Funny Goosie

So, since I last wrote, we have begun wrapping up another school year! Each new grade your kids enter makes them sound so much older, so I'm thinking about instead of having a 6th, 4th, 2nd grader and pre-k, a 7th, 5th, 3rd, and kindergartener in school. It's such a tangible reminder of how quickly they're growing up.

Anyway, we went to Zelle's strings concert last weekend. It's been really fun to see her love playing a stringed instrument. She loves playing in an orchestra, and I think Mrs. Morris is amazing to pull together the music she does with that many students. Their finale was the music from "Pirates of the Caribbean," and it was pretty great. Abby (as pictured) finished her big castle project, choosing to do hers out of marshmallows. That was a project! Lots of glue guns and marshmallows. It was fun, though, and she loved medieval day a couple of weeks ago. We had fun at the Waterford "Country Fair" carnival this weekend, too. The kids always really look forward to that at the end of the year. There's been so much rain here that they had to hold it inside. Everything is soaked and saturated here. We also had our final soccer games with a tournament to end the year. Our girls were so bummed - they were 0-3, so nobody advanced past their first games in this single elimination tournament, but they all played well, and they games were really close. Abs, not surprisingly, was in tears. She is super competitive, as has been noted by many of you :). Tuggy scored two goals to tie up her game, but it wasn't enough to win, and Zelle scored her teams 2 goals, but they were down a player the whole game. They only lost by one despite being one player short, so we were proud of how they all played. Zelle really wants to try out for a "comp" team for next year, so we'll do some tryouts this next week or two. There are about 100 different club teams here, so it's almost impossible to figure out the best one to try out for and what to do.

I also have been tracking down a violin teacher for Zelle because while she loved orchestra, she learned that viola has all the "lame" parts, and she wants to play the prettier violin parts. So, we're trying a new violin teacher this week and trading in her viola.

Other than that, our family is speaking and doing the sacrament meeting next week, so we're working on those talks...and Mark and I got new callings so we'll be busy. I'll be in the Primary Presidency and Mark will be in the YM presidency.

Poor Goosie has been sick with a fever and really lethargic the last few days. She definitely has an earache and is on another round of antibiotics. I think this is the same ear infection we've had and have gone in for 3 times now. We just can't seem to kick it all the way. She gets so sick and wiped out with them. It's crazy. So, I'm home from church with a sick, miserable baby right now. At least it gives me time to write this :)

The funny Goosie stories I wanted to write down before I forget are - for a quesadilla, she says a "goosadilla." When she's really mad now, she yells "EVER!" as loud as she can. It's hilarious. We always want her to say "EVER!" She gets it from "Tangled" when Mother Gothel says, "You are not leaving this tower, EVER!" We have some serious "Tangled" love here at this house. The soundtrack is on in some room or other most of the day. And then, Goosie says a lot of "by self!" Everything is "by self." She's very independent, and doesn't want help with anything...young Crush.

Lastly, we have so many friends with unbelievable challenges - one who had a leg amputated from a car slamming into him while he took a call on a sidewalk in Berkeley while having a family day there for his daughter's birthday, one who just found lesions on their son's spine, one who had a massive stroke, a couple with MS, and one with cancer. I've never known so many people with serious challenges as I do right now. It makes me grateful for everything we have, and it also makes me realize that we need to be strengthening our faith every day so we can handle the challenges that will come our way. It's part of life, and we won't be able to cram for strength or faith when we most need them, so we have to do it consistently now and always. I was and am grateful for every bit of faith, testimony, and strength from the Lord we had when Millie died, and know we couldn't have made it through that without the small and simple daily things like scriptures, prayers, FHE, and going to church. I know these things are the oil in our lamps during our times of crisis. I have so much to be grateful for, namely all the great people in our lives - you!

