Life Lately

 Tessa and I planted flowers in the pots on our patio. We also planted some flowering bushes in our front yard that will hopefully get the hummingbirds coming again.

It's Tessa's job to water the flowers this summer.

The lilies are her favorite.

She's been doing a great job of taking care of the flowers. They are happy and thriving. :)

Rockwell and I rode our bikes to the Timpanogos Bike Park. We rode 13 miles and had such a fun afternoon riding together!

Paul and some clients got to a home and the key was not in the lock box. Paul called the agent and told him about the key, and said he noticed a window was open. The agent said it would be fine to climb through and unlock the door. His clients took a video of him climbing through the window. Haha.

We had a family party at Grandma and Gramps' house. We had a delicious dinner, played games, and did a fire in the backyard. It was great to see everyone!

We had a bbq at Mel's house on Memorial Day. It was great to see the family and to celebrate Wesley's 1st birthday.

Tessa spent the day at Hallee's on Friday. :)

Damon Turns 11!!!

 Damon is 11 years old!!

Damon loves school and he loves playing with his friends. He loves to get to school early to have time to play with his friends before school starts. As soon as he gets home from school he puts his things away, grabs a snack and treat, and then heads out to hang out with Sawyer and/or Tristan. It's so great to have such good friends live so close. They roam the neighborhood and have a great time together!

Damon loves playing volleyball and he loves the choir at his school. He loves to ride bikes and scooters. He and Sawyer like to take their scooters to the skate park. He loves sushi. He loves to go to Maverick and buy treats. 

Damon has a sweet testimony of our Savior. He has shared his testimony at church a few times, and I've loved hearing him talk about the faith he has. He is selfless and likes to make others happy. He cares about others and will always do what he can to help people feel good. Rockwell was talking to me about how awesome of a kid Damon is and he said, "Damon's too good for this world." This world is certainly a better place because Damon's in it!!

Damon was so excited for his birthday crepes and squirt of whip cream in his mouth.

He showed me cool tricks on the trampoline before school.

He requested a narwhal cake this year, so I got that made while he was at school.

He wanted to open presents as soon as he got home.

He loved his new scriptures with his name on them, Crocs, book light, Looney Tune stickers, Kendama, Feastables, and slime that makes fart noises. :)

We went to dinner at Texas Road House, and then Damon went over to Sawyer's house while Paul and I went to Tessa's choir concert. He took the water balloons he got at his friend party.

He came back home for cake, and we watched a movie as a family.

It was really great to celebrate Damon!!!

Damon chose to play night games at the school for his friend party this year. He invited his whole class.

They played grounders, soccer, gaga ball, cross net, and hide and seek.

The weather was perfect and it was a super fun night!

Grandma took Damon to the mall for his birthday Grandma Date. He picked out all sorts of squishies.

He chose to spend some of his birthday money on a squishie for Tessa and a treat for Rockwell. How sweet is this kid?!

They got Orange Julius and churros, and also ate lunch at McDonald's. He had a super fun day with Grandma!!

We're so grateful you're in our family Damon Doyle and we sure love love love you!!!

Mother's Day

 Mother's Day was very hard this year. I felt torn between two worlds all day. I miss my mom so much, and it felt especially hard on Mother's Day. I wanted so badly to be able to talk to her, and I just felt sorrow. And at the same time, I was so happy to be Mom to my incredible kids. I love being their mom, and I felt such joy for who they are and how much I genuinely enjoy each of them. It was difficult to feel both joy and sorrow so strongly at the same time, all day long. 

Paul had a delicious Mediterranean salad ready for lunch.

I ate it out on the deck and then enjoyed reading my book.

Which eventually turned into a nap. :)

And then Paul and the kids brought out some gifts for me. I love the "all about Mom" questionnaires they fill out every year.

Rockwell and Tessa got me some of my favorite treats and Damon got me some great smelling soap. Paul got me a Barnes & Noble gift card, some treats, and I've been shopping for some new clothes lately.

I just love them so much!!

Paul made a delicious dinner.

We ended the night playing a game. Paul and the kids made it a great day for me, even though I was crying all throughout the day too.

Morp

 Meg asked Rockwell to Morp. I didn't get pictures of the ask or the answer. Meg and her friends knew Rockwell was leaving Luke's house one day and so they were at his car with a poster that said, "I double dog dare you to go to Morp with me." Meg had her dog and Addie's dog with her. Haha. Rockwell, Luke, Levi and Ollie came over one night to make Rockwell's and Luke's answer posters. They got hot dogs and the posters said, "Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog" and then had a ton of random drawings and things written on them, with Yes written somewhere in there. They were laughing so hard while they made the posters, and the more random ideas they got, the harder they were laughing. It was so fun to listen to the boys absolutely laugh their heads off for a couple hours. 

The state track meet was the same day as Morp, and so they did their day date a couple days ahead. They went to the Riverwoods and did a picture scavenger hunt. Rockwell said it was a ton of fun!

Rockwell and Meg have been great friends since they were like 7 years old. So fun that they're still such good friends!

The theme for Morp was Hercules. Addie's parents took the pictures and had the boys flex. Rockwell was more than happy to show off his muscles. :)

Rockwell and Meg are both such awesome, good-hearted teenagers!! I just love them both!

Luke fell down.....apparently with some help from Levi :) Haha!!

The girls

The boys

They had dinner at Addie's house, went to the dance, and then watched Hercules after the dance. Rockwell said it was a super fun date!!