May 2019

FATHERS AND SONS

Nathan and Jared had a great time.  They even learned a new game, Kubb.

MAY THE 4th BE WITH YOU

Our stake put on a fun mother/son Star Wars and Nathan and I got to dress up.

Nathan shot down a lot of enemies.

He made it through the lazers

He did a good job fighting storm troopers.

We also had a wookie cookies, Jedi juice, padawan popcorn, etc.  The boys then fought each other in the dark with their light sabers while the moms visited.  It was super fun.

MOTHER/DAUGHTER ACTIVITY

The girls were feeling a little left out until our RS decided to do a mother/daughter waffle breakfast.  The girls had fun making tissue paper flowers after the breakfast.

FAMILY FUN

My parents send the girls some cute dressed from Hawaii.

We took a few finally trips to the park before it got too hot.

BROOKLYN'S FROZEN OBSESSION

While the boys were at the father and son's outing, we had a fun girl night.  The we dressed up and danced to Disney princess music.  After the little girls went to bed I stayed up to watch Emma with the older girls. 

MOTHER'S DAY

I had a nice mother's day with my sweet kids.  I loved all the cute cards they made me. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED!

Maddy did a good job making Jared's cake herself (with a little help from Brooklyn).

Daddy hugs

Jared got two of his favorite snacks, gingerbeer and black licorice.

Nathan wanted us to try a healthy sweet potato chocolate frosting.  It was delicious, even if it didn't hold up quite as well as we wanted it to on the cake.

Audrey made this cute card for Jared, unfortunately she got the numbers a little mixed up.

UTAH!

Grandpa snuggles


The kids love all the dress up at Grandma's cabin.

Goldilocks and the three bears

We went up to East Lawn cemetery for Memorial day.  It was super windy and cold!

Thomas just had his second cousin Jared Donaldson buried next to him.

It was nice to gather together and remember my grandparents, Thomas, and baby Jared.

Brooklyn and Jared both got pretty worn out from all our travels.

We left early for Yellowstone.  Here are Audrey and Brooklyn waiting while Jared loads up the van.

Abby's 13th Birthday

Abby got heart-attacked by her Beehive class.

Abby chose to go to the musical Wicked instead of having a birthday party, so we just had a small celebration at home with the family.  She and Maddy absolutely loved it!

We are now officially parents of a teenager! 

ABBY AT THIRTEEN:
Favorite colors: blue and purple
Favorite books: Harry Potter and books by Brandon Mull
Favorite movie: The Princess Bride
Favorite food: chocolate
When I grow up I want to be: a pianist
Things I enjoy: board games, reading, crafts, hiking, rollerblading, biking, and swimming
Favorite animals: pandas and dolphins

Abby fills our home with beautiful piano and flute music.  She is always willing to help with her little sisters. Abby is also very frugal.  If I take her shopping with me, she works hard to convince me to not spend money on unnecessary items.   Abby has a big heart, and is very compassionate toward others.  She brings so much joy into our family.

April 2019

PRESCHOOL FUN

Water table 

Playing house

Princess dance time

Letter O craft

Outside!

Audrey made a Mr Potato head out of fruits and vegetables

GRANDPA VISIT 

Grandpa and Mary Barlow came to visit for a few days.   It was so great to see them.  Grandpa took the older kids on a hike while I hosted preschool at our house.  We also took Grandpa to see Midwestern and the kids were excited about the huge glasses by the Optometry school.


TRIP TO YUMA
It was nice to visit with Joseph and Nicole and see their new home and play in their awesome yard. They were nice to host despite being in the middle of a move. The cousins really enjoyed playing together.

We visited the Mormon Battalion monument.

The kids enjoyed the park with its zipline chair and the dragon slide.

For Chole and Zeke's birthday we went to a party place where the kids enjoyed some bumper car rides and arcade games.

Probably the highlight for Brooklyn was all the cheese she could eat at the Golden Corral.  

BEAR BADGE

We are proud of Nathan who worked hard to earn his Bear badge in scouting.

EASTER

Brooklyn was excited to try out her new Minnie mouse brush on Maddy's hair.

 Like Texas, Arizona is too hot to hide eggs with chocolate candies in them outside, so we are forced to do indoor egg hunts.

The girls still wanted one outside so we hid our dyed fake eggs for them to find.  Brooklyn is still working on understanding size and tried putting the basketball in her bucket.

We have adopted the Catholic tradition of having hot cross buns for Easter.  The symbolism is that Christ overcame his death on the cross and rose again (like rolls rising).  

ROCK CLIMBING

We had fun at rock climbing on homeschool day.  Abby, Maddy, Nathan were little spider monkeys.  I was a wimp and freaked out at the top.  It was hard for me to let myself jump out and let the auto belay catch me, so I ended up climbing half way down before working up the courage to jump out.

Unfortunately Audrey inherited my fear of heights.  She reached her goal to climb up to the starfish, but then she looked down and freaked out.  Luckily a worker climbed up right next to her and helped her calm down and figure out how to get back down.

Brooklyn wanted to try too.

PLANS

Audrey made a list of everything she wanted to play with her friend Rachel when she came over.  She couldn't write down most of the things so she drew pictures and wrote "fun" at the top.

THE BIG 40

I had a wonderful birthday surrounded by the people I love the most!

OUR CABOOSE

As Jared was cutting up a watermelon Brooklyn decided to eat a quarter of it.