Trek and more

Jim and I participated on our stake's youth Trek this past week. We were assistant wagon masters. It was amazing!!! Honestly, I don't think it could have gotten much more authentic. From pushing handcarts for over nine straight hours (through mud and rivers, over trees and rocks) - all the while going without food for 14 hours. To shooting muskets, killing live chickens with an axe and cooking them over a fire, to sleeping on the ground under a handcart! The youth and leaders in our stake are absolutely amazing! It was a privilege to take part in trek.

In other news, Emi got her glasses. She's thrilled and since this pic was taken, she has completely covered her glasses case with stickers. The glasses are shiny purple. She only has to wear them at school for distance, but she loves them!


On Friday night, we went to our town's 4th of July concert and fireworks display. We packed a picnic dinner, played ball, play go fish and enjoyed the beautiful fireworks. What a fun night!


James getting his "summer haircut"

Little Boy Week

I took James to the doctor on Friday because he had a rash on his face....well, the doctor wasn't too concerned about the rash, but WAS pretty concerned about his raspy breathing (aka respiratory infection). So, for the next week James has to take antibiotics and wear this mask/nebulizer three times each day. The girls think it's great fun to 'help' James with his 'breathing' time.


James' last day of preschool was 'Super Hero' day!


One of James' best friends is sadly moving to CA. He lovingly gave this riding dump truck to James! We bought a new battery for it and it's as good as new. The kids like that you can drive in both forward and reverse! James is absolutely thrilled with his new toy and loves cruising around the yard and filling/dumping the truck bed with sticks, rocks etc.

In Rewind

I haven't posted in over a month.....life has been crazy. So in rewind, here's a few things that we did in May.


The kids all made wonderful gifts and cards for Mothers day, and Jim made me my favorite ice cream pie. It was great!




Emi and Clara just finished their year of dance classes with two fantastic dance recitals. Clara did tap and Emi did Jazz and Ballet. They both loved it!





We always love attending our town's annual Memorial Day Parade. It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time!

Spring

Salt Lake Trip

Overlooking the SLC temple at Sunset. Isn't this just a beautiful view!?









This is "Al-gator"....a huge stuffed alligator that a blind woman knitted for my Grandpa. (Yes, he does recieve some pretty interesting gifts). "Al-gator" has been well used and loved over the past 10 years, and so my grandparents recently decided to have him re-stuffed! He's as good as new! :)






James and Uncle Brent in one of their many amazingly cool boy toys. James absolutely adores Tag and Talmage and loves staying with Brent and Ang.





In between conference sessions.
Emi's first time attending General Conference. She came with Jim and I to the Saturday morning session. She did really well and had a great experience!

While in SLC we celebrated my birthday! The kids made this cute display out of pom-poms. Look closely, it says "happy birthday mom".

While in SLC we also celebrated Easter. Here are the kids getting ready for their Easter egg hunt. Between the egg hunt with cousins and three adoring sets of grandparents, we probably brought home about 20 pounds of chocolate!

Kiddos

Nothing too exciting is happening around here. No news is good news, right? I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, so I feel obligated to post a few pics of the kiddos!

James has the most amazing sunbeam teacher. Every week she goes above and beyond with her lesson and craft/handouts. James is always so eager to tell us about what he learned in Sunbeams. A couple of weeks ago, James proudly marched out of primary with a cup filled with dirt and seeds. He had learned that Heavenly Father created seeds and grass. Each day he dutifully watered and checked on his seeds.


James was thrilled when grass started to grow, and even more excited when "grass man's" hair grew so long it needed a haircut!


At least a couple times each week, James digs through his closet and pulls out his monkey halloween costume. He wears it around the house pretending to be a monkey, a bear or a puppy. On this day, all of his pretending wore him out, and he climbed into bed all on his own and fell asleep. Super cute!


Clara was one of two kindergartners honored at a town art show last week. She was so excited to receive her certificate and eat punch and cookies at the reception!


I really need to post an "art show" of some of her work. She'd love that!

In rewind

Thankfully there is no longer snow in my front yard! (However, there has been several inches of cold rain this weekend.) This pic is from a couple of weeks ago. Jim and the kids had a great time building a snowman family in our front yard. Every day afterward we'd check the 'status' of our snowman and sing either "once there was a snowman tall, tall, tall" or "in the sun he melted small, small, small."

Emi celebrated her ninth birthday with an ice skating party. The girls had so much fun decorating olympic gold medals, showing off their twirls on the ice and of course eating cupcakes and drinking hot chocolate!