April 2014 little things

(For more on the exciting end of tennis season click HERE.)

Lucy has made up a few different rounds of birthday party invitations.  Here’s one:

Then she got all detailed on another version:

Let’s note that her birthday is in October.

Yes.

She has a few months to work up some new versions.

I don’t have the heart to break it to her that we only do birthday parties every other year and she had one last year.  I think I may let this one slide.

We got heart attacked as we were getting ready to move.  They left us this note with a treat.

Sweeties is all I have to say about that.

Keeping it real:

 There’s something extra refreshing about spring shadows.

…and something not-so-refreshing about finding a strong guy like this in the house you’re moving into:

I think our bug guy took him home for a pet he was so mesmerized by how healthy and strong this scorpion was.

Luckily we only saw one more and then zilch after that.  Hope we can keep it that way.

Lucy did her first oral report at school.

 And these kids did some serious fund-raising-running at school.

My friend, who is an on-the-ball mother, took these pictures and sent them to me since I couldn’t be there.

So grateful for good friends like that.

Speaking of friends, we got to connect with these ones again when we went into the big city for Max’s volleyball tournament.

I miss having these girls together.

The boys played so well in this tournament.  It was kind of a turning point for the season.

These boys have become the best of friends over the last few months.

 I’m so grateful for all these “brothers” Max has gained.

More on this season later.  But this was a pretty fun tournament.

And we moved.

It is so weird what a record-keeper I am and I only got two measley pictures of the actual move.

We had a big group help us carry a ton of boxes and big stuff over.

We had another group help us pack up a ton at the old house.

We had people come help us unload at the new house.

We had sweet dinners brought by kind neighbors.

But all I have to document of all that is this:

(Dave’s mom and sister were so cute to come out and help us put all the beds together so we could sleep.)

And this:

 …which is the tiniest portion of stuff moved around.

But whatever.

We are here.

And we love this house.

We moved in on conference weekend.

And this is the only picture I have of that:

No conference cinnamon rolls ( HERE).  No bingo games.  We just sat and watched.

And it was GOOD, I tell you.

For more about conference click HERE and HERE.

We had our first house guests for dinner that Sunday (our sweet friends Courtney and Eldar who are moving here this summer).

 We’re excited to have them close so soon!

Trying to figure out jobs and cleaning to keep this place up.

Someone sent us these pictures of Max’s volleyball team.  I guess as they were leaving practice they saw someone with a flat tire who needed help.  Their jack wasn’t working.

So these boys jumped out and lifted the car up to help change that thing.

Did I mention these are nice boys?

It took a few days to get our piano moved.  So weird to move it out of it’s spot where we’ve had so many hours of practicing.

We got right to work baking in the new house.

(Of course.)

I think Lucy is Max’s #1 fan.

 The team is so nice to these girls.

How cute are they being so nice to these girls of mine?

So grateful for them.

Lucy’s soccer season got all wrapped up.

 She has a hopping run that makes me laugh.

 …as well as their darling coach.

So very grateful for him.

I can never get enough of desert sunsets.

 They make my drive time happy.

Another thing that makes me happy is when other people capture perfect moments of my children.

 Love that smile.

Max went to prom (pictures back HERE).

We love this game and have played it a LOT lately.

It’s called “Hedbanz” (HERE
).

My nice friend sent me a pic. of Lucy’s field trip.

I wish I could have been there.

My children claim we never have any food.

I’m pretty sure we do.

We prepared for Easter.

We had a ward easter hunt that was pretty awesome.

We always hollow out a few eggs to decorate.

These girls were a little light-headed.

The girls were pleased as punch that I happen to be friends with the Easter Bunny.  We played a little phone tag with voice-mail messages.  Here are the girls listening:

I wish I could figure out how to post that message here because it was priceless I tell you.

As soon as Lucy heard the voice though, she got a big smile and said “Grandfather!”

And it did, strangely, sound vaguely like him to me too 🙂

Oh my word, I love that Easter Bunny.

Wish I had a close-up of these Easter Bunnies the girls made:

My Easter egg pics are back HERE.

But Elle takes way better pics than I do:

(Easter post back HERE.)

Sock curls (HERE).

Impromptu (accidental) twins with one of our favorite recent graduates who was home for Easter.

First all-nighter (almost) for her English project.

You can tell how excited she was about that one.

We miss her.

Got to spend some time with these favorite friends:

…and this other girl of mine (YW a couple years back).

Frozen yogurt for FHE with our main driver Elle (minus Dave who had to leave early).

Golden scholar ceremony for kids with outstanding grades.

I love that I can see my kids from anywhere in a sea of high schoolers.

They are tall.

So grateful for all the hard work they put into school.

I had to take them for a treat and drop them at seminary after.

Oh boy I love them.

Lucy is dead to the world every weekday morning, but is bright-eyed and ready for the day early, early, early on the weekends.

What’s up with that??

Claire and the guy who is helping us out with our yard  matched one day.  I had to get a picture.

Yes, they both thought I was weird.

(Which I am 🙂

On to May.

Honestly I’m hyper ventilating this month.  I’ve got to get things under control.

Happy Tuesday!