April 2013

Spring Break

I took the kids on a fun walk to Bridal Veil Falls while
Joshua tried a fun mountain biking trail on his bike.  We enjoyed some nice Spring weather
and went to parks, rode our bikes to Utah Lake, and Joshua and Eddie went skiing, too,
when Eddie didn't have to teach.

At Utah Lake

Megan and I took a quick train ride to Thanksgiving Point and back
on a new Front Runner train

Uncle Scott's 40th Birthday - a fun surprise celebration set up by Jen.
The cousins had a fun sleepover after this party - thanks, Steph!

General Conference

On a break during General Conference we went to a park in
Springville to swing and slide and play frisbee - we'll have
to go back in the summer when their new water
splash-and-play river is open - it looks like it will be fun!
We really enjoyed watching General Conference at home - Megan
especially took great notes and we all learned a lot!

Eddie and Joshua enjoyed the Priesthood session
of General Conference in Salt Lake

We enjoyed seeing Zachary's friend's baptism, and joined them
for a small brunch afterwards.  Emma loves her friend who she plays
with every week - the friend is a year older, but they have fun together.

Emma loves her alphabet games on Starfall.com - she's great
at using the mouse now. 
Emma is always wanting to be doing something or be "on the go" - she's so cute and fun, but knows what she wants.  She can't wait to pick up Zachary at school lately, and walks the whole way now.  She loves to see puppies along the way, but not too close!  She loves to help me clean or organize and do whatever I'm doing.  She seems to be growing up so fast, but we all love her!

We had a fun family walk up Rock Canyon

Here's a small cave along the way



Zachary got his Orange Belt in karate

Zachary did a Tiger Test and got his Tiger Patch

Zachary had a fun Primary Missionary Activity

Zachary is a great guy who is a favorite of Emma's at home and is great at 

doing chores and homework.  He is excelling at karate and learning 

amazing things online - we've found some fun educational websites.  He 

has learned all the Articles of Faith and is reviewing them every night as

well as reading long chapter books.  He's a great guy and we love him!

 First Date - Prom

Joshua and his friend are ready to pick up their Prom dates for dinner, then dancing
after they'd already had fun bowling and playing frisbee with their group of 10.
Aren't they GQ?

At Joshua's date's house - how did he get so handsome?!

Joshua and his date going down the Provo Library steps for "Promenade"
where parents and friends were watching Prom dates descend the steps

Joshua and his group came over to play games after Prom

They celebrated Kenzie's 16th birthday at midnight

Joshua got asked to MORP by another friend after Prom weekend ended - it was
kind of funny with 2 dogs in a bin and this note underneath -
all in our house, with the dogs jumping out and running all over:)
She said she'd wanted to say "It would be the cat's meow...", but
didn't know anyone who had cats to use as props.

So this was his response (with no real cats involved:))

Joshua and Eddie enjoyed a hike to Squaw Peak with the Young Men

 This has been a big month for Joshua - he had his first date (Prom), got his driver's license, got a job umpiring for Provo City baseball, starting helping chauffer or go to the store for Mom, started blessing the Sacrament, got his Patriarchal Blessing, etc.  He's such an amazing son, brother, friend, etc.!  I am so proud of him and how wonderful he's turning out!  It's so fun to celebrate this time with him and
enjoy these teenage years:)

Megan went to a fun YW "Spa Party" with a friend and one
of the leaders did Megan's hair really cute

 Megan is such a sweet teenage daughter - fun and feisty, too:)  She is a great help

at home and is getting straight A's at school.  She plays basketball with the Young Women and got to teach a lesson in Young Women on Sunday and loved it.  She is so organized and has a great sense of style.  She is also great at babysitting Zachary and Emma (when she's not in a crazy teasing mood:)).  She's growing up so beautifully inside and out.  She is awesome!

Eddie enjoyed touring the Air Force Academy in Colorado.

Eddie is always serving others and busy with everything, but he's made
some nice time lately for me - we had a fun getaway to a local hotel with a pool
and he set up a romantic candlelight dinner inside.  He's also been giving me flowers,
notes, and even the "A,B,C's" of why he loves me.  He's amazing & I love him!

