Monday, May 16, 2016

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!

Monday, April 11, 2016

Davin's 8th Birthday!

My cute Dav man turned 8 this year! He was super excited for his birthday and had a fun day! We all woke up early and the boys got ready for school a little bit early so that Davin could open his presents before school. He was so funny and opened a card first and sat and read it for a full minute. I thought Weston was going to explode with impatience! Haha! Davin loved all his fun gifts! He got a Star Wars pillow case from Grandma Denny and Papa. He got money from his great grandparents. Grandma B and Grandpa Bob gave him several fun craft kits and a new bucket of melty beads. Ian and I gave him a papercraft book and a paper airplane book. We also gave him two new hats (a BB8 one and a Minecraft one). His big present was a white Mip robot! He hadn't really asked for the Mip but I thought it would be really fun if he had one too since Weston already has one and they can connect and laser battle and play together. He was really excited about it, so yay!
That morning was busy while I took Beckett to preschool, then took Talia to dance, then came back near our house to pick up Subway for Davin's birthday lunch (it's his favorite), then went to the school to drop off lunch to Davin, picked up Beckett then picked up Talia. Whew! I swear I drove back and forth under the freeway 8 times! Anyway, Davin had a great day at school. He gave his class Hoho's to celebrate his birthday. When he got home we opened up Mip and the boys played with them most of the afternoon.
Davin had to go to his piano lesson, but then we gathered up and met Auntie Mel and Wilson at Chick Fil A for dinner. Ian and Brad had class that night. We missed them! Chick Fil A was super busy, as always, but the kids had fun playing in the play place and everyone ate their dinner except Talia. I call it a win. :) I got Davin his own shake for his birthday treat. We even got to see the cow! It was a fun night. Ian was home when we got home from dinner, so he got to see Davin before we sent everyone to bed.
This is my friend Cami and her baby Lily. One of the reasons we ate at Chick Fil A that night was because she was having a fundraiser there for a project to donate books to the NICU where Lily stayed for a long time after she was born at 27 weeks. It was nice to get to see her and meet little Lily in person (although she was really tired and not too happy about taking a selfie)!
The next night was a Friday and Davin chose to have a late night with some friends for his "birthday outing" this year. Since we didn't have to pay for an outing I let him have a few more friends than normal on a no party year. He ended up having five friends come over to have cake and watch The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Which, by the way, is a very long movie. They didn't finish the show until after 10, but it was a fun night for Davin. Weston got invited to have a late night with one of his friends and it was kind of nice for Davin to be the star of the evening. :)
He had a pretty awesome birthday and is looking forward to being baptized on May 7th! I love so many things about Davin, but here's the short list...he is low maintenance and can entertain himself, he loves crafts and is really talented!, he is a good friend and has really made some close friends this year. I love his extra expressive eyebrows, his big hugs, his messy hair, his giggle, and his unassuming manner. He is such a kind, helpful kid and I am so blessed to be his mom. Can't believe you're 8 Davin! I love you SO much!