Payson Temple

Last week after Ella's preschool graduation and my melanoma check we headed down to see the new Payson Temple. We hadn't had a single day where we could have gone and there was only two days left for the Open House. Like I said when Andrew has a day off we try and see how much we can cram into that day, it is exhausting! We arrived just after 5 and didn't have tickets but the stand-by line was non-existent so we walked right into the little video they show you and then headed over to get booties put on. This temple is huge and was so beautiful! It had the most amazing sealing rooms and the marriage waiting room was amazing and huge! I wouldn't mind if one of my kids decided to get married there one day it is so pretty. The stained glass windows have apple blossoms and the higher you get in the temple the more progressed the blossoms become, it is amazing! My parents and my little sister Sarah came with us and it was nice to have someone else hold Addie for a minute, thanks Sarah! It is so neat to take our kids in and explain some things to them and see how much they are in awe! The Spirit is so amazing already in there! 

The rain let up just as we pulled in and stayed away while we were there!

My parents and Sarah! My Dad is growing out this beard thing and his hair because the three of them are going back to Nauvoo for two weeks to be in the Pageant's there. 

The views from the temple are amazing as well!

Preschool program and graduation

Ella had her Preschool program and Graduation last Thursday the 21st. Andrew usually works Thursday's and can't usually get it off. He happened to be asked to switch and work Wednesday instead of Thursday a couple months ago and it worked out perfectly! It ended up being the day of her program and I was so glad he could come with me! I wanted to get there early because last program I couldn't see her! She has loved preschool and told me she loves school and would rather be there than at home most days! Her teachers has been amazing! The preschool she went to was LDS based and they would do a scripture and prayer each morning, she loved that part. Her teacher Miss Kris a couple weeks before told me that her three kids 9,13, and 15 all got baptized the day before mother's day! She had somehow in her life fallen away from the church and working there had slowly helped her come back, she said there were over 200 people at the baptism! She loved Ella! We will definitely miss her! Ella is more than ready for Kindergarten and is so close to reading! She is itching to read! Anyways their program was so cute, they sang about 7 songs and then they each got a class picture and little diploma! 

Addie luckily sat on my lap most of it!

Ella and her friend Maddie! I wish they were going to the same school but they aren't!

Our Yard

Our yard is such a work in progress. It is kind of overwhelming! One of our neighbors keeps asking if we are going to do it and it is starting to get annoying, seriously next time he asks I feel like telling him no, we are going to have dirt forever. Anyways it has rained pretty much daily for the last I don't know month so getting to it and getting it done has been hard! Andrew had a weeding night and his brother, brother in law and nephews came and they got a lot of the weeds gone. Andrew has been out every night it is dry and not to muddy pulling weeds. We finally got it all measured out and hopefully our sprinklers will be started in the next week! It will be nice once it is finally done and we get our sod in! We bought a play set about two months ago as well hopefully that will be put up by the end of the summer, I am tired of it sitting in my garage! 

Andrew has put in so many hours and he is so sore by the time he gets into bed! 

Addie loves to watch from the deck, I blocked the stairs off this night and was able to get the dishes done while she played out there!

Andrew put the other two to work moving rocks! They loved it! Notice the huge pile of weeds in the corner! It has doubled in size since this picture!

Dance Recital

May 17th Ella had her final dance recital for the spring. She loves dance so much and I haven't found anywhere around here I love yet so I probably will keep taking her down to where she has gone for another year. It is nice to be able to go down and see my mom once a week and spend the afternoon there. She also has the cutest class and hope they all stay next year as well!

My mom wanted a picture of her class. She has had 5 or 6 of the girls in her kindergarten class either this year or last year. They think it is so awesome their school teacher comes to their dance recital! 

This is their costume for Rockin Robin!

