June Roundup

More June highlights

Concerts in the Park at the Brigham Young Park with Kissie and Pata

Cora finished up soccer... with an award for the most improved player. Unfortunately, she lost interest during the last half of the spring session, but it was a good experience for her. 

Cora had her last day of school, a field day full of fun with a crazy crowded picnic afterward. She is reading well, enjoyed school, and had a stellar report card with 100%s and 'consistently strong' markings in all of her kindergarten skills. She made this darling plaque for Kevin and I. Cora has a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Proud. What a positive first experience! 

We made our summer fun idea list and have a lot of fun summer ideas to keep us busy this summer

Kevin, Luke, and Violet attended the Herriman parade. It's a cute little small town parade that is fun and closeby. Cora, Evelyn, and I were at Cora's new gymnastics class that will b on Saturday mornings in the summer. A neighboring ward also put on a community bike parade at the end of the month for celebrating the Fourth of July that Cora loved (and that Violet started crying during so I had to come home with her-- too many hills!)

We had a fun time with Heather, James, and Samuel on a bike/scooter/stroller walk with playing afterward. It was so nice to go on a walk in a wooded area with big trees! We don't get that by our house.

And, more summer fun at Jungle Jims with Amber, Jaxon, and Dylan

It was a busy month-- and even busier in that we were also preparing for fun events later in the summer too. You know you are tired when you fall asleep in the mother's lounge and your kids have to come get you and tell you church is over! It really happened, no joke, I swear I only closed my eyes for a second! 

Grandparent Letter

Dear Grandma,

   How are you doing? I hope all is going well there!

   Evelyn is now 7 weeks old—time flies! She is smiling and cooing now, it’s so cute! She hates the hiccups, loves to snuggle, and gets a lot of love from everyone in the family—and even oatmeal kisses from her messy mouth big brother! Sometimes things feel a little bit crazy here if all of the kids need something at once (or all of them start crying at once!), but we are adjusting and Evelyn is o-so-cute and sweet. We’re excited for you to meet her sometime soon!

   We were so lucky to have lots of help after Evelyn was born. Kevin stayed home from work for a week, Kevin’s mom came for a week, and my mom came for the day for 4 days and took the kids overnight a few times. It helped so much! Especially helped the older kids do exciting, fun things instead of being bored.

   Cora had her last day of school on Friday and is officially done with kindergarten! She has done so well this year and had a great teacher. Her end of year presentation was on the ostrich. Her interesting fact was that an ostrich can kill a lion with its kick. Her class mates were pretty excited to hear that. Cora starts up gymnastics at a new studio this month. She and Violet love riding their bikes and playing with the kids on our street. There are about 14 of them ages 4-6, so there’s almost always someone to play with.

   Violet has 2 more weeks left of preschool, and she has her second year of preschool this fall before starting kindergarten. She had fun Mommy and Me (with a magician even!) and Daddy and Me (build a wood project) days, as well as a field trip to the Children’s Museum recently. She especially loves her Sunbeam class and going to Primary with the big kids.

   Luke went on his first camping trip—a Father and Son outing with Kevin and a nearby campground. Surprisingly he did really well sleeping in a tent! So hopefully Kevin and the older kids can go camping again later this summer. Luke loves Evelyn, and is sure to tell me whenever she is crying, or when he eyes are open. Sometimes I think he gives her a little poke to see those eyes open! We have to hide the binkies, he thinks any binkie should be in Evelyn’s mouth no matter what. Luke loves to pull things off of shelves in the pantry or rearrange food storage in the basement. The other day I found ramen noodles opened, a can of baking powder tracked all over the floor, all the food storage from the bottom three shelves put in empty boxes throughout the basement, and Luke covered in brown sugar—he managed to open a 4 pound package. Ah, little boys! At least it was a pretty easy clean-up--- and he had to help of course! 

Fun in the basement

Cora's back handspring and Violet's back walkover
 The kids can get these plasma cars going so fast!
 Luke wants to show off his skills too.

Cora's Birthday!

Cora got lucky and had lots of birthday festivities in June! We weren't going to do a birthday party this year, but she did get to chose two friends for a zoo outing. It was pretty hot, and pretty crowded (due to the new exhibit opening June 1st), but I think they had a good time. 

 It was fun to see the new exhibit. We'll just have to go back again sometime when it's less crowded!

 On her actual birthday, Cora got to open a few presents at breakfast and a few throughout the day, with the last few after dinner. She had lots of help opening presents! She was especially excited to get the Nintendo DSi Xl she has been wanting. 

