May

The school year is starting to wind down so in May we had quite a few different activities.

Kimball

Baseball season was slow in starting.  We have had a very cool and rainy Spring.  Many of Kimball's games were reschedule because of rain and poor field conditions.  Kimball is on a very young team with most of the team being in 4th grade.  They haven't won a single game and I think that is a little disappointing for him.  Most of the other teams are mainly 5th or 6th graders and Kimball was just placed on the young team.  He has had some good hits and has scored so we try to focus on the positives.  

Kimball had his Spring Orchestra concert.  I'm always impressed by the students and their abilities.  The orchestra sounded really good. 

 Kimball also participated in Solo Fest again this year.  Last year he did a cello solo, but this year he did a bass solo.  He scored a 92 which I thought was excellent when you consider he has only  been playing the bass for 6-7 months.  I'm glad Kimball has music talent to balance out his love for sports.

Rebecah

Rebecah had some music concerts, too.  She had a Spring piano recital.  She played two memorized pieces and she did very well.  Her teacher loves to teach Rebecah because she listens well and tries hard.  Rebecah also had a Spring chorus concert.  It was about 30 minutes which is the perfect length for my little ones.  The 3rd graders loved performing for their families.

Rebecah was star student in May.  Each week a different student is picked randomly to be the student of the week.  Rebecah had to wait all year for her turn.  

Mother's Day

Lincoln and Annika had a special "Muffins with Mom" day at preschool.  Lucky for me I got to go to the school twice to spend time with each of them.  The kids helped make the muffins and had made a little craft for me.  We listened to a story about mothers and then we went home.  I love this age because the kids are still so excited to see me come and visit at the school. 

Actual Mother's Day was less than exciting.  I had been sick for 4 days and was still trying to feel well.  My kids made fun little crafts for me and I did make a yummy meal for myself. 

Eden

Eden is such a fun girl!  She decided a few months ago that she prefers to be called Eden.  Anytime she refers to herself she always uses "Eden".  I'm having a hard time breaking myself of Edie, but I'm doing better!!  Every morning when I go into her room to get her I ask "Is anyone awake?"  Her response is "Eden".  She is starting to dress herself so she frequently comes downstairs after changing her pants/shorts/skirt...sometimes multiple times a day. 

Eden is a good buddy to have for company.  She came with me to an eye appointment and sat so quietly.  She didn't even open the book she brought with her.  

Lincoln

Lincoln is happiest when he can be playing outside or playing with cars in his room.  He does an excellent job entertaining himself.  He loves to go on walks with me where he rides his bike while I walk.  He was very excited when a frog was discovered in our yard!

Annika

Annika is starting to leave her mark whenever she can.  She loves to draw, color and write.  It's cute to find little pieces of paper with her name written on it.  She also loves to hoard paper so sometimes I have to sneak special papers of hers that I want to keep and hide them so she can't find them.  I just want to remember her drawings.

Annika also changes her clothes multiple times a day, but she usually changes into pajamas.

Playing with friends one afternoon.

Helping with yard work.

Lincoln and Annika remembered that Annika received watercolor paints for Christmas so quite a few afternoons they spent painting while I worked in the kitchen.

Lunch outside.

Sharing freeze pops.

Dancing at a baseball game. Please note the rain boots.  It was a great investment this year buying everyone new rain boots!

Joseph

Last but not least we celebrated Joseph's 38th birthday.  He has wanted to buy a nice violin for a long time.  He always says that his first violin was only $100 and didn't sound very good.  We finally bought him a new violin for his birthday.  He is now playing it more to make sure it's worth the expense!!

I made Joseph this fun star bread for his birthday breakfast.  It turned out really well.  Kimball has requested that I make it for the last day of school.  Joseph is never very good about deciding on the special food for his birthday and Father's Day.  This year he took suggestions from the kids and I tried to round out the meal.  His dessert was carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  The frosting was perfect!

Our new counter tops were installed on the 31st.  I love having the new counters.  The men installed them very quickly and it is nice to have a bigger island.  Now we just need to decide on a back splash so our kitchen remodel can be complete.  (That is NOT Joseph in the picture!)

