Apr 24 - 30

 

Monday, April 24 - The kids had the day off school so we decided to go ahead and buy a Thanksgiving Point pass and use it all summer too. The kids wanted to go to the Curiosity Museum so we went and spent a little time in each section. It was fun and I'm looking forward to more fun days at TGP!

Tuesday, April 25 - We had a fun get-together for Marisa's birthday. It was a fun intimate little gathering with some good friends. I am so thankful for Marisa! She is such a great friend!

Wednesday, April 26 - I swear no matter how long I do cookies, I always overfill at least one of them. Darn it! :) I am making these cookies for book club tomorrow night. Stay tuned...

Thursday, April 27 - Viola! We read the book "The Book Woman's Daughter". In that book, the main character gets blue hands due to do a rare blood disorder but back in those days, it was a cause for segregation and judgment. I couldn't help but do blue hands! The other cookie with the shoes standing on books is a replica of the book cover. These were so fun to make! Plus, I got to use my new airbrush!

Friday, April 28 - This cute girl has been studying for her learner's permit test. Most people we talk to, including Nick, have had to re-take the test at least once or twice. Imagine my surprise when she came out of the testing area with her permit in hand - first try!! Way to go Kendra! And now we need to get her on the road driving. She has a lot to learn! :)

Saturday, April 29 - The Young Men went on a campout last night to the cattle branding camp. Simon has just had so much going on, he decided to get Zack up early and they went in time to meet up for breakfast this morning. They were gone most of the day but they had a good time. Jenni had texted me asking if we wanted to go to lunch but I wanted to wait for my boys to get home to go to dinner. I guess my family was seated when Dave & Viv were lead back to the booth across the isle from them! Small world!

Sunday, April 30 - We celebrated BJ's birthday tonight at Sunday dinner. It was so fun and I enjoyed making him a cake. His request was a cake with no chocolate but he likes lemon. I just made a white cake but put lemon extract and lemon zest in the frosting. It was actually really yummy! Good choice BJ!

Apr 17 - 23

 

Monday, April 17 - We had a lot to cram into our last day here in Florida. Katie and Kenny both had to work today and Kam and Kayla went to school so mom and I went on an adventure. We went to the Barnum and Bailey Circus Museum. It was spectacular! It was so interesting and fun to read all about the history of the circus and the people that worked there. They had a huge mini replica of a town when the circus rolled in. It was just so amazing! When Kenny got home from work, he played the guitar for us while Kayla dressed up in at least 4-5 outfits! :) She's such a doll! Kam was just chill and hung out while we did our things. Right before we got ready to go to bed, Kenny had us finish our paintings. That was so fun to learn how to make them and spend that time with Kenny. We have to get up around 3:30 in the morning to head to the airport so it was an "early"-ish night for us. I wish we could stay longer! I miss my Florida family!

Tuesday, April 18 - Getting up in the middle of the night (3:30am FL time, 1:30am UT time), traveling all morning, then coming home to real life was exhausting! I did take a nice nap and couldn't wait to go to Zack's soccer game. I took a picture of the book when we were on the airplane so I wouldn't forget to tell mom where we left off. We read a lot while we were there. It's fun to read these books together!

Wednesday, April 19 - We have gotten a few letters from the school saying that Kendra did not pass her hearing tests. She has always seemed fine to me but after so many letters coming home from the school, I finally decided to take her to an audiologist. The mom guilt is for real! She has mild/moderate hearing loss in both of her ears! They said she would benefit from hearing aids and recommended that we see an ENT to get the ball rolling. I feel so bad we didn't get her in sooner! Hearing better could improve her life so much so I am hopeful that hearing aids will be good for her!

Thursday, April 20 - How are Kendra and I already at High School Orientation?!? She has to sign up for her classes soon so we attended orientation to figure it out. However, her and Nick sat down and Nick was able to help her figure out a schedule and get it all ready for once arena scheduling does open up. I'm so thankful that he was able to help her! It takes a lot of pressure off me! Haha!

Friday, April 21 - So...Kendra had her Airpods stolen AGAIN at school today! The first pair that were stolen were actually Kendra's. The ones that got taken today were Simon's! This is so frustrating!! The vice principal and school police officer called Simon and told him what happened. They said they keep having a lot of theft and that she shouldn't bring them to school. Ummm, it keeps happening in seminary when they are not allowed to bring their backpacks into class. If they can't bring backpacks in and no one is monitoring them in the hallway, of course stuff will get stolen! Why don't they come up with a solution?!? Cameras? An aid that stays in the hall? Or better yet, just let them bring their freaking backpacks into class! Grrrrrrrrr!

Saturday, April 22 - Unfortunately, Debbie Keel backed into Nick's car at the church the other day. We are trying to figure out if we need to go through her insurance or just try to get the dent and scratches out without insurance. I feel bad for Debbie. That is such a bummer when these things happen!

Sunday, April 23 - Here is another picture of our rock marking the water level. They warned us of major flooding this year but our creek is holding its own! :)

Apr 10 - 16

 

Monday, April 10 - I subbed at Foothills Elementary today and check out this teacher's wall! I think she and I could be friends! :) Nick asked a girl named Addy to prom last week and she answered him tonight. Yay! He's going to prom!

