Painting Easter Eggs

General Conference

General Conference was so amazing. I enjoyed so many talks, and really needed to hear them as well. Cael and Ava were so good to listen to EVERY SINGLE SESSION, and took notes on lots of the talks. The best part of it is they did it without us even making them. They just wanted to so they could fill out their conference packets that they got from Primary. They are so awesome. We put up Cael's new tent that he got from Gramma for his birthday, and then they watched conference on the computer inside the tent. I'm so grateful for my little family, and for the testimonies I'm seeing blossom in my children. I'm so grateful to be a member of this true church, and know that our prophet speaks about the things that my Heavenly Father wants me to know.

a few birthdays...

March and April are great months at our house because we get to celebrate Cael and Will's birthdays. Cael turned 9 this year, and Will turned 4. We had a really fun party for Cael with 7 of his best friends. We took all the boys to the Lehi Legacy Center, and they had a blast swimming. When we asked Will what he wanted to do for his party, all he wanted to do was stay home and have his cousins here and Banks (of course). I only took a few pictures of all of the festivities. These are of Cael opening his huge scrapbook that Gramma put together for him, and a new tent, and Grandma and Grandpa Hokanson sent him Harry Potter legos. Will got a Jack Sparrow toy and sports balls and a new (indoor) tent and sleeping bag. They've loved playing with all of the new toys they got. I love my boys. I love that they get to share a room, and talk (and sometimes yell) to each other at night, and that they are good buddies (most of the time). They are the best sons I could've dreamed up. Happy Birthday, Will and Cael!
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I love how she will drink all the milk left in her bowl, after she's had cereal. Andy does it, and so do all of his siblings (they were taught growing up not to waste a drop/speck of food). All the little things Andy does to be frugal are so cute to me (and let me just say there are many), and I love when it rubs off on the kids and I. Although, I think as of now, Elle and Andy are the only people in the house that will actually do this. But really, it's the best to hear her slurp up that milk!

one tired, little ballerina...

On the days Ava has ballet, she just wears herself right out. Especially lately that the kids have been jumping on the tramp for hours on end after school, and then she heads to dance, it's so hard for her to keep her eyes open sometimes. The other day we came downstairs and found she'd fallen asleep on these hard barstools.

Chef Cael

Cael was feeling inventive last week after church, and wanted to make up his own dessert recipe. So after awhile in the kitchen, and after a few recipes gone wrong, he came up with a winner. Ava and Will are huge fans of his new treat, and I think they are pretty tasty as well. Here it is: Graham crackers with a peanut butter spread, and cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. It's funny because he had some of his friends try it the other day, and now whenever they come over they ask him to make some for them. He really thinks he wants to be a chef someday, and I totally support him!

No more bottles!

It was a tough go, but we did it! We can officially say we are done with "ba-bas" in this house. My doctor recommended getting Elle off of them once she turned 18 months, so that's what we did. She was quite sad for about 4 days and nights. I would usually give her one in the morning, and then one before each nap, and then one at midnight,.. 2:00,.. 4:00,.. 7:00...yah, no joke, it was like she was a newborn again. I don't even know how we got back into that horrible schedule, it just sort of started happening. She'd wake up and ask for it, and her being such a cutie, and me being such a push-over, didn't make for a good combination. So we would go down to the kitchen in the dark, get the bottle out of the dish washer, pour the milk, warm it up in the microwave, go back up to my room, feed her, rock her back to sleep (doing all of this with one eye half open), just so that I could keep her happy and let everyone else sleep. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it some nights, but most nights? Not so much. I was taking one for the team...haha. It was funny because Andy would sort of sleep through all those nightly feedings, and one time when I'd had enough with the whole thing, I broke down and told him what horrible habit I'd gotten Elle into, he was amazed and quite annoyed with how bad I can mess a good thing up...she had been sleeping through the night for like 9 months prior to all this since I'd stopped nursing. Anyway, all the ba-ba tears are behind us now. It was just so cute and sad at the same time when she would go open the dishwasher to find one, and not seeing it there, would just throw herself down on the door and cry. It's already been a really great thing (not to mention the awesome night's sleep I'm getting), she's really starting to talk more, and just seems happier and able to handle being sad, and then calms down on her own without the companion of a bottle. I love that cute, little chick, and am so proud of her for going through that little rough patch in the growing up process.

Bowling at BYU

We went bowling at the Wilkinson Center for FHE. The kids love anytime they get to go on campus, mainly because they think it's so cool that Andy went to school there. They always ask questions like, "did you have a class in there?", and "did you eat at these tables?", and "did you buy ice cream like this, from that place?" (it's really cute). We usually will walk around the Wilk for a bit and just let them explore all of the elevators and stairways and hallways. Anyway, back to the bowling...Andy barely beat me, and Cael was the winner of the kids, with Ava in close second, and Will in third. And Elle? Well, she just loved munching on the chicken strips.

SuperWill

I always get such a kick out of seeing Will use the bathroom (I know, I know, someday he might be mad at me for taking this picture, but it's just too cute I couldn't resist). He is usually always wearing some sort of cape, and so he's really good at remembering to flip it up over his head so it doesn't fall in the toilet. We all love seeing who it is he will "be" each day - Jack Sparrow, Indiana Jones, Superman, Ironman, Batman...he sure makes life so much FUN for our family.

