March

Here are the rest of the pictures from March.

First up are our family Sunday pictures.

At the beginning of the month, Sean and I went to a gardening work shop.

The first class we went to was about basic vegetable gardening.

After that class (and after watching Big Dreams Small Spaces with Monty Don on Netflix) 

Sean wanted a pitch fork.

Look at these cool purple potatoes that the instructor gave use.

We went to a flower arranging class.

I just love the begonias in the arrangement that the instructor made.

And we went to a class with Dirt Farmer Jay and his wife.

They have a YouTube channel that Sean had actually watched before the class.

He didn't realize that they were locals to our area.

Their class was all about basil and how to make your own mozzarella cheese.

They made it in the class and I couldn't believe how easy it was.

Here is a video from their YouTube channel about how to do it.

That night I went and got to ingredients to duplicate what we ate in class.

And ever since that class, we have had a fresh basil plant in our kitchen. It smells heavenly!

At the beginning of the month, the girls and some of their friends took over our basement and spent an afternoon filming a movie they wrote called, "Boots and Bonnets Two."

They used my phone. Here are some of the pictures they took while filming.

Here's me wearing one of my new shirts and jeans.

Sean took this pictures of me reading to the babies before bed.

WE GOT A NEW VACUUM!!! And it's amazing!!!

At first I took all the kids with me (I'm crazy but Sean was gone) to Home Depot to look at vacuums.

But then I found the one I wanted on Amazon for $50 cheaper.

Our last vacuum was a hand-me-down and it stopped working properly so long again.

This was way overdue! 

When I first got it, I couldn't believe how much stuff it was picking up out of our carpet.

I love the way Eli's mind works. He's a natural engineer.

Here's Eli on crazy sock day. He was excited to wear Sean's socks again.

Eli did an animal report on the Arabian Sand Cat. They are really cute.

And he was really excited about his report. So we finished it quickly and easily.

The kindergartners went on a field trip to the zoo after they finished their animal reports.
Eli really wanted me to go with him but I couldn't find a babysitter for Ruby and Ty.
So I promised him that we'd go during spring break with Grandma.
My friend who was a chaperon on the field trip sent me these two pictures from the field trip.

Eli finished reading all of his red books so he got to go pick out a piece of candy at the store.

Eli was picked as the student of the month for his class for March.

Here's Eli with his friend Brooke after school one day.

Here's some of Ruby's before preschool pictures.

For letter S show and tell she wore her shamrock scarf.

For letter C show and tell she brought a cat.

For her St. Patrick's day party she had to bring a green food to share. 

For R show and tell, Ruby brought a rabbit.

For Dress Like a Doctor Seuss Character Day, 

Lexi and her friends all dressed like Star Belly Sneetches.

Another day they all wanted to wear the animal shirts that Brylee gave them for their birthdays.

Charlize took off too quickly after school so she wasn't in the picture.

So Ruby stepped in for Charlize in a picture.

We went to IFA to buy fertilizer for our grass.

Ty and Ruby were so excited about the bunnies and baby chicks.

Then we went to Costco. Pizza is always a must for these two.

When we got home from Costco, I was unloading the van and Ty came out into the garage.

I couldn't keep the door closed while I unloaded so I let him stay in the garage. 

After a minute I couldn't see him anymore but I could still hear him.

He wasn't in the driveway so I thought he must have walked around the van.

I couldn't find him but I could still hear him. Finally I realized that he was under the van!

He got stuck under there. I had to grab his leg and pull him out!

This boy is such a menace! He gets into way more trouble then his older siblings ever did!

We had another cousin sleepover. This time it was at our house.

We introduced Parker, Halle and Austin to some of our favorite 

Harry Potter trivia YouTube channels.

We love the Super Carlin Brother's Harry Potter videos.

And we love the Movie Flame Harry Potter videos too.

We ate pizza and kept watching YouTube videos. The kids loved those.

We introduced the Searles to Napoleon Dynamite.

We had Playdough ice cream. A kid favorite.

Ruby got a brain freeze.

The next day, these two spent hours on Pottermore.

I gave them these notebooks. They printed out lots of list of different things related to Harry Potter.

The kids played outside in robes with wands.

We wore Austin out.

That night, Michelle and Justin came over for dinner and we celebrated Austin's birthday 

(which was just two days prior.) It was such a fun weekend with family.

We decided to wean Ty off of whole milk. We have too many different kinds of milk in our fridge. 

He has been drinking whole milk, I have been drinking almond milk and everyone else drinks 1%.

And we almost always have chocolate milk too.

Here he is having whole milk for the last time. 

Every once and while, I have to wake Ty up in the morning.

(He only sleeps in on days when we have somewhere to go in the morning.)

He was particularly sleepy this morning.

Ty is loving the warmer weather. He LOVES being outside.

Ty decided that the step stool that we keep in the pantry makes a great chair for him.

Avery with another block/ little people creation/ imaginary game.

One day both of the girls got letters in the mail from different cousins.

I've like taking pictures of my food now.

Now that I am off Optavia, I am eating so much colorful food.

The kids have started walking home from school again.

Ruby is obessed with watching Sean play Minecraft on his phone.