Tuesday, April 11 - I subbed today at Bastian Elementary and it was a very challenging day! One of the kids came to the front of the room and said, "Mrs. Pearson, this is who you remind me of." Coooool, the chubby mean caretaker at the orphanage on Despicable Me! Ouch! With all of the snow that we got over this winter, they are now warning residents to beware of flooding. It makes me a little nervous just because we have a creek that runs right behind our house. Simon took a picture of this rock today in order to compare the water level in the next few days. We just have to pray that it doesn't warm up this spring too quickly. That would be bad for both flooding as well as water supply. A nice slow warm up would be ideal and fill our lakes and reservoirs better than having it all melt quickly.

Wednesday, April 12 - Today's picture of the rock shows that the rock is completely under water now! Haha! The level is still really low but it's amazing what one day can do! Kendra, Simon, and Ricki walked over to Rosecrest Park tonight to check out the water there. It's basically a pond right now! There were actually ducks swimming around in it! That is what this park is for though - rain/flood overflow. It's doing it's job! Tonight, mom and I caught a red-eye flight to Florida. It was not a great flight. It was super turbulent and we had a lady across the isle from us that kept throwing up and making a show of it each time. I was so happy once we landed in Florida at 5:00 am!

Thursday, April 13 - Since Jake's seizure in school, he has not had another one but they also don't have an explanation as to why it happened in the first place. They did an evaluation on his brain and actually tried to give him a seizure so they could study it. He didn't have one though so all they can say is that he has epilepsy. Great. Mom and I drove to Kenny and Katie's, which is about a 2 hour drive from the airport. They were all gone for the day so we went in and took a nap until everyone came home. We watched Kayla dance, change into different clothes, visited with Kam, and Kenny & Katie cooked dinner for us. It is so fun to be here with them! I am so glad we came!

Friday, April 14 - Luckily, Katie doesn't have to work again until our last day here so we get her to ourselves for these few days! She kept the kids home from school and we went to the most amazing beach ever! It is called Siesta Keys and the sand is white powder. It is like walking through flour! We had so much fun playing in the water, in the sand, and just relaxing. I love vacation! And you just can't beat a sunset going down behind palm trees! Paradise!

Saturday, April 15 - Happy 15th birthday to Kendra! I feel so bad being out of town over her birthday but it was the only time mom and I could make it work out. Simon took the kids with Dave & Viv to JCW's and he made sure that she still had a happy birthday. We started our day off at the soccer field. I felt right at home! Haha! Kam and Kayla both had a game. They had a few Saturday things they needed to do so mom and I went and had lunch together. We have book club pretty soon when we get home so at night, when everyone else went to bed, her and I would read a few chapters before we called it a night. I love it!

Sunday, April 16 - We went exploring a little today. We got to see Kenny's jobsite that they are working on right now and it is amazing! It will be so beautiful once it's done. We then went to Sarasota Beach to enjoy another beach day. Tonight, Kenny helped mom and I start a galaxy picture. He is VERY into this art right now and wanted us to see how fun it is to make. It really is fun and mom and I enjoyed our time with Kenny outside painting. I can't wait to see how they turn out!

Apr 3 - 9

Monday, April 3 - Mom has been super funny and cryptic asking Jenni and I to go to lunch with her. I was super curious about what she was "making" us. When we got to her house, she told us to go back out to the car. We thought she was cooking but instead, she took us to lunch at a "new" restaurant. It's called Dollie's and it is the exact same food as the old Sweet Tomatoes! It was so fun going there and nostalgic reminiscing about the old days when our kids were really little and we came here a lot! What a fun date with my mamma and sister!  

Tuesday, April 4 - It's April...so it totally makes sense that the kids had another snow day today, right?!? It really wasn't that bad at our house but I guess West Jordan, where the district office is, got slammed. We made the most of it and everyone got their schoolwork done really quickly. It was a win!

Wednesday, April 5 - When the kids got home from school today, I got my new airbrush out to experiment. I got some stencils at Michael's and I really wanted to try them out! I had some old cookies so we practiced with blue and green. It is so fun! I can't wait to use them on cookies!

Thursday, April 6 - It is Harry Potter week in 3rd grade! I volunteered today to help with making chocolate frogs. I am always in awe that the teachers go to so much work to put this amazing week together for the kids! It is incredible! Tonight, we had Bunco at Aubrey's house. We needed a sub so cute Kaylee came. I just love her! She told us tonight that she is putting in her mission papers. I am so happy for her! It was a fun night!

Friday, April 7 - Look how stinking cute these peeps are that mom crocheted! At first, she made three and I thought they were adorable but I sent her this picture and told her I thought I needed a couple more. She didn't disappoint! She was planning on doing 5 anyway but had to find the right colors. Once I strung the other two on, oh my gosh, so so cute! I love that mom shares her incredible talents with us!

Saturday, April 8 - I love Easter Saturday! We started out at mom and dad's ward egg hunt. Their primary is so small that they tell everyone to invite their grandkids too! Unfortunately, the weather is too yucky so we had the hunt indoors instead of outside this year. After, we went over to their house and mom showed us a new dying technique. She sprayed shaving cream in a cookie sheet, dropped food coloring here and there, had the kids swirl it around, and then you put the eggs in that and roll them around. I was skeptical at first but they turned out amazing! After we were done dying, we all went to lunch at Chili's. I love these special family traditions!

Sunday, April 9 - Happy Easter! I can't help but be overwhelmed by the amount of gratitude I have for our Savior. The atonement and resurrection are what ensures our return to our Heavenly Father. The amount of love He has for us is shown in every way each and every day. I am thankful for this day each year to reflect on His sacrifice and ponder what I can do to more fully use the atonement in my life. I am also eternally grateful for this family that I get to be a part of. I love both sides and appreciate the time we are able to spend together!