Memorial Day

We had a busy Memorial Day that started on Sunday. We went to visit Grace's grave that evening. We were lucky enough to run into Kirsten & Matt and Landon there too. Kirsten was sweet and made Muddy Buddies for Grace. That was one of her favorite treats. I remember how much she use love them.

The kids got to play with Landon. My kids LOVE HIM!!!! And for the record, so do Matt and I ;)

Madden had a great time running around and trying to name all the letters on the headstones. He's really into saying and recognizing letters and asking how to spell different words.

On Monday we made a trip up to Garland to visit Justin's grave. It's hard to believe he's been gone for 3 years.

The kids had fun running around this cemetery too and all of them tried to climb the trees.

On the way home from Garland we stopped in Willard to see Matt's grandparents' grave. Madden had to use the bathroom so our visit to this cemetery was short lived.

Then it was home to a bbq at Celeste and Shaun's neighbors. They're nice enough to ask us to join them now and again when they smoke some kind of yummy meat. This time it was turkey. It was really good.

After that we headed to my parents with the plan to visit my grandparents graves. We ended up staying to play at Mom and Dad's and helping pick up LOTS of branches in the yard from Dad and Russ cutting limbs down. Boy were there a ton of branches and twigs but there were a lot of us too so it made for a fairly quick job.

We never did make it to the other cemetery's. We'll make that a priority to get over there very soon.

School's Out!

Our neighbors behind us have a tradition of hosting a "Meet the Bus" party on the last day of school. It's such a fun tradition that we've loved being a part of. As the bus comes down the street it's led by a police car with it's siren on then the bus drives through a big paper banner welcoming the start of summer vacation! They have balloons, popcorn, cotton candy, cookies and drinks.
All the kids from the neighborhood are invited along with their parents. Madden & Eliza had a blast (not to mention they got a REALLY BIG sugar rush!).

Here's Mia with Britton and Megan. YAY!!! School's out!!

Mason in line for the popcorn. My kids take after me in their love for popcorn. It's a staple around our place.

Here's Amber, Annie and Livie enjoying another one of my favorite treats....cotton candy!! YUM!

After we got our fill we walked to Amber's to let the kids play in the pool & sprinklers. They had a neighbor give them a tent for their trampoline. It's awesome and the kids had a blast playing in it with the sprinklers on.

Welcome summer. Oh how we love thee...

County Report & School Programs

Both of the kids had programs to end the school year. Mason's program was all about the great state of Utah. Before the program started we got to walk through all the 4th grade rooms and see the kids county reports, shoebox floats and maps. Mason was assigned Iron County and his float depicts Zion's National Park. He did a great job on all of it! Way to go Mase!
The program was darling. They had it outside on the front steps so all the families could watch from the front lawn. You could tell the kids had worked really hard on it.
Here's Mason & Annie getting ready to perform. It's fun to have the Hill's to enjoy all these fun times with. Annie did a great job on her duet and Mason did awesome dancing the Virginia Reel (is that how you spell it?). I was so proud of these guys!!!

I think the speed must have been off on the camera for Mia's program. Sorry. Anyway, Mia's program was a week before Mason's and they had theirs in the auditorium. We got to see and hear all the things they learned this year. They've worked hard too. It was so cute!!!

I think this picture shows exactly how it must be to teach kindergarten. Everyone doing their own thing. hehe. :)

Mia you did a wonderful job!

Now bring on 5th and 1st grade

4 Years Already?

Today you turned 4. As soon as you were born it was as if you'd always been here. I think heaven sends babies this way. Each one a perfect match for the family they enter. You certainly are a perfect fit in ours.

Things about You:

You've always been very pleasant and easy going

You love to rough-house and be tickled

You're observant and smart

You're 100% BOY!!

You love bacon and ketchup although not necessarily together

You call grated parmesan cheese "shaky cheese"

You like shaky cheese on almost anything

You love your bedtime and it's not unusual for you to go to bed on your own if you're tired

You're usually the first one awake each morning

You have amazing dimples when you smile, which you do often

You give very frequent, random and unsolicited "I love you, Mom"s or "I love you, Dad"s.

You create a huge soft spot in my heart. I can't soak you into my soul enough. I get a little selfish but I love the time I get to have with you around. I'll be a bit lonely when you start preschool this fall. It makes our house feel alive when you're chunky, solid feet are running around. Oh those feet! You're solid from head to toe but honestly it's those big, chunky, yummy feet that I can't get enough of.

I love to see you sleeping. How you're still small enough that your comfy bed swallows you up. But I know very soon you'll fill up the whole thing and your feet will hang over the edge. Time goes by way too fast.

You're an amazing and essential part to our family. It's hard to believe it's been 4 years already. Happy Birthday Madden!

WIGGIN OUT!

Madden and Cooper in one of the wigs from Grandma's dress-ups.
Lookin good boys!

Mason's Cardiology Appt

I was all prepared to post about Mason's most recent stop at the cardiology department at Primary's. I had a couple of great pictures of him all hooked up for his EKG and a few more of him kicking back watching a movie during his echo cardiogram. One with him and our favorite cardiologist Dr. Ethridge...you get the point. However, someone (who I believe is the youngest of my three children) has been playing with the camera and those pictures have all disappeared. POOP! The only one left from our visit is this picture of him playing Mario Kart in the waiting room. So we move forward picture less.

The appointment went well. He's grown a couple of inches since our last visit and he's thinned out a bit. Dr Ethridge made her usual comments about how great he looks and how well he's doing. The stuff we always like to hear. They checked his pacemaker and it has about 4 more years left on the battery. He's pacer dependant 100% of the time on the atrium side and only about 30% on the ventricle. That's about the same as last time which is good news because it means his heart disease hasn't gotten any worse. We always like to hear that.
There's always a large amount of waiting around during these appointments. At one time we were waiting in an exam room and they had pamphlets all over one wall for various heart conditions. I started reading Mason the pamphlet on pacemakers (just messing around, what horribly boring reading!). One sentence said something about a person with a pacemaker being a "modern marvel". We laughed and laughed about that (don't ask why, I'm sure it's not even funny and probably very true but we found it hilarious). I told him from now on I was going to introduce him to people as "my modern marvel". I'd tell all his teachers from here on out to refer to him as such. I even tried to get him to answer a phone call on my phone from Uncle Dan and say "Hi Dan, I'm a modern marvel". Ok, I'm realizing now how not-funny this is but to Mason and I at the time it was really funny!
I love the chance I get to take him to these appointments. It gives me a chance to spend the day with Mason. I'm so thankful for my little "Modern Marvel"!!! I love you Buddy!
PS: next time you see or talk to him, call him Modern Marvel. I'm dying to see what he does!

Happy 60th Mama!!!!!! oh, and Happy B-day too Ruth!!

May 23rd my amazing Mom turned 60. It also happens to be my sister Ruth's birthday as well. YAY! More cake! We had a big party for friends and family that evening at my parents house.
Of course there was all of us and our kiddies.
As well as a big group of friends and neighbors who stopped by.

And extended family in droves!

We really couldn't believe how many people went out of their way to come celebrate our Mom and her fabulous 60 years. Ok, the reality is, I wasn't at all surprised by the amount of people who came. My Mom is one of the greatest people I know. It was heartwarming to see so many people who feel the same way about her as I do. I'm just luckier because I get to call her Mom!

The kids had a slew of friends to play with. This is the Williams' boys Spencer and Tate. We wish they lived close by so we could see them everyday.

Thank you to all our fabulous friends and family who came to celebrate the birthdays. We love you all and most of all, we love you Mom!!!