Well... if you can believe it, I forgot to pull together a single prank for April Fool's day yesterday. I can only blame it on the myriad of wonderful events and activities and travels that filled the month of March so full that I simply forgot about my favorite holiday! I mean....once I remembered, I did pull a few small jokes on the fam, but just not prepared at all this year.... ha!
March! Certainly not my favorite month typically, but we had a really great few weeks this year round. Highlights included: EASTER a little early. It was just a really wonderful celebration this year. Not sure if that's because Blake is Bishop and I'm so invested in our ward and youth programs? Or if my heart is just turned more to the Savior in general, but either way- it was a beautiful week of reflecting on the Savior and celebrating His resurrection and atonement for our sins. Melanie, Elizabeth and I arranged the flowers for the Easter services and that was special- we decided on palms mostly and we loved how it looked. I helped all month with the music for the Easter program and it helped me so much to hear and reflect on all of the beautiful Easter music and pieces that were performed by ward members who I love so much. Loved that Anna joined the choir and is finally more into singing lately. She's a beautiful singer! We put together an Easter treat and distributed the new Youth magazine to all the youth in the ward after Easter and it was so fun to invite them to monthly Bishop's devotionals to discuss for the strength of youth. They were all very excited that the dress code would be "comfy clothes." Loved how everyone looked so sharp in their Easter outfits! After church we had dinner with the Henrys and Miners and it was lovely. We put together an Easter devotional and read scriptures about that last week of the Savior's earthly life and played games. It was just overall a very special day!
Another highlight of the month was our trip to St. George with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Stacy. We enjoyed the beautiful weather, yummy meals out, movies, gorgeous hikes in the red woods, a scavenger hunt : dash for cash- created by Grandma. It was a pretty big bummer this time around that the boys were not able to come with us! They were worried about missing their games and school and such. But it was special to have one on one time with Anna (and Coco)! And we love any time we are able to spend with the family. And the good news is that Grant and Dane survived being home alone! I was pretty proud of them for holding down the fort and making it to all of their practices, games and school events without parents in the picture. They even took excellent care of Louie. That was a first for us to leave the kids without a babysitter!
More highlights: Anna's week off from school for 6th grade camp! I guess that's a wrap... none of my children were too keen on the idea of 6th grade camp so Grandma has always been there to help us celebrate the week in other ways! And Anna's go around was nothing short of an incredible celebration/vacation! Anna and her three friends went up to Grandma's house for a few days and had the best time ever hot tubbing, getting pedicures, trying out the lip lab where they created their own lip gloss- down to the scent, hue, name, and texture! The girls shopped around the spectrum and then had a wonderful morning at the temple with Grandma-- this was Anna's first time! Throughout the week other moms also took turns-- the girls went to Disneyland, an escape room! Had volleyball lessons and voice lessons and worked on music together. It was such a special week for them and they loved it all so much. They didn't miss 6th grade camp for one second!
We traveled to Vegas for a double soccer tournament in which both boys played 3-4 games each! And had a really really fun time together. This time, Anna decided to stay home. Reha came and watched her for the weekend and the two had a blast together, learning art, shopping, watching movies and laughing. Grateful to have Reha around even when Evelyn is off in Utah. She is practically part of the family and we all adore her. In Vegas both the boys played amazingly. So proud of them and they had an awesome time with their teams- wondering through the Vegas strip, dinner at Dave and Busters, hot tubs and team meals. Ev met us in Vegas and she and I went to the Carrie Underwood concert. We had such a wonderful time- such a great concert and it was fun to spend that time with Evelyn. Dane had a game Sunday afternoon so we had to endure the Sunday evening traffic home, but it was worth all the hassle because it was such a great time with our boys. Loved spending time with them.
Last big highlight to address is ALL the hiking I've been doing lately! Each week- once or twice I've managed to hike great distances with steep elevations and awesome friends in an effort to train for the Grand Canyon's Rim to Rim! I'm seriously so excited. I started off pretty out of shape and I'm still the slowest one, but this has been so incredible to train and work towards a goal of this nature. For these training hikes, we leave our house at 6am to hike up 12-15 miles! The rim to rim is 24 miles in one day so we still have a ways to go- but it's been such a joy to see the beauty of San Diego in the springtime and devote this time to being out in nature and strengthening myself. I've loved every minute.
