It's all good . . .

When Grandma Comes

A few weeks ago, my mom came back to us in San Antonio after visiting my sister, Wendy, in Austin for ten days.  We sure were happy to get her back, especially Arthur, who immediately put her to "work" reading to him - ha ha!

I think I missed her most of all though. It was so wonderful to have her back to spend time with, talk with, and laugh with.  We had a great time watching a BBC series called "Miss Scarlet and the Duke," and she started showing Lily home of her favorite old musicals and classic chick flicks.  On days when I was working, I would come home and lay down on her bed and tell her about my day, which was the perfect way to relax.

The day after she came home, Wendy came to San Antonio, and she, Lily, Kevin, my  mom and I were able to do a session at the temple together, which was so wonderful.  There is something extra special about being in the temple with family.  Before she headed home, She, Lily and I were able to go back and do initiatories there together, which was so wonderful.

But sadly, now it is time for my mama to go home to Idaho.  We are going to miss her desperately.  There is something very special about having a multigenerational household, and she brought a special spirit to our home.  And don't worry, Arthur was sure to get in a few extra games and books with grandma before she headed home.

When Grandma and Grandpa Come to Play

We always love when Kevin's parents can get away and come visit us.  They arrived on Wednesday evening before dinner, and we were so happy to have them here!!  We started off Thursday with a sealing session at the San Antonio Temple, which was wonderful.  There is always something special about being with family at the temple, and they even got to see Lily there, since she serves at the temple on Thursday mornings.

Arthur especially loved having Grandma there, as not only did she read book after book to him each day, but she brought him a special surprise of a beautiful purple quilt (which just happens to be both of their favorite colors).

Arthur also loved getting to spend time with Grandpa, including special ice cream dessert, which is always on the good list.

On both Thursday afternoon, as well as Friday, Kevin played golf with his dad.  On Friday, they took his mom along with them so she could see the course and spend some time with Kevin.  They had a wonderful time, that is until a massive and crazy storm came out of nowhere, complete with thunder, lightning, and hail.  Good times.

On Saturday, we were blessed with beautiful weather and took the whole group of us to Seaworld.  We started things off with Arthur's favorite, the Sea Lion and Otter show.  The show is always fun, but my favorite thing is to go see the seals during feeding time.  They are so much fun!

Next, we headed to see the alligators.  They were pretty small, but really cool - especially how they would just sit there like logs with fish and turtles all around them.
It was so much fun showing everything to Kevin's parents, and one of my favorite moments was when I looked over and saw Kevin and his mom walking hand in hand. It was the sweetest thing, and so I had to take a quick picture as we headed to go and see the penguins.
The next show we took them to was the Beluga Whale and Dolphin Show, which is so cool!  Dolphins are my very favorite animal, and I love watching them swim and play.

Because the Seven Seas Food Festival was going on, before we headed to another show, we went and got treats.  Arthur got a crepe from France, but the rest of us got apple strudel with ice cream - yum!  And while we were there, Kevin and Lily posed with the little cut out people, which was just hilarious.

We saved for last the best show for last - the Orca Show.  It really is spectacular, and this time it was even more fun, because they got the crowd more wet than usual.  In fact, the spray went so high, we were four rows behind the splash zone, and I got hit with a few drops of water - ha ha!

The only bad thing about our day was that the park was insanely packed full of people.  There just happened to be a national cheerleading competition going on at the park, and so the whole place was overrun with thousands of extra people everywhere.  It made it chaotic to get around, and it was often hard to find a place to sit at the shows, but we managed to have a wonderful time in spite of the crowd.

Later on, when we got home, Kevin and his dad were watching the LIV Golf Singapore tournament, and decided to pose a picture to post to their Twitter feed.  We had the tournament going, his dad was hitting balls, while Kevin and the kids were in the pool.  THey even put the picture and post on TV, which was so much fun!! We are all famous ;).

On Sunday morning, they had to head back to Dallas so that they could fly home to Idaho.  We were so sad to say goodbye to them, but are so grateful for all the wonderful time we had with them.

