As usual, I am woefully behind on blogging everything from January-April, so I am going to go rapid fire through the last 4 months. Mostly I just grabbed a few favorite pictures and I'll try and add a little commentary.
Lydia and Austin have loved building with the magnetic tiles and can put together some pretty incredible things.
100 long magnet train (Lydia had a project to collect 100 of something and wanted to see if we had 100 magnets...we do). She ended up making a butterfly out of 100 bow tie pastas.
We enjoyed watching the Olympics together.
Date night at Mooyah's. I love date night with Shantel. Also, this is my favorite burger place right now. They make such a good burger and the fries are delicious.
March Madness!
Game night with friends (Perkins and Wards). We played bang and enjoyed some cookies.
General Conference: We had such a great experience with general conference. We had conference bags for the kids and Shantel and I took conference notes. We felt inspired and blessed to listen to the voice of the prophets and apostles. One of my favorite things from conference was that Shantel prepared a conference notes page for each of us and when Lydia and Austin saw it, they wanted their own page and it was so cute and sweet.
Lydia and I found this U.S. map puzzle out my parents house and did it together.
We did a special movie night with Lydia. We really want to encourage her to watch good wholesome movies and have decided that we want to start a tradition of "movie nights" to introduce her to some movies that we feel are good. First up on the list was Toy Story.
Jordan River Temple Open House:
Austin bed jumping: One of Austin's favorite things to do is climb to the top of the bunk bed. Then he wiggles himself down until he is just holding the top of the bed frame and then drops down. We told him a long time ago that he did not seem very safe and he insisted that it was perfectly safe and kept doing it and while it looks dangerous, he is pretty good at it.
Family Home Evening at the Temple: We had a lesson at the Temple. This was inspired by Lydia who heard that Shantel and I were going to clean the Temple for a temple cleaning assignment and really wanted to come. So we decided to go to the Temple for Family Home Evening and have a lesson and then pick up trash around the temple grounds. It was a huge success. The kids loved rolling around and running in the grass. We had a good lesson and managed to find a few pieces of trash for the kids to throw in the garbage bags we brought. Our hope was that they would mostly just remember what a great experience it is to be near/in the temple and they can remember that and build on it.
Brooklyn's Senior art show: Brooklyn got to display her senior project and had an event to invite friends and family to come see it. It was awesome to see her amazing work. She is going to do an internship in Los Angelos this summer for Sony and we are just amazed at her talent and grateful that she is in our family. Also, the kids loved see all the art and exploring the building.
Our kids are still cute asleep: Had to add this one of Austin with his legs hanging off on his tool bench.
Saturday at Scheels to check out the aquarium and go for a ride on the Ferris wheel.
Sunday morning projects: Lydia really wanted a crown, so while Shantel was at ward council, I made Lydia a crown. Then I made a shield for Austin. It made for a fun morning and even a couple months later, Austin still plays with his shield.
