Preschool finished!

I have been doing a little preschool with Ella and Tyler at our house.

We just finished up for the year.

Tyler is writing the Yy words we learned for the week.

Ella is telling me her colors.

We worked on/tried to learn:

A-Z

Calendar skills

Months

Counting to 31

Days of the week

Pledge of Allegiance

Rhyming

Money

Clocks

Weather

Counting by 5 and 10's

Writing

The Kid Artist

When I was a kid, I loved to draw.

My Grandma is an artist.

My Dad is an artist.

And most of my siblings are artistically inclined.

But there comes the day when some says, what is that? What are you drawing?

Then you start doubting that you can draw.

I hope my children will continue to draw and be creative.

One thing I learned while studying teaching at Utah State is to say things like...

Tell me about what your drawing?

Tell me about this interesting detail?

(not what on earth is that!)

Ella was very intent on coloring each corner of her paper purple.

Easter Weekend

Darrren drove to Moab and biked 102 mileson a Mountain Bike on Saturday. It is a jeeping/biking trail called the White Rim Trail. 100 miles on a Mountain bike is like 200 miles on a road bike. Lots and lots of ouch on your tail end.

Then after this great ride, you end up down there. At the bottom of the canyon. So to get out you have to climb/ride/walk your bike out of all these switch backs. I would have cried to be so exhausted and then see this.

We spent Saturday morning at Corie and Nolan's house. It was a great spring morning. We had some trampoline time. Since Nolan was the only Dad there, he had trampoline duty. I think he was tried by the end.

Corie had a fantastic idea. I loved how it made every thing so fair. Tyler could only get the green and blue eggs, Ella the purple and pink and Jonah the orange and yellow. Corie also put good things in the eggs like apple jacks, goldfish, fruit snacks, money, one chocolate per egg. It was a nice reminder that it didn't have to be all candy. It was a great afternoon.





Then we went to my parents house for a Hatch party. My mom always throws a good party. Lots of food and a fun Easter Treasure Hunt. Lots of Aunts and Uncles and lots of cousins.

We left that party and I went for a 50 mile bike ride out to Kennecott Copper Mine. It was a busy and wonderful weekend.

The mighty might snowman

It isn't very often we have all four of us together at home.

So to enjoy the day and the snow outside, we built a great big snowman.

The snow is melting quick and will fast be gone but we enjoyed it one more time.

Tyler loves to help his Dad with everything possible.

I don't think this snowball even moved an inch, but he sure was trying to be just like Darren.

And Ella tried to help.

Her little grunts make it sound like she is trying so so hard!

It was a lot of hard work

My little snow angels

Time for bed

Conference Weekend

This morning we woke up to no power, a 60 degree house, tree branches touching the ground and inches and inches of snow. Yesterday I had gone for a nice bike ride and done some yard work. Darren had even gotten a light sun burn while he was out during the day.

We were so glad the power came back on at 9:58 so we could watch conference at our house. (conference started at 10:00)

Ella sadly gave up her sippy cups when she turned three. They were such a comfort to her. She adores Toby and gives him plenty of attention. I am grateful his head is attached so well, or I might wonder if it will fall off one day with all the "loves and hugs" she gives him.

Ella sports a princess dress almost every minute we are home. She can change from one to another ... and than to anther within a matter of minutes.
We are happy our friends Dan and Katie are moving back to Utah. Our kids do so well together, and Dan and Katie aren't to bad themselves!

This morning we had such a nice quiet 2 hours of watching General Conference. The kids were occupied so well doing fun packets to keep them in a quiet mode.

Darren and I got to go on a date Friday night. I wanted to remember the answered prayer I got on our date.

For 10 years I have had terrible headaches. As we walked into the temple after a yummy dinner I got slammed with a horrible headache. It went from terrible to worse in seconds. I said a silent prayer that the Lord would help my headache go away so I could go to the temple and enjoy the peace and spirit there. Almost immediately it went away. For the two hours we were in there I was perfectly normal. My headaches never go away like that. Then as soon as we left... it was back with a vengeance. We made it home and I went right to bed.

I really believe in prayer. It has helped me so many times.

Ella is 3

Ella got to share her birthday with Grandpa and Grandma Balls in Logan. Seth got put in as a Bishop for a Young Single Adult Ward.

Cousins Jonah and Everett were there too, along with their parents of course. Grandma bought Ella a princess umbrella but couldn't resist buying one for the other two happy boys.

Ella is all girl. She can change her princess dress faster than you can blink. She has her favorite three and rotates them quickly. Her cake was pink, had sprinkles, and was a castle. It didn't look amazing but she was as happy as could be.