Shun

Our Japanese friend Shun, who lived with us all school year went home last week and here are some of the photos we got before he left. It is sure different around here without him. He is a great kid and we enjoyed having him in our home. We miss him and hope to visit him in Japan some day.

Thanksgiving Point Farm

On Tuesday we met up with some of my good friends from High school at Thanksgiving Point Farm. It is such a great place where the kids can see all the farm animals and feed them. They fed the chickens and the sheep even ate out of their hands. They loved seeing the brand new baby chicks and they especially loved going on a pony ride. We had a picnic and it was great to talk and catch up with my friends. My sister in law Meg and her daughter Lily also came along in our van and it made the drive so much better. They kids played so well in the car even when we got stuck in traffic. We are so happy to have Chris and Meg in Bountiful now so that we can see them more often.

Some Fun Things

The kids were yelling for me to come find them the other day and this is where I found them. I am not sure how they thought of the idea, but they had pillows and everything it the dryer to make it comfortable for them. I couldn't believe they both fit inside. They thought they were so funny!!We found a pond at the base of Farmington canyon the other day on our Sunday drive. There were other kids playing in the water so of course our kids wanted to get right in, even though it was freezing cold water from the winter runoff. They loved playing with their cousin Lily who was with us.
While my parents were up visiting one weekend my Dad decided to try to help Brinlee learn to ride a bike without training wheels. It didn't last too long until decided she needed a little more time getting comfortable on the bike with training wheels. We found her a great bike at DI . It is like new and perfect for her.

We were at DI the other day and they had all this great Winter gear on sale. We found some great ski helmets and boots for the kids for only $2 a piece. They were so excited about it and they still have fun putting them on and playing in them. We hope that someday soon they will be able to use them.

Brinlee's school group

Brinlee is finished with her preschool group that we did this year. She really loved learning Spanish and doing all the other fun activities that the group did. I feel like she learned so much this year and has done so well at starting to read and write. In fact she is constantly drawing and writing in notebooks. She has so many notebooks that are already full. She makes pictures for me multiple times everyday and her favorite thing to write is "I love Mom and Dad," which always makes me happy. Last week, one morning she came into my room before I was out of bed and was so excited to show me what she had been drawing. She had 5 pages she had drawn that morning and she had a whole story to go with it about a girl named Rainbow sailing across the see to Africa to buy a necklace, a bracelet and a dog. It was so cute! Then last night when I was putting her to bed she kept saying," Just a little bit more time to draw in my notebook please." She is our darling little artist.
Here is a picture of her class and their Spanish teacher. The kids are holding their Spanish Alphabet books they made. She is so excited for Kindergarten next year.

Family Trip

Instead of our original plan of going to Disneyland we decided to take a simpler trip and head to St George for a 3 day weekend for some camping, hiking and playing. We headed down on a Thursday night so we would have 3 days of fun. We did a lot of fun stuff with the kids, like went to a Pirate Island restaurant where it is all decorated like a pirate ship and has sound effects. There are also games and things for the kids. They really liked it. We also went to Build a Bear and let the kids each make a bear. They really had fun stuffing them and dressing them and they wont let go of them now. That night my Mom watched the kids while Budd and I were able to go out for a nice break. Saturday was the day for hiking and camping and it started out windy, rainy and chilly. We ended up just hanging out and resting a bunch and then decided to head out to our camp site to check it out. It was in Snow Canyon State Park near St George. It is so beautiful with tons of red rock. We decided to brave the weather and set up camp. Then we took off for a hike. The kids loved it and were able to actually hike pretty far, at least a mile or more with no complaining. They loved exploring the little caves and playing on the rocks. We had a great fire that night and then the kids were so excited to sleep in the tent. Brinlee didn't make a sound all night, but Spencer got cold and had to get in our sleeping bag. It was a little chilly, but not too bad. Budd and I stayed up later enjoying the fire and the amazing stars. It was beautiful. When Brinlee woke up in the morning, the first thing she said was "I love it, I love it!" I asked her what she was talking about and she said, "camping and hiking" with a huge smile on her face. Hearing those words makes any vacation a success. We had a nice fire in the morning and then took down camp and went and played in the sand dunes. The kids really loved jumping in the sand and running down the hills. We drove home that afternoon and finished the fun book on tape that Budd and I had been listening to. It makes the drive go by so much quicker. It was a really fun trip.

Happy 5th Birthday Brinlee

I can hardly believe that Brinlee is 5. She is so happy about it and has been talking about it since she turned 4. She had a really fun little party with her friends. She planned the whole thing. First they all painted little ceramic ponies since, of course, she had to have an art project. Then we moved onto a picnic in the front room on a blanket, with little sandwiches, and all kinds of other finger food. She loves to do that. Then instead of cake, each friend got a cupcake to decorate on their own. We had pink frosting of course and all kinds of sweet goodies for on top. There is nothing better than a lot of sugar to make a great party, right? They all loved it and Brinlee had a blast. She had a wonderful day. We are so grateful to have Brinlee. She is such a wonderful and darling little girl. She brings so much happiness into our lives.

Easter

What a fun Easter. The kids had fun doing many Easter egg hunts and eating way too much candy. Spencer especially has a real sweet tooth. Most of my side of the family all got together at our house for dying eggs, an egg hunt, lunch and hanging out. It was great to all be together. The kids loved playing marbles with Grandpa and we did Brinlee's hair in rag curls Saturday night so that it was so cute and curly for Sunday. The kid looked so nice dressed up for Easter Sunday. Budd directed 2 great numbers for the choir on Sunday and they were beautiful. Then while directing the closing hymn for sacrament meeting he got lightheaded and almost fell over. He somehow managed to keep directing, and just stopped singing and held onto the music stand for support and made it through. That was a close one.