March and Wyatts Birthday 2019

I am trying to keep up and stay afloat are good explanations of our lives right now. Things are just busy. I have really tried to simplify but with five kids its hard to get time in to relax and take it easy. I am grateful to be a mom, it is the hardest most exhausting work I have ever done. It is the most rewarding seeing your children learn and become little thriving human beings. My hope is that they can develop a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that they can be productive members of society, and that they can be kind and have empathy to each other and those around them. I have had several friends go through hard things lately and it makes my heart ache for them. I try my best to lift them up and I have faith that the Lord is aware of them and comforting them. It does make me grateful for the trials I have been through and for the lessons that I have learned along the way to become a stronger more empathetic person. March was a good month. We had the regular activities of Basketball, Soccer, Vocal Performance, and Dance. We decided to fore go signing the kids up for baseball since we are trying to simplify and not being run around like crazy. I know it will become very important to choose the Best activities for our family moving forward because there are a lot of Good activities we could involve ourselves in but that I feel distract us from our relationships. We love to go on Bike rides as a family! We like to visit the farm animals nearby and also go around the lake. We like to play games as a family and go outside to play together in this beautiful weather! That will end and we will start swimming as it heats up so we are trying to soak in the last few nice days we have! We were able to attend our Niece Juliette's Baptism. She glowed and looked beautiful in her white Baptism dress. After that the Spring Break started and the kids began a full week of school off. We had lots of plans to have some fun! We went to KTR with some other families in our neighborhood, we ate at delicious restaurants, had frozen yogurt, saw a movie, and played with friends. Jon decided since we got a good snow here in Arizona up in the mountains that he wanted to take our older kids up to Flagstaff to ski. This was Bentley second time skiing since he was four and the other two had never been skiing. I decided I wanted to go to and we would make a trip of it. The first day Jon took the older kids skiing. They had signed up for a class to learn half the day from an instructor and then the other half they went with Jon down the slopes. They all loved it and are begging to go back already! While they were skiing I did my best to entertain the little girls and play in the snow with them around the lodge. Sophia was in heaven and had so much fun, but Olivia had the cold snow and so I did my best to keep her happy. The kids all loved seeing the snow fall and we all thought it was magical. I hope to one day enjoy snowboarding again when Im not in charge of the littles and when I don't have a bad shoulder I have been dealing with. The next day a few of my family members came up to enjoy the snowfall as well. We all met to go sledding and had the best day building snowmen, doing snow angels, and just being together! Wyatt love trying a snowboard out we borrowed from our neighbors. He was actually pretty good! The next day we went to Bearizona! It is a wildlife place that has bears, deer, elk, buffalo, big horn sheep, wolves, jaguars, and Panthers. We also were able to see otters, and a bird show! It was a lot of fun and neat getting so close to the animals. We had to the Grand Canyon after that. I will never cease to be amazed at how vast and beautiful that place is. God is good and he has created the most gorgeous scenery around the world. I am grateful we have one of the seven wonders of the world so close to us and that we had the opportunity to take the kids. We enjoyed family time but headed home to clean up and get ready for the week of school and work ahead! It is tough taking a family of 7 on a trip. It is exhausting and hard, and sometimes doesn't feel worth it until we create those magical memories we get to take with us forever. Once we were home the kids went back to school and we resumed our routine. We were able to celebrate Wyatt's 7th birthday on the 22nd. He had a blast with class treats, and Main Event with his closest friends and family. I made him a basketball cake that took me three days but I was happy with how it turned out and so was Wyatt. Seeing the look on his face made all that hard work worth it! We sure Love Wyatt and are grateful for his spunky, funny, kind, smart, hardworking personality. He is like Bentley and will snuggle up to me often and give me compliments throughout the day. My favorite lately is "mom this is a five star meal" and "mom you don't need to make dinner, just relax and take a free night"! I love his imagination and his quick wit. He is growing so tall and is becoming quite the football and basketball lover. He is good and will often me found playing with the older boys. He is sweet to his sisters but can also pester them and pull pranks on his siblings they don't like. Wyatt is finishing up his first grade year with great grades, good friends, and lots of personal growth! His teacher is very strict and has required so much from his little mind but he has risen to the challenge and succeeded! We sure love you Wyatt! Jon has had a tough time with employees at work lately so I am glad he got a break for a short time to go on a ski/snow trip! Olivia is growing so fast and is learning so much! She is almost a year and a half and she can walk, run, jump, do a forward roll, climb anything, say mom, dada, dog, ya, and her favorite "No". She is getting four canines in as we speak. She keeps us on our toes and has us laughing/crying/or loving her at any moment. If we say give us the cheesy face Olivia she will smile the biggest cheesiest smile you have ever seen and she wrinkles up her nose to go with it. It is our favorite and we love seeing her do it. She tries her best to keep up with us all and she is the best caboose to our family of seven we could ask for! In other news Bailey received an award from her school for being someone with great character! This meant that she was kinds, helpful, and thoughtful of others without being asked. She has a good heart and we love her and are so proud of her. I am pleased her teacher recognized these traits in her! Lastly, Jon surprised me with tickets to see Garth Brooks at the Cardinals Stadium! It was a night to remember and I had the best time. Garth Brooks is an amazing entertainer and it was so cool to see the stadium packed and feel the excitement. I loved singing to all my favorite songs and enjoying a night with my sweetheart! Well thats all for now!