Finishing Off April

April slipped through our fingers like sand, and suddenly it is over.  A lot of my April has been spent studying (and subbing), and one day when I got home, the weather was so nice out, that I decided to sit outside and study. Ironically, as soon as I got settled, it started to rain - ha ha!  I can't complain though, since I am so grateful for the rain we have been having this spring (unlike our drought last year).

Because of the rain, my blackberries and honeysuckle are just flourishing, which is fantastic.

The rain made Arthur and I chilly enough, that we decided that we needed hot cocoa.  I mean, it was only 68 degrees outside - ha ha!

Arthur loves to read with Kevin or I in the evenings - each with different books.  A lot of times while I am reading, he will play around with my exercise mat or my stability ball, which is actually pretty entertaining.  Until it gets distracting - ha ha!

Arthur had a fun Lego building adventure for his last primary activity for April.  The boys were all in heaven.

And today was the class Fiesta celebration.  Since I am the room mom, I was in charge of the party.  After the school parade where the kids displayed their floats, then it was time for the party.  We started with relay races outside, which the kids loved - and it was a way to get some energy out. Then we went back inside for treats and chips and queso. All in all, it was a success, and the perfect way to finish off the month.

Playing with My Mama

On Thursday the fourteenth, I drove to Austin to pick up my mother from the airport.  She and my sister Wendy had flown out of Idaho Falls (long story, but had to do with a doctor's appointment in Pocatello the day they were leaving), only to have their flight delayed enough that they missed their connecting flight out of Denver. They were stuck over night in the airport, but luckily were able to finally make it to Texas.  (And I am so grateful to my sister for traveling with her, as it is almost impossible for her to travel on her own nowadays.)

Well, we sure happy to get her back to Texas - between her having to have multiple surgeries over the past few months, it has been so hard to make her visit a reality.  Thank goodness it all came together in the end.  Lily was awesome and helped my mom get all unpacked and settled into her room, which was great. (And Lily didn't even mind sacrificing her room and bunking with her little brother Arthur during her visit.)

And Arthur could hardly wait a moment to start reading books with Grandma - his favorite activity.

On Sunday, as we headed out for church, I had to get a picture with her and the kids. We all love having her here so much, and it was like she had never been away.

For Sunday dinner, I made a belated Easter dinner, with ham and all the trimmings, including lemon bar cake cupcakes, which are so delicious.

Because of the timing of a few things, my mom's visit to my sister Wendy fell only about a week after she arrived in Texas, so we took a Saturday for the whole family to head to Austin to drop her off.  We stopped in Blanco on the way to get some yummy barbecue at a cute place called Old 300 BBQ.  It was a very tasty lunch, but I thought that the sign for the bathrooms was especially awesome.

On the way, we just happened to drive past the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile!  I had never seen it in person, and it was so cool.  It also got the song stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Ha ha!

We were so lucky to have an absolutely gorgeous day for our visit, and we spent most of the time out on the back patio by the pool, with the gorgeous view of Lake Austin.  

The kids were so excited to get to go swimming, even if the water was a tad on the cold side, since it isn't heated and it is only April - ha ha.  They still had a blast though.

And I made sure to have Tod show us his new cars. Since I saw them last, he got rid of his other Ferrari and got a new one, as well as adding a beautiful blue Lamborghini to the collection. My mom's favorite though, is the 1959 yellow Corvette.  So much fun!

After a while of visiting, we left my mom at Wendy's for the next ten days.  We will miss her, but she will have a great time - especially because she will get to play with her great-grandkids, Jack and Avery :).

April Adventures

April is flying by, and in all the normal stuff, there have been some great moments. For over a year and a half, my good friend, Megan, and I have been getting together every single month for a lunch date.  It has been the best, and I cannot even express how grateful I am that this fabulous friend I made way back in our North Carolina days, happens to be stationed in San Antonio. We usually sit and talk for hours, only leaving when we have to go and pick up our kids from school.  She is such an amazing friends, and our lunch dates totally work as therapy session, laugh zests, and lots of talk about books.  In fact, our most recent lunch was very nearby a really cool bookstore called "Nowhere" that is owned by a local author.  We loved the store, ogled over the wonderful collection of books, talked about all the ones we have read or want to read, and then got a picture with the giant cat.  Good times!

