March iMoments

The beginning of the soccer season! Claire and Sophie both play on Mondays and Wednesdays and Johnny plays on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So...soccer will be our life for the next six weeks! :)

Eleven months! 

Joey LOVES being outside, and LOVES playing with balls. He's loving soccer season!

These boys. :)

Johnny is, obviously, a natural athlete. He's taking to soccer quite naturally! 

Poor Joseph. He desperately wants to be big enough to be with the other kids! He heard them outside jumping on the tramp, and he got on his very tippiest toes to watch.

Danny and I had the opportunity to clean the temple together. It was a 9:30 pm-1:00 am shift, so Grandma Call came over to watch our kids for us. This was my first time, and I was kind of nervous! But we lucked out, and the temple was still closed for it's maintenance and cleaning, so Danny and I got to work together and do some jobs that you don't ordinarily get to do when you go to clean. It's incredible, but every single inch of that temple is cleaned...and the craziest part is it isn't even dirty! It was wonderful to spend the time serving in the Lord's House, and the passion fruit ice cream we got from the cafeteria at the end of our shift wasn't bad either! :) Great date night.

Two words: Bishop Blessing! Danny's buddy from work, Rob, acquired this very nice hot tub when they bought their home. But it turns out, he isn't much of a hot tub person, and he wanted the room in his yard to build a deck. So he just gave it to Danny!! For free!! With Danny starting school next month, we've been worrying about how to handle all the stress. I think this is going to help. :) It's like the Lord was saying, "I'm looking out for you guys!" Needless to say, we're totally excited!

Our pondering pond. We love spending time in the hot tub together as a family, and just talking about life.

It was time again for the General Women's Session of General Conference! And it was extra special, because it was my Sophie-kins first time coming with us! We met Grandma Candy, Aunt Jenny, and Isabelle for dinner at Hug-hes before the meeting...and BARELY made it in time. We need to start dinner earlier next time. :) The meeting was wonderful, and I was touched by the Spirit and directed in ways that I needed. I'm so grateful for our leaders, and grateful to be a "certain woman". Can't wait for Conference!

Johnny started his first chapter book! He is loving "The Boxcar Children", and Danny and I are blown away that he's reading at that level in kindergarten! He reads alone, and he is totally rocking it. 

What?! Who is this gorgeous girl? That's my Claire with no braces!!

The difference one year can make is incredible. I can't believe how grown-up and beautiful she is! She has a retainer to wear day and night for the next six months, and then she can go to only wearing her retainer at night. She'll visit with Dr. Coleman in three months, and then I think every six months after that. Once her permanent teeth are all in, she'll get another set of braces to put everything in place and then she'll be done!

Oh, Poseph!! Haircuts make you so grown up! This was his first time getting his Dad's haircut. I've always wanted to keep it longer, but it was time to clean it up in a way that would last a little longer. What a little stud!

Way back last August, Danny and I bought tickets with our AB buddies the Hulberts for Alton Brown's show "Eat Your Science". Finally, the day of the show arrived! We met John and Lora at Spitz in SLC and enjoyed some incredibly good Mediterranean street food (Oh, those street fries!). The show wasn't quite as good as his first one, in our opinions, but it was still totally worth it. We loved laughing and catching up with our good friends. We've been blessed to know some incredible people in our life, and the Hulberts are right up there on that list!

Noche Hispana

We love that our kids get to be in the Spanish Immersion program! And this year we got to do a couple nights of Noche Hispana to see the kids present a Spanish-speaking country through music, dance, and costume.

Claire's presentation was the first night, and she looked so grown up and beautiful! She danced so well (I think we need to make sure she tries the ballroom dancing club in 5th grade!). It was fun to see her and her bestie still doing everything together. :)

The second night's performance belonged to Sophie and Johnny...and I think they stole the show! Sophie did a wonderful job at her partner dance, and Johnny was quite the dedicated "digger"...that kid can make-believe dig with the best of them! :)

We really do realize how blessed we are to be in the area we are, and have the kind of elementary school we do. The immersion program has enriched our children, and we are confident it will continue to do so. We are grateful for their great teachers and the safe environment they get to learn in!

