Mother's Day 2019

Matt made crepes for breakfast for Mother's Day.

Me and my boys

I led the Primary children in singing a mother's day medley of "Love is Spoken Here" and "Mother Tell Me the Story." After church, we met up at my mom's house for dinner. Clayton smoked a brisket and the other men helped with the sides.

Carter's Mother's Day gift

Bryson's Mother's Day gift

Some things harder to decipher:

Favorite food-- cookies

Drink-- orange juice

Favorite TV Show and Movie-- "America's Got Talent"

Song-- Living in this world (first line of "I Will Be What I Believe," a song I'm teaching at church)

Heavy May Rains

We had 2 crazy thunderstorms in one week! 

Friday afternoon in early May, the rain came down heavy and quickly. This is what our backyard looked like after about an hour.

School pick-up was delayed. Fortunately I was about 25 cars into the line and was able to get my boys home safely before they stopped the car rider line due to thunder/lightning. Some kids didn't get picked up until over an hour after school got out! In other areas of the city, some students/teachers had to spend the night at their school.

Then the following Tuesday it happened again! Heavy downpour. The drains couldn't keep up with the rapid rate and soon the streets were flooded and it was creeping up the driveways.

Front yard (notice the river flowing from our backyard on the left)

Backyard--creeping over the basketball court

There were heavy rains again a few days later on Thursday night. Because some areas of the district were flooding preventing teachers and some students from traveling safely, they went ahead and cancelled school about 5am on Friday morning. The boys were happy to wake up to the news that there was no school. It ended up being a beautiful, sunny day. We headed to Pump It Up in the afternoon for some fun and exercise.

Needless to say, we had no baseball practices/games this week! It was nice to have a break and catch our breath!

Easter 2019

Egg hunt on Saturday morning with Carter's baseball team.

Austin taking off

Bryson on the hunt

Coloring eggs

Family Easter egg hunt

So glad Lindsey's family made the drive and joined us!

Monday we went to the Secret Beach with friends and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

General Conference & The Family Proclamation

In an effort to get the kids more actively listening and participating in General Conference, I spent time making this activity board where we could keep track of the main topics that each speaker addressed. I personally loved the visual! Some of my kids got into it better than others. :)

 In between the Saturday conference sessions, we celebrated finishing our family goal for 2018 by going out for ice cream: memorizing The Family: A Proclamation to the World. It took us through March 2019 to finish mostly because we weren't rushing; we wanted to make sure we knew it well. It was such a fun and rewarding goal to work on together! It brought such a spirit of unity--just naturally each of us knows some bits of it better than others. All of us working together, we can repeat it almost flawlessly. When we try to say it individually, there is more struggling. I love the parallel to how we need each other as a family in this life, working together and helping each other. Caleb and Carter know the whole thing well. Bryson knows about the first 4 paragraphs with help. Austin will randomly join in for certain words or lines when we say it. Just as we still say The Living Christ from memory weekly together as a family from our 2015 family goal, we plan to continue saying The Family Proclamation and hopefully keep it memorized for a long time. There are such powerful beliefs and testimonies in both that we want these to be anchors in our boys' lives.

Carter's 9th Birthday

Carter opened presents first thing in the morning. We've really enjoyed the game Splendor!

With his birthday on a Saturday, we had baseball to fill the day. Unfortunately Carter's team lost their game, but the team sang 'Happy Birthday' and enjoyed cupcakes.

Birthday buddies

Matt had a brisket competition that night for an Elder's Quorum activity, so we were able to snag a few pieces of brisket for dinner, which Carter and I love. It was yummy!

I felt loved and appreciated by the friends/family who stopped by or wished me a happy birthday!

Grandma and Grandpa came over for a steak dinner on Sunday (official birthday dinner for Carter/me/Matt) and to wish Carter a happy birthday. We had the leftover cupcakes I made for the baseball team--cookie dough-filled cupcakes.

Carter is a hard worker in everything he does: school, piano, and baseball. So far Carter is a straight-A student with excellent conduct marks. At baseball practices, Carter is out there hustling the whole time. Piano is not a favorite activity, however, and Carter and I butt heads quite a bit. It takes both of us consciously being patient with each other for a piano practice to go well when I sit down with him. Piano doesn't come as easily and naturally to him as Caleb, which I think is hard for him to see his older brother so celebrated for this talent. He asks to quit often, but he knows that if he wants us paying for baseball, then he needs to keep pushing on in piano.

Carter is our best worker in the yard and cleaning bathrooms. He is not afraid to get dirty and do the "gross" jobs. If his dad is out working in the yard, Carter likes to be out there helping. We love that so much about him! Occasionally, just to be nice, Carter will come home from school and sweep the leaves in the driveway. He's not afraid to clean toilets and has also been a big help in the past if Austin had a poopy accident in his underwear.

