May arrived in a Whirlwind around here...

I must apologize for the lack of posts this month. We have been sooo busy around here.

The fun around here began around Nate's birthday. Here are a few photos. Jenna had fun planning the evening. She insisted that everyone wear party hats.



Jenna also planned the game which was freeze dancing. I tried taking pictures but just couldn't capture the excitement. We were all supposed to dance to the music from the keyboard until she stopped the music and then we were supposed to freeze. It was cute how excited she was about planning the night.

Here is Nate sporting a new BBQing apron and making his yummy chicken recently.

In other excited news we had 3 karate promotions this month. Lucky for me they all happened at the same time. It was hard to get photos of the action but here are the before and after shots.

before... (Spencer's belt was blue with black stripe, Nate's belt was green, and Jenna's belt was gold with black stripe)



and after... (Jenna is now a green belt, Spencer is a purple belt, and Nate is a green with black stripe belt.)


Two big changes happened as a result of this promotion. My nights have been freed up a bit because Jenna and Spencer are currently in the same class. Also Jenna now has sparring gear. Sparring has been an adjustment for her (and me to watch) but the other kids are gentle with her.

My life has continued to be full of doing family history. I have been finishing up a class from BYU. I attended a conference on doing German Genealogy with my mom. I taught a class on Finding your Origens at our Family History Center here last week. This week begins the Genealogy classes that I will start teaching at our home on Thursdays for members of our ward. I am also writing a Family History Newsletter for our ward.

We have been enjoying the Spring weather here- now that it has arrived. Our poor dog just hates the thunderstorms here so we have now had to buy here another kennel (we lost parts to the previous one in the move) to put her in when we are not at home. In her nervousness she really tore up the frame of our door to the garage when she was home by herself. It is really sad how much she shakes and wants to hide.

We have also enjoyed a bunch of wildlife here. Kali found a bunch of baby rabbits near the house this week. A few of them were able to get away from her and we let the kids hold one of them. (Of course they washed their hands soon after.) The neighbor also called them over to see a turtle that was laying eggs in her yard. There are a lot of geese families in the area too. When we go out fishing with my dad, the kids are getting good are recognizing what kinds of fish we catch. Jenna doesn't do much fishing- her roll could be called "fisherman support" but she likes to go out.

Well, there is a snapshot of the highlights of this month thus far- sorry for the lengthy post.

FHE at the Metrodome

We had a lot of fun cheering at the Twins last night. Spencer and Jenna had never been to a baseball game before. They both asked a lot of questions about baseball and started to catch on. Although Jenna kept getting the sports terms mixed up "Did we get a touch down?". It was also fun to watch them cheering and doing "the wave." Unfortunately the Twins lost. We left after the 10th inning when the game was tied. It was just getting a little late and the kids needed to go to bed.










It was a whole family activity. My parents and my sister joined us for the game. Jill was the photographer so I don't have any shots of her. She just came for the food though- how often do you get a chance to eat baseball dining? She actually brought a book with her! She put it away though once it was time for food.

Part of why we went was because "the guys" from Nate's work wanted to go. I think they enjoyed watching my kids reactions. One of them returned from getting food with hats for both kids! They loved them as you can see.

Yuck.

Can I just say how much I HATE mice. Not enough to buy a cat- but almost. They just give me the creeps. I have them in my kitchen in the lower cabinets and downstairs. I think that they are getting in through the garage. I am about to call an exterminator.

Well, I just thought I would let you all in on my newest stress. Other than that things are just plugging along. We are enjoying the Spring weather- finally!

Other news- Spencer just finished a 450 page book called The Sea of Trolls. Unbelievable! I guess it takes the right book. Now he has started on the Hobbit. Jenna at her dentist appointment (a month or so ago) found out she has a tooth that is just starting to wiggle- now that was a wake up call that she is growing up. Nate is enjoying his job and keeps busy with his church calling of ward clerk and is managing to fit karate in also. I am living and breathing Family History right now. I am taking a class and finishing it in lightening speed. And I am writing a monthly newsletter for our ward, then in the month of May I am teaching a class at the Stake Family History Center, and I am going to start teaching classes for our ward at my house.

The month of May will be interesting- good thing it hasn't begun yet. It will also include my brother moving into a new house, opening fishing weekend, a brother moving back for the summer and probably a karate promotion for at least Spencer.

We are headed to a Twin's game tonight- perhaps I will remember to take some pictures.

"Great" Grandma Pictures

In the last 2 weeks my kids have seen one of their great-grandmas and their only living great-great grandma so I needed to take some photos.

This is my "Grandma Ruth" (My mom's mom) She was nice enough to watch my kids while my mom and I did some family history research nearby.



This is "Oma", doesn't she look great for being 98! She is my mom's paternal grandmother (that sounds so formal but it seems the clearest way say it). She surprised everyone by traveling several hours in the car last week to visit a couple of us (Someone else obviously drove her). It was really surprising since she hasn't gone anywhere in years!

She HATES having her picture taken but I kind of forced this one on her. Not many people have met their great grandparents much less their great-great grandparents.