Twice in two weeks, I have gone to the movies with the kids.  The first time was with Kevin as well, and we went to see the new movie, "Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves."  Derek is a HUGE fan of D&D, and had been counting down the days until the movie came out, and he was not disappointed.  It was super fun!  And then this past week, when the boys had the day off school, I took all of them to go and see the new Super Mario Brothers Movie, which they LOVED!  It was super cute and fun.

Recently, Arthur had his final choir concert of the year.  It was such a sweet little concert, but my very favorite part was when they sang the song "A Million Dreams" from "The Greatest Showman."  Arthur did a fabulous job, as usual, and we look forward to many more years of fun choir performances.

On Saturday, Kevin, Arthur and I snuck out to go to the Fairways for Warriors event, and had the best time playing in a golf scramble.  We did really well, but the highlight was when Arthur, without even aiming, sunk a 20 foot put for our team to make birdie.  Pretty fantastic!  Arthur also really loved getting to ring the bell to let the people behind us know that we had cleared out of the fairway.

And because my husband is super awesome, he washed my golf clubs for me when we got home.  I had been hating how dingy and dirty they were getting, and he is skilled at cleaning golf clubs, so he did it for me.

Kevin and I also had the chance to go and watch a concert given by the choir and orchestra from BYU Idaho.  They were both spectacular, and we loved getting to hear all the amazing music.  So glad that we heard about it and were able to go.

Recently, Lily had a special zone conference with the new Service Mission Leaders, and they are awesome.  Lily already knew them, because she served with them in the temple, which is super cool.  I am excited to get to know them better.

Another fun April adventure has been following my friend Jana's son, Dawson, on American Idol.  He made it to the top 26, and we went to a watch party, and then ended up on the San Antonio news, which was pretty fun.  He is amazingly talented, and even if he doesn't make it all the way, it sure has cool to be a part of the fun.
On Wednesday, I had my primary girls activity, and we did a nature scavenger hunt, which was a blast.  The girls loved it, and my group was really into taking fun pictures to prove that we found the different things.  And sweet Harper totally picked me a bouquet of wildflowers, which was the best.

Another fun and random thing, is that since one of the fifth grade teachers that I am friends with is retiring, she has started giving me her stuff that she is getting rid of.  Every time I sub, I bring this empty bin, and then I come home with it full of books and other awesome stuff.  It is pretty fantastic, and will be so great to have for my classroom in the fall.

Lastly, I have to tell the funniest story of a crazy Costco impulse buy. I was shopping at Costco with my mom and looking for powdered sugar.  She pointed out the fifty pound bags of sugar, and I grabbed one and put it on my cart, not even thinking about the fact that there was no way I could fit that in my bin.  And so I had to figure out what to do with it, especially when only half of it fit into my container. I had to get creative.  I proceeded to fill up gallon bags full of it, but it sure does look sketchy.  Ha ha!  

I finished it up totally coated in powdered sugar, and there was a light dusting all around me. And then because one of my vacuums had to vacuum up all the loose powdered sugar that I had made a mess with all over the kitchen, I had to clean it. Which then led me to cleaning all three of our vacuums, because as we established already, I may be a little crazy. Totally not what I needed to spend my time on, but such is life 😉😂.  Ahh, the adventures.

Celebrating Easter

I have always loved celebrating Easter, and some years I am much better at being intentional in my worship than other years.  This year, after the wonderful counsel during General Conference from the apostle, Elder Gary E. Stephenson, I tried to be extra intentional in our family's worship of Jesus Christ during the holiday.  Each day, starting with Palm Sunday, we studied together something from the last week of Christ's life.

On Easter Day, I tried to make it extra special, and want to to continue on previous Easter traditions, as well as building new ones, to help our family celebrate.  I often make a special breakfast on Easter, like I do on Christmas, and this year I got up early and made homemade scones - orange scones and chocolate chip.  Both were delicious, and the kids were super excited to wake up to a special breakfast.  

