1st Day of Summer

Summer started with a jam-packed day today. We left fairly early for Salt Lake to go to This is the Place Heritage Park. Lisa and I bought season passes in August last year so we were excited to use them again and feel like we were going for free. Our kids love this place, especially in the Spring when they have all the baby animals. They had chicks, lambs, kids, one calf, and piglets as far as baby animals went. Julia and Emma loved their pony rides, Andrew loved half of his pony ride. He started feeling like he was slipping and freaked out. But that is improvement on last year when he wouldn't even sit on the pony:) They also have a little village of kids playhouses that our kids could play in for hours. I think they actually did play in them for hours. It was a fun day and a great start to our summer!

Last day of School

Even though Emma has been out of school for a couple of weeks, yesterday was Julia's last day of school. She was so excited for the swim party, and just to be done with school, since she thinks she gets to play all day everyday:) We went to our neighborhood last night of school party last night, and then Julia had two of her cousins sleep over. Julia made a paper mache pinata in Spanish class at school and we saved it for the last night of school. We let Andrew and Emma have a turn to hit it. Then Chloe took a whack and knocked most of the contents out. Julia helped get the rest of the goods out and then, poor Max, only got to try to knock the rest of the pinata off of the rope, which he did with no problem.

The Gardens at Thanksgiving Point

We spent an extended family night at the Gardens last Monday night at Thanksgiving Point. A lot of their tulips were still out and looking beautiful. The kids had a great time running around and exploring with their cousins. The weather was perfect. The only bad part of the night were the mosquitos, and I was the only one that seemed bothered by them at all. I must have tasty blood.

I love the picture of Andrew rolling down the hill.

Julia's 1st Grade Program

Last night was Julia's Program. Each class did a different nursery rhyme with a twist. Julia's class did the Little Ren Hen. Julia was a frog. I'm sure you are saying, "Is there a frog in the Little Ren Hen?" One of the twists was that the Little Ren Hen's friends were too busy chasing frogs, teasing turtles, sneaking up on lizards, and catching butterflies to help her plant the wheat, wead it, harvest it, and make the bread. Julia along with a few others got to introduce their class's part:

"This is the story of the Little Ren Hen,
She finds some wheat is how the story begins.
Her friends are too busy so you will see,
She's a hard working hen and as happy as can be!"



Julia is in the green shirt. Not great pictures, I know:)

Their class was last so they ended the program on stage with a little cheer about how great first grade was!

"We are the first graders. We are the best! No matter what, we pass the test! We can read and we can write. Stand up, sit down, fight fight fight! Goooooo first graders!"



I can't believe Julia is almost done with first grade. This has been a really great year for her. She has loved her teacher! She had lots of good friends in her class and met some new ones. She also learned a lot. Overall, first grade was a great experience for our sweet Julia! I hope second grade will be just as great!

The Farm

A friend of Eldon's from the credit union invited us up to her farm to see her animals. She had a cow, four baby calves, about eight horses, six colts, and some chickens. The kids had a great time and they only stepped in a few fresh cowpies:)

April - Girl's Retreat

A couple of weeks ago I went with some friends down to St. George for a girls retreat. We had such a great time! We stayed in a nice condo owned by Annalyse's boss. We ate good food, went on a hike, did a little shopping, layed out by the pool to get some sun, and saw a movie. It was great to get away and get rejuvenated, but just as great to come home to my sweet family.

April - Dino Museum

We went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point over spring break with Lisa and Jeanna and kids. All the kids had a great time, especially playing in the sand.

Blogging

I figured out how to add text with my slide shows. See, I'm improving already:) Thanks, Jon, for helping me create this new blog!

April - Our visit with the Hatches

My friend, Tara Seely Hatch, came to visit with her girls, Alyssa and Natalie. Tara and I cheered together at Ricks College a long time ago and have remained friends ever since. She now lives in Washington so we rarely see each other, but when we do get together it's just like old times. We loved our visit with the Hatches and hope we can see them again soon!

March - Emma's Birthday

Our Princess Emma turned 4 just a couple of days after Easter. She opened her new princess dress from G&G Tuckett Easter Sunday because Grandma couldn't come to her family party Tuesday night. After trying on the dress we got the show of our lives. Emma danced the rest of the night and wouldn't let me take the dress off of her to go home. (Then she ripped it going up the steps) She put it on again the next day and wore it most of the day. She even took her nap in it. She also had to have it on again for her party Tuesday night. She is such a performer and she loves an audience, especially one that claps a lot! What would we do without our sweet Emma. Her smile brightens up any room. She is our little bit of sunshine!

March - Easter Fun

We had a big Easter Egg Hunt and Pam and Gary's house Saturday afternoon. This was Andrew's first egg hunt ever. He caught on quickly and found all seven of his eggs before Julia found hers. He and Emma even reached into the prickly bushes to get more eggs.

Sunday we had another egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa Tuckett's house, but Andrew wasn't able to come because he had puked in Sacrament Meeting that morning. Emma, Julia, Josie, and Chloe had fun with all the eggs to theirselves.

February - Julia's Impromptu Birthday Party

We decided Julia wasn't going to have a birthday party this year because we had a DVD player installed in the van for the kids' birthdays and didn't feel like we wanted to spend the extra money involved in having a friend birthday party. But the day of Julia's birthday she had 4 friends happen to come over to play. They had a great time playing play dough. While they did that I made cupcakes and thought it would be fun for them to decorate the cupcakes. We even lit a candle and sang happy birthday to Julia. That is why we call it her impromptu birthday party. I'm sure glad she had so much fun that night, because the next day she woke up with a fever. She was sick with the flu for about 5 days and wasn't able to celebrate her birthday with her cousins on Sunday like we had planned. It was kind of a bummer birthday after that, but her friends made it great on her actual birthday. We are thankful that she has such great friends. She is such a good girl and growing up so quickly. We love our sweet princess Julia! Happy 7th!

January - Andrew's Birthday

I can't believe our sweet little boy is already 2. He is growing up so quickly. He loves Elmo, mostly playing Elmo on the computer. He also loves shooting hoops. I don't know why it is but boys seem to be born with the knack of knowing how to best tease a person. Hence, Andrew's third favorite thing to do is tease everyone in the family. He teases Emma and Julia, but he also loves to tease his daddy by stealing his spot on the couch and grabbing the remote. Then he turns around with a sly little smile on his lips to see his dad's reaction. What a tease, but we love him anyway! Happy 2nd Birthday Big Boy!