Spring Break

We were missing Maddie, and since she has a different spring break than us, we went to visit her during ours!  Shawn had to work so I had to do all the driving, which wasn't my favorite, but we are always happy to get out of town and it helped that Katie was going to go see her four kids that live in Rexburg and we were able to caravan together.  Also, on the way there, Sally Roberts rode with me which helped me stay awake!


Mostly the kids played with cousins, once they were out of school each day.  One morning, Kristi and I took our youngest kids to Kidburg to play.  This is a new place that has a lot of imaginative rooms for kids:

Anni, Pace and Hazel:

We met Katie and her kids at the nature park later that day, too:

l-r: Ila and Abby's baby Jonathan, Britton, Nolan, Katie and David:

Eli and Abram:

I didn't take very many pictures other than that! 

Jim and Marilyn were gone until the last day because they went to the funeral of one of their friends in Oklahoma, so we spent a lot of time with the Andersons.  We were also there for Maddie's audition to Bel Cantos choir and to help her campaign for Student Body secretary!  I tried to spend as much time with her as I could while we were there.

Isabelle, of course, spent some of her time making this cake:

We still aren't used to having such long spring breaks.  A whole week?!??

I got sick halfway through the visit and felt horrible on the drive home.  I completely lost my voice, had a bad cough, and felt like my chest was clogged up and full of gunk.  When I got home I went to bed and didn't get out of it for two days.  I haven't been sick for a LONG time and attribute it to not being able to exercise all week and eat the careful way that we usually do. Good thing that it was a weekend and Shawn was home to take care of things!

Halfway through March

Isabelle's contribution to mutual the week before St. Patrick's day:

The clouds were really neat one day when I was picking Pace up from Kindergarten - the picture doesn't do it justice:

For the three weeks leading up to spring break, we brought Abram's friend Miles home from school every day while his mom recovered from Mono.  They were making Peanut butter balls here:

They spent most of their time playing at the park though.

Training them up right: this is Anni and Pace massaging my feet:

I reciprocated with one Anni foot and one Pace foot.  Aren't they cute?!??:

Later this same day, Katie and her family came over and she taught Isabelle to make edible lace for cakes and also how to make fondant:

I wish I would have gotten a picture of both of them!

Then all of my siblings and their spouses, that live close enough, took mom and dad to dinner to celebrate both of their March birthdays:

We were missing Matt and Kelly - Matt was on call for calving season; Nathan and Leslie who live too far away, and Eli who is at college in Rexburg. Aunt Ellen and Uncle Phillip joined us, though, and it was a very enjoyable evening!  

Maddie went to San Francisco with the Madison choirs and sent this picture of she and her cousin Abby:

I went in the boy's room one night to see why they weren't asleep yet.  They didn't even have their pajamas on, and Abram had Pace all trussed up at the ankles:

Isabelle wasn't happy with this cake and so didn't even finish it, but I still thought it was cool:

Anni modeling a new Sunday dress:

A Sunday walk to the water tower - which the boys always have to climb:

Not only do we allow our boys to climb the water tower; but another delinquent activity that we participated in was innocent enough:

One Family Home Evening the boys chose to "build a fort in the park" for an activity. They informed us that they already had a really good start.  We went to see it and it was right in the middle of the park where it would get in the way of mowing, etc.  SO, we helped them move the fort to a more forested area of the park where it hopefully won't get in the way:D

It will be interesting to see if it is moved.  The boys have been enjoying it; one day it was raining and Abram couldn't wait to get over to the park to see how well the fort kept rain out! It's the simple things...:

Just snuggling on the floor:

Not very pleasant to see, but a common occurrence with Anni and her acid reflux that we are still trying to cure.  She takes medicine for it every single night and we try to feed her really nutritiously as that is supposed to help.  This happens less frequently, so we're hoping it's getting better!:

Helping me stir up some protein balls one day.  She calls them "bouncy balls" and asks for them frequently:

