Eveyln's First Birthday

Happy Birthday Evelyn! 

Birthday breakfast

 Birthday balloons!

 

 Looking out the window, waiting for Cora to come home. 

 Present time! Evelyn didn't really need more toys this year, but she did love opening the ones she received. The paper was almost as much fun as the presents! 

 

 Evelyn got two dollies of her own, a grocery cart, soft pretend food, and a sand and water table.  

 Evelyn was very interested in her birthday cupcake! 

 She loved the frosting and mushing the cake between her fingers. 

 Happy girl! 

Evelyn's birthday was a bit simpler, since she didn't need many new things. So we added this Chinese first birthday tradition to her birthday celebrations. It was so fun, I wish we would have known about it earlier! It is a zhua zhou tray, and each item represents an interest or ability. You lay them in front of baby and wait to see which item she picks up and takes away first (just touching doesn't count). There's no official list, but here's what we did: 

Ball=sports, library card=academic, cymbal=music, calculator=sciences, brush=arts, syringe=medicine, stamp=high ranking official, pen=writer, orange=fortune, tree-love of nature, rolling pin=baker.

 

Here she is, checking it all out! 

 The calculator was her top choice--maybe she be our science baby!

 It was so fun to watch her, we let her keep choosing. Next Evelyn chose the syringe. Medicine and sciences do go together!

 And finally the library card. A girl after my own heart! 

 Happy Birthday Evelyn! We love you! 

A few days after Evelyn's birthday, Kissie and Pata came by with their gift. They gave Evelyn Pata's rocking chair from when he was a little boy. How precious! Evelyn was thrilled to have a chair of her own, and I love having something with so much meaning and history.  

Tulips!

April is tulip month! We headed to Thanksgiving Point as a family after work and had fun looking at all the different varieties.

The gardens there are a lot of fun to walk around.

 We also spent quite a bit of time at the fish pond. These fish are crazy! It almost made my stomach turn to see them swarming around the food. The kids loved to feed them.  

 

 Even Evelyn wanted to see!

 It happened to be Dutch Days while we were there, so we got a packets of homemade donuts.... then had to go back to get another one. Delicious! 

 Three of my favorite tulips! 

Grandma's Visit

Kevin's mom came to Salt Lake with her mom, sister, and great-aunt for General Conference. We were lucky to meet up with them a few times and have Dawn stay with us a day before she went back. 

We went to the zoo. It was a pretty day! And Evelyn loved her first independent ride on the carousel. 

 

 Here are the kids with Aunt Terri, Aunt Doty, and Grandmother. 

March Videos

Fun at the park!

This year for family birthdays we email a video of the kids singing. They love adding in the cha-cha-cha's!

Cora's front walkover

Cora's round-off backhandspring-- she's been working so hard on it!

Grandparent Letter

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

How are you doing? I hope everything is going well for you. I hope some spring weather is coming your way too! We’ve had a couple of really warm days and our tulips are coming up, so that’s a lot of fun. The kids are loving playing at the park and riding bikes outside again. We also planted grass in plastic cups when I taught Luke’s playschool this week, so the kids are having fun  watching their grass grow indoors J.

Evelyn is moving everywhere! She’s cruising, climbing up stairs (we put in a baby gate because she can’t go down yet), crawling fast, and putting everything in her mouth. She’s working on two new teeth, which has made her a bit grumpy sometimes, but in general she’s so happy, especially when Kevin comes home from work. She’s been saying ‘dada’ for about a month now… no ‘mama’s though!

Luke is fully potty trained and so proud of being a big boy, he hasn’t had an accident in a very long time and has a bladder of iron that doesn’t require very many bathroom trips—much better than diapers!

Violet has mastered her one-handed cartwheels (with either arm) and always wants to read books, play games, or have me do spelling words with her (she wants to be just like Cora!). She was so happy to start wearing her skirts again in the warm weather, and loves toting Evelyn around on her hip.

Cora just got her round-off backhandspring in gymnastics and moved up a level to a new class. She’s dying to try roller skating, can do the monkey bars backward, and just lost another tooth.

I have made a goal to experiment with yeast this year, something I’ve never really done before. I’ve made some yummy sandwich bread, French bread, English muffins, and rolls. I finally got my pitas to puff yesterday (on my 3^rd try) and it was exciting! I’m still got pretzels, donuts, and artisan bread recipes I’d like to try. It’s been fun! I’ve been grinding my own wheat too, and trying to do fresher, whole foods for my family. We are going to try a garden this year, so I’m excited about that too.

Kevin escaped a round of lay-offs at work last month and got a nice raise this week. He does a great job providing for our family!

                We love you lots! We miss you and think of you often! 

Easter Celebration in Blackfoot

We were lucky to be able to get together with my Dad's side of the family for an Easter egg hunt in Blackfoot the day before Easter. It was so much fun! I loved seeing my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents! We couldn't go the year before because it was so close to Evelyn's due date. It was such a special day though, we will try our hardest to never miss again! 

We dyed eggs, had a delicious lunch, played horseshoes, rode fourwheelers, a special Easter message about Christ, and got to visit and catch-up. A couple of my younger cousins made sure my kids felt especially welcome (since we don't get up to Idaho often enough for them to know my cousins' kids well) and played with them. The highlight for the kids was the massive Easter egg hunt put on by my aunts. It was amazing! 

Cora showed Grandpa her book she made for school about his dad.

 

Climbing trees was a popular pastime

 

 The eggs were hidden all over this huge park, with a very generous egg to kid ratio. It was like candy egg heaven! 

It was a pretty perfect day, and we topped it off by visiting my Grandma Ellis before we headed home. With my parents in England for Chase's blessing and Emeline's baptism, we were on our own for Easter Sunday, so it was especially perfect to spend 'Easter Saturday' with family. 

Happy Birthday Violet!

Violet got to celebrate a few days early because of Easter and our day trip to Blackfoot. She didn't mind! 

Birthday breakfast--yummy waffles!

 Birthday pictures! Isn't she the cutest??

 

 

 (Of course, Luke wanted his picture taken too!)

 

 Violet got keys (cute real ones, but extras from Home Depot that don't go with anything), pink cowgirl boots, an new gymnastics outfit, a bike helmet, a game, a puzzle, and a DS game. She was pretty happy! 

 Happy 5th birthday, Violet! 

 Violet is already doing a great job reading, writing, and drawing. Check out this cute thankyou note she wrote for Kissie and Pata, who gave her a new gymnastics mat!