April

I really didn't feel like April was very eventful, but we still have a lot of pictures from the month's events.

Joseph and I decided to start a tradition for our family.  The year our children enter the youth program at church we have decided to take them to Salt Lake City to attend General Conference in person.  We have wanted to do this for quite a few years and we were just waiting for Kimball to be old enough.  He's finally old enough!!  Joseph and Kimball were gone 5 days and they had a great time. 

At Temple Square in front of the temple.

State Capitol building

The view from the Capitol building.

Listening to Conference inside the Tabernacle.  

Waiting for Trax--public transportation.

Temple square is Joseph's favorite place in the entire world!

Kimball really enjoys family history so they spent many 

hours at the Family History Library.

Working at a computer in the Family History Library.  It was cute, this senior sister missionary was impressed with Kimball's knowledge of Family Search so when she had a question about Indexing she looked around for him to see if he could help her.  Kimball hasn't done much indexing so he wasn't any help so she had to find someone else.

Inside the Conference Center

They had tickets to attend the Priesthood evening session of conference... 

...and the Sunday afternoon session.

The view outside the Conference Center.

Church Administration Building.

The steps of the Salt Lake Temple.

This is outside the Provo City Center...mall.  

McKay (Joseph's brother), Kayla and boys met up with Joseph and 

Kimball so they could visit together.

Grounds outside the Tabernacle.

In addition to visiting Temple Square and doing baptisms in the Salt Lake Temple they also attended a Jazz Basketball game.  The Jazz played the Sacramento Kings and the Jazz won!  Joseph and Kimball aren't Jazz or Kings fans, but it was fun for them to have the opportunity to go to a professional basketball game.

Making breakfast Sunday morning.

We really missed Joseph and Kimball while they were gone, but we enjoyed our normal Conference traditions and food.  We were happy when they came home!

Spring has come to Syracuse so Joseph is starting on his various projects for the yard.  Here Lincoln is helping Joseph take out some dying bushes.

Kimball had his first official Boy Scout Court of Honor in April.  

He earned two rank advancements and 3 Merit Badges.  

Twinners!! These two cuties are ready for school 

one rainy morning!  They are good friends.  

We did our usual Easter traditions this year.  Here the kids are dyeing eggs. We read about Christ's last week out of the Bible.  It was wonderful to listen to some special songs about Christ and watch video's portraying Christ's last few days.

What kind of mother doesn't take Easter pictures Easter Sunday???  ME!  I have no pictures of the girls in their dresses.  Eden was sick with a stomach bug so this was the only photo I took.  Thankfully she was feeling better by dinner time because it was hard telling her "no" when she begged for food.  

Eden trying out a fancy lawn mower at Lowe's.

Festival of the Arts

Rebecah had a picture in the Art festival this year.  She also sang with the school chorus.  Kimball's orchestra performed, too.  Thankfully their performances were back to back because this festival is always really crowded.  Joseph dropped the big kids and me off at the school and took the little ones to McDonald's.  The Festival of Arts is boring for little kids.

Kimball is the bass player closed to the front of the stage.

Our budding musician.  Lincoln is playing Joseph's violin like a little cello.

McDonald's play area!

Lincoln saying his prayers.

Baseball season has also started.  Kimball has practice twice a week and now games have started.  The kids also had a week off from school for Spring Break.  We went to the movies, played with friends and enjoyed a more relaxing week.  I also braved the Mall with the two big kids for 2 hours.  I don't enjoy shopping so I told the big kids I had a 2 hour limit and when those two hours were up we were leaving.  Thankfully, we found what we were looking for and we finished 10 minutes early.  The positive side is that I got a lot of steps in while we walked the mall.  Our mall is the 6th largest in the Country so I had extra exercise.

Our kitchen remodeling project is coming along.  The cabinets are painted and the granite is ordered.  The counters won't be installed until the last day of May so that's a bummer.  You'll just have to wait until June for pictures of our whiter and brighter kitchen.  We love the changes so far.