** MAY

I guess I will continue in my tradition of condensing each month into one post. So here goes....MAY! First of all, it was a beautiful month...not too hot, not too cold, and we got a little rain. Lovely. Second, it is the end of the school year and there are one million things going on and I am not going to post pictures and talk about them all. Just know that with 3 kids in 2 different schools, that the last few weeks have been jammed packed!! I enjoyed each event, but for the sake of efficient blogging I will only include my favorites. And so May begins with:

The Annual May Day Dance

at the elementary school. This is a very old tradition at the school. It starts each year with the 5th grade braiding the May Pole and then each grade performs a different dance. The kids work very hard to get them all right. Everyone in the valley comes and it is a very big deal. Getting seats is tricky, but it a a very fun night for all! Kyle is required to take this night off of work every year, so that he doesn't miss all the fun and because I refuse to handle this night alone.

Josh (and all of the first graders) getting into place before dancing to: "I Like To Move, Move It" from the movie Madagascar. I believe he is playing the part of a zebra. (We didn't coordinate outfits with the girl on his left) Josh is usually very shy, but he really showed us his moves that night!! (see video below). He had his tongue sticking out in concentration almost the entire dance (Kyle does the same thing when concentrating...it must be genetic).

Nate (in costume) really "getting down" to "Stayin' Alive". The 4th grade does this dance every year and it is a crowd favorite. After the 4th grade dances, they play the song again so that everyone in the audience and the other grades can "get down" too! Nate loved doing this dance and was not shy at all (see video below). He had a lot of fun!!

Later in the month...

Ansley had her Spring Orchestra Concert. They have improved so much this year and it was actually a joy to listen to this time. She wasn't thrilled about performing because she felt like the viola section wasn't as prepared as they should be, but they did a great job! This isn't the best picture, but it was the only one that wasn't too blurry. This past week, her middle school had a 6th grade awards ceremony. She did great this year and received several awards and even some cash...they never gave out cash when I was in school! We are so proud of all she accomplished this past school year and can't wait to see what she will do next year!

Claire has become very mobile (see video below)! And she loves to make a good mess. This particular night, she scattered all the school papers that had been placed on the side table in the family room and then she was also able to reach a can of Pringles that Kyle left on the table. She didn't like the chips (dill pickle flavor), but she sure enjoyed dumping them out and smashing them into the carpet! It is a good thing she is so darn cute!

We have started a new tradition in our house that has changed my life! It is called: Laundry Night! We spend the day washing every article of clothing in the house. Then we dump it all on the family room floor, turn on a movie, and sort, fold and put away all the clothes. We all work together (some more than others) and it gets done so quickly! We get to spend time together as a family, everyone has clean clothes for the week, and the laundry room is always clean. It is a win-win-win situation! Love it! Can you see Eli on top of the pile?

7 people + 1 week = A LOT OF CLOTHES

Memorial Day Weekend...

We had some much anticipated guests for Memorial Day weekend...Dave, LaNeace, and Elle came for a visit! The kids couldn't wait and were talking about it for a week before they got here. They always have some much fun with Dave and LaNeace. Dave, Ansley and Nate decided the sleep on the trampoline one night. Ans and Nate have never done this before (too scared), but with Uncle Dave with them, they decided to brave it. They loved it! And so did Dave. He said it was way more comfortable then sharing Ansley's bed with LaNeace and Elle. Sorry about the accommodations, Dave. But you can sleep on the trampoline anytime you want!

Cute Elle and Eli. Eli is one year older than Elle. They have always had a love/hate relationship. Eli loves Elle and Elle..well...she doesn't love Eli...until now! I think Elle officially likes Eli! She has never been a fan of Eli's "in your face" way of doing things and was scared of him when she was smaller. But, this time, they had a lot of fun playing together and Elle really warmed up to Eli. They spent endless hours jumping on the trampoline, swinging on the swings and riding bikes. I am so glad they had fun together!

We got the pool all set up before Dave and LaNeace came so that we could enjoy the weekend in the pool, but it was a little too chilly. The kids spent a little time in it, but Elle wasn't a fan of the cold water and so they were only in the pool for a short time. This picture is of Nate being thrown in head first by Kyle.

Fun in the pool.

This past week...

Every year, the 4th grade does country reports. Each kid picks a country to do a report on and the spend a lot of time learning everything about that country. They then write a report, make maps, and do several projects about that country. This year they had a musical program where they dressed in costumes from their chosen country, sang songs from different countries and even learned a few dances. The performance was really cute. Nate chose to do Germany and that is him in the back row in the light blue shirt and suspenders.

