Lost Shoe

Jason was playing in the river and he got all muddy and grassy.  He came to me (as I was visiting with friends) and asked if I'd help him clean his shoe off and put it back on.  I told him to go wash his shoe off in the river.  I told him to hang on tight to the shoe, but he wasn't listening very well because he tossed his shoe into the river.  I was pretty bummed because it was the only shoe that he could put on himself and we had just bought them last month.  We tried to chase the shoe down stream, but never saw it.  Jason was totally sad and said "if Jesus were here, He'd get my shoe for me."  It was a sad, sad boy that rode his bike home with just one shoe.
We came home and had dinner and then Allie mentioned that Lily had found Jason's shoe and she had brought it home.  We all expressed our surprise at getting the shoe back because I thought it had floated to the Bear River by now.
Jason said "Did Jesus give it to Lily?  Did you see Him?"  He was so excited and happy at the thought that Allie and Lily might have seen Jesus.  He also had complete faith that the shoe was found because Jesus had found it for him.  Maybe He did have a hand in things.  It sure mattered a lot to Jason and he was grateful to have his shoe back.  I thought it was a cute story, so I shared.

Two Wheels

A few weeks ago, Nate hopped on a bike without training wheels and zoomed away.  He'd been riding the bike without pedals (strider) and that gave him all the practice on balance, so when he got on a bike without training wheels, it was no big deal.  He was so pleased with himself.  We came home and he asked if we could take the training wheels off our bike.  Jason loves that bike, so he didn't want to give it up, but eventually Nate talked him into riding the strider bike and we took the training wheels off the little one for the last time.

Every day contains at least one ride around the block.

Jason picked up the strider bike pretty fast and now he zips around on it like a pro.  It is one of the highlights of my day to see these two ride around the block.

Hill Air Force Museum

My little sister picked up her family and moved to Florida.  It's a sad thing, but what do you do?  We went down to visit the week before they left.  It was raining, so the older kids figured out how to text each other so they could all keep in touch and the little kids played with all the things Jenny was trying to pack up. 

We also went to the airplane museum.

My kids really liked it.

Jake read all the signs and spouted off facts that he learned.  Jason and Nate ran from plane to plane yelling that they liked each one the best.
We even found a plane that Dusty Crophopper got parts from after his crash.  Super cool.

We talked about WWII and how brave my Grandpa was to get into a plane and fly mission after mission.  These kids have no idea.  I guess, neither do I.  I just know what I have read in books.
Those men are an amazing generation of men.

It's pretty amazing to see those planes.  I'm glad we went.  The cousins had a great time together before the great split.  It's too bad Florida is so far away.  :(

James Madison

Jake's school has a history fair each year for the fifth grade kids.  They each get assigned a person from history to be at the fair and then spend a long time learning about that person and making a poster about the facts they have learned.  Then, on the day of the fair, they dress up as that person and spout off all the facts they have memorized.

Jake was James Madison.

He sat at his desk and waited for people to push the red button, then he'd hop up and tell us three interesting facts about James Madison.
It was really fun to go see him at the fair.

The boys learned quickly that it was fun to press people's buttons and they pushed every button they could...including Jake's several times.  The kids in the history fair were supposed to look forward and pretend not to see the hundreds of people in the room as they said their facts, but my little boys incited smiles from people all throughout history because of all the button pushing and chaos that accompanied them wherever they went.

It was a really cute fair and was fun to see all the kids dressed up as people of our history.  My favorite was James Madison...such a cute little old man.  :)

Worms

Nate is still a huge worm fan.  He hunts for them, turning over every rock in sight.  Then, when he gets a pile, he plays with them for hours on end.  I feel bad for the worms because sometimes things don't end well, but I am grateful for the entertainment for the boy.  

Soccer Boys

I think April and May are busier than November and December for our family.  It seems like there is always something going on with school and the kids always want to play spring soccer.  That means all sorts of running around for games and practice.  

