Happy 4th Birthday Emy!!!

Our sweet Emery turned 4 and we definitely celebrated! She was so excited it was her turn to have streamers and balloons in her room.  She has grown up so much over the last 5 months and is such a good big and little sister.

One of the respiratory therapist I work with has a pony business on the side and was awesome to come up and bring ponies for Emy and our guests to ride. The ponies were so cute and just the right side. We decided that Emy and friends weren't quite old enough for a friend party so we did families. It was fun to be able to visit with friends and let the kids play.

While they waited for their time on the ponies they had plenty of fun playing in the backyard and on our other toys

After about 90 minutes of pony riding we helped feed, brush, and load up the ponies before we did presents. Emy could hardly wait to see what she had been given

Emy saw a cake she loved months ago and luckily Sam's Club was able to replicate the cake for me and she LOVED it

We also had german chocolate cupcakes for Nic's 30th birthday

These balloons were a huge hit. The people at the store messed up and blew up twice as many balloons as we ordered so we happily sent everyone home with multiple balloons

That night when I went to check on Emy I found her with her unicorn horn still on. Thsi little girl had a fun and exhausting day

The festivities continued on her real birthday. She got dressed up like Elsa. She loved church because they sang to her and she got a candy necklace

Then later in the week Emy got to be the student of the day. Complete with hat, certificate, and of coarse treats

We love this girl something fierce and love all the celebrating we got to do with her for her special day

Hallie Soccer

Hallie is loving soccer this spring and the weather has actually been really great. She continues to improve every game. Matt is still enjoying coaching. Hallie has decided she wants to try out for the AYSO extra team. I have my hesitations since it does require more time but its something she really wants to do. It is nice that the time and financial cost isn't much more than rec league but also less than a travel team. We will see how it all goes. 

Liam 5 Months

We have been working hard trying to get Liam to finally sleeping without being held. Some days are ok and other quite frustrating  but he is still the sweetest little man. I love holding him when he sleeps but really love the break I get when he has a nap in his crib. I run around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get anything and everything done not knowing how long I have to do it. Its crazy and gives me tons of anxiety but Im doing the best I can and figuring it out a little at a time. He loves his bum patted and Im looking forward to doing some sleep training to help all of us out.

I love the way his face lights up when he sees us. He is the perfect caboose for us

He has also started to find different parts of his body. He has been so funny playing with his tongue lately

He still doesn't like being on his belly but he doesn't mind laying on his boppy for shorter periods of time so he can still play

The binki was a go to with the girls. With Liam he likes it to go to sleep with it but when he's awake he doesn't seem to care. Hopefully that means eventually it will be easier to get rid of

I love sleepy baby snuggles

Random Acts

I was contacted by Mindy's mom letting me know that someone had nominated her to have her backyard redone because of Corey's passing and asked if we would be a part of it. I wanted to go down and help but logistically it made more sense for Matt to go down and help all day and I'd come down later with the kids. So after school I picked up the kids and we headed for West Valley. I brought Liam's carrier and was able to help some with him in it

Matt was supposed to be laying sod but when he arrived the crew was trying to put together a gazebo but were really struggling so they asked Matt to be in charge of putting it together and so he headed up that project for the day

They re did the entire backyard complete with redoing the playground, putting in a new trampoline, redoing concrete, and of coarse all new sod,

New planter boxes

We had to hang out in a neighbors backyard while we waited for the reveal....it took FOREVER. Something I didn't realize seeing the show on tv is how long it all takes to film. They weren't done with the project so they stalled Mindy. Once she finally arrived they did the reveal with just her and the crew while we waited a couple houses down. Everyone was hungry and tired. So to kill time we took some pics

And Tyler's face when once again asked to take a picture for us

This was the first time Liam and Jack had met and they were so cute

One of the producers wive's made this stain glass picture to go in the meditation garden. I is so beautiful

Matt sitting on the bench on the meditation garden

Matt adn Tyler with the hosts of the show

We're excited to see the show come out this November and see what footage they ultimately use

Gracie's 1st Grade Opera

Gracie was so excited for the 1st grade opera's. Her class did a video game that had a part that was glow in the dark so we had to come up with a video game character. She chose Penelope Van Vleet from Wreck It Ralph. She looked darling. We even glued pom poms in her hair to look like candy.

The sweatshirt was her disguise til the lights went out

The kids all wore glow sticks and light up glasses and hats

Gracie has loved Mrs. Coy she is so wonderful with the kids

It was a fun night celebrating Gracie and watching her shine doing her thing with her friends and classmates

Yard Work Begins & New Trees

With the first signs of spring showing a couple days each week those days we try to get out and get stuff done. Next time we put in a sand box we will make sure to put more high quality sand in. The sand we have when it gets mixed with the clay below becomes like concrete. We try to til it a couple times each summer but once it dries out its almost impossible to break up unless it gets fully soaked again. I love the way it feels when its freshly tilled and hopefully someday we will have sand that feels that way all the time. We have debated about just replacing the sand but were unsure if the clay below would ruin higher quality sand as well.

When I planted the raspberries I did a poor job planning for future growth and good space for weeding and picking. It drove me crazy last year and so this spring I decided we were going to rearrange the rows and condense 7 rows into 4. Hallie is at an age she is such a great help and she is usually happy to help. It took a couple hours but we got the rows condensed and they are now 4 full rows and it looks much better and has a lot more room to grow.

We realized as our landscaping was filling in that we wished we had a few more trees than we originally planted. We also noticed that we really had no big pine trees like most of the landscapes around us. Lucky for us Cade has the hook up and was able to get us some awesome trees from a great price. We also replaced several of our aspens because the deer ate them basically to the ground. We bought much bigger ones to replace the old ones and the new ones so hopefully they will do better. They are between 10-20 feet each so they actually look really good with the plants we put in originally.

Liam was my partner in time in helping Matt place the trees. It rained and was cool all day so we stayed bundled and warm

This time around I actually learned to run the mini excavator. Liam loved riding in it. Also have you noticed Im wearing a cream jump suit...why on earth did I do that? Who knows

                                                       

The yard is looking so good and everything is filling in. I love seeing something else that Matt and I planned and did come together to something beautiful. This yard is a family project and it has come a long way. Im proud of us