Good times from April and May

We had a really cool opportunity in April to host Jonathan and Jenae for several days as they waited for Mom and Dad to come up for Derek's Graduation from BYU.  Their semester had ended, so they split their time among the 4 siblings who live up here in Northern Utah.  IT WAS SO AWESOME to spend time with them!  Especially Jenae, who I feel like just came back to me after being in the high school mode for 4 years, and now she's going on a MISSION and we won't see her for a year and a half!  It was wonderful to talk for hours and hours and really connect.  And to get to go through the temple with her to receive her endowment, and ALL of us were there except Donny and Christine, and we were all doing family names that Allison and I had found so we could bring them back to do sealings in June, and it was just so great.  Also the kids got to connect with her before she leaves, and Maris got to know her for the first time really well.  Now she points to pictures of Jenae and says "Nae!" So cute.

Here they are hanging out at Owen/Whitney's soccer practice.

Uncle Jonathan is a lot of fun too!  He is always up for playing a game or reading a story or playing a chasing or wrestling game! :)

It was so fun to get to see these two a bunch in April!!

Sometimes the kids play so well together that I have to document it.  Like this one Sunday when they were downstairs together for like 2 hours, and most of that time Katelyn was just making up funny "movies" with Legos in this box like a TV, and they were all laughing their heads off!  Eric and I were in peaceful-Sunday-afternoon-heaven!

Another day I found them all like this reading a story, precious!

Cleo had her 4th birthday party at Hang Time and invited us, it was really fun! This is Kate, Cleo, and Owen.

That one time Whitney made Maris a car. :)

And one time when my Dad had brought us some DELICIOUS oranges and we all had them for dessert on a Wednesday night!  It was bath night and Maris let me put rag curlers in her hair!

The next day she was beyond adorable!  (Even with that scrape on her forehead from falling in the Stokes parking lot!)

We went to freezer meals and Relay practice at the school that day, and honestly several people gasped when they saw her and exclaimed how incredibly cute she was!  I need to do her hair like that again. :)

Even after her nap it was pretty good. 

Finally got a picture of this classic event: little hands poking under the bathroom door! Haha.

Fruit forest one of the last days of school!

I finally finished my quilt!

After many months of sporadic sewing I finally finished this quilt! A tribute to my college and coaching years. Thus you see a lot of BYU and Provo High represented! And Harry Potter haha. Thanks for the good times and good races 2001-2007!

more dress-up.

Katelyn's school track meet!  My favorite part is her smile at the end.  Probably she's just relieved it's over, but I like to interpret it that she loves running!  :)

she helped Owen and Maris do the preschool 50 m lollipop race.

I wanna live where the green grass grows, watch my corn pop up in rows.... So excited about our new trees, flowers, and vegetables! It's going to be a beautiful and delicious summer! ‪#‎livinthedream‬ ‪#‎farmersdaughter‬‪#‎itsinmyblood‬

Maris and a dragon (K) made a little nest in the weeds at the edge of our yard haha, 

And Owen played cowboy on the plains!

I bought an azalea bush and we enjoyed feeling tropical with it's flowers!

lightning storm from our front porch!

Maris was just a LITTLE bit excited to run in the lollipop race the next time!

so cute.

The next couple of pictures I titled "she LITERALLY does whatever he does!" because it is true.  Comes in for breakfast wearing a costume?  She runs off to get one.

sticks out his tongue and makes faces?  great plan.  leaves the table during dinner to run around?  Definitely going to copy him!  Sits on the couch?  she follows.  spins in circles?  She does it too.  It's so funny.

Maris has a favorite shirt right now, this Stanford one (go Uncle KJ!) and whenever it's clean it is her first choice, like jumping up and down happy choice!  One day Owen happened to choose his too, independently, so Katelyn wore hers too to match.  People probably thought we were from California, yay!  :)