April 2015-Part 2

The kids' Spring Break ended with some daddy time. I headed out to St. George for a girls' weekend with my mom and sisters on Thursday morning. The kids got to play at the neighbor's house most of the day on Thursday, then spent the rest of the weekend with Ian. 

I drove with Mel and Wilson to St. George. The drive goes super fast when you're just chatting with your sister. We had a nice drive. Wilson was so good and slept almost the whole time. He was super adorable and happy when we stopped for lunch at Arby's. :)

When we got to the condo in St. George Mom, Jules and Joy were already there. Unfortunately, Mom and Jules were both feeling under the weather. We mostly just chilled that afternoon. We all did our nails with Jamberry wraps. Joy, Jules, and I made a quick Walmart run for groceries and random stuff we forgot. Then picked up dinner for everyone at Kneaders. That night we couldn't figure out how to get the DVD player working, so we ended up flipping channels and found Twilight New Moon on tv. It's super cheesy but we were all kinda into it. It didn't end until midnight though and we gave up and went to bed at 11. This was probably the funniest moment of the trip. It was a good laugh. Being tired probably made it seem funnier.

Friday we worked on making the LOVE squares for our cousin quilts. It took us all day to finish cutting and sewing the letter squares. We did sneak out that evening for a quick Target and Charming Charlie's run. We picked up Cafe Rio for dinner while we were out. Mom was still not feeling good and stayed at the condo. Luckily the condo was super nice since we spent a lot of our time hanging out there. We watched movies and sewed and ate and talked. All staples of a good girls' weekend.

Later that night Mel was up puking her guts out. Poor thing. None of us slept much that night since Joy and I had been talking all night until Mel was up sick. Dean didn't sleep well the whole trip and was up half the night too. Sigh. It was a rough night.

Saturday was another sewing day. Joy and I worked on piecing together our squares. Joy was a rockstar and finished hers. I got about 1/3 of the way done before heading to bed that night. Lucky for me Mom finished mine up. She's much faster than me. :) I took a break from sewing for bit and went down to the pool with Jules and Dean. It was pretty nice out and the sun felt so good.  I really liked the condo resort. I might have to take my little family there one of these days.

Saturday evening Mel stayed home while the rest of us went to dinner at Cracker Barrel. We took Wilson with us too so Mel could rest. The babies were so good during dinner and we enjoyed out down home cookin. After dinner we went to get snow cones. It was a somewhat ill fated outing that ended with Dean having a massive blowout (again) and having to go back to the condo naked. Poor Jules. It was kind of hard having the babies along for the weekend, but it worked out ok.

Sunday morning we just packed up, tidied, and headed home. It was really so fun to be all together despite sickies and blowouts. I'm so grateful for my mom and sisters. They are my best friends.

Mel and I got home around 2 in the afternoon. The ride home was thankfully uneventful. Mel still wasn't feeling great. That night I had to go to this cub scout meeting that ended up being a complete disaster. Later that night Ian and I woke up to Beckett throwing up. Poor kid. He sure loved his middle of the night bath though! He didn't throw up again, so maybe it was just something he ate. Here he is playing with his puke bowl the next morning.

On Wednesday that week it snowed! The weather went from 73 one day to 39 the next. Gotta love Spring in Utah!

I finally have been volunteering with the PTA this year. I have been helping with a 2nd grade's Take Home Library every Thursday. Well, the PTA asked me to help decorate a couple of the specialty teachers' doors for Teacher Appreciation week. It was actually kind of fun to do the doors. The actual putting up part was annoying, but the creative at home part was fun. The theme was Hollywood. I am pretty proud of how they turned out.

That next Saturday our stake held a Provident Living Fair. It was well organized and had lots of things to do with the kids. I grabbed a couple of my friends kids too while she attended some classes. The kids did some activities inside first. There was coloring, stories, a matching game, and 72 hour kit relay. Then we headed outside to the CERT trailer. We got to watch a demonstration with a K9 dog. Weston even tried on the bite suit!

