Happy Mother's Day

 I just want to say Happy Mother's day to my mom.  I'm grateful she is around and lives close by so that I may share my Mother's day with her.  Thank you for all you do for us and everything you have done for me in the past.  I love ya Mom!

What a difference a year makes.

What a difference a little time makes; instead of sending him off to kindergarten last year a little prematurely, I decided to keep him home one last time and let him do another year of preschool.  Best decision ever.  He has "grown" up so much this past year.  He is more confident in his abilities, he knows his numbers better, he can write his name with more clarity, and he doesn't cling to me as much as he used to.  I am feeling he will be much better prepared for kindergarten this upcoming school year and he is just now starting to get excited about being in the same school as Payton and Colton.  The picture on the bottom was last year during preschool and as I look at them side by side, I'm amazed at how much my little boy has grown. 

Food.

Lately I have been perfecting my pizza-making skills and it seems to turn out better and better every time I make it now so when the kids requested pizza last night for dinner, I agreed.  Now days I almost prefer making pizza at home rather than getting it from Little Caesars. . . and it's cheaper.

Last night the weather was perfect so eating outside seemed appropriate.

Camping

We went camping back in March - just before Easter. Going through pictures, seeing this made me smile. I love his little expression. I love this little boy.

Lil' Buggers

Every year for a period of time our yard is infested with these dang caterpillars. Since our yard backs the wash, which is full of cottonwood trees, they flock to our yard. For days (perhaps longer) the kids have been gathering, and squishing, and gathering, and then squishing and gathering some more. They are literally everywhere in our yard . . and Breckon couldn't be more thrilled. He is the main gatherer; always bringing them into the house by the handfuls to show me 'teeny' ones, 'mama' ones or even great bid 'daddy' ones.
The other night we went for a bike ride through the new park which is just up the street from our house and I made the kids stop and listen because you can hear them falling from the tops of the cottonwood trees onto the ground and it sounds CREEPY!

Spring Break

Ah, spring break. I love having the kids home, the change in the weather, and the fact that I have finally convinced Kyle that we should do more "trips" as a family (other than hunting) during that time off.
This year we decided to save a little cash and stay closer to home so we chose Zions. For most of my children this was their first trip here (gasp, I know). And they loved every minute of it. We stayed in the Watchman Campground which is right by the Virgin River. We took our bikes and we rode all over. For the most part the weather was beautiful - spring is the perfect time to go - not too hot and just right for a light jacket.
The hikes we did were Temple of Sinawava, Weeping Rock, the Emerald Pools Trail, and a couple other small hikes that were close to the campground.
We drove through the tunnel a couple of times (the kids loved it) and even saw some sheep on the east side of the park.
I think some of the kids' favorite parts were riding bikes around camp, making smores (always a favorite), swinging over the river on a rope we found on one of our bike rides, and playing by the river.

New pets.

We are now fish owners. Not my idea, but I played along and agreed to let the kids each have a goldfish. Westy was so happy about this and probably the most excited. He has been looking at the goldfish in Wal-Mart for years now (every time we go he has to see them). We shall see how this goes.

UPDATE: It has been probably close to three weeks since we got our new little friends, but unfortunately, we are not as good of goldfish keepers as we had anticipated. We have lost our little friends at the rate of one a week since they came to live with us. I don't know what I'm doing; I clean the tank, they die. I leave the tank dirty, they die. I feed them twice a day, they die. I feed them three times a day, they still die. Right now we are down to one fish.

When Weston realized that his was dead he was devastated. He ran over to Kyle crying, saying that I killed his fish because I never cleaned the tank that week. Kyle's response was, 'that is the reason we don't own pets other than the dog we have, because mom doesn't know how to take care of them'. Then Westy said, 'would a turtle be safe in our house?'