 Kissie and Pata also gave Cora, Violet, and Luke a family pass to Thanksgiving Point for all of their birthdays this year. We started off at the farm to see these adorable baby goats and go on a pony and wagon ride. 

 And then we spent some time at the dinosaur museum 

 When we got home Cora invited a bunch of the neighbor kids over for ice cream sandwiches. We are blessed to live on a street with lots of kids my kids' ages. I bet there are at least 16 kids ages 3-6 who live on our street. It's so fun for them to go out and play in the front yards and I love that I can go out and see them wherever they are. 

 Happy 6th Birthday, sweet Cora!

Hooray! I'm no longer the crazy lady who has 4 kids ages 5 and under! (Probably still crazy anyway)

Happy Birthday to Cora, my brand new 6 year old!

25 hours in Portland and Evelyn at 2 months

We were so excited to be able to attend Kristen and Dan's wedding. It was a little crazy making it happen with using two different airline rewards miles and finding a babysitter (my parents were out of town with my brother) on kind of short notice, but it worked! I think it's really important to be able to attend family events, and the effort to be there was certainly worth it! Unfortunately, it didn't really make sense to bring the kids along-- all of Kevin's family will be coming to Salt Lake one week after we got back. So it was a short trip knowing we'd be seeing everyone soon anyway. The kids had a great time with Beth, we were lucky that she was available. 

It was Evelyn's first plane ride... and my first plane ride since Kevin and I went to Ireland in 2009. (My oh my how life has changed! That's probably my longest time without flying since I was 12.) It's a short plane ride and Evelyn did great. 

 It was fun to see lots of Kevin's family there, and especially to have his grandparents meet little Evelyn.

 New sisters! Aren't these flower girls cute?

 Unbelievably, this is the only unblurry picture I have of Kristen and Dan! I'll have to try to get a better one, they are a beautiful couple. 

 Evelyn with cousin Kylee

 Evelyn is two months old now! She gives great smiles, especially after she nurses. She coos and makes the cutest gurgle noises. She's taking a bottle pretty well now, Kevin tries to feed her one once a day. She usually sleeps for a good 5 hour stretch during the night, which is a real blessing. She likes to burrow her face  when she's sleepy, and gets a nervous look when the kids are rough-housing around her. The kids are anxious as ever for their turn to hold her. We love her so much! 

 At her two month appointment, Evelyn weighed 11.79 pounds (75th percentile) and was 23.82 inches long (93rd percentile!)

Happy Father's Day!

Here's Kevin opening up his little momentos from the kids-- a handprint tree for his cubicle wall and these All About My Dad sheets. The kids were so excited to make them! 

 

Kissie and Pata came over for dinner... and brought along an early birthday present for Cora... a gymnastics mat! It will be well-used and loved by both Cora and Violet. They sure love to show off their tricks!

Violet's end of year preschool program

Violet had a terrific 1st year of preschool with Miss Amanda! She loved all of the fun crafts, field trips, class pets, and learning. They had a cute end of year program with poems and songs. 

 Here's Violet doing the actions to one of the songs

 She even helped Miss Amanda with the boa constrictor song

This song was a family favorite-- it's so catchy! 

Day trip to Blackfoot

I had been wanting to take a trip to Blackfoot to see my grandparents for months, but I was either sick or the weather was bad or our schedules never worked out. Finally I decided I just needed to do it! I felt it was too much car time in one day for the kiddos, so Evelyn and I took a Sabbath day trip and it went perfectly. A very tender mercy was that Evelyn slept the whole way there and back, while I listened to a wonderful audiobook.  This is my favorite time of year to drive to Idaho! The fields are all green and springy and I saw so many calves and foals out grazing with their mommies. 

Our first stop was to see Grandma Ellis. After a bad fall and some health complications, she is living at the Willows in Blackfoot. Evelyn is named after her (middle name Loraine) and I'm glad they got to meet each other! 

 Next I got to have lunch with my Grandma and Grandpa DeGiulio. It was their first time meeting Evelyn too, it was great to sit and talk with them. Here's Evelyn giving Grandpa a smile... right now it seems like she loves men! She seems to be more content when they hold her. A phase, I'm sure. 

It was a quick trip, but so worth it. A perfect day for a drive and family visits-- Evelyn got to meet three of her great-grandparents. I loved having one on one time with my grandparents, it makes my heart happy! I'm a firm believer that what goes around comes around, I hope my grandchildren will think it's worth the effort to visit me too. 

Feeding the Ducks

 We needed to get out of the house, so even though it was a windy day, we headed to Daybreak to feed the ducks. These little baby ducks were so darling!

 Luke hopped up on the bench when some more aggressive geese came along... but was still able to smile!