After that Weston and Talia got a firsthand look at how the backboards from the CERT trailer work. I was surprised that Talia wanted to try it after watching Weston get turned upside down. Although, he was laughing so she must have realized it was safe and fun. Next up was the fire safety trailer. The kids learned how to recognize fire hazards in the home and how to stay low, feel a door and escape through a window in case of a fire. It was a pretty fun and educational morning.

April also was the start of track and field season for Davin. He chose to do track instead of tee ball this year. So far he loves it. It keeps us pretty busy though with two practices a week plus track meets.

April 2015-Part 1

On March 28th our little neighborhood experienced a tragedy that shook us. Our neighbors, the Harding's, lost their cute little two year old boy, Tui. He darted out in front of their car when his mom, Nikki, was pulling out to go to the General Women's meeting broadcast. My friend Tara picked me up to go to the broadcast and I saw all the police cars blocking off the street by the Harding's circle, but I didn't know what had happened. I asked another neighbor who was outside and she told me that one of the Harding kids had been hit but we didn't know which child it was until later that night. We went to the broadcast, but I was really upset and worried. 

About 20 minutes into the broadcast I heard that Tui had died in this accident. My friend, Jeanne and I hopped in her car and headed back to the neighborhood to see if there was anything we could do to help. The circle was still blocked off, but there were a handful of neighbors left outside. It was pretty awful. We felt completely helpless. There was nothing any of us could do. I can never unsee my sweet friend, Nikki, kneeling by her child's body. I am so heartbroken for her and her family.

Once we realized there was nothing to be done at that moment, Jeanne and I headed back to the broadcast. My mind was reeling, but I felt like I should go back. I am so glad that I did. Just after I got back to my seat, President Eyring got up to speak. I was expecting a message about the importance of women in the church/home/families, but instead he spoke about how to bear one another's burdens. It was exactly what I, and our whole community, needed to hear. I was so glad that I was there to hear his talk.

The next few days were kind of a blur as our neighborhood pulled together to shower the Hardings with love and support. We tied BYU blue (Tui's favorite) ribbons all over the neighborhood, wore blue to church, sang hymns at their home, and all pitched in to coordinate the funeral preparations. For playgroup that week we put together a big Easter basket for the kids. Ian made Avengers (also Tui's favorite) magnet decals for the hearse. Another one of our friends/neighbors is a mortician. He took care of Tui. Another friend/neighbor is a photographer and took heartbreakingly beautiful photos of everything. It was such a blessing that our community could do so much to help.

The viewing was on April 1st and the funeral was April 2nd. It felt good to finally be able to hug and cry with Nikki and Kaj at the viewing. The funeral was beautiful. Such wonderful, uplifting talks and a sweet video presentation. The primary kids sang I Am A Child of God. It's so hard to understand why things like this happen, but I am so grateful for my knowledge of the plan of salvation and for temple blessings that promise families can be together forever. The Hardings have been such incredible examples of faith through this whole experience. The feeling of unity and love in our ward and community is like nothing I've ever been a part of. It's been a tender time.

The next weekend was Easter and General Conference. The message of hope in Jesus Christ that we focus on at Easter time felt that much sweeter after Tui's death. We still had fun celebrating the festivities while we participated in Conference and heard lots of great messages from the leaders of the church. Friday night we colored Easter eggs with the kids.

On Saturday, after the morning session, the Bayles' came over for our traditional Easter lunch and egg hunt. It was a beautiful, warm day. The kids had fun finding eggs and playing together. They stayed and played games for a little bit too. It was so great to get together!

Sunday morning the kids woke up and found their Easter baskets. They played with the activities in them and had donuts while we watched Conference. It was a really nice, laid back weekend. That night I made our little family an Easter feast. I decided to go with traditional ham and cheesy potatoes since we had skipped that ham dinner at Christmas. It tasted SO good. My deviled eggs turned out amazing too. Yum.

The week after Easter was the kids' Spring Break. We went swimming together at the Legacy Center on Monday night. Tuesday we went to the children's museum. We also spent time playing at home and with friends. Talia learned how to draw people! She's pretty proud of herself and draws portraits all the time now. :)