Highlights from the last week

Well we have had a busy week. It started off Easter at our house and Nate made an amazing brisket and chicken. We invited some families in our ward over to join us since they didn't have any family nearby. It was a nice day.

Here is a picture of the kids before church.



We also celebrated Jenna's Karate Promotion. She is now a Gold Belt with a Black Stripe (a piece of tape on her belt) but she is on her way to becoming a Green Belt soon and she is really excited. Once she is a green belt we get to buy more pads for her because she will get to spar- yikes!







A quick comment about the photos- Spencer took the karate photos at promotion. It helped him to pay attention and be supportive of Jenna. I took the outdoor one but the other three were taken by him and I simply cropped the close ups. I think he did a good job. He took a ton of photos but that is the beauty of digital camaras and yes a lot of them didn't turn out but taking decent action shots in Karate is really hard and I haven't had much success either.

A Night at the Museum Review

So it is Spring Break and we hadn't done anything really fun yet so we decided to hit the dollar movie theater (what are they called now since they cost more than $1?). A Night at the Museum was playing and I KNEW the Spencer was going to like it. Spencer is the one who is ALWAYS asking to visit musuems- they are his favorite places to go.

Well, he was not disappointed- he was on the edge of his seat the whole movie. (Except for when he ran to the bathroom because he drank his drink too fast in his excitement.) After the movie he couldn't stop talking about it. I asked him what his favorite part was and he replied "There are just too many good parts to pick one!" But perhaps my favorite quote from him was, "If that is what the job was in real life, that is the job I want to do."

It was enjoyable for everyone- my parents joined us too and my Dad even stayed awake :) now that is a good sign. Jenna got a little tired and a little nervous but she was laughing a lot too (although some of the jokes were over her head she laughed as though she understood them).

Final Four Mania

Ok, so I haven't been following the tournament as much as in years past- but I have done pretty well since I spent a total of maybe 5 minutes filling out my bracket. Yeah Ohio State won today! In our family bracket I picked them to win it all. So they made it to the big game hopefully they can bring it home! Now if I can just get Florida to win tonight I can build up more points for my team.

I wish all of you NOT in our family bracket the best of luck if you still have teams playing. For those of you in my bracket- YOU ARE GOING DOWN!!!

(I hope.)

New Year's Resolutions in March?

Have you ever felt like you could just hit a do over button and restart your day, week, month etc?

Just when I thought that I was starting to mello out and be more relaxed about life I have an explosion of anxiety.

Life has just been so crazy lately and I feel like I am not in control. So yesterday I finally picked up my refill for my planner. I have actually been using it, or at least trying to use it, but as it is from Franklin Covey it runs out in April. Thus I began the process of writing things down, again and more completely. Isn't it just the worst when you double book yourself? Yes, I did manage to do that last week, luckily I was able to work that out.

It has been such a juggling act lately and it has been hard for me to adjust to Nate's crazy work schedule- some days I think, "Hello, it has been over 3 months why can't I figure this out!" So many things have been coming up and are pulling me in so many directions that I am going to try and stay organized and place limits on what I am willing to do each day that is not on my list- we will see how long this resolution lasts.

Books, Books, Books

I am so glad that my kids enjoy books. Storytime at night is a tradition we can't go without. Spencer loves to read with his reading light in his bunk bed and Jenna can't get to sleep if we try to skip stories because it is too late.

For a while I had gotten out of the habit of reading books for fun because there was so much to read for school. It took me a while to find the time to read but the extra incentive that it is important for our kids to see us reading, helped.

Wednesday, Spencer and I went to the book fair at his school. He loves books. I got a picture of Nate reading to the kids one of our new books, a classic book that every home should have ...A Light in the Attic.

I will continue to post some of our favorite books- Do any of you have book recommendations?

Empty Bowls

Today Jenna and I got to watch Spencer sing a duet. For the last several years there are many groups in the area (Schools - elementary, jr. high, high school, home schools, community groups and professionals) that make ceramic bowls to give away or sell, serve soup, and collect donations for those who go hungry. The program is call Empty Bowls.

Spencer's class went and gave a 20-30 minute concert this afternoon. He was SO excited about it. He has been practicing singing his part constantly.

Here is my cute singer who got to sing with his best friend Tanner.



And in exchange for my small donation and Spencer's singing- here are the bowls that the three of us chose. I was very good and did not try to influence their choices- (well, I did try to show Jenna some different bowls and I asked her several times if that was the one she wanted but it didn't make a difference).

The important this is that I didn't force her to get a nicer looking one and thus we have the lovely purple and yellow one. Spencer wasn't near me when he picked his out so I really had no say in that one.

It was feeling like Spring...

Today the kids enjoyed an afternoon outside. It is so great that it is light outside longer. There is still a little snow on the ground but they seemed to enjoy the extra sunshine anyway.

Joining the group

Well, here is the typical first post...

I have spent so much time enjoying reading the posts on our family and friends blogs that I felt inclined to join the blogging group. There may have been some gentle encouragement involved as well. Hopefully I will be able to figure this out and make it interesting while keeping family and friends updated on our everyday moments.

I may need some tutoring in how to use this so the posts may be slow in coming- we'll see.