As "just" a mom, I have a front row seat to my children's growth and learning, daily little miracles, and the funny things that happen in a marriage. I feel so very blessed to be "just" a mom.
Leah turned one on March 29 and I can't believe it's already been a year since she was born! We have loved having her sweet spirit in our home and we couldn't love her more.
We did an alphabet theme for her birthday party and I had a lot of fun with it.
I did sugar cookie letters and got these adorable letter shaped sprinkles. The kids had a ton of fun with it. They helped me decorate all the cookies and were spelling out words with sprinkles on the cookies.
Leah was very excited to wake up and find balloons everywhere.
Oliver really wanted donuts, so I decided to make some for Leah's birthday.
We let Leah try one and she was not sure at first.
Once she tried it, though, she was sold.
Mom took the balloon away for pictures.
Such a princess!
Leah loved opening her present. She would take a piece off and hand it to me and then take another piece off to hand to me.
Lizzy's cute note to Leah.
Happy Birthday to Leah!
She loved the sugar cookies. She would pick off the sprinkles first, and then lick the frosting off, and then eat the cookie.
The next day, my mom came out and Leah got to open another present.
We love Leah and had such a fun celebration of her turning one!
What a wonderful March we had! I am stressed about the small amount of snow and rain we've had this year, but I also am enjoying the early warm weather and we are taking full advantage of it. We also got to see lots of family and celebrate Leah's first birthday. I can't believe she's been here with us for an entire year already!
In March, we continued our homeschool art lesson, using Draw a Box.
Ashtyn, Parker, and Rylee all participated in the Federation piano competition. They all got superiors, the highest marks you can get, and because this is the third year of superior rating, Ashtyn and Parker both got a trophy. They did such a good job and worked very hard on their pieces leading up to this. I'm proud of them.
They pick a few of the Federation students to do an Honors Recital aftewards and Ashtyn was picked this year! She did a great job.
Near the beginning of the month, we went out to West Jordan and stayed the night. We haven't spent the night with five kids for awhile now and it was a little rough. The kids always wake up early when we aren't at home, but they did alright. Leah really struggled to settle and then was waking up on and off early as well. She did nap a little better in the morning than the last time we came out though.
My mom and Luke had a get together with family on Saturday afternoon while we were there and it was fun to see people, especially the kids' cousins (it's been awhile and they've missed each other)! It was fun to see Jon and Amanda as well, it's hard to live so far apart and only see each other a few times a year. My niece was sick that day, so we missed seeing my older brother's family.
The car ride home was a little rough, but we made it. We got home early enough that the kids had some food and then we did an early bedtime. They were all exhausted. It ended up being perfect because the Daylight Savings time change was the next day and all the kids were asleep by 8:30 (even with Oliver sleeping in the car). It was a good jumpstart to the time change for us and made the change pretty easy on everyone.
Hot dog roasts and spring/summer evenings at Grandma Lindi's are so nice.
I love how Thomas is with the little boys and how much they look up to him.
Always doing gymnastics.
We love our library time with cousins!
The kids love to haul Leah all around and take turns with her because they all want to be the one to hold her. I love seeing how the older kids are with her and how much she loves them.
These pictures are me trying to take sneaky pictures because if she sees me, she always wants me haha
Ashtyn and Lizzy doing the splits, complete with Leah in the background, mad that I put her down to take the picture 😂
Parker and Thomas are working on a video game together and this is one of the pictures from it.
And Dr. Suess Day!
We kept it pretty simple this year, but we did do green eggs and ham, a big hit with everyone.
The kids made up their own creatures, like Dr. Seuss.
Parker's drawing
And St. Patrick's Day! We don't do anything too big or crazy for the holiday, but it is one that I love, so we do have some fun traditions around it. A simple scavenger hunt to find chocolate gold coins is one.
My walk! I can't believe how warm it has been so early this year, but the kids and I have soaked up as much sun as we could.
For dinner, we turned our meal green, which mean green stroganoff and green bread, with green veggies on the side.
Leah was a fan!
We had some friends over for dinner on St. Patrick's Day. They are a couple that Ben and I like to play pickleball with and a lot of their kids are similar ages to ours and have really hit it off, so our kids were ecstatic to see them again (it's been awhile since we played pickleball with them because of winter). They brought a minty oreo pudding cake for dessert and we found out Leah loves mint! Rylee wrote this note to their son who is about Parker's age haha
Activity days for Parker and Rylee! Parker is in that last picture, she's at the end hiding behind the wall 😂
I found Ashtyn's will haha
Oliver
Ben has been working on paintings for each of the kids during their no screens activity with Mom and Dad (once a week, we do an activity one on one with one of them and sometimes they choose painting). This is the one he's been working on for Parker (Parker picked the reference picture).
The other activity the kids love to pick is Perler beads.
This is a design Ashtyn made up recently.
Parker's primary talk.
Parker's painting.
Rylee and Ashtyn built this really tall tower from the magnet blocks.
They love to knock stuff down and make slowmo videos.
Ashtyn designed this bookmark for a library competition.
Another creation of Oliver's, photo cred: Oliver
Ashtyn's chalk creations
White board creations (Ashtyn on top, Parker on bottom)
Oliver's fighting robot, photo cred: Oliver
I've started making mini loafs of bread sometimes and am having fun with it.
The kids call them quarter bread (because it sounds better than "thirds bread) and love it.
Oliver got Mario and Luigi on blue team, fighting Bowser (he was Mario and the other two were computers), and picked a Mario stage, and then played "Mario Brothers" Super Smash 😂
We found this in our house 😱
Ashtyn and Parker also found the first baby praying mantis.
Ben and the kids all love jump spiders.
Leah standing up in her crib instead of going to sleep ðŸ«
But is there anything cuter than a baby waking up happy and playing in their crib??
Leah loves to clap.
Leah also loves to sign and it's my absolute favorite thing.
The kids have been loving playing "Old Grannies" and even have "The Granny Show" that they do together haha
Ready for church!
One of Leah's favorite foods is beans.
I know that this probably won't last forever, but she still loves every kind of food we give her. She might end up being our least picky eater (Parker is the next least picky, and she was a food baby too).
Leah also loves to dance and one of my favorite things is when she dances and eats at the same time (often because she likes the food). It is the cutest.
Peekaboo!
When you don't want to nap, even on Mom ...
We had such a wonderful month together, enjoying the sunshine when we could, seeing friends and family, and just doing life together. I love our little growing family!
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