While I was baking, I was listening to some of my favorite music about Jesus Christ and singing along.  I used to always listen to church music on Sundays and sing along with it, but it had been years since I had done that. I am not sure why I got out of the habit, but whatever the reason, I am grateful I did it on Easter, as it filled my heart and soul with joy and peace.  Once everyone was up and out, I turned on the concert "Lamb of God," which is phenomenal!  If you haven watched it or listened to the recording, you really need to. It is so beautiful and just filled our home and hearts with the spirit of Christ.

Another newer thing in our home the past year or two, is having Easter decorations up in our home, to help us focus on Christ, just like we have special decorations for Christmas.  There aren't many of them, but I love them.
Usually we have an Easter egg hunt on the Saturday before Easter, so that we focus more on the religious element of our worship on Sunday, however, this year our Saturday was crazy, and so we did our egg hunt after we did our family Come Follow Me study after church. As usual, we had the kids hide each other's eggs, and Derek hid Lily's eggs so well, he couldn't even remember where one of them was.  It is still missing, but luckily it is a plastic egg with candy in it, so it won't go bad.
Arthur hid Derek's eggs, and he enjoyed hiding them inside a bunch of the Star Wars Legos, which is pretty fun.  He could not get one on top of the fan to hide it there, however, since he is still small and didn't have any help.
Arthur was the last to hunt for his eggs, and they were in my bedroom.  Luckily, both he and Derek found all of their eggs.
They all got a chocolate bunny as well, and Arthur's was even dark chocolate, just like he requested.
Side note about candy - as I was filling the eggs, I had to try out a few of the newer things we got this year, such as the cotton candy flavored Peeps.  Wow - so yummy!  And I don't even like Peeps.  The other delicious thing we found this year were the Skittles jellybeans - so delicious, and I don't even like jellybeans.

One thing that seems to happen every Easter, is that Kevin will get on the piano and play songs from "Jesus Christ Superstar." And later on, I came upon Derek playing songs from the musical on his guitar, which was so cool.

I finished off the day playing the game Book of Mormon Guess Who with Arthur, while I watched the end of The Master's golf tournament, since I had to know the outcome, after watching it for the previous three days with Kevin ;).  

It had been a wonderful celebration, and I am so very grateful for the gift of the Atonement and Resurrection of my savior, Jesus Christ.

A Wonderful Conference Weekend

Kevin and I volunteering at the Valero Open made it a bit tricky for us to watch General Conference on Saturday, but we made it work.  When Kevin and I got home, and Derek got off of work, we took the whole family over to Cold Stone to get ice cream, and then we headed home and started watching the sessions of conference that we had DVRed earlier in the day.  

We settled in and watched the first two sessions, and Kevin and I both worked on projects while we watched. His was a crochet project that involved him first untangling a large amount of yarn.  And I was trying to finish up the last of some quilt blocks I have been making.

Sunday morning, I was up early and decided to make cinnamon rolls for us to enjoy as we watched conference. I put them in the oven and sat down to watch more of conference with the family, and somehow the timer didn't start when I set it.  I kept smelling the deliciousness, and then started wondering why the timer hadn't gone off. Luckily I caught it and got them out of the oven before they were too overcooked.  And luckily, with lots of frosting, you couldn't really tell.

While we watched, Arthur was playing with the "Y" ball, making different shapes as he listened. It was perfect, because he could do it quietly.

In the break between the morning and afternoon session, Lily, Arthur and I took a walk to the park, and the weather was just perfect.  It was a great little chance to get moving and enjoy the gorgeous weather before we sat some more in the house.

For the last session, Lily joined in on the sewing project fun and pulled out her quilt to tie.  It was quite the picture with the three of us with our different projects.  Good times.

While we were sewing, Derek was putting together puzzles in the kitchen, and at some point as we were listening to the speakers, his siblings joined him to finish it off.

Although there were projects and fun food, the best part of the weekend was having the chance to feast on the words of our prophet, President Nelson, and the other apostles and leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  And to spend the time together as a family as we learned and were inspired together.