We had a little bit of a fiasco when it came to our bows for our costumes. Her red bow was missing and I spent a long time looking for it the night before only to come up empty handed and went to bed so late because of it. I kept thinking I needed to text my cousin Andrea and ask her if she had two. I had taken her little girl Hannah to dance pictures because she had her baby that day. Well I had put it in her bag and I text her the next morning and she saved the day! So she is dancing on the stage and her bow falls out of her hair, seriously I was wondering why I bothered. No one else's bow fell off! Then in her next dance her other bow fell out! She just wasn't meant to wear her bows that night because no one else had a problem!

The purple costume was so pretty on Ella, it is definitely one of her colors! They did a Spoonful of Sugar for their ballet dance! 

Hannah and Ella! Ella loves having Hannah in her class, she is my cousin's little girl!

Notice the girl on the end, every time someone said lets take a picture she would cross her legs and put her finger under her chin, it was funny!

Phone pics from May

Random pictures off our phones from this month.....

Addie and Easton are exactly the same when they fall asleep in the car, both hands behind the head! I think this was a Sunday night, Sunday's are hard and we miss our morning nap!

Sometimes in order to make it so Easton and Ella don't fall asleep on the way home from my mom's after dance I have to give them my I-Pad and phone to keep them awake and in return I find these gems on both of them!

Addie is pretty much refusing to let me feed her 80% of the time and this results in huge messes all over her, her chair, and especially the floor! It is hard for me to let them dig in and get messy but with each child I have gotten better!

Addie loves to be on the porch and sit. She loves to climb in the house and then can't get back out, she is so stubborn with stairs it is starting to drive me crazy!

She loves to sit in the playhouse in the toy room! If I can't find her this is usually where I can find her!

We were at Gordman's last week and Easton saw this giant garden gnome. He came over to me and told me to take his picture with this cool elf. I told him what it was and he didn't like it he wanted it to be an elf. Then as we walked away he said see ya later Santa Clause! He is so funny! 

This girl loves my shutterfly books!

Getting lots of curls just like Ella!

She wouldn't move off this step either!

All ready for her dance recital!

Last week I had my semi annual mole check at the Huntsman Cancer hospital. I drug the whole family with me there :) We wanted to have lunch at the Pointe cafe, we love their food and the view in amazing, and then we had somewhere to go after so it only made sense to have them come. As we were walking to the part of the hospital I go we saw a sign saying no one under 14 in order to protect those with cancer. So Andrew took them downstairs to the waiting area and they had lots of toys and books for kids to play with. I just hit my two year mark since my surgery to remove my melanoma and was told I look really good! They said the two year mark is one of the biggest marks to get to, bigger than the five year mark! I feel so blessed and am happy to have made it this far, I still have a little fear of it coming back and being worse but I am grateful to be free of it for now! I have a huge scar on my arm still but it is just my new norm and will probably always have it! It is truly humbling to be in that hospital and see all the people suffering. It is amazing to be there! 

Fingerpaints

We did fingerpaints last week together. I thought it would be a good afternoon activity and take up some time. It had been over a year since I had gotten them out so I thought they would love it! I was wrong they lasted about 10 minutes and then wanted something else to do. They made a huge mess and got paint all over the sink and the light switch in the bathroom and stained my brand new towel because they didn't wash their hands off well enough. I was a little frustrated. After they washed up once I sat and showed Easton what fingerpainting was he was full on hand painting mixing the colors and just making a mess! Ella liked it but she doesn't care to much to be messy so she didn't last long!

Bet you can't guess who's is who's?!?!

Green smoothie

Whenever I make a smoothie Addie is right there and wants some. I gave her some one day with this cup and straw and helped her with it. She was done after about half and so I put it on the table. A couple hours later she found it and grabbed it off the table, I had no idea she could reach onto the table. I was doing something and she came over to the couch grabbed my pillow and sat on it, getting smoothie everywhere! She was in heaven and a huge mess! 

She managed to dump most of it on the hard wood luckily none on the carpet, just on my nice pillow!