Middle of March 2015

I was watching Emma and the boys through the kitchen window playing in the backyard while I made lunch. Then I couldn't see Emma anymore so I went to find her and she had found the pile of dirt left from Mark's potato patch last year. Talk about a mess, but she was loving it!

For activity days one night the girls decorated little wooden spoon up to be Scripture story characters then we put on little puppet shows. The girls had a blast.

Mark and two of his friends were working on a Rube Goldberg project for science. They were trying to get the camera to take a picture of them. It turned out to be quite the contraption that they rigged up all over the kitchen table.

Jessie playing with the camera on a warm day in March.   Being outside is one of my kids favorites.

Happy birthday to Ken.   We made three different kinds of soup to celebrate with the family later that evening.   After Ken zested the oranges to go in the apple pie Neil help him squeeze out the juice. “We should do this more often,” was Neil’s excited comment when he got to drink some juice.  We played a couple of games including 20 Express.   He received some stationary to write thank you notes on from his parents, and I had made him a book with astronomy pictures of the day to go at his office. The front cover was  a picture Ken took himself when we were down at Capitol Reef National Park.

My mom and dad came out for Grandma Woodward in Salt Lake’s 90th birthday.   We had lots of helpers for cutting up vegetables.

Mark got some really nice wood from a man up  in Lehi. And returned Mark said he would make some cow puzzles for the man's disabled son. They turned out so nice. Mark was a little disappointed when he went to drop them off and the man wasn't there because he was really hoping the man would like them.

Setting up for Grandma Woodward birthday party. In one of the rooms at the church my kids found a wheelchair and that provided entertainment until the party started, and kept them mostly out of trouble :-).

Stephanie's family was out visiting and Harper joined us for lunch one day.

We brought the Lincoln Logs up from the basement a few days ago and they have been a huge hit with Neil. I think we've made a house everyday since.

Abbie was so excited to create the ultimate Pi Day moment.   3.1415926

For family home evening treats Jessie and I tried a recipe she found online for cheesecake made in the waffle iron topped with powdered sugar. Only they weren't as cool as the website bragged. While we ate our treat we watched KidPresident. The kids thought it was hilarious.

All the neighborhood kids come to play with Jessie.

Emma found a yellow jacket inside by the back door that wasn't quite dead yet and she picked it up to brought it over to share with Spencer. That was a surprise for him. Then she realized that something wasn't right quite right, poor girl. But she was a real champ and hardly cried at all while we treated her first bee sting.

Jessie had fun taking some sidewalk chalk pictures with Neil to use for her Latter-day Stripling Warriors Instagram edits.

While we were at Costco with Rachel she decided that bringing a ginormous box home would be the ultimate fun play thing for her nephews. It took us awhile to cram it into the van, but it sure was fun to play in over the next few days.

Welcome to spring.

My cute girl in pigtails.

Me and Isaac celebrated the first day of spring by playing in the sprinkler. What crazy weather.

While my parents were still out we spent the day at the zoo. The elephant show was really cool. Neil and Isaac were just the right size for the bald eagles nest. We brought lunch to eat and Jessie and I took turns playing with the camera. By the end of the day all the boys wanted to be the ones riding in the double stroller. Mark gave them a wild ride back to the car.

 

End of Feb beginning of Mar 2015

Caught red handed. And she thought it was so funny.

Quinn's  5th birthday party. After he blew out his candles which we convince me or not to help with. The kids got  to try some party poppers. They were more than impressed.

Spencer is so good with the little kids. Emma picked the right sibling to hang out with. Lucky her, Spencer never has a shortage of treats. Sharing some fun dip together.

Mark at the district science fair. He got 2nd place in his category.

A mission welcome home party for Kyle.

Some new cards for my next stamp day. The ones with the little banners were super popular.

Spencer’s Christmas date with us from Grandpa Fry. We took him to see The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe put on by the community theatre at Spanish Fork high school.

Emma grabbed something off the lazy susan when she had a chance. Boy would she have been in for a surprise if she'd actually gotten any.

The movie The Sound of Music celebrated its 50 year anniversary. Rachel was so excited to celebrate too! We had schnitzel with noodles, which is basically meat noodles and a white sauce, Apple strudels And dinner with the whole family. We watched the movie while we ate. Abbie brought down her marionette puppets for us to play with.  And then Rachel surprised everyone with brown paper packages tied up with string. Each person open the little box of their favorite candies. Thanks for helping us make so many memories, Rachel.

Finding some fun things to do on Sunday together this sometimes difficult, but this Sunday we had fun drawing animal parts out of a hat and adding them to a picture. Here we have a bunny eared, caterpillar body, rhino nose, beavertailed creature. Another was a camel leg, bear body,  walrus tusks, cow tail  creature.

When Ken got home he, Abbie Spencer and Neil played a couple of games of Monopoly Deal. And then Neil played Monopoly Deal with himself because apparently the other games weren't enough. He is the ultimate game boy.

It’s going to be a great day when your breakfast matches your shirt. Thanks to Neil for dying the milk blue last night at dinner.

A couple of teenagers got caught red handed. Apparently this is the new way to unload the dishwasher.

The temple was beautiful this morning when Ken got to go do a session.

Neil was so excited to prepare our lesson for FHE. It was on forgiving others.  A timely lesson since he got hurt twice by others on accident during the lesson.   I was so happy to be on top of getting things ready for family home evening here Issac’s making his treats, chocolate crinkle cookies.

Jessie and a group of her friends made tie dyed shoes with Sharpie markers and rubbing alcohol. It was a fun little party.

Playing around in a tent we made before we got ready for the day. The boys thought it was hilarious how Emma’s hair would stand out crazy.

A couple of Mark’s woodworking projects for his High Honors project at school. He is planning on giving them to some residents at an assisted living center here in Springville.

Abbie's bed is the place to sleep on weekends.

I put together this little book for Rachel to take on her mission of all the fun things we have been able to do together since she moved to Utah.

Jessie liked Abbie’s art project so much she decided to make one for herself.

Neil is so excited to be learning how to write his letters. We get small love notes from him all the time and they are adorable.

Jesse took my out for a little photo shoot on the front steps. A cute baby and something fuzzy is all you need to make a great picture.

Celebrating Rachel's birthday with a barbecue and German chocolate cake. A few games to finish off the evening and matching shirts for all the girls.

A Sunday hymn-along. Mark is on the left hand, Jessie is on the right, Abbie has kazoo duty and the little boys are playing on the xylophones. Just one more before bed - this is fun!

Drawing pictures together.