And in other news: Dane got his driver's license!!!! Woohooo!
Grammy came to visit for the week and we did all sorts of beading, gathering up gifts for staff and teacher appreciation, cooking, baking, planning Blake's birthday, watching the kids' sporting events; even spent the afternoon at Coronado and watched a fun show at the Lamb Players Theatre. We watched Abby's Dance competition, worked on her missionary stuff, gathered up books to spread at free little libraries in honor of Grandma's birthday! Spent lots of time in the sun, time chatting.... and just had a wonderful few days together. So grateful for my mom and the awesome person she is. We always have a good time and life is just better when she's around.
We celebrated Easter in a simple fashion this year. We met up with Grandma and Grandpa at Rubys in Carlsbad and celebrated Nancy's birthday, opened up golden eggs filled with cash-- pretty exciting for the kids! And just felt grateful to spend a little time with Grandma and Grandpa even if it wasn't the traditional celebration we typically hold. We had the most lovely Easter program at church and a beautiful dinner together and then a walk on the beach. Small Easter baskets and a sweet phone call from Evelyn. We enjoyed General Conference the weekend before. French toast and bacon and coloring and a gorgeous hike through the blooms with all of our friends in between sessions!
VERY fun visits from Henrike-- who drove down with her family from her new home in Utah, and Brandy from Idaho. Man, I loved seeing both of my old friends so much. I hate when people I love move away but it was so wonderful to catch up. It really was. I loved it even though I forgot to get a picture with Henrike and her adorable kiddos.
Spent all sorts of fun moments with friends the past few weeks-- at school plays (High School Musical for Charlie and Shrek for Zara) at Kidchella for Cyrus and Zara's 6th and 9th birthdays, beach walks during the school day and Pickleball and luncheons squeezed in during free moments.
Oh! Forgot to mention April fools day! I really pulled off another great day of pranks if I do say so myself. I will say, the low point of the day happened when my phone fell off the counter and broke. I assumed the kids or Blake had pulled an excellent prank on me claiming my phone was broken and indeed, it did very much look broken to me. I was thrilled they had caught the pranking bug. But alas, it was no prank. My phone actually fell off the counter and broke and that was SUCH A BUMMER. Ha!
But I loved sprinkling the counter with little ducks and baby aliens, hanging up strange and creepy photos on their bathroom mirrors. Loved sending Evelyn a random scary photo of pennywise in the mail to open on April fools. She thought she could escape- ha! I exchanged a jar of mayo for vanilla pudding and starting having a few spoonfuls of it in front of the kids' friends to their disgust. SO good. Put rocks in the kids shoes, frozen water in the Ben and Jerry's ice cream carton! And a scary mask at the end of the evening- got everyone pretty good on that one. I just stood in certain corners of the house peeking at people as they fell asleep and they'd look over and get completely freaked out. HA!
Spring break was an incredible time. We flew down to Cancun and enjoyed a few days at the Xcareat- a beautiful resort with so much food, so many beautiful pools, shows, beaches, and an adventure park right next door~! We LOVED zip lining, four wheeling, hammock swings, cave river swims, natural water slides and gorgeous hikes. Monkeys all over in the trees above our heads! a day trip to Playa Del Carmen to shop and jump the waves! The kids (except for Dane) had never been to Mexico so they truly had a blast and it was very fun to be together as a family. Grateful to Blake for planning it all and working out each little detail. He is the best!
Now for a little update on the kids: No surprises here.... Anna spent the month mostly with friends! Spending the night, catching toads, working on math homework and then celebrating by going out to frozen yogurt! Playing volleyball with her Aztec team, making Pina coladas and açaí bowls, attending friends' birthday parties, singing in the choir, creating to-do lists, dancing ALL the time, celebrating her birthday in NUMEROUS ways, sharing a birthday cake with Emma since the two have such close birthdays, and adoring her best little friend Sophie- who came to our house on Anna's birthday with a donut cake to give her a hug and wish her a happy day. Anna had four teeth pulled so that she could enter phase two of her braces... she handled it like a champ. Anna is just the best little girl there is.
Grant spent the first half of his spring break working for Coach Conner as his assistant throughout soccer camps! He earned $100 doing this and was a really hard worker and a great helper. He started Invisalign this month and has truly been so very responsible with this. He is a disciplined kid- I tell you. He is always wearing his retainers and keeping great track of them. I absolutely did NOT want him to do Invisalign and preferred normal braces by a million percent because of what I went through with Dane... but so far, Grant has been on top of things and I'm proud of him. Grant had a blast at youth conference this month with all of his buddies and of course all the cute girls. Grant at age 13 is very into girls but not in a bad way... in a sweet way. He is loyal and enjoys liking just one girl at a time. He knows he can't date them or couple off, so he just proclaims he has a crush on them.... and of course the girls are mostly thrilled because Grant is a pretty cool kid. This month a girl "friend" brought over his favorite cookies- snickerdoodles... which gave us all a great opportunity to tease him a little. Grant spends a ton of time with his buddies at our house, football games, out to the movies, making pizzas, swimming, watching games. He loves his group of 7th and 8th grade buddies.
Dane had a big month with State Cup finals and soccer try outs! He made his team again which was a THRILL for all of us! We love his coach- Coach Conner and so we just couldn't be happier. Dane buzzed his hair off which has been a great thing because he spends less time worrying about it. Gosh that makes me happy. As stated above, Dane put a lot of hard work and effort into practicing his driving skills. After not passing two times, we hired a driving instructor who was more of a drill sergeant (Johnny). Johnny spent HOURS with Dane and really whipped him into shape! He took the test and passed with flying colors. Now he can be found driving all over town-- to practices, to friends houses, out to eat. He spends time with all sorts of friends and girl friends! He even brought his soccer buddies to the church youth conference swing dance! They all had a great time. Dane is having a hard time in Chemistry right now and that's been a bit of a stressor. Ryan Jorgenson has been tutoring him, but it's hard. There's no way around this. His teacher last semester had a medical emergency 1/2 way through the trimester so he didn't really learn the basics he needed to for Chem 2. Now he has a teacher who is not thorough and gosh, I can't help the poor kid! So it's been a struggle but we'll pray he makes it through with a B????? We bribed, pleaded and begged Dane to ask a girl (ahem... EMMA) to mormon prom, but alas, it was not to be. He just didn't have it in him this year with the buzz cut and the chem homework and all the other balls he's juggling. That's ok... he's a pretty darn good kid and we love him whether he goes to mo-pro or not!
And just a quick little update on Evelyn. She enjoyed a Sabrina Carpenter concert with her friend Zoe this month- such a fun night for her! Performed in a vocal recital and nailed it! Spent the weekend with Jamie and Katie and Noah and attended a fun BYU dance competition, shopped and hung out which was quite fun for her. She took a trip to Idaho to visit Eli and kind of? enjoyed meeting his extended family. Not all of them were happy to see her as he is preparing to leave on his mission and they probably did not want to deal with a girlfriend and the potential threat of all that. But she loved seeing Lily and spending time with Eli. As I start to receive graduation announcements (like Amayas!) I think about how Evelyn is really just a senior in highschool!!!! She has grown so incredibly much this year away from home. She is so independent. All signed up for UVU and nannying to earn extra money. Proud of her and grateful to be her mom.
A busy, full and exciting month. Can't imagine time moving any more quickly than it is. My job is to try to slow down and enjoy every moment. I'm pretty grateful for it all.
