May

Brett had a fun cake decorating activity one night at Young Mens. They decorated the cakes to represent a favorite BOM story. I think his was Abinadi being burned.  

Jill's parents left on another mission to Pennsylvania. Rebecca and Neil hosted a nice Mother's Day dinner where we got to see everyone. My parents were there, Jills parents, and Rebecca's.

Alana won the Battle of the Books with he team of friends. They are such cute girls! One of the moms had some free passes to Fat Cats so she took the girls to celebrate their win! 

 This year I heard someone describe May as Maycember because its so busy with so many parties and awards ceremonies, and performances. We started the month attending an induction to the National Junior Honors Society for Brett. He chose to apply and was selected to be a part of this program that prioritizes service. He will attend meetings each day next year during his TA period and he is pretty excited about it!

Alana has been liking the way it looks to have crimped hair. We tried braiding it one nights to have it super crimpy the next day. Her hair is getting so thick that it didn't dry all the way. She looks so cute with her braids!

Lizzie participated in the egg drop at school. She and Alana made her contraption and it unfortunately broke, but she was still very happy to get her candy! 

I love that my almost 13 year old still comes to snuggle me! 

Alana has been enjoying singing with Sean at the piano a lot lately! 

We had more stuffed animal and magnatile acting for our BOM reading. 

Sean and I celebrated 15 years of marriage on the 9th! We made flatbread pizzas for dinner and then went to kneaders as a family to get dessert. We got a raspberry cake, a tres leches cake, a cheese cake, a cookie, a caramel apple, and a brownie (I think) It was all very yummy! 

Our washing machine and dryer needed to be replaced. Our dryer has been taking forever to dry our clothes for a year now. We tried cleaning out the vent, but it didn't really help. One day the washing machine started having a hard time draining and spinning out all the water. So that in combination with the dryer not dying things well was really bad. The last loads I did ended up taking over 3 hours to dry! Sean tried one trouble shooting thing to see if we could fix it, but we didn't want to pour money into a repaid after our experience with trying to repair the dishwasher. Sean researched it and found some good units that could be delivered on the 9th. We had a few days to go before then and our machine was pretty unusable so Trish let me use her washer and dryer. One of the best features of the new washer is the glass top! It is so fun to watch the laundry get washed! The kids were fascinated and I felt like we were in a Bluey episode called New Washer. 

The girls often sleep together in either room. This night they slept in Alana's room and Alana was reading to Lizzie before bed. I love the friendship these sisters have! And I feel like I post an identical picture all the time, but it never gets old! 

Sean and I decided to take a trip to St George for our anniversary. We made it quick to fit in with all our commitments and because I feel guilty leaving the kids. We got everyone dropped off at school and Oreo taken to the pet hotel and then headed straight down on a Friday morning. The drive was about 4 hours and we enjoyed talking and listening to music. We were starting to get super hungry but decided to wait til we got to St George. We found an Indian lunch buffet and it was so good! Then we checked into our hotel. One of the reasons we had chosen St George is because I really wanted to attend the temple there. My great grandfather helped with the woodwork on the building and there is something so magical to me about pioneer era temples. I had made an appointment to attend the 10 Am session on Saturday, but we had time that afternoon, so we rushed to get changed and headed over to the temple which was only about 10 minutes from our hotel. The temple did not disappoint! It was so elegant and beautiful and felt like it came right out of Washington DC. The Spirit was so strong as we entered! 

We both loved the desert landscaping around the temple grounds.

The holly hawk flowers reminded me of my Grandmother. 

There were little lizards running around and it was fun to imagine the kids chasing and trying to catch them. 

We went back to the hotel and took a little break then headed out to Tuachan. I had purchased the first night of the preview showing of Anastasia. The tickets were about half the cost which was really exciting because I love a good deal =) With the discount I sprung for the premium section and front row seats. We had the best view. The whole performance was phenomenal! We can't wait to go back and see another show there. 

Before the show we browsed the shops and got some chicken tacos and sweet potato fries for dinner. 

The show ended at like 11:30 or something so we headed back to the hotel. We got a little sleep then headed back to Tuachan for their Saturday Morning market. We had fun wandering around and buying little trinkets. We had hoped to take a little hike, but we were melting in the sun. So we decided not to do that. 

On our way out of town we went and walked around the new Red Cliffs temple. The outside was a beautiful rose color and there were holly hawks in the stone work and on the steeple. I look forward to seeing inside that temple too! 

Mom P. had watched our kiddos overnight and we were so grateful for her. We picked up Oreo and headed home. It was a wonderful trip and I wish is was way longer! 

The girls have both participated in choir this year and they had their end of year performance. It was so fun to see all the songs they have worked so hard on! 

As we were driving home from St. George, Alana called to tell us that she had taught Lizzie to ride her two wheeler! Sean has been working with Lizzie a lot on riding without training wheels, but it clicked when she was practicing with Alana. They were both so excited! 

Brett won an award for Library at the middle school. I showed up to see him receive it and he was so surprised I knew to come. It was fun to see him in his element and to celebrate how hard he has worked and how much he has read this year! 

Here he is with his two friends Caiden and Taylor. 

More of the cute girls in choir!

We made a fruit pizza one day and it was a lot of fun to do with the kids. It was really yummy! 

End of year activities in elementary are always so so fun! Alana made so really great girl friends this year! Here's some field day:

On Memorial Day we took a hike. We did red potato hill just over by the Draper Temple. It was a beautiful short little hike! 

Oreo came! We think he liked it, but he pulled us up that mountain faster than I have ever hiked  =) 

We saw some animal prints in the dirt. My poor foot really didn't like the hike, especially the coming down part! 

Here's my co-worker Meagan. One of her students made her this flower crown and it was so perfect on her! 

My cute girls!

Alana at her read a thon day with her friend Harper. 

Sean has been wanting a shed on the side of our house for awhile and I finally found a good price on one that was the right size. After getting a quote for concrete, Sean decided to undertake the project himself. We helped him dig out the area for it. Brett went to young mens so he didn't get to help this time. 

Lizzie had anatomy questions one night so Sean pulled out the giant book and they had some good conversation. 

The girls in Alana's class made a poster to cheer for their teacher in the 6th grade vs teachers kickball game. 

I am always so impressed with Sean and his willingness to learn new skills for our home! 

Here are the girls from Alana's class with Mrs. Braithwaite. She has been such an amazing teacher for Alana! 

Kindergarten students didn't attend the final day of school, so Shulamith and I worked on our classroom, watched the kickball game, went to lunch, then helped Meagan in her classroom. It was such pleasure to share a classroom with this woman! I love teaching with her! 

After school, we drove over to Mom P's house to help put a new cabinet in place. We had some pizza for dinner and played with cousins for a bit. Then we took Mimi to Brooker's for ice cream to celebrate her birthday. 

Saturday morning, I got to go to breakfast with BreAnna Saffron and then my parents came and Dad helped pour the concrete. It was a very fun process to watch!