Memorial Day 2014

We enjoyed spending lots of time with family this Memorial Day. The morning started off with a hair-cut for me and then family pictures in American Fork. I hope we got some good smiles. 

While Kyle helped move Valerie's furniture, the boys and I had fun playing in Alpine. We had a barbecue at my parents' house. After dinner we all went to Alpine Cemetery to visit Anne's grave. We enjoyed listening to my parents remember some of the experiences they had had with Anne. While the adults talked, Noah was climbing around stone walls and benches and he fell down. When we picked him up, he kept crying over and over, "I died! I died!" It was pretty funny to hear him say that in the cemetery. We've never talked to him about death, but I guess he gathered that piggies die when they fall over in Angry Birds, so he must have died when he fell over.

Noah is becoming quite the chatter box these days, spouting out three-word sentences. He loves to repeat everything we say, although when he brings up his own subjects, we still have to listen hard to figure out what he is saying. His favorite way to apologize is to give a kiss on the lips-- so watch out! It is pretty cute to see him pucker up for Jason and his friends kisses when I tell him to say sorry. 

Jason's Preschool Graduation

Jason graduated from preschool. I can't believe he will be starting kindergarten in the fall. Jason attended preschool at Alta High School's preschool, where each preschooler was paired with one high schooler. High school students enrolled in the class got first-hand experience and instruction on early childhood education. The one-on-one pairing was so great. Jason's teacher was also named Jason. Teacher Jason was an enthusiastic, natural teacher. We could tell he really cared about our preschooler. He created a brilliant Angry Birds reward system to help encourage good classroom behavior; it worked wonders. My Jason feels ready for kindergarten. He keeps asking when it will start. 

5/19/14

We went to a Bees baseball game with our friends the Mayers. We went on May 5th, and the theme was Star Wars "Revenge of the Fifth." The kids were so excited to see Star Wars characters everywhere. It will be hard to top next time we go to a baseball game. 

Jason thinks these characters prove that Angry Birds are REAL.

Kyle and Jason had a blast at the Fathers and Sons campout. Jason's definition of a good campout includes roasting marshmallows and eating them. Graham crackers and chocolate are not necessary. Noah will probably join them next year, but this year I kept him home and we watched Bambi and ate popcorn.

Visiting Tanner

My sister Holly had her fifth baby, Tanner. I decided that since it had been six years since I last flew out to visit Holly(when she lived in New York), it was time for me to go out again, this time to Cincinnati. Because I wanted to be of service to Holly, and I wanted to keep costs low, I went by myself. Linda, Brooke, Heather, and Kyle were so nice to step up and take care of my boys while I was gone for the six days. The boys had so much fun--they didn't even miss me.

The timing for my visit was perfect. Holly was still recovering, and her son Hunter had an emergency appendectomy while I was out there. Holly was so grateful to have someone around to keep the house together. I loved seeing their beautiful new house and beautiful new baby.

Hats and Birds

Noah loves to wear hats. He sure looks cute in them.

We hosted our last day of joy school and learned about the letter "A." To go with the letter "A," we had "Angry Birds" themed activities. It was a blast. This game was "pin the beak on the Angry Bird."

And last are some pictures I took when we previewed Thanksgiving Point's new Museum of Natural Curiosity. It was a hit. The boys loved it, although I was not comfortable letting Noah crawl through the play place alone because of how big and hidden-from-view it was, so I contorted my body and crawled with him. 

Easter 2014

What a beautiful Easter weekend we had--perfect for four different egg hunts. Noah acted like he had been hunting for eggs for years because he knew exactly what to do.

My mom hosted an egg hunt at her house along with a graduation party for Uncle Mitch, who graduated from BYU's law school. We had great food and had a lot of fun hanging out.

Here is my mom teaching the grandkids about the real meaning of Easter:

Uncle Matt was nice and played with the kids on the trampoline:

On Sunday we had Kyle's side of the family over to our house for dinner. Grandma Linda brought stuff for another egg hunt. We introduced the Robbins family to cascarones (confetti eggs) that we all made in advance and hid along with the candy eggs. Whoever found a cascarone got to smash it on someone else's head. It was quite fun. Unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures of it. Noah had fun trying to put the confetti on his head. We also tried to incorporate the real meaning of Easter by showing a church video of Christ's resurrection.

Roommate Reunion

My college roommate Rachel came out to Utah, so we old roommates gathered together for some fun with our kids. It was fun for us to finally meet Rachel's twins. We just wish we could do this more often.

Mary got us into the zoo with her pass:

Dinner at my house. Yes, Noah stayed dressed in only his diaper the whole night (his choice).