Cora's 12th Birthday

 Cora had a great birthday this year! The big 12! We had her birthday party with friends the weekend before her birthday. She made her own cupcakes for her party, and she decorated them SO cute too!

She had her party at Color Me Mine this year, which was a really fun place to have a party. We started it out with Costco pizza:


Then the girls got to painting their little sculptures:

Then we had cupcakes and sang "Happy Birthday":

She opened presents, and then everyone went home! I sure do love an easy party, and Cora and the girls all seemed to love it:

On her actual birthday she got breakfast in bed- puffy pancakes with Nutella on it, berries, and Cookies and Cream milk from the BYU creamery:

Then she opened her presents!

She got The Selection book series, a new office chair, light purple towels and bath mats for her bathroom, a squishmallow, beads, and a new phone case:

I brought her lunch at school, where her friends all sang to her at the front of the cafeteria, then concocted a very gross "smoothie" in her honor of all the leftover lunch food.

We had her birthday dinner a few days later, since everyone had their activities in the evening on her actual birthday. Dallen and Cami were able to come too! She chose pulled pork, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, crockpot mac and cheese, and watermelon as her dinner. Plus an Oreo blizzard cake from Dairy Queen!

We loved celebrating this young woman! Cora is a kind friend to those who might feel on the fringe, fun to be around, adventurous, always coming up with creative games to play with friends and siblings, determined, and responsible. She loves baking and cake decorating, all things cheer, babysitting, Taylor Swift, light purple, watermelon, smoked meat, and had her dream trip seeing the Eiffel Tower over Spring Break. We love her so much and are so grateful she's in our family!

April 2024

 April was a great month, starting off with an amazing trip to Europe! Here's Google's Then and Nows- both girls have grown so much!

When we came home from Europe, my tulips had bloomed! I love them so much!

One Sunday afternoon with perfect weather we went to the park as a family to shoot off Ivy's bottle rocket, throw some frisbees, and fly a kite:

Both Ivy and Zane started soccer this month! Ivy's team are the Honey Bees, Zane's team are the Wardens:

The kids love it when the ice cream truck is in the neighborhood!

I got to chaperone Ivy's class trip to the zoo this month! She had fun, and the weather was pretty great:

Ryan and I got to go to our future sister-in-law's graduation from BYU! She's so awesome!

That same evening I also threw her a Taylor Swift-themed bridal shower! Getting ready for it I realized how much I love having a front seat full of flowers for me to arrange for a big get-together:

Here was the final result:

I was so grateful Cindy and Paul were in town because I would not have been able to get it done without them!

The shower itself was super fun and included a game where we made the bride a wedding dress out of toilet paper:

So excited for her to join our family! We've truly loved hanging out with her this past year!

One Saturday me and the kids went to Hyrum's End of Season Swim Party at the Provo Rec Center. The kids had fun on the ninja course and swimming around:

Here's Hyrum's swim team, and this isn't even everybody!

While Ryan was out of town, I also took the kids to Texas Roadhouse one night for some special Mom and Kid time:

Hyrum made us dinner one night, and it was delicious!

I loved how the kids were cuddled during Cora's FHE lesson one Sunday:

We had Teacher Appreciation Week at the beginning of May, so in April I had to make a couple of posters to help get ready for it. I'm pretty proud how it turned out!

Ryan got the Experiential Learning award this month! He does work really hard to be the best teacher he can with the most hands-on projects he can, and some students nominated him for this, which just shows how much he deserved it. It was a university-wide award, so it's extra special for him to get!

Ryan got pranked at work for April Fool's Day:

Sometimes Ivy likes to eat her breakfast in interesting ways...

It was a great month!