Kyle Jones and Spencer Bigelow--BFF's

Do you remember our friends, the Bigelows?  Well, they have been living in Recife, Brazil the last couple of years because President Bigelow (he used to be our stake president) was called to serve as a mission president there.  Anyways, their oldest daughter, Sara, recently got married and so Tammy, Megan, and Spencer all came for the wedding.  (President Bigelow couldn't come because once you're a mission president, you can't go home for any reason until you are released.)

Kyle was so excited to have Spencer come!  They flew in on Thursday (Mar 31) and on Friday, Spencer got to come to our house and hang out for the day.  I even kept Kyle home from school.  (He was double-y excited for that.)  :)  Since Spencer just turned 12 in December, he really wanted to go to the temple "in the states" with Kyle and do baptisms.  So that's exactly what we did.  

I can't believe how grown up they both look...

After the temple, we came back to our house!  It was so fun!

These kids are so crazy!

That evening Sara had a bridal shower at the church, so I took Spencer, Kyle, and Jacob over to play in the gym and on the stage.  They had such a blast playing with their dart guns!  They literally played for hours!

We didn't get a chance to see Spencer again until Sara's wedding reception, which was a week later.  But it was still totally awesome!  

I love these boys!  They have always been such amazing friends and I'm so thankful that they've had each other to grow up with!  There aren't many kids in our neighborhood, but these two have been instant friends from the beginning!

And here's a picture of Eric hugging Sara!  They have been friends since the beginning as well.  

We are so happy for Sara to have found her eternal companion!

Eric and Sara and Rob Leonard

The Bigelows will return home next summer and we are so excited!
We LOVE the Bigelows!

(We'll see you guys soon!) :)

Kyle got glasses!

So for the past month or so, Kyle has been saying that he can't really see the words on the blackboard at school.  At first I didn't really think much about it because even though Todd wears glasses, no one else in our family does.  But because he kept insisting it (and because I'm quick to catch on), I FINALLY took him to the eye doctor.  And sure enough, Kyle needed glasses!

Here are all the pictures I tried to take of him wearing his new glasses.

Finally, I got this one!  (Oh wait, those glasses are upside down!!)  Grrrr...

Kyle!  Be serious! (Nope, still upside down!)

And then finally....I got these last two! (And they were taken a totally different day than the others because I gave up!)

I think he looks so good in them!  What a handsome boy!  And I'm really glad that he can see now.  When he first put them on, he said, "Wow!  Look at all those blades of grass!"  Oh man, I'm pretty sure I'm up for the "Mother-of-the-year" award!  UGH! :(

Easter 2016

Easter came in March this year.  If I remember right, it's been quite a while since Easter has come in March.  Most of the time it falls in April.  But no matter.  We'll take Easter whenever it comes. :)

Here is a picture of the kids' Easter baskets.

 Eric's basket

You can't really see much, but he got several pair of "crazy" socks.  That's what he wanted and even though that might seem boring, he really liked them. (And they really weren't cheap either!)  :)

Dallin's basket

He also got a "treble clef" key chain and a music book stabilizer tool.  And you can see the Titanic puzzle in the background.  Dallin loves 3D puzzles!

Kyle's basket

Kyle just recently became the badminton champion of his PE class. Way to go Kyle!  So the Easter bunny brought him a Badminton set.  The book in the back is by John Bytheway, and it's "You're Gonna Make it Through Junior High."  I'm pretty sure that every junior high-aged kid could benefit from this book.  (And Kyle's even read some of it.)  Awesome!

Jacob's basket

Jacob got a couple new books that he absolutely loves...Diary of  a Minecraft Zombie.  (The series is kind-of a spin off from Diary of a Wimpy Kid.)  He really enjoys reading them.  He also got a "4-piece metal puzzles" kit.  He's really into mechanical things and figuring things out.  I'll have to ask him if he already solved them all. :)

These next few pictures aren't that great because everyone scattered so quickly on Saturday morning.  I was lucky to get a pic of each child. :)  (Gosh, they're almost worse than when they were little.) Ha!

