The Rest of April

 Maybe our biggest accomplishment all month- Lila started really walking! It was so exciting and she's so cute walking around like she owns the place!

The kiddos had a morning over at Nana and Papa's to work in the yard. At the end of the "work party" (Insert child asking me, "Why does Papa always call it a work PARTY?") we pulled out the swing. So many cousin memories happen on this swing every spring/summer/fall. They were all so excited to get it out!

And the baby girls were twinning on accident so it obviously called for a picture.

Lila now wants to use a spoon to feed herself. It's super messy, but she stays pretty content the whole time.

This is so DAVIS. He spends most of his time in his Spider-Man outfit, and he loves that Bei Bei so so much. This sweet child makes me laugh all the time!

Mark and James taught Davis to climb the tree! He now spends a LOT of time up there! He's a little monkey. Also, since the beautiful spring weather has shown up we spend every morning outside, usually with some little friends and it's glorious. I never realize just how much I've missed the warmth and sunshine until it comes back. We've literally been spending almost every minute we can outside this past month!

Also, because of Ben switching jobs we were uninsured in April, so all month I was a little nervous this would be the time that someone broke an arm or something. Thank goodness we had zero health problems all month, but the extra tree climbing did make me a little more nervous!

My Grandma White's birthday is on April 15. I had been thinking about her a lot this year especially, so I wanted to do something to honor her on this day. I thought about what she was really known for- 1. her amazing cooking and 2. serving others. So Davis and I spent the morning making cookies and then we dropped them off for a few different people, my mom, and some neighbors. It was such a sweet way to spend the morning with my sweet boy (Lila was there too, but she wasn't helpful) and to honor my Grandma that I didn't get to know nearly well enough.

This is SO Chase and Hudson. I mean, we just bought a couch that seats like 12 people and is super comfortable. We have 5 bedrooms that were all empty and quiet at this time. There are chairs in the front room he could have used to do his reading. And yet he chose to lay on a hard bench with his head two inches from Chase's butt. Okay boys, you do you.

I think I took this picture because she's just. so. cute. Really I just squish her all day and tell her how much I love her.

Chase mowed and edged the lawn for the first time of the year (you can see him in the top corner) and of course, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man can never miss an opportunity to help mow.

We had Nate and Halie and the girls over for Sunday dinner (Nate and Halie were babysitting while Will and Kate went out of town) and it was a wild Sunday dinner for sure! I took this picture of them all on the couch, and while it's not the best photo, it does kind of capture each of their personalities.

And then the babies both wanted to be in the cozy coupe. This really made me smile because we have an almost identical picture of Will and Ella doing this Christmas 1987 in Will's cozy coupe. Felt like a Circle of Life moment.

Here Nana and Davis are fixing his Spider-Man costume. He's actually wearing it WHILE they are sewing it, just slipped the top part off to fix a glove.

This is just a normal day with Davis. He loves these headphones and always puts them on to do his "work" or his "homework". Ben has a pair of noise cancelled headphones he wears all day, so he likes to be just like his dad. 

Oh melt my heart Lila! She's grinning from ear to ear here because she's looking at the goats that roam the marsh behind our house. She gets so excited when she sees them! This girl loves animals. 

Like this neighbors cat. We actually know the cat now better than the actual neighbor. The cat is named Reese and Lila loves him. He's way too nice to her and puts up with a lot of tail and hair pulling.

My boys are both getting so dang good at the piano. Hudson gets so frustrated while practicing a lot of the time, but it's pretty great to see his progress. And Chase is just so amazing at it. He's been working on learning the whole, real version of Fur Elise and it's beautiful. Chase can literally just conquer any piece he puts his mind to. He's told me that he really likes playing and it's relaxing for him and calms his mind. 

While Davis and friends rode their scooters all over the church parking lot, Lila pushed her stroller. I have so many pictures of her on my phone, but I can't help it. She's just the cutest little thing.

This was a fun little reminder that came this month- Chase got mail. It's actually from a neighbor who lives two houses away, but it was fun for him to get something in the mailbox- especially a sweet little note. Makes me thankful for the village of people I have looking out for my children and helping to lift and raise them. 

Our Spring Break

 Spring Break this year was so fun! Last year's was kind of a bummer- we had just started quarantine and restrictions made it impossible to even go to a park! We stayed home the whole time. This year we got out and explored a lot of fun things we usually don't have time to do, plus the kids got in lots of playtime with friends.

We spent one glorious, sunny morning at Gailey Park with Baccioccos. It's so fun to do activities with them. All our kids line up perfectly in age and they all get along so well. Everyone is so entertained and they get along seamlessly. Marilee and I get to chat and the kids just play and play. 

