March and April happenings...

One evening Jeremy needed a photo of himself.

Spencer and Erin were dying laughing as they were trying to get a good shot.

 "Dad, you need to open your eyes more"

 "hey, that's pretty good!"

 "Wait, not that big!!"

 He finally ended up with a good one. But I know it's not the one that's above, cause it's a little blurry!

 We all ran errands together one day and stopped to feed the ducks on our way home.

I don't think you can ever be too old to feed the ducks!

Check out this girls beauty!! Seriously Erin, I am so lucky to be your mama!!

Miss almost-as-tall-as-her-mother Grace! Sure love her freckles and gorgeous smile!

It was very beautiful at the little duck pond!

(yes, this is the pond our kids have swam in before....yuck!!)

  One Saturday night we made cinnamon rolls together for Sunday breakfast. 

They were so good! Way to go Zac!

 This little cutie is growing up way too fast! She always has the cutest outfits,

thanks to her big sister who shares accessories!

 We may have, for the first time ever, celebrated this kids HALF birthday! 

I figured since he wouldn't be here in September for his 19th birthday that we would celebrate a little now.
I made his favorite chicken pot pies (I should say "pies" as I make 4 total!!)

And his favorite cake.....plain cake. No frosting. 

With a "1" candle and eight and a half more!

 Make a wish! Happy {half} birthday Spencer!

 While this kids has tons of gorgeous, thick hair.....

I'm struggling to hang on to mine! No worries, I'm not officially going bald. I have alopecia - something I've had since high school. It is an auto-immune disease where my brain tells certain parts of the hair folicles on my scalp to die. So they do, the hair falls out, and then over time it grows back (baby fine, soft hair!). I currently have 3 bald spots in addition to this lovely one that I found on the top of my head. The other three are all in the back of my head, but are larger - two to three inches around. Sometimes when the bald spots are near each other, they morph into one LARGE bald spot. (one year this happened, and my hairline literally started about 4 inches above where it should have. that was a huge bald spot!) It is sometimes interesting to do my hair, but for the most part I've lived with it longer than I have not lived with it! (the only symptoms are an extremely itchy scalp in the area that is about to fall out!) Crazy!!

 We have some fabulous Easter traditions! The kids love dying eggs together and sometime during the weekend (almost always on Saturday!) the Easter bunny hides eggs in the backyard.

Years ago we started the tradition of each child finding a certain color of eggs. Zac would find blue, Spencer orange, Erin pink, Grace yellow, Alexa purple....etc... That way the Easter bunny could hid Spencers eggs higher and harder! It's a tradition that just stuck and works great!

 Going through the eggs to find the candy, money, gift cards, etc.. Spencer does not like any candy at all (I know, crazy, right??). He usually gets peanuts, water balloons, etc in his eggs. And he is always sure to find a Taco Bell gift card somewhere!! This year they all got nice drawing / sketch pads. The Easter Bunny has in's with Jeremy the architect / artist!!

 I sure love these kids!! We miss having Lex, Brian, and Ellie around - but thankfully we get to go up there next weekend! Phew, it's been a month and that's about as long as I can go without seeing that sweet grandbaby!

 Later that night, I had the honor of taking my beautiful girls out to dinner (Pizza Factory) and then to the Young Womens Broadcast. It was such a fun night. I sure love my girls, for their inner beauty and the love that they share with me and others. 

 Pizza, breadsticks, and salad....mmmmmmmm!

 And a crazy girl photo to go with it. 

Easter Sunday we had Rick and Lisa over for dinner, although I didn't get their picture!
Spencer loved the deviled eggs....can you tell???

 And...............there's been a whole lot of missionary shopping going on around here. Office kits, shoe shine kids, toiletries, sewing kit,
and the "sick" kit (complete with a get-well card signed by all of us!) Ha. I'm a nut!!

Miss Grace can pull off cute in sweats or fancy outfits! Look at that smile!

 We LOVE homemade pizza. Good thing I decided to go back on my word and start making it again (only immediate family would get that!). And (below), Conference Sunday afternoon - eating chips & homemade salsa in our pj's!

 Spenc modeling his first missionary suit. The second suit is ready for pick up on Monday! That kid can never smile for a photo!! He always has a quirky look to give me! {but I'm pretty sure I'm going to miss it when he leaves!}

 Zac brought "Flat Carson" and "Flat Jack" to the soccer game today. 

Grace has her backpack on and is ready to head out of there after a hot game!

Today is Senior Ball! There is such a HUGE difference sending a son vs a daughter to Sr Ball. This is what Spencer does between the day date and the evening date.....he naps!! With Alexa she was busy telling me every detail of her day date, all the while fixing her hair, make up,etc...and before we knew it the doorbell would ring and her date would be back to get her. Crazy! In fact when Spencer got home from his day date, Erin and I were heading  out on a mother-daughter date to Joann Fabrics! We got home 15 minutes before he left. Yes, having boys go to prom is MUCH easier than boys! But I wouldn't trade my girls for the world!

 Here is Spencer, above, getting some last minute advice from Alexa. Haha. 

 We sure love this kid! He has been such a great example to all of us. He was excited to go to Senior ball. The other difference with sending a son is that we don't get couple pictures on the night of (unless you are a stalker mom, haha).
He took Michele Gibson to prom and I'm sure they're having a great time as I blog!

 He leaves in 32 days and although my stomach does a few butterflies once in awhile, we are super duper excited for him to serve a mission. We are behind him 110% and know that the people of Canada are in for a huge blessing to have him serve and love them!

It's been a great month! Time has gone by so fast. We have lots of fun times together. It truly is the small, simple things that matter most. You don't need a fancy vacation to make fabulous memories with your family! Trust me, it's true!!

Happy Spring!