May

 Oh I love May! The weather is just dreamy, blossoms are blooming, the air is fresh and smells amazing- and it's so full of fun activities with my kiddos! The kiwi crates arrived late one night and I found the kids are 6:30 on Saturday morning busily putting them together. These have been such a fun activity for these smart boys!

We had the cousins over to play one afternoon and I can never pass up an opportunity to photograph these two together. On this particular day they were struggling to share, well, anything. Including the chair. But they did settle on sitting in it together.

She looks so cute all dressed up for church- I love it when I can actually capture her sweetness in a photo. 

Now she's really committed to walking and walks everywhere these days. It's darling, and also so much easier on the toes of her shoes. Also, I'm a little lazy so she doesn't actually wear shoes all that often.

Davis has so much energy, but when he does chillax on the couch he looks so cute and grown up! He actually doesn't watch that much TV, but when he does he takes it very, very seriously.

The big boys started baseball! I love baseball season so much. I love watching my boys play. I love spending so much of our spring outside (it's so pleasant!). I love seeing them learn new things and make new friends. Davis was sure he was playing this year. We've been reading "Froggy plays T-ball" every single day (Davis likes to choose a set of about 5 books that we read over and over for weeks at a time). At Hudson's first game, he stood on the bleachers and yelled "I gotta GET IN THERE! I've gotta hit the ball up, up, up and out of the park!" (Direct quote from Froggy). It was so cute and funny.

But Davis actually meant business. I think he figured that his exclusion from the game had nothing to do with his age, and everything to do with lack of proper gear. So he came to the next game prepared. He wore a jersey. He grabbed this old football helmet. And with his little plastic bat in hand, literally just tried to scale the fence to join the game! (As soon as I snapped this picture I went to retrieve him, and he was almost over the top at the fence at that point). Ben tried to let him play there on the sidelines, but he was adamant that he only wanted to play on the legit field. He's going to be so excited when it's finally his turn!

Of course we had to celebrate May the 4th! It was actually a busy evening full of baseball games- but I did make these R2D2 brownies for the boys after school snack, which they were thrilled about. It was funny to remember this day last year. It was a Monday, but since EVERYTHING was cancelled back then (school, sports, church, all social activity) we had the whole day at home. We did festive brownies AND watched a movie. No time this year! It made me appreciate the sweetness of the time we had together last year, and appreciate the beauty of getting to be involved in the busyness this year.

We had an early Mothers Day dinner with my family. It's always a party with this gang!

Hudson's baseball season was so fun! He hit the ball twice and actually got on base! One of those times he actually got home! He was on a team with lots of good players and they won almost every game. Mostly, he loved hanging out with his team, laughing in the dugout and sometimes playing in the dirt in the outfield. I'm so glad he got on the same team as Richie- that was a blast!

This is Davis's little gang! This group of boys plays together all the time, mostly bopping between our yards. He loves his little friends! Next year they'll all be in school, except Davis, and I'm not sure how he'll handle it!

Lila started wearing little pony tails and pig tails and it's the cutest thing ever. 

Chase's house at school (Isibindi) won their little house challenge, and the reward was a chalk dust fight! He was so excited and came home from school so messy! I made him go straight to take a shower.

Doing Lila's hair became a real highlight of May for me :)

Just my sweet boys dressed up before church one Sunday. We are back to two hours of church! They kids get to go to primary! Davis is officially a sunbeam, or a "butterbean" as he's been calling it. For our first time back in Relief Society we decided to make it a little party and we had cupcakes and balloons and it was so cute and fun! Lindsay helped me decorate like 100 cupcakes and they turned out so pretty, I felt like we were ready to host a wedding or something!

The boys are helping Papa put in a huge garden at Aaron's. Their plan is to have a little farmers market in the fall and sell all the produce. The boys have big plans of what they'll do with all their money! Davis is the most enthusiastic helper.

Chase's baseball season has been a real growth opportunity for him! They let the kids pitch this year- which is a huge challenge. Chase got to pitch in a few different games and did great! He's been practicing pitching at home with Ben and he's got quite a good arm. He's also hit some great runs this year. Chase's competitive side has really come out and sometimes he's struggled to control his emotions when the game didn't go well, or he struck out, or had unfair calls made. I think he's learned a lot though! 

For Chase's 4th grade county report he got Garfield county- which is kind of nice because we actually visited it earlier in the year! That's where Bryce Canyon is! He had to choose a special project to do about his county and he chose to make a diorama. I love how it turned out! Literally all I did was make the salt dough and buy him paint, he did the rest by himself. For a kid who doesn't necessarily love an art project, it was fun to see him enjoy doing this.

The cutest little spectator at brother's games!

I snapped this photo of Hudson on first base! This was after he got his 2nd hit of the season. I wish I could have captured his face when he actually hit the ball- mix of surprise and excitement!

May went so fast! It was so busy with school, end of year activities, baseball and playing outside in the beautiful weather as much as we could. Over the last few months we've been playing the game of "this time last year" and remembering what the world was like. May was a big month of settling back into mostly normal- baseball resuming, 2 hours of church, mask mandate went away. We are getting back to normal and it feels so good!

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!