Our Arthur in March

Our Arthur has been happily busy with things that challenge him and make him happy.  One of those things, was that he and I finished reading the book, Holes.  And since we read the book, we had a special movie night to watch the movie they based off of the book, which made it even more fun.

That also manet that we had to pick a new read aloud, and so I pulled out a bunch of choices for him, and he picked The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews - a favorite of mine and another one that I used to read aloud to my fourth graders many years ago.

The other day, Arthur came home wearing a crown.  It was a special crown from his class, and he had permission from his teacher to bring it home to show us.  He sure does make a cute "King Arthur" ;).

Recently, both the boys and the girls primary activity groups have been working on pinewood derby cars. We had thought that we weren't ever going to have to worry about making one again (Kevin even sold his saw), but we were wrong.  Arthur loved doing it though, and his car was very fast - faster than all the others.

We had a combined race with the boys and the girls, and they all had fun.  Our only rule was that they needed to fit on the track - good times.
It was a bit chaotic, especially because the person who was supposed to let us into the closet to get the track, didn't show up until after seven, even though our activity started at 7pm - guess I came 15 minutes early to set up for no reason.  Ugh.  The kids had fun in spite of it all, and like I said, Arthur's car was the fastest (if you don't count the two girls whose dad just had them bring their older brothers' cars - ha ha!)

Arthur was in charge of our dessert on Sunday, and really wanted to make molten lava cakes, and so I helped him.  It was such a great idea, he did a lot of the work, and we all got to enjoy the deliciousness.

Last Friday, I miraculously wasn't subbing, and so I got to volunteer in the library, which is one of my favorite things. I happened to be there when Arthur's class had a Lego challenge where they had to try and build the building on the card they were give.  I was pretty impressed with what he and his partner, Christian, came up with.

Saturday, Kevin took Arthur to a special family golf event, and they had so much fun!  I love that there are all these cool opportunities for Arthur to get out on the golf course with his dad - things that definitely weren't there when his older siblings were little.

Arthur was recently chosen to be showcased in the district wide Young Masters Art Show.  Kevin and I went with Arthur to go and see his artwork and check it out, and it was pretty awesome (albeit, crazy crowded and busy). I loved the display his art teacher did for Las Lomas, but even more, I loved Arthur's awesome armadillo artwork - it looks so great! (We didn't have time to look at any other art there though, because we had to rush off to Derek's choir concert.)

And we finished off the month with the Regan Cluster UIL competition.  Kevin and I weren't able to make it to the award ceremony, because we were volunteering at the Texas Open, however, his sister did an awesome job of getting him to the competition and making sure to get me a picture.  Arthur ended winning 5th place in his specialty - the only one in his whole school to place at all.  Pretty amazing!  We are so proud of our Arthur!

A Very Busy Week

What an action packed week - full of good things, with life thrown in the mix.  Monday we started things off with the APEX Fun Run, and since I wasn't teaching, I got to go an help out as a volunteer.  I was one of the people who got to mark off a row of obstacles with a sharpie as the kids finished a lap, and since it was both fourth and fifth grade coming through, it meant I got to see so many of my great kids that I love - including my Arthur!

He loved running through the different obstacles and was actually very fast at it.  I was also impressed with how he actually did the obstacle like he was supposed to, instead of just messing around like some of the kids did.

He really did love it, even the last one, which was probably the trickiest one to do, since the holes were really deep.  It turned out to be a pretty fun adventure. (And after I was done helping, I snuck off to go have lunch with some of my friends, which was awesome.)
On Tuesday, I subbed in the library, and after school, Arthur never showed up, like he usually does.  I couldn't find him anywhere, and his teacher said he had already left.  He had completely forgotten that I was teaching, and so he started walking home, although I was not in the car waiting for him as usual. As soon as I realized what had happened, I took off and drove down the road toward our house to find him.  And there he was, way up the hill, halfway home.  He was freaking out a bit, but we figured things out and came up with a plan for if it ever happens again.

Later that night, it was a choir concert for Derek. We had to be there extra early, and so Lily and Arthur came prepared with plenty to read while they waited.  Good times.  My kids know to bring a book wherever they go - just in case.

