Pinewood Derby

Porter's first Pinewood Derby!

He and his Dad worked on his car for a few days 

and we hoped it would be a fast one!

Turns out, it was!

Here you can see Porter's car in 1st place racing down the speed way.

I liked this picture of Brenner talking to his cute friend in our ward.

The Cub Scouts of Edmond, Oklahoma.

Porter's sisters, part of his fan club on the front row.  And his awesome Dad.

It was a fun night!  Way to go Porter!

IMPACT!

The Elementary school gives a special award every few months
called the "Impact Award."

It is given to one child from each class who has made an impact at school.

Brenner's teacher, Ms. Mays, picked him to receive this award in April.

The kids receive an orange T-shirt and become part of the Impact Club 

with their picture in the hall.  It's a pretty big deal!

He was so surprised!  We were so thrilled and proud of him!

Good job being a positive impact on your fellow classmates and your teacher!

We love you so much Brenner!

general conference

I love General Conference weekend so much.

This April conference was very low key at our house.

We did puzzles and built legos.

And ate peanut M&M's.

While we listened to the inspired counsel.

I can't wait to rewatch and reread the words of our Prophets and Apostles.

How blessed are we!

My favorite pictures from the weekend were these
of Mia and Daddy doing puzzles together.

Malia

Mia did her own hair and packed some books and coloring books

for our 5 minute drive to the grocery store.
She serenaded all the people in the store with "Let it Go" at the top of her lungs.

Then she fell asleep on the way home with a donut in her hand.

I have loved so much having her home with me this year
while the other kids are at school.

She is the sweetest little person.

I love you Mia!!

reading

One morning before church

Brenner read this 100 page Dick and Jane book.

He was oh so proud!

And oh so cute.

april fool's day

i am so tired with this pregnancy

but did manage to do the tricks in their lunches for school
with carrots in their chip bags, marshmallows in their cheezit bags,
and sprite in their water bottles.

except poor brenner left his lunch on the bus that morning

so he had to wait to eat it until after school.

and i did manage to do the jello in the goblets that they always look forward to

and i did meatloaf cupcakes this year with mashed potato frosting

that didn't turn out very well!  but oh well.

on to the cocoa crispies loaf that looks like meatloaf

and the ice cream that looks like mashed potatoes for dessert.

It's always a hit!

pizza helper

Mia helped me make pizza one night for dinner.

I finished the first pizza and put it in the oven, 

then looked over to see she had made a smiley face on her pizza.

She said, "It's you Mom!"

cookies

The first words out of my kids' mouths when they walk in the door after school is

"What's for our after school snack???"
They are always much happier when it happens to be cookies.

future dentist

Kyler got an expander on the top and bottom of his mouth last October.

Each month we trek back to Dr. Hansen to have the top expander adjusted,

and we adjust the bottom one each week.

This is all in preparation for braces in a few months.

Anyway, Kyler has always been unafraid to pull out his teeth

and one night he had a loose molar and got a fork and pried it out!  Eeek!

We laughed at how it looked to have one tooth in between two missing teeth.

Good thing the expander hooks onto that one remaining tooth!

pancakes for lunch

Each night before bed Brenner and I read stories.

One night we read a family favorite, "Pancakes For Supper."

On the back of the book is a recipe for pancakes

and Brenner asked if we could make them the next day.

I had completely forgotten and made a different breakfast, 

but he remembered at lunchtime so we had Pancakes for Lunch.

He has always loved to help in the kitchen

but with him being in all-day kindergarten it has been awhile.

So it was fun to have him in the kitchen with me again.
He is such a good kid when he has a task at hand.

school bingo night

the school put on a huge bingo night as a fundraiser

my kids were so excited to go

we donated prizes and went and ate pizza

and played bingo for 2 hours!

dave met us there after work

we sat by lexi's friends

each of my kids won a small prize and were excited about that.
although we were hoping for one of the trips to Disneyland!

we just really love their elementary school.

they have such great programs, like the Life Principles that they recite each week,

pounding good values into their brains.  i think it's great!

the teachers are enthusiastic and it has been a really great year for each of my kids.

mia's 1st birthday party

mia has a cute little friend in our ward named aster.

she had a birthday party a month ago and mia was so cute going to it.

she was very nervous and cried before we left so i told her i would stay with her

but once we got there she asked me to leave! yay!

she had so much fun.

it was a cute little tea party where they decorated hats, planted flowers to bring home,

and had a little tea party with cake.

she loved it.

and so cute how she fell asleep as soon as we got home.

my little sweet girl is growing up.

1st Place in State of Oklahoma

Lexi had to write an essay over Christmas break 

on "The Importance of the Judicial Branch of Government."

We stewed over it and asked my Dad for ideas

My Mom was here visiting and she and Lexi worked on more ideas

not trying to win, just trying to understand the darn judicial branch 

and make sense of it's importance!

All the effort was worth it when we found out she won 1st place

in the ENTIRE state of Oklahoma!!!

There was only ONE first place winner across the whole state out of 1,000's of entries.

WOW!!!

There was a special award ceremony at the Capitol building in Oklahoma City

where she was presented a plaque and $50 

and got to shake hands with the head State Supreme Court Justice of Oklahoma.

The contest was for art and essays.

There were two winners for each grade K-12th,

one 1st place winner for art, one 1st place winner for essay.

 It was the hottest, most humid day we have had yet this year.
But we went to Pei Wei for lunch.  Yummy!

Congratulations Lexi!!

We are so proud of you!!

backyard soccer

it was a beautiful day on Sunday afternoon and i made cinnamon rolls after church

so we went outside to eat them in the backyard

and then soccer happened

its fun to sit and watch them

sitting is about all i can do these days

i love it when i can sit by dave and watch our kids

they got in some good moves as they raced back and forth across the yard

cute mia drawing with chalk

and doing a little twirling

lexi and her signature move

cartwheels cartwheels everywhere

and this picture because it's cute

love our long family sunday afternoons