Excitement of Early April

Blake's coworkers really missed him while were on our hiking trip.

And what better time to show it than April Fool's?

His name tag and stress ball in Jello.

I decided to celebrate April Foo's with a new 'do.  I love it.  It took the kids a little while to adjust.  A few weeks after Bryce told me this:

"When you first got your haircut, I thought it was ugly.  But now (long pause, while I waited for the complimentary part), I'm used to it."

Thanks, Son.

The next morning I ran a half marathon with my favorite running buddy.  Can you tell it was cold?  Snow!

Without trying we ran most of it together and finished within seconds of each other.  It's like we trained together all the time...

Kolob Canyon!

In March we headed down to Southern Utah for some family bonding and hiking.

Lanaya's face really suits the incredible background, no?

My cute parents.

Good thing the cousins were here to hold that rock up.

Kayli found a real live Lincoln Log out in the wild.

I love these people.

And the colors of the scenery in the canyon.  So beautiful!

Look at that crazy cliff they climbed up!

(I may have been down on the ground to make it look a little better.)

A very holey rock.

Love that face!

Can you tell how freezing it was the whole time?!

Easter 2016

The Easter Bunny came.

And we had a beautiful Sabbath focused on our Savior.

I love these cuties.

And I actually let my kids dye eggs this year.

And we made this beautiful salad for our Easter dinner.

More Bryce

Bryce earning another achievement in Cub Scouts.

I think he looks so cute in his uniform!

Bryce got to be Elvis for the 3rd Grad Wax Museum.  So, we died his hair black and I gave him side burns.  But, his face.  What am I going to do when this kid is a teenager?!

At the museum.  This kid is so much his father's son sometimes.

Elvis seated between Sacagawea and Alan Rickman--who this boy thought was pretty much only famous for his role as Severus Snape.

It was a pretty awesome Wax Museum!

Pre-Easter Celebrating

In March the Provo City Center Temple was dedicated.  Since this was a historic building (formerly the Provo Tabernacle, but it was mostly destroyed by a fire in 2010), the dedication was done via broadcast, so more people could watch it.  We got to go watch it with Blake's family and then had a pre-Easter celebration after.

Lanaya was a little under the weather, but thoroughly enjoyed some snuggle and reading time with her "Grandma Great".

And her cousin Hudson decided this seemed like a great activity to join in.  I thought it was pretty sweet.

Easter egg hunting with help from Grandma!

My cute little Trey finding eggs.

More birthday presents for Bryce.

We drove Blake's grandpa to and from the celebration, so I got to ride in back with these two cuties!

And just a random silly pic from dinner out for Bryce's birthday.

Spike!

This isn't really related to the rest of this post, except that it occurred on the same day.  We took Kevin and Cindy out to dinner (a cute little Mexican place) and a play ("Beauty and the Beast musical"--it was incredible!).  This was their Christmas present from us.  It may have taken a few months to make it happen, but I thought it was a really fun night!

Late last summer, I decided maybe a pet would help Trey's behavior.  So, I set up a motivation system.  I gave him an empty container and bought a bunch of rocks.  He earned rocks by making good choices, good behavior, or helping.  He lost rocks through bad choices, bad behavior, or refusing to help.  Some days this system worked really well; others not so much.  But finally, in March, he filled his container completely, so we headed to the pet store to pick out a turtle that he really wanted.

At the advice of a few pet store employees, we came home with this.

A 3-month old bearded dragon whose greatest talent is hanging onto clothing.  Trey was so proud of his new pet, and I was pretty proud of him for working so hard to earn it.

I was also amazed at how attached I felt to this little lizard.  He has a surprising amount of personality and is fairly social.

All the kids were excited about the new addition to our family.

And we all had to try letting him cling to our shirts.

He was such a tiny guy, we had no idea how big he'd get!