Random May things

 

Luke and I went to visit my Great-Aunt Sherrie. Luke and Uncle John hit it off so well. They were just chatting up a storm while Aunt Sherrie and I were talking. It was so cute to look over there and see them both relaxing in the chairs. 

Baby girl isn't a baby much anymore. She turned 2 years old last week!!! She loves playing with this Lego car. she really enjoys putting the Lego puppies (she loves puppies) and the soccer ball in the car together and zooming around. 

This is why I should clean out the air filter in my lawn mower every year. It was pretty gross.

Caterpillar circles

I will always remember the first part of 2023 as the year of the caterpillar circles. My neighbor is a kindergarten teacher and she needed help with these. For the past 12 weeks I've cut them out. It's been a whole lot of work. I hope the cute kids liked them.

Lagoon~

I decided to take advantage of the discount tickets that My Tech High had for a Lagoon trip. Thankfully the weather cooperated and we had an amazing time there. Because boys are boys I don't have many pictures. However, I did get this one of me and Luke, plus a video of the boys with Papa. I am super glad that we decided to go. 

We all got our hands stamped when going into Lagoon. The next day Luke was excited to see that his was still visible. Luke's favorite ride was the space scrambler. Mine was the Colossus. Peter's said he doesn't know that his favorite ride was. Actually, I don't know is the answer he gives me for most questions. He is such a teenager. 

School's Out!!!

 It has been a hard, hard year. We are all thankful summer vacation is finally here:

Trip to the cemetery in Payson

I've been doing various family history projects - one of which is grandma's recipes. I've discovered a few of my ancestors that are buried in Payson city cemetery. It's amazing to know that Alex has a lot of company down there. Yesterday, I took a map of people that I wanted to find. It's thrilling standing near the headstone of these ancestors that I've read about.

While I was there I also found some of the family friends that were a treasured part of my childhood. I miss them and treasure all the good things they shared with me.

Visiting cemetery's is one of my favorite things to do. I found some really interesting headstones. 

 

Great-grandma's project

I recently made a visit to my great-aunt Sherrie. She decided I was trustworthy enough to borrow all of Great-Grandma Chamberlains recipes. I have spent a lot of time the past two weeks scanning the recipes into my computer. I'm hoping to be able to upload them to grandma's memory page on family search before the month is over. There are so many fun recipes! I especially love to see Grandma's handwriting. I feel such a special connection to Grandma while doing this project. She was an amazing lady, whom I looked up to. I hope she is happy that I'm doing this project. I think the rest of the family will be pretty excited about getting them. 

  

DNA extraction

We did a pretty cool experiment in school yesterday. It seems like the boys hate everything related to school right now, so I'm really glad they tolerated this. We ground up slip peas, then added isopropyl alcohol and a bit of contact solution. The DNA "strands" reminded me of fluffy white clouds. It was pretty great.

The school district we live in has spring break this week. We already took our spring break a month ago, but Luke will be spending loads of time with his BFF Quin. They are so funny together. They love to play on their VR headsets. Luke will play upstairs and Quin down (and vice versa). It's so funny to hear them talking/playing with each other. They also like to play like this - Quin in the rocking chair and Luke on his computer. The winds of change appear to be coming for Quin. I'm trying to hold onto all the time they are able to spend together. 

The randomness of March

After shopping, one day, I noticed this list in a shopping cart that was outside the store. I snagged it fully intending to just throw it away. Then, I started to wonder a bit about the person who might have written it. Am I weird for doing so? 

The doodle pictures I made while talking on the phone with my parents one Sunday. I remember being a little girl and watching my Mom create doodles while she was talking on the phone too. Yes, in case you were wondering, I did put it in my journal. LOL

I started taking a class this week. One of the assignments is to feel gratitude for at least one thing everyday and write about it. On this day part of my cereal looked like a heart. I felt so grateful for it! It was a small reminder that Heavenly Father loves me. I love him too.

I made these cute bear cookies for part of a meal I took in to a family in our ward. Their young daughter was diagnosed with brain cancer in the middle of January. Our ward is taking in meals 3x a week. It has been a unifying experience for a lot of the members in our ward. 

 

Deep dive - Peter Dec '10

 Enjoy!

The February burn out

In the middle of February I always start to feel a bit burnt out. I think it's a fairly common feeling. The bleak and gray days don't help much. To combat it, we switch up our routine and try new things. Luke wants me to try making reindeer cupcakes (see below), something I've never done. 

Recently, Luke and I also took a break and went swimming at the Rec Center. Just the two of us because Peter says he hates swimming (that makes me so sad because he used to love it). We had a wonderful time together. I've also started have 'family council' with the boys on Sunday nights. It's a time where we can discuss what is happening in our family during the new week. This week I needed help figuring out what to make for dinners. Peter and I are both getting so tired of the same meals over and over and over again. Luke finally agreed to let us try something different. He agreed to let me try making sweet/sour pork, paella, chicken parmesan, onion rings (shocked about this one), and beef stroganoff. I hope at least one of those things will be something we can keep eating.

One day last week I was looking over Peter's cursive book and tried to figure out what this circled letter was. Peter insisted it was a w. I'm not so sure about that. Often baby will pull out a book while I am working with the boys. One day it was about microscopes and American history. She loves the pictures on almost any book.  When we are in the office working she will often pull out the Lego Animal Atlas book. She is currently very interested in animals and their sounds. She also makes the sound of a train whenever she hears one (which is often because of the tracks nearby). She is growing bigger and bigger everyday.