Mother's Day 2014

The kids and Dave were wonderful and made Mother's Day extra special this year.  Carson and Emma had been working hard at school and all morning, preparing nice things for me.

If you can't tell, the papers spell Happy Mother's Day. He did it all on his own!

Emma had a "mother bouquet" she made at school and a beautiful card for me.

Joely gave lots of hugs, kisses, and smiles.

She was going in for a kiss on the cheek and couldn't stop laughing.

Dave made awesome Chinese food for dinner (it really was amazing) and it was an all-around wonderful day.  I love being a mom to these three crazy kiddos!

Sod!

 We spent a fun Saturday evening with Sjani and Ryan's family.  Sjani and I watched the kids while Dave and Ryan spread a dump truck-load of compost evenly all over the dirt in the yard.  And then we were ready for the final stage of landscaping...SOD!!

I love sod.  I love the instant gratification of seeing beautiful green being unrolled and changing the whole look of the house.  I also love that laying sod isn't too hard.  It was the one stage of landscaping that I was able to jump in and help with the whole time.  

Dave left work early on Friday and got home just in time to see the sod delivered.  The sod guy was super friendly.  He was in the middle of telling a story when he said, "No way!  You're LDS? I'm LDS too!"  I was confused by how he knew until I realized I was wearing an old BYU t-shirt.  Then we had an even better conversation while he gave us a few tips and got the sod unloaded.  Dave got to work while I picked the kiddos up from the bus and then we just worked away.  Our good neighbor Dan came and helped for awhile, which made a huge difference.  We also had to take a break to attend the kids' end-of-year outdoor concert, grabbed some pizza from Dominoes (thank goodness they have a pizza place in our little town...) and then we were finishing up.  The final result is beautiful!

The first little bit of green...

It did seem like the pallets of sod were never-ending.

Beautiful, glorious, green sod

All the way around, with the sprinklers going.  A job well done!

And we determined to take a break from anything yard-related at this point.  Time to focus elsewhere.

Dave is amazing.  He did 90% of this yard from start to finish all on his own.  He has great plumbing skills, as evidenced by the fact that the sprinklers work.  He just kept going late into the night, even when he'd already spent 12 hours at work and 2 hours commuting earlier in the day. There were several nights when he would be out working until midnight, sometimes with me holding a flashlight while he soldered pipes together.  I think the neighbors all thought he was crazy, and he definitely gained a reputation as a hard worker.  Simply put, he is amazing!

Emma's Lost Tooth #3

After quite a bit of time without losing any teeth, Emma finally lost her first top tooth.  She looked so cute with her big gap front and center.

And luckily the Tooth Fairy showed up, even if she was (as always) a day or two late!

Sprinklers

We got the gravel portion of our landscaping done extremely fast thanks to the help of friends and neighbors.  The next big step was to install the sprinkler system.  Luckily we decided to fork over the money and rent a trencher...Dave did a chunk of the trenching by hand and it just wasn't worth continuing that way.  This was a doozy of a project, but Dave was a superhero and got it done!

At least the kids got lots of outside time while yard work was being done!

He even smiled and posed for the picture.  What a guy!

It just keeps going and going...

The best sight of all was when Dave turned the sprinklers on and they actually worked!  Hallelujah!

Emma's Soccer Season

Emma had a great soccer season full of fun practices, great games, and good friends.  Gentry, one of Emma's best friends from school, was on Emma's team, and her dad, Mario, was their coach. Joely became good friends with Gentry's little sister, Emmy, who was at all the practices and games.  Carson brought a soccer ball and played with anyone he could find who was willing to play.  So all in all, we had a great soccer season with Emma.

It's so nice to live close enough that Grandpa and Grandma can come see a game!

Team Huddle with Coach Mario

Look at the power in her kick!

Awesome Throw-In

Emmy and Joely were fast friends.

Taking charge of the ball.

Mid-game smile

She's got her game-face on.

I think the kids all liked high-fiving each other as much as playing the game.

Celebrating with her teammates.

Our soccer girl.

Gentry and Emma are good buddies.

The Broncos --Teagan, Henry, Ryan, Emma, Coach Mario Cassias, Oscar, Joseph, Gentry, and Jaziah

Family Pictures 2014

We have a giant empty wall in our living room, and I knew that I wanted a big canvas picture of our family to go over the piano.  I bought a canvas deal and had to use it by the end of April; as April came to a close, I got desperate to have family pictures taken.  Uncle Riley, Aunt Kacie, and Grandma were kind enough to meet us at Chapungu Sculpture Park by Centerra to take our pictures.

My good friend Katie is a professional photographer, and she saved the day by offering to edit the pictures for me.  I think between Riley's skill as a photographer and Katie's skill editing, our pictures turned out great!  A huge thank you to Riley and Katie, Grandma and Kacie!!

Easter

We started our Easter festivities by hosting our co-op preschool and having an Easter theme.  The kids sorted Easter eggs by color, made bunny faces out of marshmallows, and created their own bunny snack.  Emma and Joely showed theirs off for the camera before devouring them.  (Emma got to be at preschool because she had afternoon kindergarten.)

The bunnies were made out of mini powdered donuts, jelly beans, sprinkles, and paper ears that I made ahead of time.  Pretty cute!

At kindergarten,  Emma made bunny ears she hopped around the house with.

Our ward held an Easter party on Saturday, complete with an Easter Egg hunt.  Our neighbors and friends Kolby, Justin and their mom Lisa came.  We had a great time eating lunch, listening to the primary kids sing, and then hunting for those eggs.  Joely even won the coloring contest for her age group and got a giant purple bunny!

Happily hunting for eggs.

Showing off their prizes.

We took Easter Sunday pictures before we left for church, while they still looked good!

Easter dresses (at least one is a repeat from last year, but it still fits!)

Aw, my handsome man!

We went straight to Grandpa and Grandma McClure's house after church for Easter dinner.  We did our family Easter Egg hunt there.

Getting ready to go out for the hunt.

She found the Peeps!

All Finished!