade next year and his last year of elementary school!

Brynn's teacher was Mrs. Young.  She had a huge class and handled them well.  Brynn grew in her reading by leaps and bounds and even doubled one of her reading test scores in the middle of the year...something her teacher told me rarely happens.  She loved Math the most.  She had mixed feelings about summer coming because she said she was going to miss her teacher and her friends.

They had all agreed to pull the last chain off together.  Molly kindly waited until the others got home.  There was some drama involved...Ivy couldn't reach and threw a fit so we had to staple it back up there and let her rip it down a second time.  But everyone was happy that school was out for summer!

The kids were dying to use their Lagoon passes so I told them I would take them after their last {half} day of school.  We talked most of my family in to meeting us there.  The day was so nice!  Going with cousins was awesome because everyone had someone on their "ride level"-meaning that everyone had someone to ride their favorite rides with.  We had enough parents so we could take turns with the different groups.  I got a turn with the little girls, the middle kids, and Stockton and Grant-who I called the Colossus Crew, because that's what they wanted to do.  I never had a chance to go with the big kids but they were off having a blast-Christopher took them on Samarai which was new to them and now a new favorite for each of them!

Ivy and Grandma-Ivy's favorite ride is this "octopus" ride

Harper and Brynn

Ivy on Puff-this girl has no fear.  She is the best to ride with because she giggles through everything.

Harper and Ivy

Brynn and Josie-Brynn wishes she was a taller so she could ride some bigger rides but she is a good sport about doing what she can-she loves Bombora and The Bat and Tidal Wave so there's always those for her.

Ivy, Harper, Brynn

Jeff and Brynn on the Terror Ride.

Lucy and Ivy