Well, my mom and Jesse just pulled out of our driveway and headed towards Utah. They were here visiting for the past three days. But before we get to that! Here are some things that kept up busy from the second half of April and into the month of May!
April 18th, 2015 Josh turned 35 years old! What an old man. He had to work on his actual birthday - so we went and saw a movie ("The Longest Ride" - about a bull rider) a few days before his birthday. Diane babysat our monsters.
I went on a little trip to Utah to visit Stacey and Kamrie. I took the shuttle down there and then they picked me up at the airport. Then on the way home I rode back up with my neighbors, Brittaini and Jay, who had been down there for a wedding. While I was there we did lots of shopping, went to Ikea, the Park City Outlets, and ate lots of good food (Zuppas - lobster bisque… my favorite soup).
While I was gone, I had hired a girl named Miranda to start painting Avery's bedroom mural. All together, she worked on it usually three days a week (M, W, F for about three hours each day) starting on April 22 and her last day of painting it was on May 15, so about 3 and a half weeks. I think she spent about 35 hours on it total. I am still going to add a couple of things to her bedroom, including a little table and mushroom "toad" stools, but I will have to post some pictures of the mural. I even added a tree all by myself after she was done with the main wall. ;) It's really cool - there is a castle and trees, a river, and a cute little bridge. I love it. This was the first mural she had ever done, but I think it turned out really well!
Avery started her second session of "Toddler Lab" on the BYUI campus the first week of May. She also attended this from January though mid-April and loved it, so I quick signed her up for the May-July session. She has so much fun at this. It's the highlight of her week! I just wish it was longer than twice a week - an hour each time!
The cub scouts has their Pinewood Derby on May 6th. Gabe is our only "official" cub scout (they have to be 8) but Josh helped caleb make a car too just for fun. Both of the boys finished somewhere in the middle (there were about 15 boys total and I think Caleb got about 4th and Gabe got about 6th over all) but they both had a lot of fun. They actually both helped Josh with their cars a lot, which is what it's really supposed to be all about. ;)
Mother's Day was May 10th, and Josh even had the day off! Yay! At church, I participated in the little game during the kids' singing time. I had to wear a paper bag over my head and a robe over my clothes and go in there while the teacher read some clues about me. They included my favorite color (purple), favorite food (pasta from the Cheesecake Factory), and the city I was born in. Finally, after that last clue, when she asked, "Does anyone have a mom that was born in Wisconsin?" Caleb slowly raised his hand. (I think people were actually looking at him like, "Caleb! Isn't that YOUR mom!?" haha Stacey had also come to visit for Mother's day, since I am her unofficial mom.
The next thing that consumed some time this past month, was getting our yard in shape again. Spring was so nice this year, we really lucked out. Usually it doesn't get warm until about June, but this year it was already getting green around here in April! But that also meant we had to start mowing our grass earlier, get some flowers planted, and replant some bushes. We have had a lot of rain this Spring also - it is actually pouring as I type this. It's so unusual for Idaho, but the farmers love it and I love that we are saving money on running our sprinklers less. There are houses going up in our neighborhood like crazy. Surprisingly though, there is still no one building right behind our house. I'm sure its only a matter of a few months, but I am enjoying it while I can. We are hoping they start building our community clubhouse (with indoor swimming pool and fitness center!) by next Summer.
Caleb had a very cute little "Three Piggy Opera" that he perfumed in at school this month. He was one of the narrators. He had a little stage fright at the last minute, but we convinced him to go on and he did awesome. It was also his "spotlight day" at school, where they honored him for his birthday, even though it is actually June 6th. They made sure to give him a special day!
Caleb also had a field trip to the zoo on May 19th, and Josh went along on the bus as a chaperone. Avery and I did NOT ride on the bus (little siblings are not allowed) but we did drive our own van and get there at the same time so we could enjoy the zoo trip too. ;) I also bought a new printer while we were in Idaho Falls that day, which I have yet to hook up. But the one that I have been using for about the last two years for my Etsy shop is starting to act weird, so I was going to give this new one a try and see how I like it.
Last but not least, my mom and Jesse came out to visit! They got here on Wednesday, May 20th, and they just left today (Saturday) to continue their little road trip. They are visiting lots of people in between here and Utah, and then heading down to St. George and doing Zion's National Park. It was Jesse's first time ever visiting Rexburg so we had to give him the whole tour of the town. After that hour was over… (hahaha) we did other things such as go to the temple, walk around campus, went to Squealer's Fun Park in Rigby, and got cupcakes at the Cocoa Bean. They got to sleep in the newly completed "princess room", so that was fun for them I'm sure. ;) We are hoping that they decide to move out here permanently in about 6 years when they both retire. Since we went to Disney World in March, we told them we probably wouldn't visit Wisconsin until October, so it was nice they were able to come out here for a few days and visit.
This weekend is Memorial Day and then they kids only have school Tuesday - Friday! After that, i may go crazy trying to run my Etsy shop and take care of all three kids all day - wish me luck!
Well that's all the highlights for this time!