Abram and Pace playing "Hungry Hippos" at a scout pack meeting:

Career day at school and Pace got the chance to wear his amazing astronaut outfit because his dream is to be an astronaut when he grows up.  What a handsome astronaut:

Nolan at his school choir concert.  This kid can SING!  He is so talented with a great tone to his voice, perfect pitch, and can find the harmony to any song:

Right after his concert, we left school and brought him home and then my parents arrived and took him to Bremerton, Washington to visit Nathan and Leslie and their family and be there for his cousin Elijah's birthday.  This was an exciting expedition for Nolan, as he got to go with cousins his age: David and Gideon Farber, and Caleb and Wesley Kerns.  And THEN join up with Josiah and Jarom in Bremerton.  All the kids had a great time and Nolan loved everything about the experience.

The day was pretty and Isabelle wanted to have a photo shoot with Anni:

Anni is always a good sport about posing just how Isabelle says:

One day I just suddenly had the urge to take a nap as I walked by the couch...and Isabelle caught me haha:

She now LOVES to read and it makes me so happy that I take pictures whenever I see her deep into her books:

Mom and dad stopped for awhile when they dropped Nolan off after their Bremerton trip:

Anni loves having grandparents!:

March came in like a lion

We were still having some snowy weather at the beginning of March.  Anni played with and ate some snow long enough for me to get the kitchen clean:

Isabelle continued to bake and stage beautiful cakes in her free time from her homeschooling, which she is really enjoying! (the homeschool AND the cakes:)

Anni surprised us by beginning to potty train herself.  Unfortunately I have to keep the bathroom doors closed because she gets into everything in there. Case in point, was just yesterday morning when I heard Pace say, upon finding Anni in the bathroom "ANNI!!  You can't eat the toothpaste!!" I think as soon as she has easy access to the toilet, she will be trained.

It was picture day at the elementary school, so I got Anni all gussied up for a picture because we don't have a professional one of her yet, and there isn't anywhere close by to get one:

Pace doesn't go to the gradeschool yet, but these two are SO CUTE!!:

For mutual one one evening in March, we combined with the Young Men and they chose to play volleyball.  We had a volleyball that felt like concrete but I was really getting into the game.  The last ten minutes I had to stop because I was hurting!  I went home with a swollen and painful hand and wrist.  When the swelling went down, I got pretty colorful:

I love how Abram reads to the little kids:

Dad sent this picture to illustrate how deep their snow is, and I saved it because I liked the picture of him:)  Ours was almost completely gone by this point in the winter.

We had a talent show/dinner with Pendleton 1st and 2nd wards.  Shawn and I sang "All God's Creatures have a Place in the Choir" with a small group.  Nolan was getting into one of the numbers:

On March 10, while we were down at the family history center, I happened to check my email and saw one from my dad.  He invited everyone that was interested to come to a meeting at his stake, followed by something in the stake president's room. After reading the email more closely, I realized that dad was getting a calling!  We made quick arrangements for Lisa Foust and her girls to come over and sit with the little kids while Shawn, me, Isabelle and Nolan headed over to LaGrande.

Our suspicions were confirmed when we arrived.  Dad was ordained to be the stake patriarch! It was neat to be there and to have all but the oldest and youngest of my siblings join us (they were too far away to come on the short notice).

My amazing parents:

We have all seen this coming for years - dad will be great in this calling.

Anni sees the kids doing homework every night and has started asking for her "homework".  Then when I give her a paper she scribbles for 15-30 minutes.  She has developed an attention span, hooray!! I thought she looked pretty comfortable here doing her "homework":

Earlier that morning Isabelle and I were grocery shopping with Anni and Isabelle took this picture because she thought it was funny how tight her seat belt looked.  This is an incredibly ACTIVE little girl and she can wiggle and get out of anything, so this was the calmest shopping trip we have experienced with her.