Fun little moments

Fun little moments that make me happy:

They finished their cute puzzle and were so happy.

Luke made a Mothers Day cake for us all by himself.  He was sick the day before so he had to stay home from church, and when we got home, the cake was made :)

Mom made Kade's costume for his 4th grade program.  He was one of the mountain men. Amazing right?!!  She was soooo nice to do it.  I like her :).

I was picking up some tomatoes and strawberry plants at Cooks and wanted to walk through the flowers before we left.  Rhett and Max LOVED it.  I thought this was cute because Max wanted to touch some flowers, but asked anyone for help, he just couldn't reach.. and Rhett just bent over to pick him up.  It was tender.

Luke LOVES his uncles.  He just always wants to do stuff with them. Scott was adding a hitch to his jeep, Luke sat out there with him for over an hour.

Me and Meagan hiked to the G with the kids.  (notice the backpack for Max? He didn't love it but stayed in it for a good portion.  That hike is so so steep and I was afraid for him.  The day was perfect and we had a little picnic at the perfect scenic spot about 80% of the way up.

Since the pioneers are part of Utah history, Kade's grade was able to do a pioneer trek day near the end of school! Plus I got to be one of the mothers of the groups!  They had real handcarts and lugged them around town, stopping from time to time to get new 'hardships', then  made their way to a park close by.

Apparently Kade was a gangster pioneer :)

Once there they had a day full of pioneer activities: made butter, sewed on buttons, quilted, (Kade caught a snake...not part of the activities) ate chili and cornbread, square dancing, made bean-bags and sling-shot them, laundry relay races.....Then took their families and their carts back to the school.

Tickles!

This one makes me laugh so so much.  Rhett and I were reading a Berenstain Bear book and Too Tall was holding Bro. Bears head back while Brother Bear was trying to hit him.  It was about Bullies or something. And Rhett said, "Hey, Grandpa does that to me!" With a big grin on his face. I laughed out loud and asked him to explain that.  A few days later they did this and I ran to get my camera as fast as I could. Bwa ha ha.  Awesome!

Luke and his friend Ian got the Academic for their class!  Luke was so excited about it. And as each new kid came up for his class for this or that, he would give them a high five.  Adorable.

Kade and 2 good friends from his class were on the high honor roll.  He was the most surprised of the two because I didn't know until he'd left for school that he was getting an award as well.  That was cute.

Jess bought the boys legos and set up a table and a fun movie to do them together.

(I'm doing the weirdest thing with my waist...strange.  But I AM wearing a rubber band necklace Luke made me that night so that's nice]  I love these ladies!  We got together at Ann's house for a BBQ with kid and husbands.  The kids LOVED playing together!!! Plus Ann's backyard is AMAZING with pathways and amazing huskies and a chicken coop and flowers and trees to climb.  The evening was perfect.

The cutest little hikers ever.

April 2014

Wanted to go for a little hike with these two awesome kids.  

We decided to hike to the waterfall by our house.  

Giant bag of snacks!  Awesome waterfall + cute fun kid= so so much fun.

Now, my dad (62) hikes this every morning.  He generally takes 20 or so minutes to do it, so I thought we'd take about an hour....Now it's important to know that I had nothing to do that day for hours. So I was letting them pick up every rock, throw stuff in "Tarzan's Bathtub" and climb every rock they wanted on the way up.  Max wanted to walk instead of be carried so we went the speed of a very very small persons leg span.  On the way up I felt like the best mom ever, exercising such patience and enjoying every moment that they gave me----

But I have to laugh now thinking about how that feeling left me on the way back; about the time I realized that we'd been out for 2 hours and that was just getting up the mountain.  On the way down I definitely had a one rock and one stick limit.  And I had a lot of races to entice Max to care about moving faster.  And my insides were just in such a hurry.  So so weird.

I don't know why I cared.  That's just it. Why? I had nothing to do.  They were good and happy.

 So here's my goal by next year. 

I hope to be a round trip patient parent.

Hooray for goals!

But as an ending note--I LOVED doing it, and the kids were so so much fun.  And I love their faces off.  The end.

Easter Sunday

The Simple EASTER of 2014

Saturdays' Easter Egg Hunt.  

Always a good time.

Decorating Easter eggs...

Church was lovely as always.  I love my Savior.

After church our backyard friends were checking out their bees and invited Jess to come and see.  He was kind of giddy as he ran over there.  Plus how cute does he look in his little hat. So cute.