Baby Blake is here!

Scott and Brittany gave birth to their second baby this past January. His name is Blake Scott Beardall. He is one of the most handsome little guys I've ever seen! We couldn't get enough of him. And now that we all have colds over here, we're anxiously awaiting being well again, and getting to hold him some more.

Happy Birthday, Andy!

(His cake had been picked at by about thirty little fingers by the time we got home.)

For Andy's birthday this year, he picked to go to the temple...yes, I married a good man. Going to the temple EVERY month (without missing) is a commitment/promise all of Andy's siblings and spouses have made to Grandma and Grandpa Hokanson while they're on their mission (that's all they wanted for Christmas). So we were getting close to the end of the month, and hadn't gone. We grabbed a bite at SmashBurger, and then had a little family party for him at home. I wonder what he wished for...he NEVER tells us. Happy Birthday, Andy!

RV'ing in Zion National Park

I don't know how I'll ever be able to go on another trip again, without doing so in an RV. I'm ruined! It was so nice to have everything we needed with us wherever we were...sometimes we'd pull up to do a hike and someone would be napping, so we'd pull out some snacks and play a card game, or watch a movie until we were ready to go, or we'd get back from a bike ride and just want to hang out, so we would. I loved not having to always be jumping in and out of a car, especially at ZION, because we were always getting out to see some cool artifact, walk through a museum, do a hike, eat somewhere...it was such a great way to travel, needless to say. We were all sad to have to return it at the end of it all. What a fun little trip it was!

So that's exactly what we've been doing ALL day...playing.

(I love this photo.)

I hope someday my children will gain a testimony of service, mine is growing...although, just like with anything in life, it sometimes takes the back burner. I feel like as a mother I'm always serving my children and husband, and that is a wonderful thing, but I also have to remember that I need to extend my help to others outside of my family, because I know that will help leave a lasting imprint on my kids if they can see me serve others, and possibly allow them to be a part of the service as well. I try to remember this when I get a phone call from the compassionate service leader, because often I will say 'yes' to what they're asking me to do, but inside I am groaning a little bit. So that's a goal of mine this year...to seek out opportunities to serve, and to do it with a happy heart. Because I truly am the happiest when I give of myself, and stop thinking about all of the things I want, and just quit being so selfish. I need to remember that, "...when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

Christmas 2011

**not a lot of photos...I don't know why I always get caught up in the moment and forget to grab my camera...it's either that or the fact that I usually have Andy giving me attitude and telling me, "try to enjoy the moment and stop taking SO many pictures..."


We spent Christmas Eve with the Nerias. Our family had to have three acts to contribute to the talent show: Cael wrote a play about elves at Santa's workshop (we all had puppets), Andy sang a WAY cheesey Christmas song in his horrible holiday outfit, and then Cael and Ava sang another song as well. At least I got pictures of the girls doing their Hawaiian dancing.





We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas this year. It was the first time in about seven years that we've stayed here in Spanish Fork, usually we spend the holidays in Star Valley...but it was nice to be home, actually. We loved having Grandpa Beardall come over too. Christmas was on a Sunday this year, so after we opened presents and had breakfast, we headed off to church for a nice Sacrament meeting. Then once we were home for a few hours, we surprised the kids with one last present to unwrap...it was a paper that told them we were heading to Zion in an RV (a rental of course). They were so excited! They ran to the front window to look outside and there it was parked right in front of our house. I had all of our bags already packed, and food ready to go, so we headed out that evening (I'll post about that trip later). It was a great Christmas...Ava wanted a Leapfrog LeapPad which is almost like an iPad for kids (I even like playing on it), Cael wanted Spygear and xbox games, Will got a scooter and a light saber, and Elle got some fun little toys. Even though there wasn't a speck of snow on our grass, we enjoyed every minute of the warmest Christmas I can remember!

Grandma Hokanson with ALL her grandkids. (Not pictured are the two new babies that have been born into the family since they've been on their mission.)

{Little Weekend Getaway to Grandma & Grandpa's House}

Before Christmas, we went down to Ephraim to spend a few a days at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The kids always look forward to going down, because they have free reign over my mom's house. They call her office "the workshop" because she has every gadget, tool, device to use to do/make whatever you could dream up. So every morning I wake up, I can hear them all in there playing some cute game: office, school, the North Pole. I think they usually waste an entire roll of that white paper used in the old electronic calculators. She has two in that office that get used continuously when we come to visit. The kids would stay inside Grandma's house all day if they had their preference, so we had to "drag" them out to go do some things that ended up being so memorable. In town, the city has an enormous mailbox for letters to Santa, so they all wrote Santa one last letter, and we went and mailed them. We also drove into Mt Pleasant one night to see the live nativity they put on every year. It really is SO well done. It's a silent tour, and you are walking through the streets of Bethlehem looking at all the old carpenter shops and markets (people dressed in character walking right by you). Then at the end of the little street you see the Inn where people are being turned away, and then you arrive at an old stable where you are allowed to walk in and look at "Baby Jesus" (which is an actual baby). Then treats and hot chocolate at the end of the tour. It's so worth going to see. I want to take them every year. The spirit can be felt so strongly there. Both nights the kids wanted to sleep on the floor in the living room by the tree.