Lydia's Baptism

Yesterday, Lydia was baptized, which she was so excited about! She has been waiting for months for this, and could hardly stand it yesterday. She was so cute - she knew exactly how she wanted to do her hair, asked me to curl it, and found ribbons for it. I found that I just wanted to freeze her at this sweet age where she's so excited, happy, and earnest. We woke up to quite a bit of snow on the ground, so all soccer games were cancelled, which gave us a little more prep time for the day. We've begun calling this place "Narnia" because it is always winter here... We are freezing our boots off here May 1. Anyway, Lu was baptized with Emma Kearon, so it was great to share the day together. Grandma (Mom), and Leah gave talks, and the cousins sang, and we had dinner at our house afterwards. It was a great day!

California Sun

For Easter weekend, the girls had 4 days off of school, so we decided to find some sunshine. We had a great time in Southern California where we did find warmth and sun, and had a great time relaxing together. It was Goosa's first time on a plane, which is strange since we used to take all our babies on a plane soon after they were born to meet their family in Utah. We got to see Ben and Alex one night in Laguna Beach for dinner, which was great! And we also celebrated Easter together in CA, which was sweet and special, and powerful to us in a new way this year. The beach was wonderful. It's such a fun place where all ages are happy. Zelle got pretty good at boogie-boarding, and Abby and Lu tried it. They all had fun doing drip castles and jumping the waves. I decided that a mild sunburn and soreness and 2 of the best things in life!

Thawing...

So, this month, I feel like a mole coming out if its hole. I am a little distracted at times, but it's nice to be getting back out into the world. The girls laugh at me all the time because I keep making wrong turns and getting lost all the time, since I haven't driven anywhere from our new house yet - it's pretty funny! We had a good month with Abby being in her school play, Snow White. She was a "sprite" and loved every minute of it! It was so fun to see her in it, and also nice to have all the rehearsals, etc. over :) Here's Natty with a smoothie mustache. She is either throwing a tantrum and killing us all or melting us with her cuteness - one or the other, and lots of both! She is a seriously strong-willed, independent baby. Lots of "by myself!" and telling us to move off of chairs we're sitting on so she can sit there. She loves the movie, "Tangled," especially the theme song "At Last I See the Light," and asks for "Last I See" many times a day. She sings it very high-pitched and serious, which is awesome. The picture of Tugs is at her animal report. She chose Orangutans, and I have to say, it was a great report. We were playing 20 questions in the car the other day and she was guessing. She guessed monkey and I said yes. At the end of the game, I had picked Orangutan and she informed me that I had misled her because Orangutans aren't monkeys, they're apes. I love when my 8 year-old knows more than me! We saw the best movie this weekend in honor of Tugs, too "Born to be Wild." It's on IMAX, and if you have a chance to see it, definitely do! It's about these rescued orphan elephants and orangutans - we loved it. Suse, in her picture is doing her pre-k end of the year program. It was great, and she was so excited for it. I'm excited for her to start school in the fall, but also sad. It's such a big step - such the end of a precious era of my years at home full-time with her...Zelle is playing soccer again and still loving it. She and Abby both made the summer tryout teams, and are excited about that. She's starting to feel the pressure of trying to get everything on her plate done. Kinda sad. We were talking tonight about how she'll do soccer workouts, piano, homework, etc. and I just thought about how nice it is those few years when you don't have to worry about how to "fit it all in." Although I'd love to have her level of fitting it all in, at each phase of your life once you enter that world, it genuinely feels like all you can do. Well, it's nice to be sort of , maybe getting a little more settled in and sort of into a routine. I started exercising this week for the first time in 5 full months - let's just say I am WEAK and out of shape, but so happy to be able to walk around the block or do a 20 minute workout video - yahoo! That is a great thing. We are more grateful for these daily life things and appreciate them more than ever. Our good friend, Gale Bunnell, passed away this week, and another good friend of ours in Danville had a major stroke, and will be forever changed if he makes it, so we are really grateful for life and all the wonderful daily things we do. They are wonderful, and it's wonderful to have each other and to be together!