Spring Break 2016

Spring break this year was seriously the best. We were all ready for a break! I was feeling kind of bad that I didn't have anything fun planned, but we ended up with a perfect balance of outings and hanging at home/with friends. We mostly did free outings, but things that we don't do often. 

On Monday afternoon we went down to Provo for a BYU baseball game that our pass of all passes got us into for free. It was the most crowded I have ever seen a baseball game, but we had a blast. The weather was perfect. The kids weren't suuper into the game, but we got snacks and watched Cosmo and even managed to get a little face time with Cosmo on our way out. We lasted until the 7th inning before everyone was ready to leave.

Tuesday after lunch we headed up to the Tracy Aviary. It's included on our Pass of all Passes too for $1. Can't beat that! I love the aviary! There are so many fun things to do and lots of animals to see, but it's small enough to do the whole thing in a couple of hours. Again, we had great weather! After we finished up at the Aviary everyone was still being good and wanted to play at Liberty Park for a little while. I let the kids run around and play. I ran into a friend and got to visit with her for a bit before we left and got Slurpees on our way home. It was a good day.

Wednesday was a stay home day. I watched my neighbor's kids all morning while also shuttling Weston around the neighborhood while he cleaned out people's cars as a little business! He had so much fun advertising and working hard and earning money. That started over Conference weekend when I had him help me clean out the van while the seats were out. He liked vacuuming and cleaning the windows. I told him that lots of people would pay him to do that for them. I put out a little ad on our neighborhood Facebook page and he ended up doing about 15 vehicles during spring break. Davin spent some time working on his crafting projects he got for his birthday. He did a couple of clay kits. I love how much he loves creating!

Thursday we needed an outing, so after lunch we headed down to Orem and tried out a new play called The Bounce House. I had gotten admissions on Groupon for pretty cheap. It was awesome! The place was practically empty, it was clean and my kids could do almost all of it by themselves! We all just had SO much fun! I texted Mel that she should come over and meet up with us there and let Wilson play, so she came too. The big cousins were so helpful following Wilson around and helping him play. I'm so glad we splurged a little on that outing. It was a blast! I went back and bought more Groupons to go back during the summer. :)

Friday was another home/clean cars day. The kids had fun playing with friends and watching movies and having some good down time. I was so grateful that we had a break and the week went SO well. I couldn't have asked for better behavior from the kids. It gave me real hope that we will be able to get out and play this summer! It helped too that Beckett only naps every other day. Some days we stayed home and he napped and other days we could go on outings after lunch and he was fine. Hooray for playing and resting from the daily grind!

April 2016

April was a very fun month for us! I got to volunteer in Davin's classroom for his "market day" where the kids got to spend the money they had been earning for good behavior. It was really cute to watch them try to make decisions. Davin ended up winning an auction for a deck of Pokemon cards and also buying a few smaller things. He was happy and I had fun helping out.

We started the month off with a nice General Conference weekend! We curled up and watched conference, played Conference Bingo, and enjoyed being outside in the nice weather. I even broke down and put together Beckett's new water table. He was SO excited! General Conference weekend was also the start of the kids' spring break. I'll do a separate post about all our spring break fun!

Davin got a mole on his hand removed at the dermatologist's office. It kept getting bigger and darker. He was really nervous about it and cried when they did the numbing shots, but he was champ. And now he just has a little round scar on his hand.

Now a bit about Miss Talia. She worked really hard practicing on the strider bike and her big girl bike and can now ride a two wheeler! Ian promised to take her out for a slurpee or ice cream when she learned. She was SO proud of herself and loves riding her bike any time she can. This Talia girl is a piece of work and regularly throws fits, pushes for more, and generally tries our patience. I am getting better at dealing with her emotional anger about practically everything. She can be super sweet and loves to feel special and sometimes do girly things with me like play barbies in her doll house or play with my Samantha doll. I keep praying that her strong personality and stubbornness will be a strength for her as she grows up. It's quite the challenge so far. We sure love our girl though!

I did some spring cleaning, including completely clearing off the desk. I also went through toys in the basement and got rid of a bunch of baby toys and things no one plays with anymore. It was kind of the end of an era as I got rid of the ride on and the see and say. It was time though. I passed a few of the toys on to Dean and Wilson, sold a few and have a few left to donate to DI. I still have lots of cleaning to do. I'll get there eventually.

We spend a lot of our days being busy heading to preschool, soccer, and scouts. I love that Talia is such a fun girl and obedient at preschool. This is her cute class making silly apple smiles. Weston has an good group of boys in his Weblos den and the best Weblos leaders. He earns awards at pack meeting almost every month! Weston is also well into his spring soccer season. He loves playing with his best buddy Grant. Grant's dad coaches their team and Ian is the unofficial assistant coach.

I got to have a little extra one on one time with Davin this month. We attended some of his friends' baptisms. They are all in our stake but they were in two separate sessions, so we went to one at 9am and the other at 11am. In between we got a snack at the new donut shop by our house. They had BYU Creamery Cookies and Cream milk! Yum. I also took Davin shopping for a new suit for his baptism. We had a hard time finding small enough pants for my slim little man, but eventually got some size 6 pants at Kohl's that had an adjustable waist we could cinch in. :) Davin and I got to enjoy a dinner date at Spaghetti Factory using Dav's free birthday meal too. He's such a sweet kid and is so incredibly patient with me as his crazy mom.

The Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point started in April and I took Talia and Beckett over on a Friday morning. It was the first week of the festival and we went first thing on Friday so it wasn't too crowded but they still had all the fun weekend activities out. The kids fed the fish, played on the bounce houses, we saw the beautiful flowers and then stopped for a fresh, warm Danish stroopwafel on our way out. It was a really fun morning with my littles!

I got to go to Autumn's (one of my young women from Kearns) missionary farewell in our old ward. It felt weird to be back there with so many of the same faces, but it was nice to catch up with old friends too. Autumn gave a wonderful talk. She inspires me so much with her backstory and her faith. She is going to have some amazing experiences as a missionary serving in her birth country. She will be in the first group of missionaries opening up the Hanoi, Vietnam mission.

We had some really chilly days in April. I decided to make a yummy ham and potato soup one day and it was absolutely delicious! I already want to make it again! Talia loves the Lehi Roller Mills blueberry muffins, so she helped me make them one morning. Her favorite part is the sugar topping. After the muffins were in the oven she and Beckett wanted to just stay up on the counter and eat their lunch. They thought it was the coolest ever.

We also got some nice, warm and sunny days mixed into the month, so we spent time outside playing on the swing set and in the water table. Beckett learned how to pump his legs and is completely independent on the swing set! It's going to be the best summer ever! He still doesn't like to go outside alone though.

The game Go Fish had a resurgence at our house for a couple of weeks. Talia and Beckett wanted to play non-stop. It was mostly fun, but sometimes annoying. :) Everyone got the hang of the game, but for some reason Talia and Beckett couldn't play it together without a mediator. We had our quiet moments at home, but it was a pretty busy month!