Homemade Happiness

We started the month off with Hakon, Spencer, and Rylan in Norway. Occasionally, Hakon would upload a photo from their adventures to our Aura Frame and we would all gather around it with excitement when somebody spotted a new picture! We missed the guys a lot but were so glad they could go to Norway for Oldermor's funeral and have such a wonderful time.

Our neighbourhood is full of little boys who will play outside in any weather until they are called home for dinner. I have finally learned to bake sourdough bread and we love to eat it!

Kolby continues to spot ladybugs somehow! He also had an unfortunate accident when he thought the new dish soap bottle was a water bottle. His body rejected that quickly by vomiting and he showed me what the source of the problem had been.

Spencer had the chance to play basketball in two high school tournaments through Selects. A couple tournaments were short teams so they invited Jason Janisko to send a team made up of the better players in Cardston Selects. The first tournament was Spencer's first chance to play on a team with both Talon and Josh!

Kolby took matters into his own hands and found a couple of screws to hammer into his wall and hang his hats on. I was completely shocked when he explained to me how he was able to hang them up!

The Michels invited our family to stay over at their cabin on Family Day. It was a wonderful time. The Woods and a few of Bailey's friends joined us in the evening because she was leaving on her mission the next morning and wanted to spend that time together. We had a blast, but in the night the generator stopped working and and then we woke up to a snowstorm. We were able to leave before we were snowed in and we went skiing at Castle Mountain together. We were sad that Hakon wasn't able to join us since he had a lot of work to catch up on after his Norway trip, but grateful he takes such good care of us.

Sarra and Hazel Eaton came to our house on afternoon and taught us to make lip gloss, bracelets, and suckers. It was such a lovely afternoon together. We love spending time with them.

We attended a lot of basketball games for Rylan, Brooklyn, and Spencer this month. We also watched the high school girls and realized that Claire (age 11) is now as tall as Anna Michel (almost 18).

Claire has been attending the temple with her friends most Fridays. I snapped a picture of the big group coming toward my van for a ride to the Family Search Center. Brooklyn went bowling with friends for Elinor's birthday. Our family went to the ski hill together and finally got Kolby on skis for the first time this season. He loved it! Finally, Hakon and I joined Kendall, Jenni-Rae, and my parents for dinner at Firestone and a tribute concert for the Beach Boys in Lethbridge. We had an absolutely wonderful time with the good company, food, and entertainment. It was extra special to see Mom transported back to her teen years along with many others in the audience who couldn't help but move to the beat and sing the words of every song. What joyful memories music can evoke.

Hakon takes Vimy out into the country to run most evenings. The kids go along sometimes. He captured these beautiful pictures of them.

Kolby loves his work gloves and plays a lot with the neighbourhood boys-the Olsens and the Schmidts.

Hakon built a fence for our yard. He got some help from the kids, especially Spencer.

I love it when the tulips bloom in the spring. Natalee Takahashi was a helper teacher in Kolby's class but had to end the year early. She is my cousin's daughter and was great with the kids.

Kolby went on lots of field trips this month. One of them was to a greenhouse in Mountain View. He came home with a flower to give me for Mother's Day!

BYU Living Legends came to Cardston! They sang in our Sacrament Meeting, put on a fireside, and did a performance. It was truly incredible!

Playgrounds and lawn mowing are in full swing. We bought a ride on mower this year! Everyone is very excited about that. It will really help Rylan and Brooklyn with the work they do for clients!

I'm playing around with the idea of adding a post, redoing the steps, and adding a sidewalk up to the front door. Here is my rendition. Vimy is not allowed in the living room, but I caught her in there propped up on the basket. It was so cute, I had to get a picture before I sent her back to the hardwood.

I took the three youngest to Waterton. I was wondering about doing family pictures in Waterton so I took a few pictures of Maryn to test the lighting and backgrounds.

Claire played in a basketball tournament in Raymond. She's growing a lot and is benefiting from Coach Nay's teaching.

We had a Sunday evening gathering at my parents' house. I found these girls in some great game. The kids had their piano recital at Chinook Lodge this year. One of the residents, Sister Humphreys, was delighted to see my mom again. They sang together in a trio for very many years.

Kolby learned to ride his bike!

Hakon took Brooklyn and Auri out to the country and they gathered bouquets of wildflowers. After building our fence, it became clear that we needed to buy a more narrow trampoline. Hakon was the one who made it happen. We are really enjoying it.

I have been finding that my mouth truly is very small when I go to orthodontic appointments. The kids and I compared our widest mouth opening and found that they can open much wider than I can.

We planted our garden in Glenwood!

Brooklyn and Claire stayed up late chatting on the trampoline.

The day of family pictures I had Kolby practice some natural looking smiles because, lately when the camera comes out, he has a plastered one.

Hakon and Spencer changed got the van ready for Spencer's driver test.

Beaudon Simmons and Kolby loved playing some catch at the park.

I liked this quote. We got Jason Bevans to dig more holes for us to build the fence between the house and shop. It was a tight space for his machine but he did a good job.

We enjoyed the Youth Days softball tournament! Our ward had 3 teams and Spencer, Rylan, and Brooklyn were divided one on each team. Spencer and Brooklyn got to play in the Sr. and Jr. championship games but they both lost. It was a fun weekend!

Vimy likes to escape the front door and run over to the garbage pile at the Summers house. Kolby is always very determined to run after her and bring her back.