Jacob (and Ziggy)

Dallin

Eric and his crazy socks! 

Kyle would hardly even let me take a picture of him.  Oh, and by the way, he got glasses!  I'll try and get some better shots of him in the near future. Silly Kyle! :)

We had a wonderful Easter.  We did the "bunny" stuff on Saturday, and on Sunday we focused on the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  After all, that's what Easter is all about.

Happy Easter everyone!

A trip to Leatherby's...and other assorted activities.

Grandma Johnson decided she really wanted to take our family out to Leatherby's as a little thank you for the help that our family has given her lately.  (Oh yeah, ALL that help....it really hasn't been that much, trust me.)  And she definitely didn't need to do that, but my kids were game just the same!  (You don't have to twist their arms to go for free ice cream....after all, they are pretty smart!)

Here's Kyle and Jacob

And me and Todd (yep, adults were included!)  Thanks Mom!

Grandma and Dallin

We had a great time, of course.  Eric wasn't there because he was on a date with Andraea.  I guess he'd rather be with her than get free ice cream with us....(but really, do you blame him?  She is really cute).  Thanks to grandma for the sweet treat! :)

This next picture is of Jacob.  He has been working non-stop on trying to figure out his rubix cube....I mean, seriously, getting all of the sides the same!  He has watched videos and tutorials on logarithms, sequence patterns, etc and guess what?  He did it!  (I know you probably don't believe me, but I promise this cube really was messed up before!  This kid's got determination and skill!)  This was his first time...but since then, however, he has solved it several times.  Way to go Jacob! 

And do you remember that picture I got Todd for Christmas? Well, I found the perfect spot for it in my living room and this is what the finished product looks like.

I love how it turned out.  It's exactly as I pictured it in my head.  And do you see that sentence above it?  Yep, I did that on my cricut machine!  (That was my very first time, by the way.)  I'm a little obsessed with it now, even though everyone has already done "vinyl lettering" to death!  But I don't care.  I'm just learning how and I'm loving it! 

 Christ really is the light of the world!  

(Just saying...)

Dallin got asked to Sweethearts!

A few weeks ago Dallin got asked to Sweethearts Dance by a girl named Sarah.  At first, she just asked him straight to his face.  "Can you go?" He replied yes, and the next day, we found this on our porch...(I don't blame her, really.  Who wants to put all of that time and effort and expense into asking someone if they can't even go?  Smart girl, I say!) :)  Still, we weren't expecting it, so it was exciting!

Inside was a whole bunch of hershey's kisses.  Dallin wasn't even mad.  (A phrase that Brandon uses more than anyone...) HA!

Pretty cool, eh?  

Dallin answered her back with a bunch of fishy crackers in a bag with a note attached that said, "Of all the fishes in the sea, I'm so glad that you picked me."  (Do you remember we did that once before for one of Brandon's dates?)  Anyway,  I also had a Nemo fish tag that we attached as well.  It was actually quite cute, but did I take a picture of it?  Nope, I forgot.  (Well, we only had one night to answer Sarah and Dallin took the gift bright and early the next morning, so by the time I had thought about it, it was already gone.)  Bummer!

But here is the flower that he (and by "he" I totally mean ME) got her for the dance.  :)  Her dress was purple.

And this is what he looked like the evening of the dance.  Handsome boy!!  

Sadly, because we had to take Dallin to the girl's house and drop him off, we didn't get to see any of the pictures taken of the couple before the actual date....so I have none to show you.  I keep thinking that eventually Dallin will get his pictures from the dance and I'll post that, but so far, no luck!

I think he had a great time though.  They went to dinner, the dance, and went back to her place to watch a movie (well, part of one.)  :)  I can't stand it that my kids are getting old enough to date!  I'm really not ready for any of this (even though it's my third one!) (sigh)