I pulled a little April Fool's fun on the kids- ice cream for breakfast! My mom used to do that for us growing up. Davis actually had cereal because it was just too weird for him. Chase and Huds thought it was awesome though.

Davis spent almost all of the break in his Spider-Man costume. He's finally embraced the new costume and stopped wearing the threadbare one.

Ben started his new job! The kids were excited to see him off for his first day! (He went into the office for the first day, but it's mostly a work from home position).

We went to the Hill Aerospace Museum one morning with Baccioccos. They had a fun Easter Egg hunt throughout the museum (stickers to find with code words on them) and then they all got candy at the end for completing it. And they all loved seeing the airplanes. This place is really so cool, and we hadn't been in two years! 

These cute cousins made us laugh all weekend. My parents were watching Will and Kate's girls, so we spent some extra time up there helping entertain them. Huds would disappear with Nora, and usually Anna and Davis. He was running his rock climbing school out on the rocks- a favorite pastime of his. Rosie was missing her parents and really just wanted Nana and Papa to cuddle her (mostly Papa). Lila was suddenly pretty competitive/jealous, she wanted that same grandparent to hold her too! Which is funny because Lila never really wants Papa to hold her! But when he held Rosie, she wanted him too. 

Rosie fed Lila most of her lunch as well. I hope these two are best friends! They seem like they are off to a great start!

We spent a morning out at the Ogden Nature center. We took a good nature walk, played on the playground and saw the birds of prey. Davis knew exactly what an owl was, but kept calling the eagle a chicken.

The last few days of Spring Break had gloriously pleasant weather. We spent a lot of time outside. There is nothing quite like sunshine after a long winter!

On Friday we went to Tracy Aviary with my cousin Kelly and her daughter Abby. It was so fun to see them again. Because of the pandemic, I haven't seen Kelly in over a year! Abby had grown so much since I'd last seen her and she'd never even met Lila. The aviary was just the right amount of adventure and fun things to see and do. And it was sunny and just so nice to be outside and doing something pretty normal- we did have to wear masks the whole time (and just took them off for a second for the picture).

This picture makes me so happy- it's like it's Kelly and Courtney 2.0.

The second weekend of our break was Easter weekend and General Conference.  Here are the boys all set up with their conference treats (each bowl has a word on it, they get to take a treat when they hear the word) and some little worksheets to do. I have to say, this might have been our most successful conference yet, in terms of kids listening and being fairly quiet and their parents getting something out of conference. I mean, it was by no means perfect and silent, but it went pretty well! Take the little wins when they come!

Saturday evening we went to Ray and Diane's for some Easter fun! They had all kinds of games and activities planned for the kids, including an egg hunt and a pinata! Chase busted open the pinata (we should have had him go last...there were still a few older kids waiting for a turn). The boys are developing a great relationship with Jeremiah, Jaylah and Jordyn and had fun being with them. 

When we got home Saturday night I remembered we hadn't dyed eggs yet! I hurried and Lila to bed and then hard boiled some eggs. They turned out so beautiful, but I totally goofed and left them out all night. So in the interest of not getting food poisoning, we decided not to eat them.

Easter morning was sweet and simple! The kids all found their Easter baskets that had been filled by the Easter bunny. They each got a new swim suit and a few other little things. And then Ben made us strawberry shortcake biscuits for breakfast. Then we turned on Conference and listened to beautiful messages about Christ, the Atonement and Resurrection for the rest of the morning.

I did make a bunny cake, just like I have every Easter for years and just like my mom made for us growing up.

We finished off the holiday up at my parents house. Will, Kate and girls came and we had a delicious Easter dinner and the kids had another Easter egg hunt. It was a really lovely holiday, full of family time and sweet messages of our Savior.

This spring break was just what we needed- lots of time together, lots of time outdoors, some time with extended family and dear friends. We had lots of fun, had a little time to relax, some adventure. We got a few projects done around the house and plenty of piano practicing. Our time was full, and so was my heart!

March

March is full of fun, kind of made up, holidays. Some years we do a lot for them, some years we do a little. This year I thought it would be fun to send a holiday package to a friend from out of town. The Caldwells had been on my mind, so Chase helped me shop for little St. Patrick's Day themed gifts for each member of their family (stuff like green socks, green nail polish, green playdough, March themed bows for the baby Vivi, a rainbow candle, Mike and Mike's for Mike). We wrapped it up all rainbow themed and sent it off as a fun surprise for them!

Chase's basketball season has been a real highlight this winter! He has practiced so much this last year and improved a lot. Games were a little emotionally charged for him, with a couple games being really hard, and he learned a lot about positive attitude, cheering on his teammates, being a team player and working hard to the last second. I was so proud of him and how far he came this year!

