Fun in the Sun

Saturday was a day spent out in the sun. We worked out in my mom's yard giving it a little "curb appeal". Hopefully it worked :) The boys love to be outside and wanted to help, too. Here's a few pictures of the fun.

Chaetun helping dig up some of the grass.


Chaetun helping transfer the dirt to the new flower beds


Xadun using his bucket, too


Measuring the bike


Brekan playing in the grass

I just realized I don't have any "after" pictures of the work that was done, but it looks much better!!

Never too young to dance!!

Friday night was my cousin's wedding. They didn't have a "normal" line reception, instead it was more of an open house/dance type reception. The place they had it had a little stage in the front . My aunt Bonnie had my cousin, Melanie's, kids. Hailey is the same age as Chaetun and Cassidy is the same age as Xadun, so they played well together. Cassidy and Hailey started dancing, so I tried to pair the boys with the girls and taught them to dance - hand on waist and the other hand up, the proper way. :) Xadun and Cassidy did it for a little while, but they're 2 and just wanted to jump and run. Once Hailey had a boy for a partner, though, she was all over him to dance. It was sooo funny. Chaetun, being a true boy, kept rolling his eyes, looking up at the ceiling and saying, "MOOOOOMMMMM!" Then he kept telling me, "Mom, I'm a COWBOY!" Never the less, Hailey did get him to dance a few times.

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School Days

Thursday was Chaetun's last day of his first year of preschool. They had a program to end it. It was so cute!! Chaetun actually sang the songs this time (at the Christmas program he didn't). Listening to kids sing is always so funny...especially when they scream/sing the songs.

Each child has a part in the program. Chaetun's song was "Long, Tall Texan" (I thought it was Long Horned Cowboy, but I was wrong :s). He had been singing the song for a few days, so I figured that must have been his song. It was a great song for Chaetun. His uncles Boyd and Mark would be proud :)

After the program was over, all the kids got completion/graduation certificates. Chaetun's is a completion certificate since he gets to go back next year.

Chaetun & Mrs. Perry, his teacher

Chaetun learned so much at school this year. He learned all of his letters, he recognizes them all. Next year he'll learn more about their sounds and reading them. He learned how to count to 10 in spanish as well as some of his colors in spanish. The learned about Paul Revere, baby chicks, and all sorts of other stuff. The biggest thing he learned is probably how to write his name. It's still not perfect, but we'll continue to work on it over the summer. He also got to meet a bunch of new friends. Hopefully, some will be back next year.

I was sad that the school year was over, mostly for Chaetun, but I think he'll do okay. We'll make sure to continue to practice letters, numbers, and writing his name. Hopefully we'll also start working on writing his last name.

Progress

I knew I was behind on updating on the house, but I didn't realize I hadn't posted pictures for over a month. So...I will try to keep them condensed so as not to bore you too much. :)

The basement plumbing


They filled in the dirt around the house and in the garage


Instead of a normal window well, we wanted to do it rock instead


Where the septic tank and drainage field is


The basement framed and the driveways poured


The main room of my mom's house in the basement


The back of the house with the basement framed


Beginning of the upstairs framing (the other 2 boys were asleep in the van)


Where the great room and bedrooms will be


The view

Taking the Opportunity

Today at lunch Chaetun was talking about Jesus dying. He's talked about it a little since Easter when we explained why we celebrate Easter. Since he brought it up I decided to take the opportunity to teach a little more. We talked about how Jesus died but that he came back to life again. We somehow got to the fact that his grandpa, my dad died, too. I told Chaetun that he lives in heaven. He didn't know where that was, so I had to explain that's where Heavenly Father and Jesus live and that's where we go when we die. We talked about how even though my dad died when I was Chaetun's age (hard to even think about) we will still get to see him someday. I told him that's why we go to the temple, to be sealed so that we can be a family forever. Since this was really the first opportunity for me to tell Chaetun about my dad, I asked if he wanted to see some pictures of him. Of course he did, so I got my mom's only photo album out. We looked at pictures of me as a baby and little girl, pictures of Grandma and, of course, Grandpa.

Chaetun really liked this one because it was clowns :)

So, after all is said and done, I don't know how much he really understands about it all, but hopefully I'll have enough opportunities that one day it will all sink in.

Happy Birthday, Xadun!

Xadun celebrated his 2nd birthday on Easter this year. At this point, he still doesn't really know what his birthday is. Chaetun sure did, though. He kept asking if Xadun could open his presents and kept telling me he wanted to share with him. Yeah, of course you want to share Xadun's presents, but not your own. :s

We used the family Easter BBQ as a celebration for his birthday. I made another cake. Again, I'm no Martha Stewart, but it didn't turn out too bad

Eating the cone, he doesn't like ice cream.


Don't mind my finger


After opening the cars first, he didn't want to touch anything else. Grandma ended up opening the basketball hoop. Then he liked it :)


After all is said and done, they were playing on the box, not with the toys.

Happy Easter

Our Easter was eventful, yet uneventful at the same time. We did a lot of Easter stuff on Saturday as well as Xadun's birthday which was also on Sunday. (Stay tuned for that blog :) ) My mom's ward had an Easter brunch on Saturday, so we went to that. They had a really yummy egg casserole!! After breakfast they had an Easter egg hunt.

After getting ALL that candy we went back in to get pictures with the Easter Bunny

Lunch was at Ellen & Boyd's. My kids LOVE going to see Grandma & Grandpa (great), Ellen & Boyd, and Mark & Carole!! The only bad part was it was in the dirt. I am NOT a fan of dirt. Chris keeps telling me it's what boys do, but it doesn't make me like it any better. Here's some pics from the day:

Xadun playing with Grandpa


Flying the Tustison's kite


All the kids playing in the dirt, plus Carole :) (Katie wasn't playing, just taking pictures.)


Chaetun & Riley on the tractor.



My boys




What'd you say?

We colored eggs that night. My mom heard a couple of new ways to color eggs, so we tried them.

This was the tissue paper method. You cut up different colors of tissue paper and wrap the wet egg in them...it didn't work.


This was using food coloring and rolling it around in the colander. It worked, but was more work than needed.


So, we finished the old fashioned way.

I thought I had pictures of Easter morning, but apparently I don't. Church at 9 makes for a whirlwind mom trying to get everyone ready.