Spring has Sprung!

We had some great weather this month! We did have some rainy days - but that's pretty good for Idaho actually! We are just glad it wasn't snow! Usually there is snow through April, so it was pretty fantastic to have temperatures in the 70s a few days already!

On Avery's last day of BYUI preschool (which was at the end of April) Josh went in with Piper and did a demonstration. Avery was very proud of it being her dad and kept telling everyone "that's my dad." ;)

Josh took the boys on a campout the first weekend in April. They went with his dad, his brother (Brian) and Brian's son, Brennan, then also Jake (Jenni's husband) and Asher. They went up near Salmon and just stayed over Friday night and came home Saturday night. While they were there, they went on a long bike ride up the mountain and then back down. I will post a funny picture that shows Caleb's face on each end of the bike ride. He wears his emotions on his sleeve. ;)

Josh turned 36 on April 18th. We had cake and a little celebration at home, but that was about it. He said his already bought himself a present (his fishing license) so don't buy him anything else. (I did also buy him a pair of shorts and some Red Vines…) He worked on his birthday, so that wasn't very fun for him I guess. But when you're that old, I guess birthdays aren't too exciting anymore! lol

Gabe participated in a "basketball day camp" at the high school. It was basically a fundraiser for the high school boy's basketball team. Their team went all the way to the state championship game this year, but then lost. :{ But still, they are some amazing players. I think Gabe had fun. He likes basketball, but I am trying to tell him to keep playing other sports (he really likes soccer the best even though Josh hates that…) because basketball is soooo competitive here. Only eight boys were even on the varsity basketball team. So like 8 out of hundreds actually got to play basketball in high school. So I think he better not set his heart on it! 

This week is going to be the Pinewood derby, so I will have to post pictures of that and tell about how they did on my next post. They have been working on their cars and even used some glow in the dark paint. I have been working on a car for Avery to use as well. ;) Let's just say, it's going to be very "sweet."

Me and Avery have been enjoying some fun in the sun with the neighborhood friends while the boys are in school. We also got a brand new trampoline (our old one was pretty trashed) so our backyard is usually the hangout spot for the mounds of kids in our neighborhood. Avery also gave her VERY FIRST CHURCH TALK in primary this month! She did so good. The topic was "all mankind may be saved through the atonement of Christ."

Oh and we also had a meeting with Troy Kartchner as a neighborhood to discuss future ideas for the clubhouse that they are building. I am including a picture of the white board with all of our notes from the meeting. It will be funny to look back and see if these things actually happen. lol

Also, if you are wondering, Gabe and Caleb got their spring school portraits back and they looked like floating heads in the jungle. lol WORST. PHOTOS. EVER. But so very funny. I think it's because the photographers used a green screen, thinking then they could digitally swap out the backgrounds for any one that the parents chose. However, they failed to take into account that it was St. Patrick's day when they took the pictures, therefore when they "took out" the green background, the green shirts and bodies of the kids also disappeared with it. hahaha

Here are some pictures!

 Caleb's future wife, the girl-next-door, Salem

 Making derby cars…

 A typical day in my backyard…

 Avery's first talk!

Gabe's 10th Birthday and Happy Easter!

We had another busy five days in a row this past week!

We started off with Wednesday night beginning with Pack Night. The focus was on being a "thrifty scout" so we had an activity where they had various choices of activities they could choose, each labeled with a price that it would cost for five family members (example: "go to a movie - $40" and "play at the park - FREE") and then lots of different food choices and eating out at restaurant choices. We then told the boys they each had a $40 budget and with that money they could choose how to spend an evening with their family - but they had to include a meal and family activity. It was interesting to see how they all budgeted their money! Some boys wanted to eat at McDonalds and spend all of their money on that then just go to the park for free, while others chose to spend money on the activities, such as bowling and then have a BBQ at home. It was supposed to teach them a little bit about handling money though. Then we also gave each boy a number ten sized can and various odds and ends (yard, rubber bands, milk bottle caps, clothespins, etc) and told them they had to make a robot out of it. (This was to teach them the "reusing" side of things.) The boys had fun and I was glad it was a pretty smooth night.

The other big thing about that day was that it was GABE'S 10TH BIRTHDAY! We didn't do a whole lot to celebrate on that day though. He took a treat to school and we went to pack night, and then he had some cake when we got home and Josh's parents stopped over. His gift from us was rollerblades, a helmet, and knee pads and shin guards. We are hoping he gets really good so he can keep up with grandpa Jack when we visit. ;)

Oh Thursday Josh worked (on his day off - that stupid "alive at 25" class that I hate that takes like 6 hours….). Then on Friday we had Gabe's actual party with his little friends. He invited Sam, Porter, and Noah , and of course Caleb. Then we left Avery with a babysitter (Josh's cousin Macey, a college girl) and we took the boys out to pizza at Lucy's in Idaho Falls and then ice skating. None of the boys except for Gabe and Caleb had ever been ice skating, and they only had gone one time. So they all fell quite a bit. I think they had fun, except that Sam took a pretty hard fall right on the last lap (so close to no injuries!! darn…) Nothing broken, just a bump on the head, but he was still pretty sad the whole way home. :( Guess we should stick to movies or something!

Then on Saturday morning, Aaron and Amanda and their kids, Milana and Colter (and dog, Traveler) arrived. They stopped at our house on their way to Jackson, Wyoming for a little weekend road trip. They came over to the Burton school right around 10am and we had our annual neighborhood Easter Egg hunt. Each kid gets to find 20 eggs and it was just about ten families, so not too crazy like the city ones always are where each kid only gets two eggs!

They stayed and hung out with us until about 3:00 and then they headed on their way to Jackson. Later on in the day, my house continued to be grand central station as Josh's mom, two different sisters, five more cousins, and brother-in-law all stopped by. (We must be popular! ;)

Then that night we sent out kids over to Diane's house and went out to dinner at a Hibachi grill place with Devin and Charm. When we got home at about 10:30 we were all thoroughly exhausted.

The next morning was Easter and the kids awoke to find their Easter goodies were in pails from the toy bin in the garage instead of baskets. I accidentally had thrown out their old baskets a few months ago when I cleaned to the garage and had forgotten to buy new ones, so at about 11:30 Saturday night, the "bunny" had a panic attack and scrounged together these three colorful sand pails and put their goodies inside. (haha…) Luckily the kids didn't seem to mind. ;)

Then we went to church at 10:30 until 1:30. I had to substitute for Caleb's Sunday school class since his teacher was gone and I used these fun "resurrection eggs" that my mom had sent us through Amazon to tell the whole story of the resurrection. Each egg included something to represent as you told the story, such as a little donkey, three silver coins, a crown of thorns, a stone, etc.

So that was out busy weekend! Oh and somewhere in there I also got my bridesmaid dress that I had ordered when Rachel was still planning on getting married! I had ordered it at the end of February and it arrived around March 20th. I tried to sell it on Facebook for about a day but to no avail. So then I had it made into a shorter dress instead. I'm still debating if it's too fancy to wear to church though.

Here are some pictures of all the fun!