Everyday Adventures

Tessa still has a few words mixed up, and I think it's adorable. She calls tennis shoes 'antenna shoes.' She calls candy corns 'acorns.' And instead of naked she says 'connected.' She has a very big vocabulary, and often chooses words that seem mature for a 4-year-old. She always says humans instead of people. We got to church one day and it was crowded, and she said, "There are a lot of humans here!" The other day she cleaned up her dishes and crumbs after breakfast and then asked me if the table looked ship-shape? I love the words she gets mixed up. It reminds me how young she still is.


Tessa, Damon and I met Buffie and her kids at Cafe Rio last week.

They came over and played after lunch. The kids always have so much fun together. I loved finding all of them with backpacks on, ready for their trip on an airplane.



Dante and Alexys came over for an evening while my parents went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. The kids all had fun playing in the basement together. We roasted hot dogs for dinner, and then watched Despicable Me. It was a really fun night.




Damon had us all laughing when we found him hiding like this. He really wanted to play hide and seek, but wouldn't let go of his balloons.



We met Al and Katie at a park again last week. It was fun to hear all about Katie's trip to Europe!

Damon went on a twisty slide by himself, and was pretty proud of himself for it.
  

We met Al, Hallee and Wyatt in Provo Canyon. We walked from Nunn's Park to Canyon Glen park. The girls were so adorable skipping along the trail, holding hands.

It was fun/exhausting to throw rocks in the river. Tess and Damon just wanted to get in the water, so we didn't stay too long at the river. We ate lunch on some grass and just enjoyed being up in the mountains again.


The kids rode their scooters to school for National Bike to School Day. They liked that a lot.


We did yard work for family night this week. Damon and Tessa helped mow the lawn while Rockwell and I pulled weeds.

The kids loved finding all the creatures that came up with the weeds.
  

We had Damon's birthday party at Grandma Ham's on Sunday afternoon. He loved opening presents, and handed every bit of wrapping paper to me and said, "Here Mom," every time. That was a crowd pleaser. :) He's loved playing with all his new toys this week. I can't believe my baby is almost 2!
  

Track Meet

Rockwell had his first track meet last week. It took a while to figure out how it all worked. We just showed up without any instructions or anything. We did eventually get it all figured out though. Rock decided to run a 4x100-relay, the 50m, the 100m, and the 400m. He said the 400 was his least favorite, but I was proud of him for trying it and choosing it over the 200m. He had a lot of fun at the meet and met a few new boys running the relay together.

The meets are hours long, so it was tricky keeping Tessa and Damon entertained the whole time.
  
The last half of the meet was better, after we figured out that we could wander with them and make it back to the track just for Rockwell's turn. We found a corner with rocks and open space to run. Damon was so stinking cute! He would race from one end of the asphalt to the other. He'd get in the "runner stance," say Set, Go! and run to the other side. Then he'd do it over again the other way. It was adorable!
  

Life Lately

A boy, a bug, and his bike. :)

Rockwell has started a city league of Track. He loves it! I'm not sure yet how the meets work, but during practice he's training with kids ages 7 - 10. I think that's good for him, because he's not the fastest one every time. The older boys really push him to work harder and listen to the coaches on how to improve.

Paul took a day off work and finished up a few things around the yard. Tessa loved helping him collect all the sticks he had chopped from the tree he cut down.

  

She also loved showing me trick after trick when the work was done.

  

We have tons of firewood now, so we made a fire one evening. These pictures crack me up.

"Want some Dad?"

"Psych!"

We met Al and Katie at a park one day. The weather was perfect, and it was so fun to spend the day outside with friends.

  

Damon thought it was so funny to run away from me. He's definitely not at a great age for parks, but Al helped a ton with following him around and helping him with the stuff he can't quite do on his own yet.

Damon still loves to take all his clothes off, and has figured out how to get his diapers off. We've been putting these onesie shirts on him while he sleeps, but he's figured out how to get his diaper off and out of the shirt without getting the buttons undone. There have been some seriously gross cribs to clean up lately! Now he sleeps with sleepers on backwards, so he can't undo the zipper. Little stinker!

The garage looks so nice, and it's great to have so much more space there and in the shed with everything organized.

The kids always look so nice on Sundays, I always try and take a picture if we happen to be ready on time.

Paul and I went on a fun date last weekend. We had a gift card to PF Changs, so we had dinner there. The Life Skills class from his school was having their prom dinner at a restaurant right across from there, so we timed it right that we could stop in to say hi to them. They all went as a group with their peer mentors as their dates. Paul loves these kids, and they love him just as much. It was so fun to meet them and see how excited they were to be at Prom.

We had a gift card to Barnes and Noble too, so we went there after dinner. We both found a few books that we're really excited about. I could seriously stay in that store for hours! We got some dessert after that. It was a really fun night. And I love my husband! Look at that glamour shot. :)

  

Egg Hunts

This was the year of the egg hunts! The kids got to have so many egg hunts this year. They loved it! 

We found the eggs and baskets the Easter Bunny left at our house first thing Sunday morning. They were thrilled with everything he left for them. It was a nice morning spent as a family.

In true Tessa form, she immediately shared her candy with her brothers and her new bracelets with me. She loves to share with people. I love that about her.

Paul went to leave for a meeting, but came back in and told me I should take the kids outside. Somebody had put eggs all over our front yard, full of candy and toys. That was so nice of whoever did that! There are some very thoughtful people in this world. 

   

We went to Grandma and Gramps Clark's house for dinner that night. It was delicious, and Gramps had some great thoughts on Easter and Christ before we ate. They did an egg hunt for the grandkids after dinner.

They loved finding more eggs with their cousins. What a cute group of kids!

My mom invited me over on Monday afternoon to see the kids and do an egg hunt with them.

  

  

They had fun playing in the sandbox with Grandma after that.