Chase's kindergarten graduation

It's about time I catch up on blogging.

School got out nearly a month ago and we current;y working on summer goals. But I can't leave out that Chase graduated from kindergarten. It really is a silly tradition but it makes the kids feel special I guess.

Chase receiving his diploma from Principal Lozak. 

Chase with his teacher, Mrs. McCabe

Parker and Chase 

One of Chase's good friends. 

Wow I cannot believe how much he has changed. He is definitely taller but he has matured a lot too. He does really well with math although he says he doesn't like math. He reads well. I'm surprised at how well his penmanship is, he doesn't rush himself. He seemed to make friends pretty easily. He even made some friends with some big kids on the bus. I think it made him feel good when he could make people laugh. He really enjoyed school but is also enjoying summer break spending most of his time playing with Legos. When he grows up he now wants to be a Lego designer. 

"For real"

Right now Zoe's most used phrase is "for real". I'm not even sure where she picked it up from. 

Monday I took her in for a screening with the public school. We were getting concerned with her speech. Just as we suspected she has a "potential delay" as they call it. She will get further evaluated in August. 

A few weeks ago she tried on Maeley's Rapunzel dress and was pleasantly surprised when it fit her so well. For the following two weeks she wore that dress nearly everyday. She is such a girly girl. She loves to wear dresses and skirts and have her hair curled. She cracks us up all the time.   

Father's & Son's campout

A couple weeks ago was our wards Father & Son campout. Derek invited his dad to come. Chase didn't know until the night before that he was getting out of school all day on Friday to help Dad get ready for camping. 

Here Chase had found some fossils. My dad would be so proud.

Going on a walk with Papa.

At night they had some fun with the camera. 

Sounds like they had a great time. Derek said he could tell how young our ward is by the amount of young boys there was at the campout. 

First big project

Before moving into this house Derek was set on epoxying the garage floor before moving in. That didn't happen because it was raining hard the weekend we got the keys and I'm impatient and wanted to move in ASAP! Then the garage became the dumping ground for empty boxes and all the paper they pack with. Plus a washer and dryer that we needed to sell.

Two weeks ago Derek started the prep to do the flooring. By the way he definitely did his homework ahead of time and found a great one that wasn't too expensive but a great quality.

Derek getting the garage floor prepped.

Derek's dad came over to help.

Here's a close up of what it looks like.

What we did not expect was that it would become a great dance room for the girls. They loved dancing around in there with music on. Too bad the garage is now full and this isn't an option. It was great while it lasted though. 

Family fun

The kids loved the Disney Headbands game so Chase got the original one for Easter. 

We all started laughing when Derek put the unicorn card up. 

I thought Zoe looked like a flapper with the headband on the side and her hair curled like that.

Growing kids

Maeley is growing her bangs out. As much as she likes to have all her hair down those pesty bangs end up in her eyes. I can't believe how big she is getting. She loves to read. She reads so much after we put the kids to bed we have to check on her to make sure she went to make sure she went to bed. Otherwise she will come downstairs late and tell us how much she read. Or there are the days she wakes up at 5am to read. I can't believe what a book worm she has become. Yesterday she told me during the summer we will need to go to the library often to get her new books. 

Chase is happily showing off his new shoes. He loves to run. In fact I love racing him. Those are some of the best workouts, he's fast. He also love to eat. Seriously I'm worried what its going to be like to feed him as a teenager. He is doing so well at school. He has many friends and really enjoys it. He does very well at reading and math. When he isn't too rushed he has great handwriting. He has so much more confidence now than he had before school started. This week he was an especially happy kid when he had mom and dad help build all this Lego sets. We are getting ready to start his bedroom. 

Silly Zoe. She didn't want to miss a chance getting her picture taken. She has been having headaches over the last couple months. I took her in to find out she had a sinus infection and seasonal allergies. She had to get an x-ray taken and she was so good. She stood perfectly still and did exactly what she was asked to. I will not forget the look on her face when she saw the x-ray. She was a bit horrified. We have so much fun doing things together. She's such a good sport riding in the car to and from the kids school twice a day. Zoe loves to go to my parents and bake cookies with my mom. The funny thing is she enjoys baking them more than eating them.

This is a great picture of them. I love these kids! I'm lucky to be their mom.

Baby chicks

My parents sadly don't have animals any more. They do have some wild chickens that roam between a few houses. Lately they have had many hens lay eggs in their yard or chicken coop. I think there has been 5 hens within the last couple months. As you can imagine the kids love them. Finally I remembered to bring my camera last week and snap a few pictures. 

I absolutely love this picture! My dad loves having chickens roam his yard. They all come to him when he goes outside expecting to be fed. This momma hen didn't even care that my dad took some of her babies from her for a few minutes. Our kids are in love with all the baby chicks. Plus, I love Chase's grin it has always reminded me of my dad. 

Easter and a birthday

On Easter Derek turned the big 3-0. Before the kids found their Easter baskets and eggs they gave Daddy a card and some candy. His big birthday present hopefully will be done next weekend, epoxy flooring in the garage. 

The kids got outfits from Mom and Dad. 

Excited over what they found in their baskets. 

There definitely isn't a lot of hiding the eggs in our back yard. Chase said it was too easy, and that next year we should do it inside. 

A very quick family picture before leaving for church.

Chase didn't get new church clothes because he really didn't need any. Instead he received a nice outfit. 

More Easter activities

This year Easter definitely got a lot of attention. Makes a big difference now that we are near family again.

Friday night we had Derek's parents over to dye Easter eggs with us.

The kids had so much fun.

Saturday morning we met at a park with Derek's family and had a nice family Easter breakfast, egg hunt, and lesson.

Can you tell she's kind of obsessed with the color purple?

Cute cousin Lydia