Keeping the boys busy this month aside from soccer tournaments... for Grant-- he's started surfing again with Kai and that's been really fun. He devotes so much time to waking early and working out in the garage and then training with coaches outside of his usual 3 practices a week. He is a determined kid! He is disciplined! He is also cranky! Haha... no, he's a great kid, but definitely we can get into it at times because he is a little on the cranky side. But I am so proud of him for working so hard at school and in life. He is just very motivated and it's such a nice change of pace from other children in my care. Ha! This month Grant had a blast at Disneyland with the student leadership of Twin Peaks, he spent many a weekends at friends' houses, flag football games, church dances; we even hosted a party for some of his high school friends at our house and he fit right in... an 8th grader there with 75 high school sophomores. Too funny! He is one in a million and SO excited for high school himself. Dane's friend Kenzie helped him register for all his classes and he was just beaming ear to ear. Growing up WAY TOO FAST.
Now speaking of Dane's friend Kenzie.... it's been so cute to watch Dane grow closer to this cute gal! He is so happy and care free and we absolutely adore having her around. She is just adorable. Everyone is a fan. Anna, Grant, Blake, me. She brings out the best in him and it's about time he had a romantic interest! I mean, that was literally all that mattered to me in high school! But Dane is doing very well... grades good, soccer good, mood pretty good, helpfulness good. I really like him. He makes me laugh and smile and he is just a great person. I would probably like him a little more if he got a job. A source of conflict in our home at the moment.
Ev has been in Utah all month working on school... she really is doing SO good in her classes and she enjoys them and is happy in nursing school which makes me happy. She has sent me pictures of her knitting projects and her artwork and her darling curly hair and church outfits. She spends time with Emma- creating jewelry and doing all sorts of other things. I still worry about her pretty much all the time but I'm not going to go into that right now. I just wish she understood how great she is... that's all I'm going to say on that.
Anna I could write a novel about each and every month. She is so full of energy and ideas and has been so much happier since quitting dance. It's really been a good decision though I hate that she is not utilizing her talent. Overall, she's happier and spends a lot of that time being creative. This month she bagged the whole nail business and started making jelly soaps- an idea she discovered whilst shopping at Lush with Grandma. She has brought all of her friends into the equation and they sell door to door on a regular basis. And let's not forget--- most of her proceeds have been invested back into the business in the form of molds, scents and other various tools that are needed to create these jelly soaps. Anna continues to love Young Women and just is beyond excited every week to participate in the activities. Last week the girls did a fashion show out of tissue paper and, well.... it was Anna's best day ever. She loved walking down the cat walk and modeling her adorable tissue outfit for the group. She is a riot. Anna enjoyed the school dance- neon themed- this month. Loved the outfits the girls matched. She enjoyed movies with friends, playing out in the rain, Friday afternoons with friends, cheering on the flag football team, watching the Bachelor (I only allowed this because this season's bachelor was so amazingly appropriate), organizing my bathroom for money, taking care of Coco, creating her own Easter lesson with Kate for an FHE, and participating in an actual legit photo shoot for "Beachin' Drinks" with her buddies. Really a fun experience for her- although she rued the fact that she was the smallest and therefore did not necessarily look like a teenager.
One last Anna story: our girl was invited to a birthday party for a much younger gal who occasionally attends our church but who really loves Anna. She did not really want to attend and knew she'd be the odd one out as everyone else invited was a 4th grader from the same school/class. But she came anyway to be supportive and once there- at Get Air, realized that there were all sorts of "cool" people she knew from all school and elsewhere. She was embarrassed and didn't want to jump or join in at a 4th graders party! After all.... she's a 6th grader! And on top of that, she didn't even really know these kids well or feel a part of the group. So she sulked a little and followed me around (I was there to help support the birthday girl's mom). After 10 minutes of this, we discussed the choice she had to make: sulk around and make zero memories for the next two hours and also most likely hurt birthday girl's feelings.... OR join in and have fun and make birthday girl feel loved and special instead of worrying about herself. We talked about a few teenagers she admired and what would they do in this instance. Then she took some space to think. Before I knew it, Anna was engaged and having the best time. I was really so proud of her. I knew it was asking a lot but she is a special kind of person who is able to do hard things like that. Love that girl!
So it's been a full month. Life is not perfect because it's not meant to be. But I am so incredibly grateful for ALL of the beautiful moments I get to experience and this month has had plenty of them.
