April

Tanner was able to attend the Priesthood Session with Byron at the Conference Center on April 2nd.  Cooper, Jeff, Eric, Dad Beck and Jeremy also attended.  Pretty cool experience for Tanner since it was his first time going to the Priesthood Session.   They had amazing seats and  were really close to where President Monson came out and left.  The whole presidency came out at the same time and were waving at the audience.

Tanner had a Medieval project in 6th grade.  Each student had to get a certain number of points that they receive through different activities and projects.  One that Tanner enjoyed doing was making a sword.  He was a very determined young man.  He went into our garage and found a piece of wood that he could use.  Then he got a hand saw and started cutting.  I was amazed at how he stuck to this task even though it took him a long time to cut the shape he wanted.  Bradley sat on the front porch watching him cut through most of the process.  After cutting, he painted it.  Luckily Byron isn't as paranoid as me or my kids wouldn't get to experience saws or pocket knives. 

Our Spring Break was from April 11-15th.   Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate the first few days, so had to be creative to come up with some activities that weren't outdoors.  We decided to head to Classic Skating in Sandy on Tuesday.  Camille is amazing with her roller blades.  She has been riding them since she was around 5 years old.  She brought her own blades to use while the rest of us rented the roller skates.  She had fun doing laps around the rest of us.   None of us were very good on them at first.  There was a lot of falling and getting back up again in the beginning.  After some time the kids all started getting really good.  We brought Bradley's scooter to make it much more exciting for him.  He loved circling around with it. 

I remember how much I loved roller skating as a kid.  Boy am I out of practice.  I am so much slower than I ever used to be and not comfortable at all.  I started getting pretty confident and picking up speed when I ended up falling directly onto my tailbone - ouch!  I decided that roller skating is really a pretty scary sport and I will try to get my kids to learn how to roller blade before coming back:).

Bradley while taking a break at the arcades.  The kids a treat while there.  They opted for the ice-cream.  They were massive cups for $1.50.  I had five very happy boys!

The cute gang - Carter, Johnathan, Camille, Parker & Tanner - Bradley below.

Poor Johnathan fell back on his wrist right before we were leaving.  Since it was hurting pretty bad, we put some ice on it before heading home.  I ended up taking him into the after-hours clinic and sure enough he had a buckle fracture in his wrist.  Poor guy!  He ended up wearing a brace for about 2 weeks until it didn't hurt any more.  Luckily it wasn't broken, but still not so fun since he ended up not being able to swim the next few days while we headed to a hotel (more to come in next post).

March odds and ends

At the beginning of the month I decided to pull out my sewing machine and try making some new pillows for my living room.  I found some material for pretty inexpensive and decided to go at it.  I free-handed them and added some fun finishing touches that I was really happy about.  It was fun to try my creative side and tackle something that adds so much to my home.

The Trafalga next to our house had an amazing deal going on where you could get a year pass to both Lehi & Orem Trafalgas, Seven Peaks Water Park, any Owl's games and Flash games for $39.99 each.  We decided as a family to get one for each person in our family and have this be their birthday presents for the rest of the year.  My kids were so excited about this and have taken total advantage of the Trafalga within walking distance of our home.  

Since we had never been to the Trafalga in Orem, we decided to go on March 14th when the kids didn't have any school.    We had a great time riding on the slick track, playing miniature golf and riding in the XD theater (a 3-D movie that had chairs that move).  We had so much fun.  On our way out to the parking lot we saw our truck parked next to a massive truck that looked very similar.  I had to take a picture - it looked too funny - our truck looked like a mini truck next to the other one.  I had to laugh because just a few hours earlier Bradley was telling me how big our truck is. 

 Bradley enjoying a ride at the mall one day back when Byron took the day off.  He was eating a large jaw breaker at the time.

The weather was pretty nice, so we decided to pull out the BBQ pit for the first time this year.  We all had fun together and loved the yummy food.

 Bradley, Tanner, Camille & Carter

 

 The kids had fun taking pictures with my camera while Tyler Atwood was over.  I got some pretty crazy shots along with some cool action shots while playing basketball.  Tyler helped Johnathan create a cool step by step picture of him making a slam dunk.

Crazy Carter! 

 Parker

And he makes it in!

Byron works with the Deacons right now.  Tanner is lucky enough to be in with Byron also and loves the fun that scouting offers.  Byron had fun planning a 10 mile hike in downtown Salt Lake.  The scouts started out next to the Conference Center and walked to the Capital.  They headed to the Salt Lake Temple and 3 miles over to Welfare Square.  From there they headed over to the Salt Lake City Cemetery to see some of the prophets graves.  Along the way they also did some geocaching.  Tanner loved going and came home very tired.  Thanks to David Wilcox I got some awesome pictures.

 Byron walking with John Whitehead (the Scoutmaster).

 The whole gang.

 Geocaching

 I love these action shots.

 Touring Welfare Square.

 Enjoying the graves at the cemetery.

Camille had her 9th grade dance on March 19th.  She was so excited about this and spent a lot of time deciding what she would wear.  She got a cute new skirt, top, necklace and shoes.  I even took her to get her hair done before the dance.  She looked beautiful and had an awesome time.  I dropped her off at a friend's house before it started so she would carpool over with 3 girls. 

Camille is currently in Drama 2 and has loved the fun things that Melani Boren does in this class.  She has split the class into 3 parts - musicals, single act plays and Shakespeare.  She was in the play "The Ugly Duckling" as Chancellor.  She did an awesome job.  Most of the plays Camille has been in included a lot of singing, but not as much talking.  It was fun to see her talking more.  The memorizing part was harder for her, but she did awesome.   I love this cool dress she was able to wear for her part.

Melissa was able to get us tickets to attend the General YW Meeting on March 26th.  Since we had some extra tickets, Camille invited 3 of her friends (Cara, Jaedee & Audrey) and one mom (Natalie Barron, Audrey's mom) to come along.  Once we got to the Conference Center, we met up with Mom Beck and Melissa.  We had a great time.  We went early to get a parking spot and ended up sitting about 20 rows back from the podium.  We couldn't have asked for better seats.  What an awesome thing to be in the presence of the prophet and his apostles.  The talks were amazing!  So fun to just spend alone time with Camille.  She has turned into a beautiful young women and makes me nervous how many years until she will be gone and on her own.  I need to somehow stop time or at least slow it down!

 I love this girl!

The first presidency were so cute talking to each other before it started.  I tried to get a good picture of them all, but unfortunately they were either blurry or not all looking great.  This was the best I got - what amazing men!!!

More birthday celebrations

We had Tanner & Bradley's family party together on Saturday, March 12th.  I found this adorable cupcake robot on some friend's website and couldn't pass it up.  It didn't exactly turn out the same way I had imagined, but pretty close.  Bradley was excited about the outcome and loved watching me during the process.

Tanner was easy and wanted an Oreo pie.  I have decided I will make cakes for my kids until they are 12 and then they either make them or can do something else that they want.  I LOVED the fact that I only had to make one cake this time around.

 We played a fun game with play dough - I put words in a bowl that we had to try to create with play dough.  I think I came up with too easy of words because everyone guessed them too quickly.  I loved that even the youngest could play this game and really had fun.

 Carter creating something fun.

 Bradley & Tanner opening their gifts.

 

Love these two's faces - chocolate all over and smiles from ear to ear.