Also, his team was full of his friends! Luca, Jaxson, Austin and Levi were all on his team! They were a talented little team and went into the tournament undefeated! They won their first game pretty easily. On the 2nd night they played again and were tied with almost no time left on the clock- the other team got the ball and a poor kid got confused and scored in Chase's teams basket! So Chase's team ended up winning under weird circumstances. We all felt so bad for that little boy! Chase was elated though because that meant they got to come back for the championship game later that night!

All season they only allowed one parent to watch each game, but for the championship game they let two come! We hurried and had my mom come down to babysit so we could both go and I'm so glad we did! Chase's little team played so hard- and the other team was so good! They were trailing by two baskets right up until the very end! They took the lead and held it for the last 30 seconds until the buzzer went off and won! I loved seeing them all jump and cheer when they realized they'd won the game! I may have teared up a little I was so happy for them!

One great thing about this little team is that there were so many good players and they truly learned to play as a team. Many of the other teams we played had 1 or 2 all-star players that scored all their points. On this team I feel like everyone carried their weight and although some were a little more advanced players, they didn't have one all-star who did all the work. It was so fun to watch them play. This year Chase realized what an asset he could be to the team in rebounds, and frequently scored a basket or two in games.

He was so proud of his trophy he carried it from room to room with him the next day. It sat on the piano while he practiced, it sat on the desk while he did his distance learning, at the table while he ate. He basked in the glory of the moment for a good while.

Oh Davis- I snapped this picture after we'd finished doing the sacrament at home one Sunday. We had pulled out our scriptures to do reading and he went and filled a plate with more bread, blessed it (almost word for word the actual sacrament prayer) and then proceeded to pretend to pass it to all of us, except he ate it all. Then he went and got water cups and repeated the whole thing with the water (but did demand we all drink from the cups). This is right where Ben sets up the sacrament when we do it at home. Our house didn't get struck by lightning and it was super adorable, if not a little irreverent.

Lila got a doll for her birthday from Papa Ray and Grandma and this baby stroller from Will and Kate, and they have been very loved! It's kind of funny to see these pink, girly toys around the house now after years and years of trucks and tractors and lightsabers.

Also, Lila is just the cutest in the tub. She flashes me the best smiles while she's playing away in there. I usually bathe her right after dinner, but sometimes when she's really grumpy we do a bath in the afternoon too.

Daddy and Lila dancing in the kitchen- she loved this! Every time he stopped she'd start waving her hands at him until he kept going. She's got him wrapped around her little finger.

St. Patrick's Day ended up being quite an eventful day. In my efforts to be a fun mom I made green muffins the night before and set the table with our green tablecloth. Lucky the leprechaun even stopped by a left a few notes for the boys.

It really did turn out to be our LUCKY day! Ben got a new job! 

A little background- Ben has been at RedList for 3.5 years and hasn't been super happy there. I mean, it's been okay, but not great. The hours are extreme. The pay isn't great. The expectations are unrealistic. The commute is long (1 hour with no traffic each way). It paid the bills and gave him good experience for sure, but he just wasn't loving it. A year ago he was seriously looking at other jobs and a few seemed really promising, and then Covid hit and pretty much everyone started a hiring freeze. He decided to just sit tight for awhile.

A few weeks ago, several recruiters started reaching out to him on LinkedIn. If the job seemed interesting he took the interview and just started casually interviewing- not really doing any prospecting or looking on his own. After a successful interview with a company called Eccovia, he noticed that he had a mutual friend, Anthony Booyse, with the hiring manager. On March 16 he did an interview with her and her boss, which he said went extremely well. He let her know at the end that he's good friend's with Anthony and would like to add him to his reference list. Anthony called Ben an hour later and told him he was pretty confident he'd get the job. We were kind of hopeful, but not banking on it. Stuff like this has happened before and something else has come up (hiring freeze, funding didn't come through, internal candidate surfaced, etc.).

The next morning (the 17th) they called at 9:00 am and offered Ben the job! All the details were just perfect- it was like all the stars aligned. It's totally work from home right now, with the possibility of 1-2 days a week in the office in the future. But even then, the commute is cut in half! The pay is significantly better. The company is much more established. They have a 401k program. Great insurance benefits. We couldn't ask for more... (except we did, Ben asked them to add a little bit to the already generous salary and they did!). We couldn't believe it! It was definitely an exciting day!

Baseball season is just around the corner, which has found our boys out practicing with their mitts and balls more often. Both of the big boys are really good sports at playing with Davis, even though he kept referring to it as his "soccer mitt". I can't wait for baseball season! Spending spring evenings at the ballpark watching my boys play is my favorite.

 These pictures were just before church one Sunday because they all looked so dang cute. Capturing a cute picture of the four of them together is no easy task. It was significantly easier without the baby :) Also, every time I go to take a picture of them, all three boys fight over who gets to hold Lila. She's one loved little sister.