Our Weekend Retreat

We've learned something in the year and a half that Danny has served as bishop. We need time as a family...breaks from the every day grind. More than we used to. And sometimes, we just have to leave town for a while and get away from it all! :) We were feeling like life was getting a bit overwhelming, so Danny decided we were heading to the cabin for the weekend. We kept the kids out of school on Friday, and left our (finally!) beautiful spring weather at home and traded it for the piles and piles of snow in Island Park. I couldn't believe how deep it was! Danny had to literally dig us a path to the door!

Snow in Island Park is different from snow at home. It's way more fun and magical! So as soon as we got the stairs dug out and the car unloaded, the kids wanted to get in their snow clothes and don the snowshoes we rented for them from BYU-I. 

Joey hung out with me inside, and ate cheerios while I got us unpacked and settled in. Once everyone else was done in the snow, they joined us in what is my favorite part of being at the cabin. Relaxing! The kids introduced Joey to the fun of Great Grandma's giant bear and Joey quickly discovered all the shelved and drawers he could empty out. :)

Before bed, we had our very special FHE treat. We had officially reached the next benchmark in our goal of doing FHE for 20 weeks (we've done 10 weeks now!), and we celebrated with frozen custard from Nielsen's! It was awesome. Joey especially thought so. :) And we're feeling really good about establishing a good FHE habit. 

The next morning it was time for our much anticipated snowshoeing adventure!! We got all bundled up and started out into the woods. Danny was hoping we could make it to the river, which would be about three miles round trip. Nothing compared to the hikes we've done with the kids, so we started out into the woods with confidence in our snowshoed steps. :) It was so gorgeous, and being out in the woods was so neat! The snowshoes took a little getting used to, but eventually we were weaving in and out of trees like pros. What we didn't consider was how much more energy was required than when we hike in the summer...so it didn't take long until we abandoned our dreams of making it to the river and headed back to the cabin. Joey was a happy kids and very patient with all the tree branches slapping him in the face for most of the trip, and then screamed for a bit before giving up and just going to sleep. I think Maese especially loved the trip! We ended up with about a mile and a half of snowshoeing, and I think I love it! Danny actually ended up going back out that afternoon and logging another 2.4 miles on his own. Definitely something we want to do more of!

That afternoon Mark and Megan came to spend the night with us, and brought their new puppy Ash. The dogs had a ball playing in the snow, and we enjoyed board games, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, and some delicious chicken soup. It was Joey's first time eating one of his Mama's delicious cookies, and he was definitely a fan!

On Sunday we attended the local ward bright and early at 9:00 am. After church we enjoyed a nice day of reading and visiting and such. Danny and Johnny worked on the snow fort Johnny was building for a bit. There was so much snow it was perfect for snow forts! We even tried a new dinner in our Instant Pot...Kalua Pork...and it was amazing!! 

Before it got too late, Mark and Megan and Ash had to make their way back to Rexburg and the demands of student life. We were so glad they came to hang out with us for a while!

Our original plan was to get everything ready to go on Sunday night, so we could get up and clean first thing on Monday and get on the road. The kids had SEPs starting at 2:00, and their first night of soccer practice starting at 5:00. But Danny and I just couldn't get ourselves moving. We weren't ready to head back to the craziness. So we didn't! :) We let the kids play longer, and even busted out the pots and pans for Joey. We ate the rest of the cookies, ice cream, and hot chocolate and watched "Ephraim's Rescue" before going to bed.

The next morning, we got up and packed and cleaned. The whole time feeling like we just didn't get enough time. We never do! We're never ready to leave this happy place! We're so grateful for Grandma Lovell, and her willingness to let us stay and find a moment of peace amidst the storm. Danny and I started our married life in the cabin, and we love bringing our children there. 

Life is crazy right now. There is so much going on all the time! Danny is busy with work and being Bishop, and adding school to the mix is just going to make him busier. The kids have so much going on with school, and I feel so much pressure to teach them all they need to know. Life just moves so terribly fast. These weekends when we can stop the crazy and just be "us" are the memories we will treasure the most. I love these people so much, and am so grateful for the happiness and joy they bring to my life! We miss Luke so much, and as time and memories are moving forward I miss him in these pictures more and more. But I know he is aware of us, and we'll share these memories in a way I can't fathom now. How grateful I am for that knowledge!

We made the drive home in good time (remember to cancel those SEPs somewhere along the way), and made it home just in time to grab some dinner at Jimmy John's, unload the car, and head to soccer...and right back into the fray. :)