April Fooling

Most of these pictures came off my phone and are out of order so have patience with me! Spring was crazy this year. First it was warm and sublime. This was early spring at my parents. I can't remember why we were there but I do remember how much my kids love their cousin Jacob. It is so awesome he is just a field away when we visit.

April is General Conference and we did our best to watch while the kids were clowning. around. :) I love that they are getting old enough to listen. It sure makes me have to repent 1/100000 less often. because I don't yell at them as much. Ha!

Jadon must have picked meditation for a punishment. Little stinker. Sure love him!

Sydney begged for swimming lessons. I assumed that getting her there early and adjusted before class would honor her "authoritative energy". It just gave her a stubborn streak. Fail! She stood on the side like this for 20 minutes.

This is the next day. She doesn't know I am taking the picture. She fell for her teacher Jake hard and fast. She couldn't stop grinning.

It is such a relief that she got some good experience. Sometimes these first classes feel like kind of a waste while kids pout and test limits or pretend to some new phobia of the water or something.  It really threw me for a loop when she initially acted like she wasn't going to do it. Glad it all worked out! Yah Jake the swim teacher!!!

Early spring our greenhouse was already growing some nice looking.....weeds. The kids think that I planted them for punishment. Nope. Mother earth did! Ha!

Quidditch on the tramp. Cause what else would you do?

Jadon's birthday I had some friends who moved away facetime him. Oh it made him so happy. It is hard to have friends that you really connect with move away.

We kept the Easter Egg dying pretty chill this year. The kids love their creations so sometimes I have to sneak them and peel them before they go bad.

We set up our new trampoline in the freezing cold one night after the kids went to bed. It was a fun surprise for them. Noelle wanted some rules posted so she wrote these. I love the line, "No rustlng when girls are on the tramp" (Wrestling). I hate rustling too!

Noelle and Jadon were both in a singling group this year. Noelle told me that she had a solo, but I didn't realize it was a walk up to the mike all by herself and sing a line solo. The production was amazing and I was so impressed with all the kids, but when my Noelle walked up to the mike and bravely sang her part I started to cry. When you know your kids micro expressions so well and you can tell they are scared, but do something brave and then feel so proud of themself....oh it is just so awesome. Noelle is such a beauty. I love seeing how she is growing.

Jadon was the star of his age group. he was totally rocking out and knew all the words. He hates it when people point out how enthusiastic he is so I try not to make a big deal of it, but HE IS SUCH A PERFORMER I CAN"T HELP IT!

This is the momma cat to Noelle's cat. I wanted to keep this picture because the momma cat went missing and we were all so sad. She was such a pretty thing and looked just like our cat Hermoine. I hope she wandered to a nice home and is being taken care of.

A picture on Jadon's birthday.

Jason and i went on an edible landscaping tour. It gave us some good ideas and good information.

Uncle Jesse and Aunt Rachel were awesome and had the kids build and paint Owl Boxes for my mom. He is so patient and fun with them.

Jadon loves Missy. Every boy needs a good fluffy dog to hug.

My friends really out-did themselves for my birthday this year and made this. I am so made that I didn't insist on getting a picture together. They also made my birthday cake because they knew otherwise I wouldn't get one.

More of our crazy spring. It was really warm, then it was really wet and cold, then oh Hail! It was just a blustery spring!

I think I was trying to pray when someone decided I needed to give him bareback lessons.

Jason and I got to help usher for the Temple Open House. We were able to do it the day that they had special needs only coming through. It was a lot of wrapping and unwrapping of wheelchairs, and holding doors, but it was a great experience. I love this temple so much! (You can see it in the picture if you look straight behind the falls)

I hosted book club. It was Anne of Green Gables. We had good food and, as always, good conversation. Our book club has become pretty close. I love that loving books and ideas can help form such good friendships. I really have such amazing friends.

Our greenhouse is growing more than weeds now!

More book club...

Jadon and Noelle did a round of Swim Team. They worked hard, but I was still frustrated because Jadon looked like and egg beater in the water and Noelle just wasn't progressing. Jason took some time and worked with them right before the match and they both did awesome. I got to time and it was so neat to watch each of the coaches cheering on and helping the kids. Even the the younger ones don't have to swim very far it takes a lot of courage to do it. I kept tearing up at strangers kids because I was so proud of the all the kids! We forgot to pick up ribbons we don't really know how they placed...but that isn't why we do it. :)

I read a book about arranging flowers and decided to try and do one arrangement a month. This is my early spring attempt.

A homeschool group that we are going to work with next year invited us to an egg drop. The kids had fun planning how to keep their eggs from breaking. Jadon and Noelle picked more complicated designs....I am sure if their Dad had been home that week it would have protected the egg, but as it happened Sydney's design was the only one that kept the egg from cracking. Go Syd! (And Charmin!) After the firemen dropped the egg they gave us a tour of their new station. The kids were so sweet with each other and held hands the entire time.