May 2024

Jaron had his turn doing the Hope of America program at BYU.  It was just as good and fun as the previous year the girls did.

Jaron had his year end Wolf Run and Color Blast. Always such a fun day. Jaron got in the top 10 for the 5th grade boys.

Siena and Aria had their end of year Knowledge Bowl escape room party which is always a fun way to celebrate the end of a great year of Knowledge Bowl.

Our annual Mother's day picture I make them take every year. I do love being their mom and watching them grow up and change is both exciting and sad.  It really does go too fast.

The weekend before school got out, my niece, Eliza got married.  All the sisters and my parents flew down to go to the wedding.  We rented a house for the weekend and had such a good time.  Eliza and James' wedding was so amazing.  Newport Beach temple and then the most beautiful reception with gorgeous flowers with yummy food and dancing.  It was a nice weekend away.

Siena and Aria graduated from Elementary school.  Ridgeline Elementary has been such a great school for them.  Great teachers, good friends and lots of growing opportunities.  They had an end of year luau that I helped plan that was lots of fun.  They didn't have an actual graduation ceremony so this was it.

Last Day of School pic

April 2024

We stayed home for Spring break, like we usually do, but did some fun activities each day.

Grandma VaLois came to visit.  She was able to get a ride out with a couple from her ward so it worked out great and we were so happy to see.

The kids have been trying to grow fruit.  We tried an indoor tray of strawberries and that didn't work out so this year we found some yard and planted several strawberry and raspberry bushes.  They are all excited and we hope they grow a lot of fruit.  Shane put up a little fence around it and netting on top to keep the birds and deer from eating them.

Aria still loves her bird and this was a fun way to practice the violin and play with the birds.

March 2024

The kids got in one last skiing night before night skiing shut down for the season.  They love skiing and Shane loves to take them.  And I love staying home and having a night to myself.

March started off with the end of the basketball season for Siena for Lone Peak Bantam.  It was a rough season for sure.  They didn't win any games and the team wasn't that unified in their approach with many players not showing up quite a bit.  I don't blame Siena for being frustrated even though she still enjoys playing.

March always means Battle of the Books competitions.  Siena and Aria teamed up with Annie again and this time invited Ryder Daniels from our ward and his friend Beckham Brockbank.  The girls carried the team a lot, Annie helped and Ryder a little.  Beckham knew one book but he knew that book inside and out and was so excited anytime a question from that book was asked.  They ended up winning the school competition again and went to the district competition.  They did great again at district and came in the top 10.  

Jaron also did Battle of the Books again and even though he so wanted to win or at least go to the finals, it just wasn't in the cards for his team and they lost in the quarterfinals.  I think Jaron felt a little pressure to win since his sisters had won 3 years in a row but different schools do it a little differently and made it a little harder to win.  Mostly I'm so proud that all my kids always read the books multiple times and really love this program.

March also means Knowledge Bowl competitions.  Jaron did it at Westfield so he wasn't on the same team this year as Siena and Aria.  The subject was History and boy did they ask the hardest questions.  This is also a program we have loved being a part of and sadly will be our last year.  Both teams did really well and they always learn so much from it.

The leprechaun traps are still always so fun and why do I feel like these will be ending soon as they get older.

Our ward did a missionary month in March.  The first week we had a cultural night where the kids went to each room for about 10 minutes and learned about different missions.   They asked me to teach about Australia and be a 'mission leader' for the month.  After the cultural night they all got passports and a mission call.  One week they learned how to do a door approach, we had a night where we went to members homes and taught them about the first vision.  We also took a tour of the MTC. It was such a fun month.

The best part of March was Jaron was in his school play, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  He decided to try out back in December and had to sing a solo.  All his friends did it and even though this isn't something Jaron loves, Jaron was a TV Kid and did 2 dances in it.  He didn't love putting on the makeup but was so good about the whole thing. I'm so glad he did it and I think he had a good time even though a lot of the practices were long.  It turned out so great and all the kids were so talented.  I was impressed how well it turned out for 5/6th graders.

Easter was early this year but we dyed eggs and did our usual Easter traditions.

We used our free passes from a read a thon to go to the Butterfly museum one night before they expired.  Always a fun time trying to hold the butterflies.