April 2018

Easter is always a fun holiday and I'm thankful my kids really do understand the real meaning of why we celebrate Easter.  But we do have a lot of fun traditions and activities that we get to do as well. 

We kicked off Easter with the Highland City Easter Egg hunt.  We got to see the Easter Bunny and get lots of eggs.  The eggs had a little candy in them and a bunch of coupons.  I'm pretty sure we got 14 or 15 coupons for free crazy bread.  Unfortunately they were only good for a month but boy we ate a lot of Crazy bread that month, gave some coupons away, and still had a few leftover we had to throw away.



Dying Easter eggs is always a fun afternoon and the kids have a great time.  We had a neighborhood Easter egg hunt and I didn't get any pictures of.  The kids each had an egg hunt at school as well.  Easter Sunday was also Conference Sunday which I love because we get to spend it at home as a family and still learn about The Gospel and Jesus Christ.  That afternoon we went to my parents for Easter dinner.



Spring Break ended up being interesting.  I was planning on doing fun things each day but the weather wasn't great and Jaron got the stomach flu so we made do with what we were dealt.  Jaron got a long (like 1 1/2 hours) bathtub after his sickness.  He was in heaven and could've played for another few hours. 



We went to Wheeler Farm one afternoon and had fun feeding the ducks and walking around seeing the baby goats and other animals.




We've done this hike before but it's always fun.  We hiked to the Draper Suspension bridge one afternoon.  It was cool but ended up being perfect weather for a hike.



I feel so lucky that this year for soccer all 3 of my kids got to play on the same team.  Because the girls are in Kindergarten and Jaron will be in Kindergarten,  they played the same level this year.  This was the first year my girls wanted to play and the first time they've played any team sport.  It was such a fun soccer season.  They had a great coach that held practice each week and really helped them all improve their game.  Aria surprised me with being more aggressive than I thought she would be and ended up scoring 4 goals this season.  Jaron scored 5 goals which was great since he was the smallest on his team and I saw a lot of improvement over the season.  He asks to go outside and kick the ball around constantly.  Siena had a little bit of a rough season.  She sprained her ankle before the first 2 games and was just getting over a sickness for the last game.  Since there are only 6 games that didn't leave her with much.  She was pretty timid out there but I was happy she got out there, got some good kicks and just participated since this wasn't something she was all that on board with but was a little peer pressured into it by her sister.  It was a great season and fun to watch my kids all out on the field together.



Grandma VaLois came to visit.  Her name is now Grandma Glover-Seabolt since she got married last August but we just call her Grandma Glover still.  It was fun to spend time with her.  The kids always love to read to her and she reads to them and she always treats them to cookies, pink milk and of course Happy Meals at McDonald's.



We had our first Ridgeline Run at school.  The week before they asked for more volunteers so I signed up and somehow got stuck with being the DJ and Announcer!?!  Still not sure how I got suckered into that but it was a fun day.  It was pretty hot that day but the kids all did great.  It was fun to see how excited they were just to run around the field.  They all got t-shirts and my kids actually ran longer than I thought they would and all seemed happy with it.

March 2018

My kids have been into playing Yahtzee lately.  It's been kind of fun because it helps with their counting, addition, and writing numbers etc. so I like them to play it.  However, they're so mad that no one ever gets yahtzee.  Well that recently changed when Jaron got not one yahtzee, but 3...all in one game!  If I hadn't watched him do it with my own eyes, I would've never believed him.  Look at that face though!  He was so excited!!!



Jaron told Jennifer at a recent family dinner that he was signed up for Soccer and T-ball. So Jennifer told him to make sure to tell her when the games are so she can come watch.  The next day Jaron wrote this note so we wouldn't forget to tell Jennifer.  T-ball isn't until June! :)



For the girl's 1/2 birthday we took them to the Children's museum.  We hadn't been there in years.  In fact I think I was pregnant with Jaron when we took them last.  It was such a fun day there, the kids loved it and had we not had to get home for some things, we could've spent a lot longer there.



My kids are really into making leprechaun traps.  Each year they get a little more elaborate and creative.  This year they each made their own.  This was a week long project that they spent hours working on throughout the week.  They had so much fun trying to figure out the best way to trap a leprechaun even watching youtube videos to get ideas.  They were close this year but that sneaky leprechaun still made it through each trap, leaving behind some gold wrapped peanut butter cups which the kids were thrilled about.



