Happy Mother's Day

Well, I am almost caught up! I have a trip to Utah where I was able to meet my new beautiful niece- but I didn't have my camera! So, I need to get Shelly's pics and then I will update those!

For now, I just want to talk about how grateful I am for my 3 munchkins who teach me how to be a mother. I learn so much from them every day. I am grateful that they were sent to me and that Heavenly Father trusts me to be their mom. They are all 3 sweet, special kids with unique personalities. I hope they know how much I love each one of them.

I made a big decision this week to quit my job at the YMCA. I have been there for 9 years (part time.) I started working in Child Watch, and then teaching Kids Gym and the Special Needs group, and then for the last 3 years I have been in Fitness, as a personal fitness instructor, running coach, 8 Weeks to Wellness teacher and most recently a personal trainer. I love it and I love helping others with their fitness goals.

However, I feel right now, the place I need to give my focus is with my kids. Emily will be going to first grade and I want to be able to use this last bit of time with her. I am thoroughly enjoying the stage that Bryce is in and helping encourage his love of reading. Dallin continues to amaze me with his maturity, and I don't want to miss out on time with him now that he is in school all day. They are the most important thing to me and I look forward to this extra time with them. I will miss the Y, but I am excited to just be "mom" for a while! I will go back to the Y when I feel the time is right. I am grateful that they were so supportive of my decision.

Tulip Festival 2011

Tulips are my favorite flower and I look forward to their (short) season each year. One of my favorite places to visit is the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival. We had not been able to get there, but I finally decided on Thursday just to up and go! I am so glad I did! We left Dallin since he wasn't home from school yet (and didn't want to go anyway!) and grabbed Alice from next door. I love watching kids play when there are no screens around! Their favorite part was the ducky races. They could have stayed there for hours. I was grateful that we got there late enough that the bounce houses were closed! :-)

Easter 2011

Easter is one of my favorite holidays and I try to keep it as non commercial as possible! This year we did an Easter Egg Hunt that happened to be honoring our good friend Liam Juassi. He is such an inspiration to us. The good news is he has been cancer free! Woo Hoo! Here is a link to his story.

We also did a primary activity that was a scripture scavenger hunt. There was no candy involved and I think the kids got the spiritual message we were going for!

Our Sunday tradition has been with the Christensens and the Ramos families for the last 9 Easters! We usually have a brunch, but now that we are in 3 different wards, we couldn't meet until 5pm. Catherine is an amazing host and we each bring food. The kids look forward to it all year. We started with 3 kids and now have 10 between us!

PS

They put the baskets on their head. pretending to be bucket zombies from my favorite game Plants v. Zombies!

Kids Happenings

Bryce and Emily finished soccer and I think they both loved it! Bryce kept a running tally of all the goals he made and gave us the update each game. I believe he finished with 13 goals! Emily was pretty excited to make her first goal at the end of the season. It was great watching her get more and more confident.

Dallin and Emily both took big steps in April. Dallin auditioned for a local talent show with a rendition of Beethoven's 5th. He practiced every day and I was very proud of his dedication. When he watched some of the audition tapes, he turned to me and said, "Mom, I am okay if I don't get picked." I thought it was very humble of him to recognize that he wasn't the best! I was still happy for his effort and the learning experience.

Emily auditioned for the local production of "Sound of Music." She sang "Defying Gravity" from Wicked. I was proud of her for getting on that big stage and not getting nervous! She did not make it either, but she had fun.

Now Dallin has started baseball and we are enjoying the new season. The kids and I watch in the rain and Jeff is helping to coach.

Here is Dallin's You Tube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7To9CMv-FKc

Here is the link to Emily's You Tube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGO5Z2zWGZQ

Country Life Update

I feel like life is one big experiment right now! We have no idea what we are doing with all this property, but we sure love it! We had 9 chickens between us and the Giles, and unfortunately, we had an attack that left us with 7 piles of feathers. Dallin was the one who found them and was really upset about it. The next day we lost number 8, and the last chicken held on for a couple more weeks. We need to figure out soon what was killing off our chickens because we have 7 chicks in the garage! The kids have loved watching them grow! They are so big now! If we don't figure out a solution soon, we are just raising coyote bait! Any suggestions?

The kids will play outside for hours, which I love! The main reason I have always wanted a big backyard was so that we could play catch with our kids. That is a sweet memory I have with my own dad and it is great watching it come true with my kids! We are getting the garden ready and I have been adding color to our yard. Jeff did some new bark dust which looks really nice. Come join us anytime!