Lexi helped me make German pancakes for breakfast one Saturday morning.

I need to be better at having her help in the kitchen because she really enjoys it.

Here are a few pictures from one sunny afternoon in our backyard.

I decided that I needed to be more intentional at loving my kids individually.

So I bought a planner to keep track of certain things.

For each kid, I want to have a positive interaction every morning when I first see them.

I want to make sure I give them each at least one long big hug everyday.

I want to spend time with them each day giving them my undivided attention.

And I want to make sure that give them each a compliment everyday.

I want to do these things for Sean too.

Which such a big family, it's easy to not give everyone what they need individually.

I'm trying to be a better mom and wife.

These two are the cutest when they watch a show together.

Sometimes while I'm working out at the gym, 

Ruby will go with the older kids in childcare and work out.

We found out that the kids are getting a new baby girl cousin.

We are all so excited for Jared and Val.

The girls and I even made a list of names for Val to consider.

Eli and Ryker playing together outside.

Lexi picked up Ruby from preschool one day. It's so rewarding seeing her be a helpful big sister.

Sean and Lexi went on a date one Saturday morning.

One of Lexi's friends and her twin sister were baptized.

The girls were in Sean's primary class last year. After the baptism they went out to lunch.

And then Lexi convinced Sean to take her to Home Depot 

and buy her a succulent plant for her bedroom.

Now that all my kids are old enough to play with Legos, we have them out all the time. 

Seriously, all the time. I love seeing what they create.

Avery made the Knight Bus from Harry Potter.

Here's my Costco haul one day. 

I took a picture of it so when Sean asked what I spent all our money on, I could show him.

I met Sean at work one day for a lunch date.

Here's a selfie Sean took on his way to work on a particularly stormy day.

We love nice grilling weather.

I just thought Lexi looked so cute working on the computer one afternoon.

Lexi went with me to Costco to get a few things for the makeshift basement bedroom.

In anticipation of my mom's visit, 

we bought two king size fleece blankets and a fleece covered body pillow.

We also bought a clock and a lamp for the basement.

I'm not why it took me so long to buy these things for our guest?!

I put this mostly empty bookshelf downstairs too for my mom to use as a dresser.

Ghetto but it works! 

Someday our basement will be finished and we'll have a nice area for our guest to stay in.

After my mom left, we moved our old TV into the bedroom area and set up the Wii again.

The kids have started going down there to play together.

Ever since my girls slept down in the basement with my mom, 

they have been sleeping in the basement together every Friday and Saturday night.

I've been trying hard to establish a good morning routine.

I'm not a morning person, so it's hard. I'm trying to wake up earlier, make my bed every morning,

and do my make up first thing.

Lexi's friend Charlize turned 11 and had a Harry Potter themed birthday. Lexi was so excited.

She has been planning on having a Harry Potter birthday for her 11th birthday too.

I took a few pictures of the decor.

They had a Hogwarts feast. 

There was a potions class. 

The kids were given instructors and had to make them own potions to complete the class.

Lexi loved it.

They played this game. Lexi loved it. We need to get it.

Here's the stuff Lexi brought home from the party.

We had the Greenwoods over for dinner and Family Home Evening.

I bought some stuff for our yard at Costco. A propane fire pit and some flowers.

I went to a men's BYU Volleyball game with Aubrey. She is died hard.

We went with some of her extended family. It was so much fun.

And we got on the camera.

At the end of the month, the girl's and I went to get our eye's checked.

Here are the new glasses that I picked out.

Here's the new glasses that Lexi picked out.

And she picked out Transition lenses. She's so excited.

Poor Avery didn't need glasses again. She was so bummed.

My kids have started watching a new show. It's on Netflix and it's called Brain Child.

Every episode is about something new.

One episode was about germs, another one was about space, another about emotions.

One of the episodes is all about sleep. Here are the notes that Lexi took during that episode.

Every morning, Eli is the first kid to wake up.

He quietly goes downstairs and entertains himself until someone else wakes up.

Most morning he draws. I love Eli's artwork.

Eli made this at school. He's getting so good at writing his last name.

Look at this cute picture Lexi drew for St. Patrick's day.

The 28th was the one year anniversary of my dad's death.

Sean knew that I was going to have a hard day, so he brought me home roses the night before.

On the anniversary of his passing, two of my sweet friends dropped off things for me.





At the end of the month, actually a few hours after I published my Spring Has Sprung blog post,
it snowed again. Not a lot and it didn't last long.

Luckily it warmed up and we were able to go on a nice family walk the last day of the month.

The very last thing I did in March was break my phone!
I have never cracked a screen before and I'm so mad that I did.



I was getting ready for bed and put my phone on my night stand and it fell off.
It landed on my scale which I had moved out of the bathroom temporarily that weekend
while I cut the boy's hair.
I just got my Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus in November.
And we just took the warranty of it a few weeks ago since it is paid off!
It has a curved screen which I honestly don't like and apparently they break easier.

I haven't got it fixed yet. I've talked to a few phone repair places and it will be just over $300 to fix!
I'm trying to live with it for as long as possible but it's super annoying.
My screen below the crack shakes and if I get in sunlight all my screen below the crack turns green.