Sun and Chimp Haven

I got Sydney enrolled in Pre-K on Friday. I hope she's ready. I hope I am ready! She has a screening next Tuesday but I am not worried about it. I am worried about how to do all these things when I have jury duty next week and don't know my schedule.

There's a group of trees the kids love to climb in the middle of our cul de sac and Jonas is getting good at it too.

Chimp Haven is a great reserve south of town that is only open to the public on Discovery Days and Saturday. Earth Day, was one of them. We went with Liam and Scarlett and these guys are so cute to see hang out together. Jonas started pumping his arms when he saw Liam and Scarlett and threw himself on the ground in his excitement. And then was a great ball of energy for everything else too! O.o

First there was a hayride from the parking lot to the reserve entrance.

This is Liam being a chicken.

Then, the chimpanzees were across this small pond from us. We even got to hear them make some loud cries.

They also had some fun handouts for the kids like pine tree saplings and tattoos. 

Today is just another lazy Sunday afternoon and Sydney asked Dad to let her run through the sprinklers.

April Showers and Sunshine

It's been a bit rainy this month and so the kids and I have been inside a lot or try to go to an indoor playground. I've also been taking the opportunity to read a lot of books like Divergent and the Infernal Devices.

On April 8th we said farewell as one of the missionaries in our area was transferred to another area. The missionaries are so sweet and willing to play Princess Candy Land with Sydney when they come over for dinner.

On April 9th, Sydney and Jonas made these puppets. Sydney helped cut out, color and paste Jonas' puppet so I guess he didn't do a lot of it..

 

April 12 I decided 15 pounds lost was a good time to take some -after shots and see what differences I could see. I can see some! I was glad to have the photos to tell as sometimes you don't really notice as it happens it gradually. I am glad Brian has started working out with me this week too. It's been good to support each other.

I hope to be able to take a -25 pound set of pictures by the end of May, at least that is my goal, to have lost 10 more pounds by then, reaching the half-way mark in my weight-loss goals.

April 13th, we bought some kites and thought we would try them out at the park. The kids had fun and we were able to get them up for a little bit.

Then the kids enjoyed the water jets of the park. 

Pre-K sign-up for this Fall is this coming Friday and I am torn. I don't think Sydney is ready to be gone from home all day every day and I am thinking I need to find a part-time Pre-K for her instead... I need to start looking into that.  I read her a book about a llama missing his mama his first day of school and the realization that she would be at school without me hit her and she said she didn't want to go to school for fear of missing me. She has been asking tons of addition questions lately. She'll ask, "What's 2 plus 3?" and we tell her to hold up those fingers and count them altogether and then she'll tell us "2 plus 3 equals 5!" So I think it's great she's already getting the idea of addition down. I just need to work with her more on the writing, writing letters and numbers. We work with her on spelling too.

Jonas is growing and learning and wants to do whatever Sydney does. He was right next to Sydney as she climbs the trees in our little cul de sac. He also gets excited and says "Ponies!" when My Little Pony comes on the tv. I think that's cute! Brian, not so much. lol

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying beautiful weather.

Rest of March, Happy Easter!

Oh life is good here, we can't complain! Brian is back in classes but this one is not stressing him out as much as others so we're happy for that!

Sydney and Jonas had fun with their cousin Liam during his Spring Break. The weather was really nice and they would climb trees and play dolls together. Liam helped Sydney play hard! She was definitely wiped out by the end of the day:

We also went to the Walter B Jacob's Nature Reserve during the week and the kids did a great job with a 1.8 mile trail! I couldn't really take pictures though because Jonas was being a pill :/  He likes to think he knows where we are going and should be the leader. He kept running off or going down a different trail and shouting adamantly, "This way!".

One fine afternoon, the kids wanted to have a picnic outside

Wish this nice weather could have lasted...

We wanted to do our Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning so that Sunday could be more focused on the Savior and I am VERY glad we did! Grandma saved her large clover patches in her backyard so we could do a hunt there :)

Sydney was pretty excited to find a golden egg!

 Jonas' basket is still a bit tall for him. Lol but he manged it better than last year for sure

The kids had a blast! And then they got to go swimming in grandma's pool! They loved that! I LOVED not having to worry about ear plugs for Sydney! Scarlett and Sydney was super brave about jumping from the side of the pool to me. You go girls!

So 10 minutes after we get home from hanging at grandma's house, a HUGE thunderstorm rolls through town. The rain seemed to be blowing sideways. The power went out quickly. Then there was marble-sized hail. It was insane! I have never seen the tree in our front yard so bare of leaves. As we drove around there were a LOT of trees that fell during the storm. It mainly lasted about 30 minutes. Our power stayed out until early Sunday morning. Internet didn't come back until late Monday night. Darn!!

We went out to eat Saturday night and I think I overdid it on my cheat meal as well as helping myself to more candy than I have eaten in a long time. Sunday morning I felt awful. Horrible stomach pains. So the kids went to church Easter Sunday without me :( really sad I missed going. I heard it was a great meeting. And then we had a family dinner that evening at grandma's. The food was AMAZING although I didn't have much. still feeling icky..Sydney did great though with eating the pork!


We hope everyone had a great Easter. I have tried for the whole month to talk to Sydney about why we celebrate Easter and she knows about Jesus' tomb and we are working on the word "Resurrection". It was really sweet. One of the first Family Home Evenings we read the Easter story from the scriptures and Brian was choking up as he read the words. I think he rarely gets emotional as we read the scriptures but the Easter story is powerful, it's full of hope and promise. I couldn't help but think of Brian's brother Kirk and how Easter is a confirmation to us that he will live again.

Ok, and just to leave you with a silly note. When Jonas was in his suit and then with his crazy hair after a nap, I thought he definitely looks like the actor from the Mentalist! What do you think?

Our cute little model!

You think my kids are getting trained to pose for the camera? lol

Thanks for reading!
Love to all!