Our "getaway" hotel - nice pool is behind the windows on the right

March 2013

Blue & Gold Dinner

We had fun at a "Knights of the Round Table" Blue & Gold Dinner
for Zachary's Cub Scouts

This is Zachary earning his Bobcat award

Here's a cake I made for part of the refreshments

Joshua and Eddie went skiing at Alta on a Friday and went on some scary runs

Here they are afterwards by Grandpa's rented Mustang (nice free upgrade)

Zachary's Baptism

Zachary looks great in his new suit from Grandma

Before the baptism service we snapped a few photos

We had a nice brunch afterwards at our house
- we have a nice family photo someone took after the baptism to be given to me later

Here's a partial view of the buffet after we'd eaten some of the muffins,
fruit, small doughnuts, banana bread and deviled eggs

Fun doughnut idea from Pinterest (photo taken after many were eaten)

Fun deviled egg idea from Pinterest (photo taken after some had been eaten)

Joshua's 16th Birthday

Oreo cake cookies made by request for his friend party

Dinner

Dessert

Games

We went to the Brick Oven on Joshua's real birthday

Fun with the staff singing to Joshua

We had the remaining cake cookies and presents at home

Some of Joshua's friends made a candy bar scavenger hunt for his birthday,
and he ended up at our house where the poster was to put the candy bars on

Emma had a lot of fun walking in her mom's flip flops
- she's just growing up so fast!  She even had her first
poop in the potty:)

Here's Eddie on a trip to Florida - he's in a Salvador Dali Museum here

 Prom Invite and Response

Joshua asked a friend to the Prom - he put a card in a ziplock bag in a
tuperware container with water that he froze and then gave Kenzie
- his card says "Now that we've broken the ice..." on the front
and inside it says, "Will you go to Prom with me?"

This is Kenzie's response - a cake pan with what looks like a cake
with chocolate frosting on it - instead it was a block of ice with frosting,
and under it was her response:

"Dear Josh!  It would be the ICE-ing on the cake
to go to Prom with you!  YES!!!!

Granddaddy's 95th Birthday

Kimberly and her sister's-in-law were invited to visit Grandma
Vivi and Granddaddy to celebrate Granddaddy's 95th birthday,
as well as Grandma Vivi's 94th birthday and their 71st anniversary
- all in March! (in San Antonio)  

We had such a great time visiting with Grandma Vivi and Granddaddy!
Uncle Chris planned the whole trip with fun outings and meals, nice
candy and flowers in our hotel rooms, and he made copies of old
home videos of Grandma Vivi and Granddaddy, Mom, etc.  They
still have such great memories and were so fun to talk to.  We asked
Grandma Vivi how she stayed so thin (as we saw in the home videos)
and she said, "By chasing around your grandpa." :)  We also had fun talking
with Aunt Lois and Aunt Pat and Cousin Meredith during our visit - they
had some great stories and poems to share!

Texas Bluebells - too bad Kimberly got bitten by Texas fireants
while photographing the flowers

We had a fun boat ride around the Riverwalk Mall

Some of us made it to a session at the San Antonio Temple - 

it was beautiful - love the stained glass! (waiting for a photo...)

Here are some of us one night out on the town - we all had such
a fun time together, talking until 4 a.m. every night (I've never been
so tired and took a whole day afterwards to catch up on my sleep - but
it was too fun to talk!) We're missing Laura in this picture, but we had
a great time with her for two days at the beginning of our visit - I'm excited
for her to marry Cordell in June!

 Personal Progress Night

1st they worked on Personal Progress

Then they made General Conference Packets

These Cheetos have flyers attached describing how the
girls could do a 10-hour Value Project by watching General
Conference, setting goals, etc, with a saying,
"Don't Cheet Yo-self,  Watch General Conference!"

Easter

We had a fun picnic and Easter Egg hunt with the cousins
in Saratoga Springs on the Saturday before Easter

Easter Sunday cuties:)  We had a wonderful Easter service at Church
and are so grateful for our Savior whose Atonement and Resurrection
we celebrate this day and always.