Ordinary Days

We're getting used to owning our home and being responsible for our own repairs etc.  It's annoying, I won't lie, but its kind of been exhilarating too.  Weird.  I know.  After we discovered our water heater was leaking it resulted in this.  Looks like it'll take weeks to dry out so we'll have a hole in our house for quite awhile.  Oh well.  At least it's our house.  

 This is the time of year when we really start to remember and celebrate living in the incredibly beautiful place.  We're back down at the beaches sticking our feet in the water, enjoying beautiful sunsets and watching the flowers come out.  

It's also been fun to get acquainted with the local wildlife.  These guys hang out in our back yard pretty regularly.  There were 3 down there this day.  

 Here Andrew received the Presidential Fitness Award.

 Here are a few random pictures of Grayson that were on the camera.  I don't know who took them or when.  He's pretty cute though.  

 Soccer season just ended.  Sam had a short, but sweet season.  It is seriously fun to watch him play because he really really loves it.  

 Just a picture of a super handsome guy.

 This "Touch-a-Truck" event was super cool.  Grayson loved the big trucks he could climb on and the other boys liked all the free junk they got.  

 Just for weirdness.

Spring Recital.  Andrew and Lizzy rocked it.  

Ordinary Days

 So very proud of this girl!  After hearing a talk in Women's Conference about the refugees and how we can all find ways to help Lizzy went (without my knowledge) to talk to our bishop about wanting to do something to help.  We didn't know what to do at first, but with some help and encouragement of our friend Nicole, it eventually turned into this.  The youth gathered donations and made 84 hygiene kits and also tied 9 blankets to send to a center in Seattle that sends items to refugees in need.  So many of us heard the talks and wanted to help, but Lizzy just did it without hesitation. She's my inspiration.

 Grayson got bitten by a dog.  When we were taking dinner to a friend and we were standing on her porch, the dog came out very casually and walked up to Grayson as if to simply smell him and immediately bit him in the mouth with no provocation at all.  The picture doesn't do it justice, his mouth was all swollen and it looked pretty bad.  But besides a small scar and a fear of dogs... he's recovering just fine.  

Andrew at his fun recorder concert!

 Our first spring in our new house is turning out to be more brightly colored than we ever imagined.  Our yard is splashed with beautiful flowers.  We're loving it.  Fresh flowers are in a vase in the house everyday.  

 Spring soccer season has started and is almost over already, but this picture sums up pretty well how Sam feels about it.

 Musical measles was a big hit in primary.  I love my calling.

 Sometimes we are in a hurry and this happens.  Whoops.

 I hosted a baby shower for my friend and did this cute "ready to pop" theme.  I'm really not good at this kind of thing, but I did think it turned out cute.

 Last week our family all tried paddle boarding lessons at our high school pool.  We had a blast.  Now to try it in some real waters!

 Just because.

 Grayson has been way into dressing up lately.  In this pictures he started out as spider man and later morphed into a safari guy.  He called it a police suit, but he searched for bugs all day long while wearing it.  

 I used to be much better at writing down quotes and haven't done it as often lately, but Grayson says the most hilarious things lately.  He made me laugh the other day when I was working out to a video downstairs.  He wanted me to play a game and I kept responding, "but I'm working out!"  Finally he said, "ok mom, I got dea (an idea).  I work out for you and you come play da game."  Haha.  I wish it worked that way.  Every night at dinner as soon as we sit down he says, "ok, my turna talk."  He then chatters on for several minutes about all kinds of things that don't make sense.  We are always entertained.  I also have to mention his obsession with the word "applesauce".  Not sure why, but he says it 100 x's a day.  It's kind of crazy.  

 Sam lost another tooth.  Yay!  Since that other tooth was knocked out when he was a baby, he now looks kind of funny with one tooth hanging out in the middle there.  Luckily it is loose and will be the next one to go.  

Also... this kid can read.  He is taking off on his reading skills and it is so fun to watch.  Here he is enjoying the pizza he earned by meeting certain reading goals at school.  Go Sam.

Life is so good.  I look back at this blog and see how fast the kids are growing.  It seems so recently that Sam was dressed up in all the costumes that Grayson is wearing today and now Sam looks at those pictures and laughs about when he was little.  It's wonderful and sad to see the changes coming so fast.  I love life right now and want to enjoy every minute of every kid and their sweet little selves.  

Spring Break 2016

I was brave and bold for this spring break.  Aaron wasn't able to have the time off, so I drove to Utah BY MYSELF.  It turns out I have awesome kids.  I mean ... I knew that, but now I really KNOW that.  13 hours each way and they were angelically good.  Really... almost no fighting or whining.  Even Grayson was so so good.  Better than I would have been at his age for sure.  Although it was a short trip we had a great time seeing lots of family and playing lots of goofy games and basically just had a ton of fun.  

 The last several times we've done this drive we stop at the same park in Oregon.  It is always a good middle point and has a pretty awesome playground.  This time around, we hid a treasure and decided to see if it is still there in a year.  Hmmm... we'll see.  :)

 I'm so glad we got to stop in Boise and see my Grandma.  She made me laugh... she seemed so spirited as she entertained the kids... tossing a pillow with them, asking them funny questions.  Her memory isn't what it used to be, but she is the same sweet tender-hearted Grandma I remember.

 While playing in the pool at the hotel, Sam jumped too close to the edge of the pool and hit his chin.  He didn't realize that he was hurt and was about to jump into the pool again.  Gratefully I stopped him before he did because there was blood everywhere.  It was such a mess.  He split it pretty deep and we spent awhile deciding if we needed to go get stitches. In the end, we didn't and it has healed up nicely, but it was a little crazy for awhile.

 It was so fun watching Grayson because he remembered little things and definitely remembered Grandpa, who he tagged around with the entire time.  Now that Grandpa is retired... he was around to entertain Grayson all day.  He might decide to go back to work after this week.  :)

 Nice try with Grandparents and their 16 grand kids.  Ha.  

 Love this.

 This obsession with sitting in the basket hoop seemed to sweep over us.  The kids spent a great deal of time in this activity.

 Grayson adoring his next play mate.

 We're wondering what Sam is wearing in this picture.  I really don't know, but it's cute anyway.  

 Random cute picture at the park.

 Alaina entertaining the kids with her weird phone apps.  We loved it.  

 I guess I took lots of pictures of Grayson, but this sure was cute.  Owen and Grayson were best little buddies.  They actually played TOGETHER.  Like they'd say "want to play bad guys?"  And then they'd play a real game together with one shooting the other and bad guy falls dead and then in a minute he wakes up and they trade places.  It was the most sophisticated play I've seen in this kid.  And it was really cute.  

Thanks for letting us come visit.