This is Nate and some of his classmates performing a Russian folk dance. They did a great job. Yes, Nate is a head taller than everyone his age.

The day after the musical program, the 4th graders line the hallways of the school with their desks and displays from their chosen countries. All the parents and students from the school get to walk to halls and ask the kids questions about their countries and see all the hard work they put into their projects. This is Nate in front of his display. He is standing in front of the flag that he and I sewed together. He worked really hard on his project and he it was awesome!! He looked so great in his costume. He looked just like a little German boy. You can just see the German in him. I was proud and my grandma would be SO proud.

This is a picture looking down the hallway at all the displays. The girl next to him did Germany as well and the 2 of them looked so cute together!

And last, but not least...

Claire is walking!! She has been timidly trying to walk for a while now, but just barely started doing it all the time. It is a whole new world for her. I have learned since becoming a mother, that it is possible to be happy and sad at the same time. I am so proud to see her up and walking, but so sad to see her growing up and out of the baby stage. Tear in my eye. I love this little one so much and I just want to bottle her up! She has also become a little chatter box...which you will see in this video. I am really sick of all the growing up that is going on in our house!!!

UNTIL NEXT MONTH...BUT MAYBE SOONER...

*Concrete Jungle

We left Las Vegas to get out of the "concrete jungle" and we moved to the country. Well, Kyle has decided to build us our own "concrete jungle". We finally had the new driveway poured and also added another patio to the yard side of the new garage. So, all that was added to the huge concrete patio we already have in the back and the concrete sidewalk that goes all the way around the house. Basically, it is a TON of concrete. And luckily, the concrete is exactly the same color as our house and garage. We get to live in a world of gray. Ugh! (We will be painting the house and garage sooner than Kyle thinks!) Kyle couldn't wait to put the basketball hoop up and the kids (and neighbors) love it! He was so excited for his boys to be able to "shoot hoops".

Nate, Josh and 2 of Nate's friends playing basketball. It is so funny to watch them because they have no idea how the game is actually played.

Kyle took this short video of the boys playing basketball. He just happened to capture Josh's greatest basketball moment to date. Josh is in the white shirt. He is playing with 3 boys that are all at least 3 years older than him. Way to go Josh!

OOPS!! More April...

Long story short...

Mid-April, Josh "accidentally" hit Eli in the head with a 2-3 pound rock. We AGAIN learned the lesson: head wounds bleed A LOT!! Left kids with Ansley and lovely neighbor, Mrs. Sandusky and drove like crazy to the hospital in Mesquite. 35 minute drive in under 20 minutes! Said a prayer on the way. Eli calmed down. Bleeding slowed down. Got right into the E.R. (small towns have their perks...a friend took her son into an E.R. in Las Vegas the week before this for stitches and they had a 3 hour wait!!) Eli called Josh to tell him that he was OK so that Josh could stop crying and calm down. Head CT came back normal...no skull fracture. Stitches...Eli didn't cry and held perfectly still. Dr. told Eli he was the best pediatric patient he had seen all month. He was so amazing and brave. Went to a drive-thru on the way home to get Eli some dinner. We were going to go in somewhere, but it turns out we were all covered in blood and we looked like we were straight out of a horror film. We are blessed that it wasn't much worse. And for the record: This was the first time in 10 years that Kyle has been home when an emergency required a trip to the E.R. (there have been many!). The kids just always get hurt and sick when he is at work. We love Eli, but we know this is just one of many (no, it isn't his first) more trips to the E.R.!

This is the hole in Eli's head. After the Dr. cut his hair and then cleaned and irrigated the wound, Kyle asked him to step back so he could take a photo. This picture does not do the hole in his head justice!

In the first picture, Eli is waiting to go get his head CT. That picture was taken AFTER we cleaned him up. Did I mention there was A LOT of blood? And no...I didn't grab my camera before leaving for the hospital. These pictures were taken with Kyle's cell phone.

*APRIL

April. I don't really know where April went. It came and went so fast. I guess I will just continue to condense every month down into one post. Life is crazy. The month started with a visit from Kyle's parents. They were here over Conference weekend and were such a huge help...as always. There was a lot of 4-wheeling adventures and games and food. Kyle was on vacation so he was even able to go to the Priesthood session with his dad...a rare treat. The kids LOVE having them here and there are always lots of tears when they load up and go home (some of Eli's tears might be shed because he will miss Grandpa's 4-wheelers, too!)

