Cousin time and Conference

 Sunday dinner is such a party when Renee hosts!  Next best thing to having a backyard farm is when cousins have one.  I'm so glad my kids enjoy the animals so much!

 taking turns milking and then chasing the chickens

Andrew came for a special sleepover on his birthday!

We had sundays with homemade ice cream :)

We love our ice cream maker!   

We went up to the fun center in Logan for a birthday celebration with the Hildebrants!!

bouncing and visiting

These cousins went to the BYU boy scout powwow together

Ella took cousins to the South Jordan pool for her birthday celebration.

Exploring and Playtime in Grandma's yard between sessions of General Conference 

Everyone took their own corner for viewing conference.

Grandma had a special stuffed lamb for all the grandkids and shared her testimony of Easter. 
"It's not about the bunny, it's about The Lamb."

The kids love the walk up the road to the cemetery and even farther to the viaduct.

Girls + Love = Partytime

Tessa and Leisel were so excited to decorate a box for a Valentine Exchange.

Here's part of the crazy group

Leisel had a mailbox 💗

Later in the month, Tessa planned a birthday party for dolls.  She planned activities and purchased treats, supplies, and party favors by herself.  She and Leisel each invited a friend who brought their dolls too. 

A Post for Jonathan

Here are photos of Jonathan from his last year.  He turned 3 in February!  

He is such a classic little boy.  His personality was unleashed even more this year.  He has a silly teasing humor.  He gave up naps and is very busy, so at bed time he crashes hard.  He still struggles with his fear of "monsters" or shapes and shadows in the dark.  He is working on using more words to communicate, but he always gets his point across in a strong way.  (Kids at our house don't seem to have a problem expressing what they want.😅)  His favorite things are still smoothies and pancakes, cousins like Asher, books, puppies, and horses (neigh-neighs).   

It was fun to have him as our baby and it's fun that he gets to be a big brother now.  We love watching him grow!  

End of Year and New Year

Tessa made such neat projects in her art class and learned many principles of art.  We enjoyed her end of semester show.

Michael and Stetson demonstrating their karate techniques at the end of the semester.

I'm not sure what this picture of Leisel is about, but it shows some of the snowflakes the kids created.  Without snow on the lawn throughout most of the winter, we hung up lots in the windows instead.  These 6 sided ones were inspired by a study about the life of Snowflake Bentley.  

Jordan dug out the gym shorts from the back of his drawer and went out in the cold to Junior Jazz practices and games throughout December and January.  He also got to go downtown to a Jazz game with Jared and Michael.  Jordan's always a great part of his team and he enjoys it too!

We made a quick trip to the cabin in January to enjoy the winter wonderland.  

The kids put on a theatrical show in the basement as well.

 
This is Tessa after one of the last snowstorms of the winter.  We stopped by Flat Iron Park to get a few turns sledding down the hill.  

The Jordan abominable snowman

Basement

This is Jared's office last summer.  Dad helped finish the framing.  One wall needed additional studs and he built a closet.  We had to plan ahead for the future bathroom that would adjoin this room.  Jared did the electrical and duct work.  Then Grandpa put in sheetrock.  Grandma claimed her hours of work mudding was a birthday present for me.  We painted, Jared put in some carpet, and we moved in!  

It was such a wonderful moment to move Jared's office from the upstairs bedroom to the basement cave.  It gave us separate room for homeschooling and a little better sound barrier.  

Some of the photos from last year's post, "Tessa's photography" show Grandpa at work.  

Then Grandpa and Grandma came back for more!  They said they were ready to help with the basement family room.  These photos are from January 1, 2018.  Grandpa had previously finished the framing to the bathroom wall that is behind him in the photo.   He had also put in the extra studs in the outside walls and put up sheetrock.  Grandpa and Grandma hadn't even waited for the busy holiday season to pass, but somehow managed to fit in all their work.  It was an amazing Christmas present.  We never could have jumped into this project without them!

Grandpa even added custom fitted storage shelves under the stairs where we had always stacked the case lot cans.  He put a rolling dolly at the back of this closet where buckets of grain could be accessed but put out of the way.  It's great to be able to use every inch of available space for our storage.  Grandpa also made room for water storage shelves in the furnace room.  Somehow he would come over for a few hours and finish tasks that we didn't think could be done.

Jared was able to put in lots of hours too doing electrical and duct work and then finishing work as well for paint, carpet and trim.  Yea!! 

It is so nice to have this space now.  We use it so much!  

One of the things I love about being in the basement is our early Christmas present from Grandpa.  He shared a few of his paintings that he did this year.  And they are just right for our space.  You can see the boat painting in the photo of Jared's finished study.  And we have a scene with a coopers hawk and red rock butte in the main basement room.  

We are so grateful for Grandpa and Grandma's skills and touch to help make our home so nice!