The big excitement of St Patrick's day is when is the secret leprechaun going to show up.  I can't tell you how many times they ran to the door to check if he had come (even though he always rings the doorbell)  Each year it's different and this year he waited until later in the afternoon but he still made it and left behind some fun goodies to play with.  Thanks secret leprechaun, you make their day each year and they love it!



Since all 3 kids have been taking gymnastics this year I thought it would be fun to go to a University of Utah gymnastics meet.  They loved seeing them do their flips, especially what they can do on the balance beam.  Jaron I think loved going the most and watched the entire thing and was very engaged in exactly what was going on.  He loves gymnastics and is quite good at it.



I forgot to mention in the month of February the school had their annual Rocky Readers program.  The goal is to get the entire school to read a total of 1 million minutes.  They had lots of contests and prizes being given out throughout the month.  All 3 of my kids were into it.  They read a ton, they did Lexia and then they had me read to them lots of chapter books.  We did rotations a lot of nights of who would read to who and for every 10 minutes of reading they would get 1 ticket.

When they had their assembly at the end to celebrate making their goal, Jaron got called up because he was the highest Pre-K reader with the most tickets, he got 75 tickets.  He got a certificate and some containers of slime.  Well a couple weeks later he came home with a letter that he was chosen to go lunch at Pizza Pie Cafe with the principal and others students and they were being taken in a Limo.  Jaron didn't even know what a Limo was but was so excited.  I was a little nervous just sending him off with all these other kids with him being so little but he did great.  I knew a couple PTA members that were also going so I knew they would look out for him.  When they got back he got out of the Limo right by the principal and he laughed as he looked at me and said 'He's a good one that one, what a great time we had.'  I'm sure Jaron talked his ear off as Jaron has no inhibition whatsoever in talking to adults, older kids or anyone for that matter.  He had a great time and told me he ate 1 piece of cheese pizza and 2 pieces of dessert pizza.



The last 2 years the Jordan River temple has been remodeled.  So we got to go to the open house for it since they will soon re-dedicate it.  I always love any chance we get to take our kids to the temple and explain things to them and they always love to look in the mirrors in the sealing rooms and also love the beauty of each celestial room.



This year general conference started on March 31.  Each conference I try more and more to get my children to start listening.  In the past I've done conference bingo and that works for a short time but they talk the whole time and it drives me crazy.  Well thanks to my sister Michelle, we copied her idea and it worked really well this year.  I got a few snacks and things at the dollar store and told them if they listened quietly and then could tell me one thing the speaker said that they could earn a conference ticket.  Then they could spend it at the conference store.  Each thing was either 1,2 or 3 tickets.  This was a hit.  They sat quietly, usually could tell me one thing the speaker said and loved picking out their stuff.  It lasted 3 sessions out of the 4.  Sunday afternoon they were done and decided they didn't want to listen anymore, which was fine by me.  They went upstairs and played quietly and it was nice for me to enjoy one session with no interruptions between talks.

Glovers go to California 2018

February 23 was our 10 year anniversary.  The Monday before I called my mom and asked if she would babysit.  We started looking and there was nothing to do, not even a movie we really wanted to see. I was wanting to make our 10 year a little extra special so instead Shane and I decided that day to take the kids and head down to California.  We had been wanting to do it but between job schedules, school, etc. it just wasn't working out.  We didn't have one thing going on that weekend so we decided if we're going to do it we better just do it.  Since it was so close we decided not to tell the kids and surprise them.

When they got home from school on Friday there were 3 shirts turned down on the couch.  I told them that mom and dad decided to invite them on our date and if they turned their shirts over it would give them a clue where we were going on our date.  They all started lifting the shirts they were wearing instead of the ones that were on the couch.  haha.  When they turned them over, they were Minnie and Mickey t-shirts.  We were off to California.



We drove the entire way down on Friday.  The kids did so good.  We got a bunch of movies and took their workbooks I bought from Costco that they love doing.  We stopped for 2 bathroom breaks and for dinner in Las Vegas.  When we stopped in Barstow they all fell asleep for most the rest of the trip so it was great.



