March!

So in March we had St. Patrick’s Day:

And went to Utah for vacation.  Here’s us at the zoo:

Seth was in love with my cousin Rachel (who is 4):

I took the big kids to a live session of General Conference, which was a neat experience:

We got to hang out with baby Molly (Sam and Stephanie’s first baby).  Gabe was very feisty about getting his turns…it was pretty cute.

We stayed with Aunt Betsy for a night and had fun at Hunger Games and at this play place with this crazy ropes course.

We ate tons of food (here at Sweet Tooth Fairy)

and got to tour the church I went to when I was 4-5 (built 114 years ago!) and saw my old house.

And apparently that’s all we did, because I have pictures of nothing else.

 

How about a little review of each kid, for journaling’s sake?

Emma is doing well.  She had a little bump in the Doing All My Assignments road (exactly like last year) but she got back on track quicker than last year, so that’s progress, right?  She is in the Spokane Area Children’s Chorus and they had their first concert last month (right while we were in Hawaii, so no pictures!).  She’s also started track, which we are pleased about.  She is a girl with lots of athletic ability and little interest.  But she’s realized she’s fast and has decided to try to be a sprinter.  Fun!  She’s pretty even-keel, even as a teenager, but there are still friend dramas that come up.  After reviewing this paragraph, she seems like a pretty normal girl!

Gabe is at a good stage as well.  It’s fun to see him pick things on his own (trombone, swimming) and excel at them.  His grades were good…truly would have had straight As if he’d only had me sign his Language Arts planner and his Band practice sheets.  He’s realizing that it’s pretty silly to miss a 4.0 for lack of a few signatures. His favorite thing in the world is to be out on the culdesac playing the big crowd of boys who live here.

Jane continues to be funny and so serious about doing what’s right.  Mention something that she could improve on, and she gets right to work on it.  She’s a good girl.  She plays piano and soccer right now and loves when it’s the weekly 8-9 year old church activity day.  She’s also hilarious…constantly making up dumb songs (it’s like we have our own soundtrack, sometimes) and she’s got this new chest-thumping pose that she says is her new “thing”.  Silly.

Seth is doing great in school, working about a grade level ahead of 1st grade.  He’s still a little spacy, but he’s aware of that issue and I feel like he works on it….when he remembers.  He’s always everyone’s friend and his motto is “Why Use 8 Words, when 58 words will do?”  He enjoys playing soccer, but we have to be careful about complimenting him on something as he dribbles by, because he will seriously STOP in the middle and chat with us about why he did what and what the coach said, while we urge “SETH!  Talk to us later!  Keep moving!”

Faith is SUPER fun to be around all day long.  She’s still the queen of routine (hey that rhymes!  Something she can also do.), and if you do something, ANYTHING two days in a row, she will seriously think that’s the way it should always be.  She loves going cross-eyed, because I make a big deal about how it’s disturbing.  She also CAN TOTALLY WHISTLE!  What 3 year old can actually whistle?!  She memorized her first Scripture for primary and I have it on video, but I’m way past the point of including video in posts.

We are boring…I’m marathon training and Ryan is running a weight loss contest at work.  Our spring has been decent, which is HUGE around here.  I’m realizing I’m in a new Older Kid Phase of parenting which requires 1) Lots of Driving and 2) just being around a lot so you catch them when they want to share.  I love being a mom.  I’m reading actual books more, which means blog reading and facebook reading is suffering (but I’m pretty sure that’s a good thing).  Ryan does homework (5 classes away from his MBA degree) and church stuff and handyman stuff around our house and our rental place.

Sorry that you just had to read a Romney Christmas Card in April!  I just thought I should record some every day things.  On this sunny, quiet Spring day…the every day seems pretty great.