Kade climbing the fence to get over...then Luke..we really should just get a zip line over there.

Rhett and Max with the new bubble gun.

Luke...just Luke :)

After dinner we walked down to the church park to throw the ball around.

(Ahh, see Rhett's stitched lip...)

I'm so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ.  That because He lived a perfect life and was resurrected, I have the chance to live with this family forever!

Itty Bitty Ball Favorite

Rhett's second round of Itty Bitty Ball! He was a pro!  The kids meet once a week for 5 weeks. Each time they learn one sport and do little stations to get the concepts.  My FAVORITE, HANDS DOWN this year was the football day.  Here's why:

This happened each time he was given the ball, and as a mom I felt like I should tell him to turn around and give it to those boys who were chasing him...but didn't cause...well..that's the opposite of the right thing in this case right?  Also I was dying of laughter each time.  HA!

Spy Party for the 8 year old!

April 13, 2014

Luke never has a list of things he wants for his birthday. He's pretty easy going like that, and doesn't really care.  This year was the exception and we were lucky to get a few things on his list that he really would like. 
He wanted Legos, Art Supplies, and Skates.  Boom!

Julie got him the Art Kit. He LOVES it!  We got him some art lessons to go along with it that he got to take with one of his best friends.

Even though it was a rainy afternoon, right after church he was

 outside practicing with his new skates!

Jess bought him a pocket knife at "This is the Point" Monument with his name in the side.  They were whittling a stick and learning the right way to use it :)

He was soooooo excited to go to scouts! And who wouldn't be? It's awesome.

Here he is getting his Bobcat on his first pack meeting with his friend Jo :)

Spy Party 2014

When Luke wrote out his guest list and only had 4 boys on it, I knew we could possibly do something awesome.  And it was....it was.

The boys all met, received SSIA (Secret Service Intelligence Agency)  Vests which were made by the Amazing Julie Winn.  They were told that today they would be training to see if they could become an agent. There would be some stations set up to see if they could cut it.  They first had to decode some very tricky codes.  Then there was the laser station, seen below, that hey needed to complete in a timely manner.  Then a disguise mission where they'd have to change their clothes and complete a very fast paced mission--incognito.

And lastly: Target Practice (thrown onto targets, drawn with sidewalk chalk by Luke.)

Hooray! They all succeeded!  BUT---when they went inside to have graduation donuts--dun dun dun!  They had been stolen. But!  The perpetrator had left clues and supplies for them... (on each note there was also this picture---notice Kade's profile :)  I thought it was pretty rad.)

all the supplies they would need if they were to have a chance at catching him and their donuts.

He left this bowl on the table where the donuts had been....they tried to use their magnifying glasses first on this--with no success. So they next put on their gloves and dug in to find laminated clues (it was cornstarch and green water)
"Today is a wonderful day
For I am going away
Not to the circus, not to the pool
Can't you guess I'm going to _______"

It led them to the elementary school where they searched and found some bombs (black balloons filled with confetti and clues) that they needed to detonate in a safe area (using their pins). Their clues:

'Volcano', 'Xylophone', 'Beehive', 'T-Rex', 

 That led them to DISCOVERY PARK.  Such a great park.  Love. It.

They boys were strapped in. I promise. This is after we stopped :)  But they were so fun and listened to mission impossible music--then "What Does the Fox Say?" and shouted each word.  It was awesome.

Here they looked in all those places and found codes they each needed to decode separately.

YOU MUST BE GETTING FAINT FROM GOING ON ALL THESE MARCHES 

NEXT STOP FOR YOU IS LUNCH AT THE GOLDEN ARCHES

They ate, played, then found a clue hidden at McDonalds.

I loved this one.  I printed teeny tiny writing in the center of the page that they all missed at first.   All of the boys wanted to use their magnifying glasses and didn't  So they all stayed in the car and one by one they would come out and read the paper with me using their magnifying glasses.

Teeny tiny writing in the center of the page said,

 YOU ARE SO CLOSE.

YOU’VE DONE QUITE WELL.

ONE LAST STOP:

THE PLACE LUKE DWELLS

(Once there, Kade jumped out of the car as fast as he could and went and hid in the pit in the back yard. Then the kids, equipped with their silly string attacked and he revealed that he was a spy for the SSIA and had to insure that this group could use their skills in the field as well as during testing! Horray! Everyone passed and then we all had amazing Boston Cream Donuts!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE!!!