Kyle and Ansley passing the time during Conference (during a song...I am sure). Playing the hand slap game. Yes, Claire is in the background sitting on the bag that holds our nebulizer and chewing on the electrical cord... parental supervision at its best.

Grandpa and Grandma playing with Claire during Conference.

Claire and Grandpa.

Grandma and Grandpa enjoying some ping-pong. We had a lot of fun playing ping-pong with them. Kyle and I played doubles against them and they are some fierce competition!

*The Fair*

The County Fair was the second week of April. Since it happens to take place in our little town, everyone gets involved...except us. We are not huge fans. It is hot and dusty, there are bees, it costs a lot to take a family of 7 and feed them all and well....we just don't love it. The whole town shuts down for "The Fair". The kids don't even have to go to school. It is fun for an afternoon, but a lot of people go all 4 days and spend tons of money (yes, Tuna...I mean YOU!). We took the kids for a couple of hours and it was plenty. We didn't even get carnival passes this year because I refuse to put my childrens' lives in the hands of a bunch of "carnies" (carnival people...they are scary). The kids were a little (OK...a LOT) bummed, but they had fun doing other things at the fair. Until next year, Fair...we will miss you....not really!

Eli on the pony ride. He did love this even though his face isn't saying so. I don't know if the pony loved it...they put Eli on the smallest pony. He probably should be moving on to full size horses at his weight!

That is Nate on the rock wall. Every year he BEGS to climb the rock wall and every year he wimps out before he gets to the top...

but NOT this year!!! He made it all the way to the top. We were so proud of him and he was pretty proud of himself.

Kyle and the boys went on this interesting virtual reality video game thing. The chairs they were in moved around while they watched some movie or something through those fancy goggle things. I really have no idea what it was, but they looked ridiculous doing it! You can see that Josh has his head down. I was worried about him because he gets motion sickness very easily, but he was fine.

Nate and Tuna. Ridiculous!!!

Josh and Eli feeding baby goats. So cute.

Ansley aka "Pop" and her friends Lauren aka "Snap" and Lynae aka "Crackle". They had those hats made up at the fair. Aren't they clever....DORKS!

Claire in kiddie land. She quite enjoyed her time out of the stroller.

Later in the month...

Ansley's dance team performed for the last time at the end of April. They danced at a cancer fundraiser. This is a picture of Ansley with 2 of her good friends on the dance team, Karla and Kaylee, at the fundraiser. Ansley decided not to try out for the dance team again and instead she tried out for cheerleading and made it. She is excited to try something different next year. She will miss being with her friends on the dance team, but her friend Karla (on the left) made the cheerleading squad too, so Ansley is excited about that. Ansley good friends, Lauren and Lynae (aka Snap and Crackle) made the cheerleading squad, too! Ansley is thrilled!

Ansley with her dance coach, Meagan. Ansley really loves Meagan and it going to miss her. Meagan is moving to Utah. The girls really wanted to dance at this cancer fundraiser because Meagan was diagnosed with cancer 5 years ago. She was in remission, but the cancer returned several months ago and she is fighting it again. Ansley learned a lot from Meagan this past year and she will miss her friend/coach a lot.

Kyle and Ans. Love this picture.

Cute Claire pretending to be shy.

And finally...at the end of April, Kyle and I took Eli and Claire with us on a very quick trip to Phoenix. My dad had a heart attack and had to have surgery. It was a little scary, but he is doing good now and his cardiologist said everything looks great. We left on Sunday morning and came back on Monday afternoon. Ans, Nate and Josh stayed with friends and we were able to get back before bedtime on Monday. Eli and Claire did great in the car (13 hours in 2 days) until the last hour on the way home. Eli was delirious and Claire cried for an entire hour. They were so worn out. I was glad I was able to be with my dad while he was in the hospital. I am so glad that things turned out ok and that he has many years ahead of him. This picture was taken overlooking the lake side of Hoover Dam. Claire had a poopy diaper blow-out and we had to stop with ALL of the tourists and change her. Kyle has Eli standing on a wall that has probably a 100 foot drop off the other side. Eli is standing on a sign that says: DANGER: STAY OFF WALL! You should have seen some of the looks we got from the foreigners, but after being in the car for 12 hours with 2 little ones and still an hour left to drive, I really didn't care.

*And that concludes April. Check back in June and I should have May all ready to go! Someday I will catch up and be able to stay on top of this blog!