April

April is over. It was a very busy month around here.

Kyle is still playing tennis, he has 2 more matches left.  He has enjoyed it and learned a lot.  He also had his Eagle scout board of review a couple of weeks ago, it went well and they signed off all the paperwork, once he hears back from the National board we will schedule his Eagle Scout court of honor.  Kyle also ran for Sophmore class president he didnt win, but I think he had a good time trying, he said he might try it again next year. He has had a couple of big projects at school one was called "What would Grandma Do?" they had to find things around the house that they no longer are using and turn them into something else.  Kyle is a shoe guy so he made shoes out of an old sled and a pillowcase.

Hailey is doing awesome in school.  She too has had a lot of big projects she just finished one about Korea.  She has also been doing a lot of pet sitting she watches the neighbors pets on the weekends, she likes making a little extra money.

Katie and Nicole have been working hard on their play, it will be this coming weekend.  They have had practice most days after school, we are excited to watch it in a few days.

Lydia is enjoying being 7.  She is quite the little reader these days, she reads everything, it is fun to watch her learn and grow so much.

On Saturday after the chores were done we went on a little family hike.  It was just a few miles from our house, the wildflowers are in bloom now so it was very pretty.

Lydias Birthday

Lydia turned 7 yesterday.  We had a fun day celebrating with her.  We started off with Eggos for breakfast. She opened her presents and got a basket for her bike, a movie, and apron and muffin mix, and a giant ball to play with on the trampoline.  What she really wanted to do for her special day was have her friend Adrik over to play.  His parents were speaking at youth conference so they said we could pick him up and drop him off back at home whenever we wanted. He ended up staying all day and they played hard all day long.  We had corndogs and fruit salad for dinner and then watched the movie Sing together.  It was a fun day, we missed having Kyle home, he was at youth conference all day, so he missed out on cake and ice cream and all the fun.

  We love our Lydia!!

Nelda Beck

My Grandma Nelda Beck passed away a couple of weeks ago.  We were able to drive over to Shelton last weekend and attend her memorial service.  It was really nice, we all enjoyed hearing and learning a little bit more about her and the life that she lived. 

I have lots of wonderful memories of my Grandma, we were fortunate enough to live close by my Grandparents, so we knew them well and got to spend lots of time with them.  Most of my memories of them were when they loved at coon lake and took care of the church property there.  I remember going on walks with Grandma around the property and talking with her as we walked, sometimes we would even get to spend the night there, that was always lots of fun.  She always played games and did puzzles with us.  I always looked forward to the family Christmas party, she always made each grand kid an ornament.  She had a way of making each person feel special and loved. 

I am glad that my kids have had the opportunity to know her a little. Whenever we would go to my parents house we would make sure that we got in a visit with my Grandma as well.  Hailey, Katie, and Nicole had a special visit with her this past summer, they said that they went over and spent a couple of hours there and she showed them all of her paintings and special things and told them stories. 

We will miss her, she was a special person and I am so thankful for the relationships that we had with her and the memories that we have made.  I know that we will see her again and I am very thankful for that knowledge.

Lydias First Grade class picture

Spring Break

This past week was our spring Break.  The first part of the week we mostly hung out at home.  Marc took Monday off and we did a bunch of yard work.  The kids played a lot on the trampoline and a lot of basketball.  The weather was nice, so we spent a lot of time outside.  On Friday we drove to Portland.  We took the slow way and drove up to all the lookouts and the waterfalls, the weather wasn't great, there was a lot of rain, but the drive was beautiful everything is so green.

We got to Portland and it was really raining so we went and saw an IMAX 3D movie, it was about the ocean.

We went out to dinner, which is something we don't do often so it is fun and special.
Then we hung out at the hotel watching TV, which is something else we don't do often so everyone thought that was pretty fun.

We got up Saturday and got ready to go to Naomis baptism.  It was nice to be able to be there with everyone.

  After the baptism we went to another church building and played in the gym and ate lunch we also did an Easter egg hunt.  Usually Rachel and Tylers family spend Easter at out house but they weren't able to come this year so we didn't want to miss out on all the Easter fun.

We stayed and visited at Leahs house for a little bit and then started the journey home.  We decided to stop and climb Beacon Rock, it was a fun little hike, with beautiful views.  It was sunny on the way up but really started pouring on the way back down, luckily we were almost down before it started.

It was a nice spring break, only 2 months of school left!

March

March has come and gone.  We enjoyed celebrating St. Patricks Day.

 Katie, Nicole and Lydia built this leprechaun trap.  And Lydia brought home lots of fun artwork.  We also had Lucky Charms for breakfast and green cheesecake for desert.

We have had fun with March Madness.  Lydia is pretty excited she has Gonzaga winning, the rest of our winning teams are out.

Kyle has had fun playing a lot of tennis.  We went and played a little bit at the park the other day, Marc was really enjoying it, so he bought himself a racket so they can play more often.

This past week was conference week for the schools, so the kids only had 1/2 days.  Kyle spent a couple of days at friends houses, and the girls had friends over here a couple of times.  One afternoon we met up with a bunch of friends and went hiking, that was lots of fun.

This is one of Lydias favorite friends, they have such a good time together.  They made this fort on our hike.

Lydia also got to go to a friends birthday party, it was a roller skating party she loved it.

Marc and I were able to go with the Beehives to the temple to do baptisms, Hailey provided most of the names that they did, it was fun to get to know the girls a little better.

We loved watching conference this weekend.  The kids did great, and we planned some outings in between sessions which was fun.  after the last session we went to the park and fed the ducks and walked around the park a couple of times, the kids found a park bench that they really liked and every time we passed it they posed for a picture.