Spring Soccer

Soccer games came and went without me taking out my camera to capture Bennett and Jacks triumphant moments. So I got these from their team pictures, hence the fuzzieness.

After having 4 seasons behind him, Bennett is becoming quite the soccer player. He's learned how to position himself well on the field to be ready to make the goals. He had a great team this spring and won most of their games.

This was Jacks first season with Matt as his coach. Jacks did pretty well, but he often got board chasing the ball around and would slip away to go play on the park. When it was his turn to sub in for a teammate we would have to go looking for him.  I just don't know what we're going to do with him.

On a side note he has been saying he is a "sneaky dude" when he does something naughty, and has been pretty proud of that.   Recently, however, he's changed his mind and decided he wants to be a "choose the right boy" after all.  I can handle that.

Official Land Owners!

We have finally done it. Our first property purchase! We are now land owners!  Matt and I are both pretty excited. (Well that is, I am now pretty excited once I got over my immediate buyer remorse upon signing the papers).  We are going to start building the middle of June and then work like crazy to see if we can be in the house by the end of October.  *Keeping fingers crossed*

Our front porch view:

Fremont Street:

Our lot:

Butterflies

I noticed that I have less and less to blog about. I realized that's because Jacks, Jemma, and I are at preschool all morning. So I decided to start taking pictures of them at school. Just to show that we still really do exist and do fun stuff during the day. This month at school we've been talking about bugs and stuff. So we bought a butterfly pavillion and some caterpillars. Each student got a little cup with food in it and then placed their caterpillar in it. We watched the caterpillars for about a week and a half until they formed their crystalist.  About a week later, we now have butterflies.  The kids had so much fun with this project.  Jemma and Jacks could have spent all day watching the caterpillars eat and crawl around their cups. We ended up bringing some caterpillars home so we could do just that.

Dance Recital

Jemma had her dance recital this month. It was so fun seeing her up on stage. She surprised me greatly by loving every moment. She waved and smiled and danced and laughed the whole time she danced. 

Scottsdale

We did more than our fair share of swimming at the hotel. The weather was suppose to be cold Friday and Saturday, so we checked in as early as we could on Thrusday and swam all afternoon and evening. Friday actually turned out to be a pretty good day. We headed to the pool right after breakfast, took a quick lunch, and then headed to the pool until dinner. Ben also talked us into going night swimming.  So I think it's fair to say we were pretty water logged on our way home. Bennett learned to swim while we were there, now he loves nothing more than to jump into the deep end and swim around.

Spring Break

For spring break this year Matt had training for work down in Scottsdale, Az so we decided to make a vacation out of it and all go down. During the 2 years of living in Arizona and driving by the sign that led to the Grand Canyon, we never once went. But this time we decided to make the detour. The kids had a good time. They mostly wanted to shop however...I wonder where they get that from? They wanted to stop at all the road side stands and see what was for sale. We did see a little bit of the canyon as well, in between all the shoping.

I made sure to include this picture below so that Michelle and Rob could see just how well we took care of Ben while at the Grand Canyon.  Ben and Matt hiked down to the ledge of the Grand Canyon.  They said it was pretty cool.

It was a long day of riding, but the kids had fun exploring and climbing and being together. And amazingly enough we didn't lose one of our kids over the edge. After the Grand Canyon we headed down to Phoenix to stay with Uncle Glen and his family for a few days before the training started.

Matt's Birthday

Matt turned 34 this year!

We were leaving for Spring Break the day of Matt's birthday so we celebrated the night before. The kids made a giant card for him, we served his favorite Oreo ice cream cake, and then got down to the most important part of any birthday...the presents!  This year the kids and I didn't search high and low in Sportsman Warehouse to find the perfect addition to his hunting / camping supplies.  Instead we bought him clothes and the first season dvds of Modern Family (which we have just started watching the series and think it is hilarious!)

Happy Birthday Matt!

Easter

We spent Easter Sunday down in Utah at Michelle and Rob's house. Grandma Julie, Heather, Jason, Ethan, and Brogan all came down from Idaho.  It was a pretty low key day.  Usually I have new matching Easter outfits for the kids to wear to church.  Then the Easter Bunny comes and leaves a small gift and hides our candy filled eggs.  But this year I had no desire to try and match my kids in new clothes or search for an Easter gift...and you know what?  Not one asked me where any of that stuff was.  Surprise!  The things that I thought were so important are actually not very. 

We did try and sneak out and hide the eggs that were filled with candy.  Later on that night Bennett came to me and said, "I know the secret. Daddy, Jason, and Rob hid the eggs for us to find. Didn't they."  He seemed a little sad, and I was a little sad too.  A little piece of his childhood slid away.  He's growing up so fast.  I kept thinking maybe I should have tried a little bit harder to keep the secret of the Easter Bunny going.  But as I pondered over the things I thought I should have done that day, I realized that I failed do the most important thing of all.  I didn't remind them of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I didn't tell them of how Jesus went to the Garden of Gathsemane and prayed to our Heavenly Father, taking upon him our sins.  I didn't tell my children how Jesus was taken, and beaten, and then nailed to a cross.  And I didn't tell them about how our Savior died on the cross, his body taken to a tomb, but on the third day he rose from that tomb, resurrected and lives.  I didn't remind my children eternal life with our Heavenly Father was made possible through the Atonement.

All the clothes, candy, kites, eggs, and bunnies can never come close to replacing the precious gift that our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ has given us.  Although my kids know this already, I feel like I failed to show them the importance of it all by my omittance of talking to them about the Atonement in our lives.
I am grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ and for his sacrifice he made for me.  I am grateful the gift of free agency to choose right over wrong and good over evil and to be able to repent of my sins so that I can return to my Heavenly Fathers presence someday and enjoy the blessings of eternal life.