May 2025

 We had a great and full May! A lot of endings and beginnings, all in one month.

These kids have grown so much:

I had a great Mother's Day- Ryan and the kids spoiled me all day:

Hyrum had his last orchestra concert of his Jr High career, which was totally bittersweet. He started it by playing the violin as a little joke on us parents:

Him and his friend gave their orchestra teacher a can of beans, which is kind of an inside joke for them:

Then all the orchestras played a piece together:

He had a lot of friends come to support him:

And we were all there for his last performance in jr high!

Hyrum received the director's award from his orchestra teacher, which was just the cherry on top of a wonderful orchestra experience these past three years. Only one student is chosen for that award every year, and I really think Hyrum deserved it for all he has put into orchestra. He has become such a wonderful cellist, and I know his orchestra teacher (and his private teacher) helped him to grow so much. On to the top orchestra at the high school next year!

Cora got an award for her great GPA and for being on the Performing Arts Council at the 7th grade awards ceremony- and we're so proud of her for her hard work this year!

Her friends got awarded too!

Love this girl:

Hyrum played a Cello Guys piece in the school talent show this year with his friend on the piano. They played "A Thousand Years," and they play it so beautifully I tear up a little:

Sometimes Ivy eats a little messy:

Doing Daddy's hair is always fun:

Cora's team dressed up like dads for cheer one day:

Ivy's carebear needed some wheels:

Ivy had her last two dance competitions this month, and she rocked it! She also loves getting a special treat and the balloon animal her friend made for everyone:

Dance moms!

We took the whole family to see Wizard of Oz onstage at the Scera, and it was fun!

Cora had her cheer and tumbling showcase, and she rocked it! It was fun to see her do all her tumbling skills that she's worked so hard on:

This was also her last performance with her cheer team and they did amazing. This has been such a fun team for Cora, but she sees almost all of them on her two new teams for this next year!

Star Wars day (May 5th), with Star Wars treats, outfits, and movies:

I got to go to Hyrum and Cora's art show this month, and I loved seeing them show off their awesome artwork!

We got to do pedicures for Aunt Cami's birthday this month! It was a fun experience for us girls to do together:

Zane at Field Day at school:

I went to the mall with my friend this month in our matching shirts!

I love that Ivy loves to hang out with her mom:

Kids dancing silly during family karaoke time:

Crazy hair day at school:

Ivy's hair even stayed crazy after she took it out:

Ivy had fun making her own cardboard car for a "drive in" movie for a primary activity one day:

I went on a hike with some friends this month to a beautiful view!

We got to watch Zane in his Utah program that he's been singing the songs for all month. He was so fun to watch, and he even had the very first speaking part of the whole thing!

Zane has really, really enjoyed learning about Utah this past year. He was always coming home telling me something new about Utah and how we should go visit it. It is partly because of his enthusiasm that we visited some of the places we did this past year! He also made this great poster of Zion National Park that is now hanging in his room:

Hyrum got very awarded at the 9th Grade Awards night. He got a Jag Spirit Award, a GPA award, and an award for being on the Performing Arts Council:

He has such a great group of friends, and some are going to different high schools so this was a bittersweet moment:

I love what Hyrum's teacher says about him in the last line: "If all students could be like Hyrum, the world would be a better place."

Ivy had dance pictures this month, and they turned out so cute!

Ivy also had her last dance performances with her team at Dansation. Her team has been so fun, and these girls have really grown to love each other. Watching their lyrical dance for the first time (they didn't compete this one) was a bit emotional for me, because the joy of just dancing together shone from their faces:

We loved all getting to watch her perform with this team one more time:

Those performances were even more bittersweet because we decided to move Ivy to a different dance studio for next year. She worked really hard to be ready for tryouts, and she made a great team for next year! Here she is at tryouts:

Zane got to go to a Bee's baseball game with his best friend this month:

Zane also had a tryout this month- for club soccer with the Liverpool Soccer Club! He made a team, so we are jumping into the club soccer world and Zane is loving it! Zane is soccer obsessed right now, and everything is soccer for him. He always wants to be outside playing soccer, he wants soccer everything in his room, and he really only wants to talk about soccer.

Ivy's green tongue from a treat:

Hyrum got to tour the Provo MTC with his young men's group this month, which was a super special experience:

Zane got the Milky Way award for his class at school for "excellence in making scientific observations." He has really loved science at school this year too, so it was fun for him to get this award from his teacher:

Zane has had a great teacher this year, Ms. Robinson. She was new this year, but turned out to be so amazing for Zane- we've really seen his interest in science and history explode this year!

Last day of school for Ivy with her bestie and with her teacher, Mrs. G. Ivy's teacher has also been amazing this year, and she really, really loved Ivy. She depended on Ivy a lot to always help the sub know what to do when she was gone, to help her know who was behaving, to always take things to the office, etc. Ivy loved it too!

Ivy got the "Ray of Sunshine" award from her class (they all voted on it), and I couldn't agree more. I always call her that at home too!

On the last day of school we did the traditional Cannon Center for lunch, but this time Ryan wasn't there because he was at his aunt's funeral. But we did get to have Aunt Cami there!

Ivy liked this sign:

Posing with Cosmo in the bookstore:

Hyrum has started a garden this summer in some raised beds we bought at Costco. It was something he's been wanting to do for awhile now, since his love of plants and growing things has grown quite a lot this past year. This garden is all his responsibility, and he loves it. The beginning was a little rough, since he started with planting seeds, and we didn't quite know how to take care of the things we bought as plants (snap peas and strawberries). However, he did get these two little snap peas:

Zane had his last rec soccer game of the season this month. He did really great this year, had a fun coach, and it was fun to see his hard work pay off as he scored so many goals!

Sleepy cuties:

Cora went to girl's camp at the end of the month and had a blast there! The theme was Moana, and they went to a really fun place that had canoeing, obstacle courses, cabins, archery, axe throwing, and more. The most fun story was that a deer pretty much jumped right over Cora during her scripture study! She was sick when it was time for the girls to leave for girls camp, so she rested at home for a few hours, then I ended up driving her to camp just the two of us. We were both so glad she was able to go and recovered so quickly!