Happy times!

Kennedy graduates from 6th grade!

Luke's team - 9th grade champions!

I am back-tracking to before school got out here.  Had to note a couple fun things that happened!  First, Kennedy graduated from 6th grade!  You can read her full report here.  I do have to defend myself a little. . . no, I didn't cry like some parents were, but that doesn't mean I am not touched by my childrens' milestones.  I did get teary eyed.  Kennedy just didn't see it!  Kennedy is growing up to be a fine Young Women.
Also had to make note of Luke's team accomplishments.  They had a great season.  Went 23-1 (or something like that).  They easily won the tournament at the end of the season.  It was fun to watch!  Now summer ball will be starting up in the next week.  Luke hopes to start hitting like we all know he can!

One small spot of "green happiness!"

My little spot of green joy!

I decided with all the yard work going on that I needed a little bit of "instant gratification".  So now that our sprinklers are in and working, David, the kids, and I went out and bought some sod for the one patch in the back yard that we won't be re-seeding.  You can see here the girls helping carry the sod together. . . so cute!  Luke is doing his part as well.  Tonight before I go to bed, I think I might just go take a little peek at my little spot of green joy!!

What's been happening here. . .

Of course, things around here have continued to be busy, busy busy!  I was lucky enough to have Mom come to visit me for a few days last week.  I cannot say enough how nice it was to have her around for a little while.  We had a variety of activities while she was here.  .

 The first night, I took her to see the musical "The Secret Garden" for my early Mother's Day gift.  It was performed at The Hale Center Theatre in Orem.  It is a very small community theatre.  The Theatre itself is "in the round". . .which means that the little stage is in the middle, and the few rows of seats are all around.  The production was absolutely fantastic!  I have always had a special spot in my heart for the book, because I remember Mom reading it to me as a girl.  But now I can appreciate the music as well.  The actors were as talented as any I've seen in any other production.  We both really loved it.  I have now got my book out and have started reading it to my girls!  Maybe I can continue the tradition!

 I also put mom to work with a few yard projects.  We will be working in the yard all summer.  There is so much to do.  But I have to celebrate every accomplishment.  We went and got a load of dirt to fill up my garden boxes.  We also got a load of rocks to put around the boxes.  I am absolutely delighted with the result!  The soil was great quality and will hopefully make up for my lack of a "green thumb" this year!  It will definitely be trial and error as I learn to garden.  I am so excited to go pick out my plants to garden!

 We also went up to Salt Lake on day and spent a few hours at the new City Creek Center by Temple Square.  It was so nice there!  They have done a great job making a beautiful shopping center.  We met mom's sister, Sherry as well.  We had a nice lunch and enjoyed walking around all the shops.

We also saw the girls in several soccer games and watched Luke play baseball.  It is always busy with something to do!

This what I am tackling this week.. . . 

I have this mound of dirt that needs to be spread around the front yard so we can get some new grass put in.    It is a bit overwhelming.  I am also tackling some other things that feel like this huge mound of dirt. . . so I could use a few extra prayers.  Love and miss you all.  Wish you were all here to help me shovel my way out of this!!  One shovelful at a time I'll get it done. . .

A little baseball update!

Not only have we been to soccer games lately, but we've been watching a lot of baseball as well!  Luke's team has been doing really well.  They play double-headers every Saturday and one game during the week.  Last night they played and the final score was 15-2!

 Luke had some great plays in the outfield.  

 This catch was the play of the game!  In our humble opinion, of course :)

 Yeah, you actually caught it, Luke!  

He also had a great base hit with an RBI.  

Elizabeth's great game!

I wanted to give you a taste of what it is like to watch Elizabeth play soccer.  Last night her team had a great game.  Won 9-0!  Elizabeth had a record for the year of 5 goals in this game!  This is a bit extreme for soccer, but WOW.  She is such fun to watch. She has speed, aggression, great footwork, can finish, etc.  No, I am not proud at all!

Spring Break part 2

Most of our Spring break this year was spent trying to get things done in the yard. We got a lot done, but nothing really checked off our list. So we made PROGRESS. . . .but there is A LOT of work to be done. I am showing pictures, not because there is anything to be proud of yet, but just to show the progress. Hopefully I will be able to show a beautiful yard later in the summer. The one project I did complete was the rocks in the front of the house. I first had to remove all the rocks we already had placed (with the girls help). .. this was a lot of work, but hopefully worth it in the end. I then placed a good quality weed barrier on the ground. Then I had to put all the rocks back on, and we got more rocks to fill all the gaps which I shoveled on. This is the completed rock patch in front of the house. Hopefully I won't be out weeding there this summer!! Our first main project is getting our sprinklers in. David and Luke finished digging all the trenches in the front and back yard, and David got all the pipe set this week. We need to finish putting all the sprinkler heads on now. We are also working on our trampoline hole. As you can see, the hole is dug. We have the stones to build a retaining wall inside the hole. Eventually the trampoline will go in the hole. More sprinkler lines in the back, and you can see where my garden boxes will be. I am really excited to have a garden this year. I am a little embarassed by the photos, but you can see the progress now as we get things done. We will also be putting a little wall where you can see the ground is higher. On Friday Bronte and her friend, Kat came by in the afternoon and entertained the girls for a few hours. We will miss having Bronte around this summer! You can read Kennedy's account about it here or Bronte's account here. I know that she will have a fabulous time in Europe this summer!! Keep in mind our crazy weather this last week as well. We had snow, sun, rain, wind, and just about everything in between!! Saturday the kids were able to go to Jump on It to celebrate their cousin, Cali's, 6th birthday. It is a really fun place with all these trampolines to jump on. After about an hour they were all pretty worn out. It looked like a blast, though! Other notables this week:

David and Luke both spent all day Friday umping baseball for a tournament here in town. It was a nice way to earn a little extra cash.

David and I went to dinner Saturday night. . .ahhh. It was nice to do something besides yard work!

I think that is about it. . . .hope you are all happy :)

Spring Break part 1

This week has been spring break for us here. We have been busy trying to get things done around the house and especially the yard (more on that later). The weather has been quite extreme. We had about a foot of snow last Friday, then is was about 70 and sunny for several days, now the past few days has been various degrees of windy, rain sprinkles, cold. etc. Welcome to Spring in Utah! I had to throw in a picture of kennedy with her soccer team. They won their first game about a week ago! It was quite exciting for them. . . last fall they didn't win a single game. So this was a huge morale booster. David and I took the younger girls to the community easter egg event the Saturday before Easter. You can see Elizabeth ready to go with her age group. It was quite crazy. They whole thing is over in about 30 seconds. So if you aren't ready. . .too sad too bad! Elizabeth only ended up with about 5 eggs this year. No bikes this year! She was with an older group and kind of got stuck behind the pack when it started. As you can see, this was the day after we had all the snow. . .by that afternoon it was all gone.

We hosted Easter dinner at our house on Sunday. All of David's family came as well as Bronte and Steven. It was a bit crazy, especially for Bronte and Steven, entertaining all the kids. Some of the kids can be a bit demanding. . .but they were such good sports. Steven even got out our guitar, tuned it, and entertained the kids with some songs. He is quite good. Kennedy was especially impressed!

We had a nice dinner and enjoyed the sunshine. All the kids were able to play outside.

I didn't get the girls new easter dresses this year. Instead they each got a new pair of shoes. You can read Kennedy's post about that here

I hope you all had a great Easter. . . I will post part 2 of our spring break as soon as I figure how to get pictures off my new iphone!

By the way, I have been spoiled this week. Got a new ipad as well as an iphone. Now I just have to figure out how to use them!