One Whole Hand for Henry!

Happy birthday, Henry!!  You have been so excited for this day and have it all planned out.  From the cake, to the presents, to the cousin water balloon fight--you know just what you want.  You are my little buddy and big helper with Lydia.  I love that you always ask me to sit and watch a show with you or read books together. I will miss you in the Fall when you leave me all day to go to Kindergarten but I know you will have so much fun! Even though you said you'd stay little forever I'm excited that you are getting bigger and learning so many great things.

What is your favorite...
color? everything in the world except purple and pink
food?  pizza
toy?  legos
show? Ninjago
animal?  Rhino
book? The Book with No Pictures
song? Popcorn Popping
What do you like to do?  have a "show lunch" (where we eat popcorn, fruit, and watch a movie at lunch)
Who is your best friend?  "my best friend is Jayden"
What do you want to be when you grow up? a police (although for his primary spotlight he answered "a transformer" which was awesome)

I am - five
I am afraid of - the dark

I like - pie.

I like to eat - pizza

I don't like - guacamole

I know - that my best friend can't see me in 5 days!

I want to be - a police when I grow up 

My hero is- no one

I cry when -when someone punches me in the face

Mom gets mad when - (I don't know!)

Mom is happy when - you do your jobs!

I can't wait for - presents!

Something Mom says to me - "do your jobs!" (said while wagging his finger)

Something Dad says to me - "shinking gingas"

My favorite place to go is - the dinosaur park

My Mom and Dad make me laugh by -tickling me

I know my mom loves me because -she tickles me

I know my dad loves me because - he plays "king of the living room" with me

School Days

The end of the school year is always full of activities!  Alexander's class got to do the school announcements for one week. (It was field day which is why he's wearing a swim suit.)  He was so excited to have a speaking part and he did a great job!

Since there is a park/splash pad next to the school every class gets to take a field trip there at the end of the year.

Alex wanted pictures with his friends.

I barely  missed James's class... I got there toward the end just to see them walking back to school.  Bummer!  And William didn't want anything to do with pictures... just wanted to play football.




The end of the year is also full of long awards assemblies.  All of the boys did really well this year.  There was a special assembly for all the 5th graders who earned the Great American award.

I think William likes earning these awards because it means he's first in line for cake!

Alexander earned Exemplary Citizenship, Outstanding Academic Excellence, Straight A Honor Roll, earned 200% of his Accelerated Reader goal, and was awarded the Good Character Trailblazer of the Month.  With the last award his teacher wrote, "Alex has been selected as Trailblazer of the month because he has shown how to be a problem solver.  He is flexible when our schedule changes and is able to help others in math and reading.  He uses his problem solving skills when we complete our math sheets.  Way to go Alex!"

 James was awarded the Trailblazer Award for above average growth in math, the Governor's exemplary attendance award, and A/B Honor Roll.  James had a hard year and he worked really hard for that last one!

William earned the A/B Honor Roll this year.

I was glad to see that they didn't do a "promotion ceremony" for the 5th graders.  (Although I was surprised at how many parents were there with balloons, flowers, and stuffed animals!)  It was fun to see the slideshow that was put together for them though.

I let Henry take pictures with my phone during the assemblies to keep him busy.  I ended up with a lot of fun selfies.

And we all felt like this by the end of all the assemblies.

There were a few fun events at the end of the year.  The 3rd graders always do a carnival for their economics unit.  It was fun to see James in action.

William was able to go to SeaCamp in San Diego.  I need to have him write a post about all the fun things he was able to do.  It was a little scary sending him out on his own for 3 whole days!  He had a great time but we sure missed him at home!  (I kept thinking that it was just a little taste of what it will be like when he leaves on his mission.)

And then finally it was summertime!  Hooray!

Flag football

William and James have been wanting to play football for a l o n g  time.  Last year William still had pins in his arm though so he wasn't cleared to play.  Instead they played football before and after school at the park every day.  This year we finally signed them up for a flag football team.  We signed up with a bunch of boys from our ward which made practices convenient (they were close to home) and games more fun (lots of friends for all of us to talk/play with).

Unfortunetly I didn't get many pictures.  I blame it on the fact that it was right in the middle of our move and  I was chasing Lydia all over the field since Rich was coaching.  One of the moms took this picture while they did the team pictures one morning but I don't have one of William's team (sad!).

Thanks to another mom I have a few videos of the boys.  They really were great players!  Our bishop (who's boys were on James's team) commented several times how much fun it was to watch James.  He told me that James was "sneaky fast" which was the perfect way to describe him!

William was really fun to watch too.

It will be fun to see what sport they decide to try next year!

Fruit and flowers!

We have been loving our new yard.  It's like a little garden of Eden in the desert.  Lydia loves to pick the low-hanging fruit and have a little snack while she's back there.

She even needed to bring a plum in to her bath!

James and Henry also love to eat the fruit right off the tree--they especially love the apples.

Alex doesn't care too much for most of the fruit but he is a great helper at picking it!

The plums are just beautiful!

The apricots are all gone now...

But the boys made some freezer jam so we can enjoy them for a little while longer!

We are looking forward to our peaches, pears, pomegranates, and almonds ripening!


Not only have we enjoyed our fruit but I love our roses out front.

I've always loved yellow roses.

And I think these are the boys' favorite.

And I've always loved these purplish roses too... my mom had some when I was in high school.

Moments of Sunshine

I love to capture little moments of sunshine in our daily life.  Like this moment of Lydia and Rich reading together.  (Lydia has recently started to love reading... she loves to plop down on the pillows of the reading nook with a book.)

 And I loved that Alex asked me if we could go on a date.  He chose U-swirl and it was delicious!

Birthday celebrations

Alex had a great birthday.  He had been looking forward to it for a very long time.  It was a little rushed because we had a school function that evening and Rich had mutual but Alexander didn't seem to mind.  He loved all his gifts.

For his birthday he really wanted double chocolate banana cake.

I think he really liked having the school function that night so he could show us all his hard work.  He is a great boy!