I feel continually blessed with the life we live. We have our share of "problems", hurdles, sometimes what feels like a brick wall, but really we have such a nice, easy fun life with very little serious issues. I've been reading again and am very into memoirs. If I'm going to take the time to read I just can't get into a fake story. Something about reading how another person has lived their life that is so intriguing to me. I likely will not ever live in Pakistan so I felt honored to read "I am Malala" and learn about how life is there. Not only do I love learning how others "have" to live but I feel that I grow as a person when I learn from people as they share their stories of how they "chose" to react to these situations. I am constantly looking to other people and picking characteristics about them that I love and want to incorporate in my life. Memoirs are such an easy and fast way to "meet" many people that have had all different experiences and have grown better by them. I often wonder if it's just my personality to always be looking at others and trying out characteristics I like from them and never seem to find my true and steady "me" or am I really still searching and one day I will have who I want to be "in place" and I can stop searching?? Reading true stories also gives me quite the perspective of how nice my life is. It makes me grateful for our country, it's laws and principals (that we are fighting to hang on to). It makes me grateful for my children's health, for the way I was raised. For who raised me. For my education and so forth.
Here are a whole lot of pictures to document just how awesome my life is :)
We made it to one of uncle Daniel's basketball games-they won and headed to CIF championships where they took 2nd!!
This was supposed to be from February-oops- daddy daughter sweetheart dance!
Picture day/opening day!
Love her! First time wearing her uniform-so cute!
Riley's team-Nebraska corn hustlers
Reese LOVES to sit on Josh's face if he lays on the ground. Anyone for that matter but espeiy daddy!
Cute cousins hanging out with Uncle Daniels old jerseys
Being goofy at Oma's!
First game-treat bags were the best part according to her!
First white water trip of 2015...many more to come!
Braden showing off his stuff at his first game!
First few games were hitting off a Tee then they moved to coach pitch.
While Braden plays Reese hangs out with this stud! She's a little pushy but I don't think grant minds too much.
We had our monthly relief society activity-this month was the RS birthday celebration. I love being in charge of activities. Although it can be overwhelming it is quite fun! I have the a great comittee :)
We chose to follow a theme "believe there is good in the world/be the good". We had one girl from our ward give a short talk and how we can be the good. And then we played RS jeopardy which was both interesting and funny!
Katie made this beautiful cake for us!
Here I am making a fool out of myself leading the game hahah
Reese is in the "I need and I want to wear shoes no matter the size" stage.
Reese started a comfort thing this month that i LOVE! She grabs her hair and rubs it between her fingers. She loves when I do her hair so that she has a pony tail to hold and run. She loves to run strands of my hair as well and her Oma's. She even stops what she is doing to have a few seconds of hair rubbing and it melts my heart a little!
Soaking her in. Smelling her sweet scent...
White water trip number two. We brought daddy this time and he helped the kids build a really cool damn in the stream.
After another game
Reese fell asleep on me which rarely happens lately.
White water trip no.3! I had the stomach flu for about 5 days but the kids needed to get out so I brought my beach chair to sit in and let them play for an hour or so.
Annual swimming in Palm Springs day!
Drive in movie theater with our other "halfs kinsers and ingrams. We saw Cinderella and McFarland
Daddy set us up real nice in the back of his truck!
Cutie Reese in her hat stage!
Max was so excited when his sunflower started to grow!
Playing a little piano
Bed time stories
The reality of Riley's room on a regular basis! This would make my mom cry I think! My room was always in tip top shape growing up-I am not consistent with my kids room how i should be! Reese doesn't help the situation!
Old school house museum park!
Bubble bath and a cute bum
First time water coloring. Reese LOVED it.
Braden is LOVING baseball (Riley hates softball but doesn't whine which I find very endearing). He especially loves playing catcher!!
Grancy took me and the kids to the bird store where they have tons of big birds and an aviary.
Funny thing is that they had a store pet...none other then a cat! The kids loved petting it.
Brothers that pee together...
Daniel recieved his mission call so we all gathered around-Taylor and emily on face time and justin on face time as well. We crowded the kitchen in anticipation...he opened and read that he will be leaving in July to serve 2 years in the Dominican Republic! Spanish speaking. We are so so so excited for him! Daniel is such a good person and we know he will do well there.
The Sunday before Easter was our Chance to dress up in our Easter best...
My handsome boys!
Brothers. They sure love each other.
Riley felt particularly beautiful this day
I can't believe and feel incredibly blessed to call these kids mine!
A few random things to note this month:
-Braden has started to stumble a but in his speech and says "like, um" as fillers in his sentances all the time. It's pretty cute but by the end of the day i get frustrated and want him to just spit it out! -josh and i noticed that Max's "wild" days are coming to an end. He has been so well behaved the past few months. Normal 3 year old behavior of course but nothing like in the past! He has turned into a good listener, he cares about others and is much easier to be around.
-josh and I decided that Reese will be our last baby. This decision was not easy in the least. It room a lot of time, prayers, talking, thinking etc to come to this decision. We both feel 100% good about it but from time to time I feel the bitter sweet feelings of something coming to a close that was not only such a huge part of my life but was so near and dear to my heart-having babies.
-Reese is quite the Sassy Thing. We often find ourselves calling her a brat. She has a hard core "sass" face and is not afraid to use it! She is strong willed is pushing her boundaries but we sure love her and have a hard time not giving in or letting her see us laugh about it!