Derek did a fantastic job at his concert, and I can never get over how grown-up and handsome he looks in his tux. 

The concert was to showcase the pieces they were performing at the UIL competition, as well as Celebration of Excellence, and they did such a wonderful job.  Derek's choir is always my favorite, and not just because he is in it.  They always seem to sing the best pieces.
They had a Varsity Men's Choir, as well as his Kantori choir.  One of the performances started with them out in the audience, and singing as they filed in.  It was pretty fun.  they also had a couple songs with actions, which are always a good time as well.

The following day, I was subbing again, and this time it was Bike Rodeo, and so I got to see Arthur outside with his class and cheering on all the kids that participated.  My cute little second graders were so great at cheering for not only the kids in their class that went, but all the second graders.  We had a great time :).

On Wednesday night, Kevin and I slipped away to attend the temple.  Sometimes when life gets super busy, we have to be extra intentional about making time for the things that matter most.  Even though we had had things every night during the week, we made sure to make time for this.

On Thursday, I subbed in 3rd grade, and when the class had library, I got to go in and see the cool project that Arthur had made in GT with his partner, Kamron.  They were studying enigmas, and the one they focused on was the Lost Colony of Roanoke.  There was even a QR code you could scan and then watch a movie that went with it.  (Arthur's teacher, Mrs. Hardon, was super impressed with his acting ability.)

Thursday night was a Relief Society activity.  It was one of those times when I was beyond exhausted, and it was literally all I could do to make myself go.  Luckily, I had the added incentive of having Lily who needed to attend as well, and we managed to have a good time, in spite of being worn out.  We did lots of team building activities, which turned out to be fun, but the best part was the lemon cheesecake for dessert ;).

One of the other things I did this week was to do some necessary work in my garden, including planting.  While I was out there, I noticed that I have baby raspberries on my bushes.  And my new rose bush not only looks amazing when it blooms, but it smells so very good.
Not sure how I fit it all in, but Friday began the start of a whole other adventure - volunteering at the Valero Texas Open Golf Tournament, but I'll save that for another post . . .

Little Bits of March

March blew in and out before I could blink, but there were lots of great moments in it all.  Sometimes they were simple and necessary things, like Saturday morning haircuts for all the boys - including Kevin.

And then there was the day I made homemade German spaetzle, using my new press for the first time.  It worked so well!  Much better than my old one.  And yes, making it is a pain in the neck and makes a huge mess, but it is so yummy, I have to do it every once in a while ;).

I have been so busy lately with studying and working, that I have not been getting my normal deep spring cleaning done.  That said, I did use some extra time at home during spring break and after to deep clean a bunch of the kitchen - the stove/oven, fridge, sink, dishwasher, etc. It feels so great to get some things really clean!!

I also took advantage of study breaks to get some small projects done, like the new beach picture collage frame that I added to the kids' bathroom.  I love it!  And then I added a fun new sign to Kevin's golf wall, which I ordered from Etsy.  It says "Kevin Brown's Golf Club: Established 1978".  I love how it all comes together.The other day, I got a late birthday gift in the mail, which was awesome!  Late gifts always make my birthday last longer ;).  It was a new book that I am super excited to read, as well as probably the cutest bookmark I have ever seen.  It is a Nessie!!  I love it, and I love that my sister-in-law, Susan, always knows just what to give me.

On Saturday, Kevin and I got to play in a 9 hole scramble with the Fairways for Warriors group.  We had so much fun, and afterward we finished off our date with the yummiest dinner at Broadway 5050.  The last time we ate there was when we were on our house hunting trip in San Antonio, and it was just as good as we remembered.

Spring is in full swing, which means there are wildflowers everywhere I look - peaking out of rocks, on the side of the road, or in people's yards.  I can never seem to resist taking a picture of them.

The weather has been beautiful, and my roses are flourishing.  I love seeing them bloom, and they smell amazing.

Speaking of roses, when I went to get my mammogram last week, they gifted me a rose, which was also spectacular, but it just didn't smell as amazing as the ones in my garden.  (I may have went through every bush and only bought ones that smelled fantastic.)