These two cute boys have been in soccer this year.  I saw that soccer was available for kids aged 3-5 and I thought it would be good to let them play.  Then, I found out that they couldn't be on the same team because there was a separate team for 3 year olds.  That meant that they would both have games on the same night, but not at the same time.  I should have pulled Jason out when I found out they weren't on the same team.  It's been rough, but they are so cute as they play and they love it so much.  

The first week, Jason threw a fit because he wanted to play on the red team and his team was currently wearing the blue jersey.  He seriously would not get out there to play no matter how much I pushed.  Then, when he saw the other kids running around, it looked fun to him and he decided he would join in.

Nate loves to be blue and loves wearing soccer cleats even though they play inside a gym.
Red is still Jason's favorite jersey color.  I tried to get these guys to switch up the shorts so they wouldn't be monochromatic, but they would not wear anything different than all matching.

The games are in the gym and it has been rough.  The ball rolls all over the place and the kids can't control it like they could in the grass.  I guess we don't have to worry about games being rained out, but I would rather be rained out than do it in the gym.

Nate loves soccer and loves trying to aim for the goal.

Jason is better at chasing the ball than getting it in the goal, but he was able to kick it into the other team's goal a few times.  :)  After every goal the other team makes, he'd run up to me and say (in his most dejected voice) "we wost Momma.  We wost".  I'd tell him to get back in the game and that they hadn't lost yet.  When their team would score, he could hardly contain his excitement as he'd run to me and yell "we wonned Momma!  We wonned!"

Another bad thing about playing in the gym is that there was always a huge pileup of kids falling down as they all chased the ball.  It's sad to hear their little bodies smack against that hard floor.

One night, both boys played at the same time.  They have two games going on in the same gym and only have chairs to separate the "fields".  Jason was playing on one side and Nate was on the other, so Mike and I were able to sit in the middle and watch both games.  Half way through the game, Jason's team followed their rolling ball into the field of Nate's ongoing game.  Jason and Nate saw each other and ran to hug excitedly in the middle of the game. Then Jason stayed a while to play with Nate's team and see if he could help his brother out.  It was the cutest thing ever.  He just kept yelling "that's my best brudder Nayfun!"

Jason's team doesn't have very many players that actually play, so Jason is usually in the whole game.  He gets a red face and comes back to me a huge sweaty mess.  He works hard to follow that ball around the gym and is really fast.  The problem is that when he does get to the ball, he doesn't do anything about it.  He stops it and waits for someone else to kick it away so he can chase it again.  It's hilarious to watch.
Nate is a bit more like Jake was.  He is there for the social aspect.  He loves kicking the ball and chasing it around, but there are lots of kids on his team, so as he sits on the sidelines waiting for another turn to chase the ball, he is visiting, wrestling, and playing with the other kids.
They have been fun to watch and it's been a great season.  We won't do it again until they have it outside, but for this year it was fun.  Yay for cute soccer players!

Big Sister

Allie is such a great sister.  She plays with these boys all the time and they can't get enough of her.  She zipped around on the wheeler with them for a long time while I got dinner cooked.  What a good girl.

Too Small...

I got Jason dressed in his pj's one night and found that one of my favorite pairs of jammies are now just about too small for my smallest boy.  All the kids wore these jammies (including some cousins before them).  I loved these jammies and it is bitter sweet to let them go...so we took some pictures.

 This boy likes to ham it up in pictures.

Tulips!

When we came home from Spring Break, the deer had munched all the little tulip leaves down to the ground.  I didn't think I'd get any tulips this year.  Miraculously, some of them came up even though the leaves had been eaten.  Nate picked some for me to put in the house.  

 Whenever I have flowers in the house, it reminds me of my love for photographing flowers.  They are so beautiful!

 ...so is this kid...

 These are the tulips that Allie and I planted when Sam had been in heaven for a month.  It was a Saturday and Mike and Jake had gone to Star Valley.  I wanted to sit in the house and be sad, but it was sunny outside and I had a bag of tulips.  Allie and I planted them all and we looked forward to a happy day in Spring when we could see the flowers emerge from the bulbs.  It brings so much joy to me to see the little green leaves pointing out of the winter hard ground...then to get the beautiful flowers a few weeks later.  I love tulips!

Jason:  Wook Mom...style.