We stayed at Christy's house and they are always so good to let us stay there.  They clear their kids out of 2 of the 3 kids bedrooms and let us take over the place.  They give us their bathroom, beach towels, food, etc. and no one ever complains that another family has just taken over their house.



Saturday morning we went and got doughnuts.  Yum, I love doughnuts in California.  Nothing like them in Utah.  Then we headed to Newport beach. It was coldish.  Warmer than Utah but still pretty chilly at the beach.  The kids didn't care.  They played in the water, built sand castles, collected sea shells and had a blast.  We brought our lunch and enjoyed it on the beach.



After lunch we went and drove our car across the Balboa Ferry.  The kids thought it was so cool that we got to drive our car onto a boat.  Then we met Christy's family at the Corona Del Mar tide pools.  My kids LOVED it there.  We stayed for hours just exploring.  They held hermit crabs, put their fingers in Sea Anemones and even saw a huge black sea slug.  The pictures don't show just how big these sea slugs were.



After that we went and got Chocolate Malted Crunch ice cream from Rite Aid (aka Thrifty's) and then that night Brett, Christy, Shane and I all went out to dinner to some yummy Mexican while the Brian girls babysat.  Yay!

Sunday we went to Church with the Brians.  The girls went to class with Emmy and Jaron was brave and went to his class by himself.  After church the kids just played and played with their cousins.  They went to the park, collected pine cones, and Mia showed them how to make Origami hopping frogs.  Meanwhile, Christy and I spent most the afternoon finding a pot roast recipe for her instant pot and then cooking it.  It took forever and was not instant but the roast turned out really yummy.  Konstantina also came down Sunday evening and hung out with us.  It was fun to see her and catch up.


Jaron has a new love in his life...his cousin Emmy. When Emmy woke up Sunday morning Jaron snuggled right up to her, laying his head on her shoulder. When I told him to give her a little space since she just woke up, he reached over and held her arm during the entire show they were watching.  When we were at Disneyland the next day, he asked me several times if Emmy was home and if he would see her when we got home.  Now he talks about her almost every day since we've been home.  #cousinlove




Monday we went to Disneyland.  We had a great day.  It was different then that last 2 times as the kids weren't as into the characters as they used to be but were so excited to ride the roller coasters and big kid rides.  Aria is my little roller coaster girl. During Thunder Mountain, Aria had her arms up the whole time yelling 'OH yeah, I love this'  Jaron loved Autopia and thought he was so big that he got to steer the car.  We went on Star Tours, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, etc. 






I convinced all the kids to go on Space Mountain.  I told them it was all in the dark and they were all ok with it except Siena but she was still brave and went.  Siena insisted on sitting with Shane and Jaron couldn't sit by himself so I asked Aria if we sat in front of her and Shane and Siena in back if she would be ok to sit on a row by herself.  She didn't even hesitate and said ok.  The only bad part was when we got the picture they take on the ride, Aria was no where to be seen and I had covered her up.  I felt bad since she was so brave to sit by herself so I took a picture of just her outside the ride to show she went by herself.



We did the cute rides too...Winnie the Pooh, Teacups, Alice, Pinocchio, etc.  The kids loved the Buzz Lightyear ride that I had never been on before.  On Pirates the kids were so curious if everyone was really fake.  I kept telling them they were but it was hard to believe me apparently.  They loved It's a Small World (yay) and we sang the song through the ride.  Our night ended watching Fantasmic, which I had never seen so it was fun and cute, and a close replacement to not having a parade cuz Main Street is closed (Boo!)  The kids did so good all day and we didn't have any meltdowns.  I loved that they were older, understood more and were more excited about each ride.  We were all exhausted by the time we got to the car and fell right asleep.  When we got home I couldn't even wake Jaron up to get him in his PJ's.



We got up early the next day and drove all the way home.  We stopped in Las Vegas for lunch and then of course had to stop and do our traditional pictures of Aria in front of the Aria hotel.  This was the first time she knew what we were doing and understood that the hotel was also her name and could read it so she thought it was pretty cool.



It was really a whirlwind of a trip and so fast but I'm so glad we decided to do it and had such a great time. And besides Jaron complaining he was hungry the last 1/2 of the trip home even though I was feeding him constantly, the kids were really good and did great on 2 long drives.  And it was fun doing a last minute trip that wasn't that planned out but turned out great.  Thanks again to the Brian's for letting us crash at your house last minute.