Embracing Spring in April 2022

 Red Butte Gardens

1st Grade Field Trip with Marshal

Marshal's class had a field trip to Red Butte Garden and I had always wanted to go there so I was excited to volunteer to go with the class! 

I loved that we were able to have our cute little neighbor Laura in our group.

If only I could have done a better job at keeping up with Marshal and Victoria.

Easter Fun

We enjoyed a small Easter Egg hunt at the house, a hunt with the neighbors at Benedict's house and Pinterest Style pancakes for breakfast. It was a good Easter Saturday!

On Sunday we got together with the Kunz family to have an Easter activity. Cheryl and I came up with an Easter Scavenger Hunt from the internet and had fun seeing what everyone came up with!

House with a Flag

Start of Soccer Season

I love to watch my boys play soccer and 

I love the opportunity to see these beautiful skies!

I love how much Marshal loves playing soccer! 

He's a great little athlete.

It's amazing to see how far Cort has come with his soccer team. 

It was a sad day when he broke his favorite pair of glasses playing soccer. 

Baptism for the Dead

Back in January I signed up the boys to go to the Mt. Timpanogoes Temple to do baptisms. 

On the way we were a little early and got to enjoy watching these three balloons in the skies above the temple. I also enjoyed a chicken hanging out on the side of the road. lol

Life in April

Top Left & Top Left Middle: My Skyjo hand versus Marshal's Skyjo hand. Yeah...I lost! Top Right Middle: Braxton continues to pull off excellent grades. Top Right: I love when teachers send home classroom photos! Mrs. Lee is the best! Bottom Left: Marshal had the best bed head! Bottom Left Middle & Bottom Right Middle: We have a guy who comes into WiO who always talks to Callie about dog training for Bella. It's his dream to be a dog trainer and he is rather good looking. I kept teasing Julie that I needed to get Dusty into shape so she could have Robert come train her. I had to send a photo of me walking Dusty to Julie to let he know I was getting her in shape. lol Bottom Right: Not only were Marshal and Cort clever enough to turn the Mosaic Mysteries puzzle into a chess board I had to document them playing nicely together. lol

Top Left: Trying to decide if I like my hair this long. Top Left Middle: Marshal nearly grew a foot in 4 years. Crazy! Top Right Middle: Still figuring out this length with a little curl. Top Right: Cort grew a little over 8 inches in 4 years. Amazing! Bottom Left: We finally moved into the WiO office on Nike Drive. Bottom Left Middle: Trying a fancy up do! Bottom Right Middle: We had a wonderful presentation from LDS social services and I liked this quote. "We now understand that 'there is not a simple cure-all for emotional and mental wellness. We will experience stress and turmoil because we live in a fallen world with a fallen body. Additionally, many contributing factors may lead to a diagnosis of mental health illness. Regardless of our mental and emotional well-being, focusing on growth is healthier than obsessing about our shortcomings." -Addressing Mental Health, Erich W. Kopischke Center Right: The young women had an activity where they had make-overs and Lexi Loveridge and I took this picture together. Bottom Right: Braxton also grew 8 inches in 4 years.

We've been continuing the Better Health Challenge at Work. I'm still doing ok.

Top Left & Top Left Middle: I introduced Napoleon Dynamite to my kids. It was fun to watch again. Top Right Middle and Center: Levi kept teasing me that I wasn't invited to his wedding since I didn't get to go to Michaela's due to Covid restrictions. When I got his announcement I texted him to let him know I made the cut. Snarky kid responded, "No, you didn't. Nice try tho." Kids these days. I told him that Shylee invited me so he was stuck with me. lol Top Right: We really do love Shylee and we are so excited to have her join our family! Bottom Left & Bottom Left Middle: Kent and I had talked with Braxton about having his friends over more often and he mentioned that there was no where for his friends to sit. Kent and I realized he was right so we started talking about purchasing a new couch. I had made the decision to measure just in case we decided to start looking. We happened to be in the mall in Orem shopping for clothes for me and looking at suit for the boys when Kent wound up in RC Willey looking at a killer sale on their clearence. Let's just say that we got 4 sections of couch seats. Three were discounted and one was full price. We got all three discounted pieces for the same price as the seat that was full price. God is certainly good to us! Bottom Right Middle: When you have a name like Marlies and you turn on the tv and find a show about a Namibian Conservationist on a tv show and they call her Marlice you get just a little excited! lol  Bottom Right: Some days are amazing. Some days are not. Thursday, April 28th I was given some bad news. Just weeks after WiO had finally moved into the new office that was close to my home I was told that because of the move WiO had some shortfalls and they needed to save some money. I was going to be out of a job. They were hoping to bring my on in a month or two but for now they didn't have a job for me. It made a for a very difficult day the next day trying to process all those sad and disappointed emotions. 😥 

Top Left: I found this note that said "Pip's Big Game" on the white board and it made me smile. Top Left Middle: We went to Braxton's Driver's Ed meeting and it helped me to realize the importance of my job in helping him to learn to drive. Bottom Left: Marshal found an Among US poster and immediately put it up on his dresser. lol Bottom Left Middle: It looks like my boys made a fort with the blankets and the blanket ladder. Bottom Right Middle: Kent smoked a delicious ham for dinner! And it was also so pretty!  Top Right Middle & Top Right & Center Right & Bottom Right: Cort was out for a bike ride when his bike broke. He dragged his bike most of the way home and ended up leaving quite the trail.

Our Beautiful World

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.”

- Pablo Neruda

"In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six kinds 

of different weather inside of four and twenty hours." -Mark Twain

“If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”

- Percy Bysshe Shelley

"Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius."

“Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.”

- Virgil A. Kraft

“She turned to the sunlight And shook her yellow head,

And whispered to her neighbor "Winter is dead.”

- A.A. Milne