April

We ended up celebrating my birthday on Monday night, the day before my birthday. Joe and I both got sick with the flu during Spring Break but thankfully we were feeling better by then. We went out to eat at Outback with Natalie and then came back here to do presents and have brownies sundaes. I got to pick what to do after and I ended up deciding to be fun instead of boring (because I initially didn't want to have to wash my hair again) and we went night swimming since we just had the pool de-winterized. It was so much fun for me and I'm so glad I decided to do that. Soon after that the heater wasn't working on the pool but it's working again just in time for it to warm up more. Anyway, it was a good birthday. My actual birthday was full of kids activities all day but it was a good day. We got to see Nate's team pull out a victory from behind that night.

I thought it was funny that I got 3 copies of the same book for my birthday! One from Katie, one from Lisa, and one I bought for myself that day at Target. I liked it!

Eve's art:

She also likes to draw on pictures:

Eve all ready for soccer! She had a lot of fun and was actually pretty agressive out there.

Eli helping her in goal:

Eli had fun swimming with his friends:

Jerome's speech team won districts! Sadly, Nate didn't do as well as he'd hoped he would.

Our Conference spread:

We love watching Nate play baseball:

At the end of Eve's gymnastics session they got to go jump in the foam pit and she loved that:

Eve's class got to go on a field trip to the fish hatchery:

Eli made us some delicious butter-basted steak one night. Natalie picked up some sides from Outback and we had a delicious meal.

I was in the high school and saw these posters so I wanted to document them:

I just love Eve's hair half-up with this cute bow so I had to document it:

Eve loves riding around the black and stopping at our favorite willow tree and looking at the horses:

Another culinary masterpiece by Eli:

Eve had kindergarten orientation where she took a little assessment and loved seeing her school:

The Dodgers:

They had a good season. They were undefeated until the game before the tournament when they let subs play. They were the 1 seed going into the tournament but sadly lost both games so it was a disappointing finish.

I was freezing one day watching him play and got white fingers again:

We had a wonderful Easter. We did our sunrise devotional and it was a beautiful clear morning. We talked about the symbols of resurrection in nature like butterflies and the trees that look dead in winter.

 Then we had our cinnamon rolls. I was trying to do some last minute practicing of the choir songs. By the time the kids got their baskets we had to hustle to get to church early for the last rehearsals. It ended up being an amazing meeting. There were literally 17 musical numbers. I knew the meeting would be long when I saw the program. My friend Tamra did a great job with it. I managed to get through the choir numbers pretty well. Eli helping turn the pages helped a lot. Eli did amazing with his duet with a girl in our ward. He sang a song called Choose Him Again. He sang a verse solo and harmonized with her during the chorus. His voice is getting better and better. The boys also both sang during the two youth songs. Eve also sang during the Primary number which was Gethsemane and that always gets to me. 

Lizzie was ready to call us and the meeting was still going on but thankfully it was only about 15-20 min over :). We hosted dinner that night and had a good meal with family. We also did an egg hunt that was fun. And we colored Easter egg:

More Eve moments:

He went to Boise yesterday for the state Science Olympiad. Last year he and his partner won in optics and they did it again! He also won first with a different partner in Microbes. We were pretty proud.

Natalie was in a super fun show called American Hero that we got to see and loved:

Eve is 5!

Eve had a great 5th birthday! We started the day with bacon (her favorite), eggs, and hashbrowns. Then we had to hustle to get her ready for school. I made cinnamon rolls to share with her school friends that day. She is even and doesn't like frosting so had to be creative (she doesn't mind the little bit on cinnamon rolls). 

Her cute new outfit our neighbor Donna gave her for her birthday:

I brought them to school along with pictures of her. They do this cute thing on birthdays there where they hold a globe and walk around the sun for every year they've been alive while we look at pictures of them from every year. They all sat down and made her cards too and I had fun coloring next to the kids and talking to them.

That evening, Joe went to coach his first practice with Eli and Nate as a helper and then we met them and Natalie at Red Robin for her birthday dinner. I think Eli worked on her to choose that one :). We went home and opened presents and then had cake and ice cream. She loved her presents and now they're all scattered around our house. We need to get rid of some others to make room. She had a few meltdown moments of too much birthday but I think overall she had a great day.

Bubbles!

Eve's cake:

The non-frosted part is for Eve. :)

The next day was Saturday.  I made blueberry muffins for her party treat and then we headed to Jump Time, a trampoline place, for her first friend birthday party. I was worried about it since a bunch of people were gone for spring break and two other little friends from school got sick. It ended up being fine. She had two little friends from school come, one from church, and Regina and Maddy came, along with the boys. Then the Petramalos came too with three of their kids (Mindy is the one who owns the school and her son Marcus is Eve's little love right now :). She seemed to have fun running around everywhere playing. She was tired by the end of that though.

Abigail and Eve:

 

She still brings so much joy to all of us. She gives the best snuggles and makes us laugh all the time. She started gymnastics and loves it. She is working hard to try and master the cartwheel and is making good progress. She also loves books. One of her very favorite things is riding her bike around the block. She learned really young how to ride without training wheels! She especially loves all dogs and wants to pet every one. Eve also loves coloring and draws the cutest little pictures. We're so thankful Eve is in our family and we can't imagine life without her.