Matt and I also love that Carter is our most adventurous eater! He will try everything and likes most everything he tries. He is starting to have a humongous appetite which gives me a glimpse of what teenage years might be like trying to keep the house stocked with 4 boys! 

In our Family Home Evenings and home church, Carter is the best listener and is always quick to give thoughtful answers to the questions we ask.

Matt's birthday was on Tuesday, April 2nd. I sneakily got up early and made one of Matt's favorite cookies--snickerdoodles--and showed up at the end of seminary so that the class and I could sing 'Happy Birthday' to him. Some students wrote notes as well, which Matt appreciated. It was a good start to his day.

Spring Break 2019

Keeping the boys entertained for Spring Break is a must. Otherwise they are at each other's throats and wanting to watch TV all day long!

Monday we got together with friends and the boys played poison ball (aka never-ending dodgeball). 

Tuesday we saw How to Train a Dragon 3 in the theaters and the boys played with friends in the afternoon. 

Wednesday we played in the nice sand at a creek near our house. Then we made slime and oobleck in the afternoon. We also played our new Harry Potter game that Caleb got for Christmas.

Matt took Thursday and Friday off of work, which is a big deal. He hasn't had many vacation days since starting his new company. So Thursday we made a 3 1/2 hour drive to an amusement park early in the morning, played all day, then drove home that night getting home at 10pm. 

Austin and me on an umbrella ride

Our cousin, Sam, came with us. It was nice to have a girl in our party!

The carousel

On the Mini Mine Train

Matt on The Riddler with Carter and Caleb. (Zooming in you can see Matt in the center with his arms raised--he loves this ride.)

Friday/Saturday we went camping with 3 of my siblings and their families.

Friday afternoon hike

Camping isn't my favorite activity mostly due to all the work before and after combined with not sleeping well, but my kids all enjoy it and love spending time with their cousins. We enjoyed s'mores and cobbler all together and gathering around the fire to talk and share some funny and scary stories. Everyone slept pretty well during the night. It got down to 45 degrees so we were all chilled but stayed warm in our sleeping bags. 

Hot chocolate Saturday morning

Austin and Morgan are good buds because they hang out together frequently.

Saturday afternoon hike with most cousins

We all enjoyed the break this week! A break from school, baseball, and seminary for Matt. Everyone got to sleep in a little longer and be lazier. It was some much-needed fun and relaxation!

Girls' Trip

A friend at church put the plans for a girls' trip in action! Her parents have a timeshare in Huntington Beach, California. Once cheap plane tickets were found, the trip was in motion. I decided initially not to go because our lives are really hectic right now and it happened to be the same weekend as the half marathon race I signed up for. I hemmed and hawed for a few days with Matt encouraging me to go, and once I checked with my parent's schedule, I decided to book the trip! I was able to defer my race to next year. (It was going to be iffy whether I was going to PR or not, so taking a year off actually took a lot of pressure off.)

We flew out Wednesday afternoon. After landing and getting a rental car, we went to Café Rio for dinner. It felt like 9:30pm to us even though it was 7:30 California time, so we were all starved. It was yummy! Then we got settled into the house. It was a tight fit, but we didn't mind being cozy.

Thursday we spent all day at Disneyland. Taking pictures wasn't a focus--some ladies did better than others about snapping a few--but I actually didn't end up with any pictures of me. Disneyland was a ton of fun! My favorite ride in California Adventure was the Cars ride and Indiana Jones was my favorite ride in Disneyland. Having experienced both now, I prefer Disney World to Disneyland, but I'm still looking forward to taking my kids once. (Then we'll frequent Disney World after that.) It was a full, exhausting day which ended with a good friend losing her phone on the last ride. Not the best end to the day. :(

Two friends that used to live in our area but have since moved to California joined us for the trip. It was fun to see them again!

Friday morning started with a run along the beach followed by games. 

Then we went on a walk and did some sightseeing and ate lunch.

We spent Friday afternoon at the beach enjoying the view. We laid out on towels and chatted or read books. 

Friday evening we went to a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant that was so yummy! We played more games and stayed up way too late talking.

Saturday morning we had to wash all the sheets and towels before our late afternoon flight. Due to the rain, we stayed in and played more games while the laundry was going. 

The timeshare was beautiful--5 minutes away from the beach and 20 minutes away from Disneyland.

Waiting at the airport

Eating an early dinner at the airport

It was so enjoyable to get away and take a break from being "Mom" for a few days. It was also delightful to get to know these ladies better.

My parents were so kind to help out with getting the boys off to school each morning since Matt was teaching seminary, watch Austin during the day, then help with the after school demands. Unfortunately Austin and Bryson weren't feeling well on Saturday with some fevers, and then Caleb threw-up Saturday afternoon (he said it was the combination of drinking a Fanta strawberry drink and then being outside for 2 back-to-back baseball scrimmages that caused it). I was hoping things would be a little easier for Matt, but for the most part, all went smoothly at home.