Happy Mother's Day! May 13, 2012

Dearest Mother, I Love You

              Primary Children's Songbook

Gentle words I hear you say.
Your kind hands help me each day.
You're my mother kind and true;
Dearest Mother, I love you.


Happy Mother's Day!


What happened this last week?:
Dad(still gone): Worked, put a light in Monique's hallway, scheduled a massage for his wife:).

Mom:  Same routine during the week, but, I got a massage on Saturday! Thanks honey!  I also went to lunch with my Philbrick girlfriends. The kids made me breakfast in bed on Mother's Day even though Dad was gone!  Wow!  Waffles, eggs, ham, cut apricots, juice, the works!  They are dedicated!  I'm lucky to have my kids.  Thanks everyone!

Ethan:  I played a water game in gym this past week.  In English we are reading Where the Red Fern Grows, and we got to churn butter!  I also got to go with Bro. Ballard to Fathers and Sons at Kennedy Meadows and I learned how to play Dungeons and Dragons RPG.

Olivia:  Today was Mother's Day and I think Mom was really happy when we gave her breakfast and her presents.  Today at church we sang for the Mom's in sacrament.  I got to go see the Bal's play their soccer games.  School's ok, I want to get out of school though.  I liked our girl's night out when the boys were at Fathers and Sons.

Phoebe:  I'm doing a play in school.  I'm directing it.  It's fun.  School's almost over and I'm sort of happy to leave.  Happy Mother's Day mothers who read this.  We went to Laura's house and her cat had kittens.  They were really cute.  For a Mother's Day present I gave Mom a pillow that has my picture on it.  We got our nails painted yesterday.  We're going over for pizza at the Bal's tonight.  I had a fun time at the girl's night out.

Gina:  I had really fun at Joyschool at Tayson's new house.  I also had really, really fun at Justin's house when we ate pizza with him.   To Dad, from Gina.

30 April - 6 May 2012

Our house went through an exterior makeover!  It looks great!  I am so pleased with it.  I'm not great at taking pictures, but, hopefully it gives you an idea.  This week went fast.  Gina and I had our last week of Joyschool this week.  That ends 7 years of Joyschool that I've taught.  Her graduation is coming up later this month.

Highlights:

Ethan:  I finished my hydra project!  I am also done with star testing, whoop, whoop!  I got to hang out with my best friend on Saturday- Jacob, popcorn, Phineas and Ferb, ice cream, the works!  What a day.

Girls (Mom, Olivia, Phoebe, and Regina):  We attended a Teddy Bear Tea Party with our Gilbert girlfriends!  We had lots of great food, lemonade, sweets, and entertainment.  It was a nice day out amidst all the home makeover.

 This next week is back to the packing grind!

April 23-April 29

     One week down, one month to go!  We made it through our first week without the Papa.  The real test will be the weeks that follow.  This past week I've been packing.   It's coming along.  I made myself a master plan and I'm only a little behind schedule.  I have some buffer days planned in, so, I'm not worried.

    Our house is getting a makeover!  We hired some help to fix all our stucco and paint the house.  It should be done by the end of this week!  I can't wait to see the end result.  I haven't taken any pictures yet, I'll try to get some for next time.

 Here's what the kids have to say about this past week:

Ethan-  I made a hydra out of clay for a project in history.  I also got into Jazz Band playing piano.  It is very hard. 

Olivia-  I went to group lesson for piano and I got to earn stuff.  I earned prizes.  I helped Mom pack.  I went over to Maggie's.  I finished testing in school.  That's it!

Phoebe-  We finished testing.  I miss Dad.  School's almost over.  I went to Maggie's and had fun.  That's it.

 Gina-  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah....I'm just kidding.  I went to Joyschool.  That's all I want to say.

March 19-April 1



      My favorite part of our spring break was seeing my sister's babies!  They are all so cute!  However we did some other great things too.  The kids got to play lazer tag with cousins, watch movies, fly a kite, see a snow storm, play video games,  and ride the UTA Trax to Gardner Village.  Ethan had the opportunity to go with his Opa to rehearse with the Jordan Youth Symphony.  He got to play timpani and base drum.  They played Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory, Super Man Returns, Phantom of the Opera, and Mission Impossible.  Mom had the awesome opportunity to go to the conference center with her 12 year old niece and sister-in-law to see the Young Women General Broadcast!  Wow!  That was awesome!  We had a great break.

      Getting back into school is always hard after so much fun, but, we managed.  Olivia had her 4th grade field trip to the Sand Canyon on Tuesday.  I got to go with her!  She had all sorts of stations to go to from birdwatching to aquatics.  She loved looking at critters from the creek in the microscope.

     That night the kids had Karate and earned their yellow belts.  They have been having fun doing this at our church learning from a friend of ours.  I was amazed they rememberd their katas even though we had missed karate during spring break.  Way to go guys!

     Gina was excited to get back to Joyschool.  She mixed play dough colors togther to make new colors.  Amazing! 

      Derek worked on our deck this weekend.  It's coming along nicely.  We just have to get more supplies to do the railing.  Way to go honey!

          

       Watching General Conference was a nice ending to our weekend.  We loved seeing our Prophet and hearing his messages to us.  Conference goes by so fast!  The last session we watched together at the Stake Center.  That was a first for our family.  We normally watch it at home.  I'm glad we did that.  We are looking forward to studying the conference in more detail these next few months. 

     Easter is approaching.  What a wonderful time of year to think about our Savior and all that He has done for us.  We have truly been blessed as a family because of the gospel Christ taught and the church He restored in these latter days.  Until next week!

March 6-18

     It's been quite the week!  Ethan had his band concert this past Wednesday.  I asked him how it went and he said,"Awesome!"  Phoebe had her egg drop project at school on Friday.  The teacher starts the contest by dropping the protected eggs from a chair.  They eventually end up dropping them off the school roof.  Phoebe won!  Her design was a simple box with foam inside.  Olivia also had a big day on Friday.  They had Junior Olympics.  She competed in the 100m dash and the discus.  She had a great time.  We are now in Utah visiting family for spring break!  We took off after school on Friday and drove through the night. Ug!  
     Saturday we had an early egg hunt/St. Patrick's day feast.  Since the whole family was together we took a picture.  Today has been nice.  We had a relaxing morning and then we went to church. After  that we had a nice meal with Grandma.  The kids are hoping for a little snow to come along too.  Ok, that's all for now!  Hooray for spring break!

March 5-11

     This is our friend Josh.  He's spent a lot of time with us the past two years.  His family moved to Las Vegas.  This past Monday was our last day with him.  We are grateful for the fun times we've had.

     Here are some of our highlights this past week:

Ethan- I've almost mastered "Linus and Lucy" on the piano.  It's the theme song for Charlie Brown.

Olivia and Phoebe- We went to our friends house(Bal's) and they had an adventure for us!  They also had popcorn for snack.

Gina-  She's had a rough end of the week.  She's been sick with a low grade fever and a horrible cough.

Dad-  I tiled the little hallway leading to our family room and took a bunch of junk to the dump!

Mom-  I cleaned my craft room and went to our Stake R.S Conference!  The conference was awesome!  We have the missionaries coming for dinner tonight, we love it!

That's all for now!