Aria's 9!

 Miss Aria opted for a birthday party this year! The request this year was a Cupcake Wars Party. We played with balloons while we waited for everybody to get there.

 It was fun seeing all of the girls interact. And of course Daddy sneaking some aerial shots.

 Finally everyone got there and we started our charades game.... It was hard coming up with food ideas and ways to act it out. Next time I probably wouldn't restrict it to food, but some of them were sure creative!

 They really were a fun group of girls. It was fun to get to know them and all their personalities. We had 3 challenges ready to go. They had a lot of fun using their 'color'. I gave out little awards after every round.

 Some of them really got into it but some of them started to hate it after awhile. Again... the personalities... :)

 I love the little cupcake wrapper wreath I made that you can see there on the wall.

Aria was totally eating this up. Quite literally. So much candy consumed at this party...

 Aria is 9. She is so so so beautiful. Inside and out. She is kind and responsible. She has the best laugh. She is a crazy avid reader. She is becoming a wonderful friend to me and an obedient and thoughtful daughter. She is always thinking of others and making sure that they are comfortable. She loves the idea of baking, but hasn't quite gotten all the aspects of cooking down. Especially the cleaning part. She recently started the Harry Potter series... she's been at the appropriate reading level for some time but refuses to be part of the crowd. I think she gets that from her Mom. We all love her so much. I feel lucky to be her Momma.

 The best part of conference was actually the tickle wars. I love watching these two play with each other.

 In late April I went to St. George to help my Mom with the Kanab house. It was one of the most exhausting trips I've ever been on but also one of the best trips. We found a whole bunch of old things that brought back lots of memories. For example this hat of my Mom's. Yep... she was stylin'.

 This right here is by far my favorite part of my grandparent's house. We loved those tricky bars... climbing that hill to go to the garden. Climbing the apple tree. Finding all sorts of bugs on the log pile out in the back yard. Throwing horseshoes... watching fireworks... eating cherries. I love it there so much. I'm so glad I got to come and say goodbye to it. I'm also glad that somebody else can love it now.

 We spent one evening with Grandpa Swallow at the retreat. Playing Pinochle of Course!!!

While I was gone, Nate took the kids to the zoo. He was super Dad. That's all I can say.

 Aria had her piano recital the weekend I was gone. Luckily Nate was able to provide a pretty resourceful costume. She looked awesome.

While they were waiting they had a hay day making up this skit. Only Dad does fun things like this...

She played

Unbeknownst to me, Aria ended up with a trophy again. They keep getting bigger, that's all I can say.

 We took the kids to do a service project where we picked up trash at a park. They at it up at first but after about an hour, it was mostly my 5 month pregnant self doing the work. #don't mess with TEXAS! :)

 My  month pregnant self also got to take Jeff on his field trip! We went to dewberry farm where the kids had a blast. We loved the rope swing!

 But Jeff's absolute favorite was the hamster wheels. Can't you see the permagrin on his face!?! He loved it.

 Jeff could hold on like this forever, but there was no way he was going to smile at me. He didn't want me to give him a push either.

 Aria had a birthday party downtown while Nate was out of town one weekend so we dropped Aria off and then Jeff and I had a date night. We went to Olive Garden together

 And then made our way to our old stomping grounds at the 'toy' park. It was fun spending time with just him.

 If I could use two words to sum up April it would be these two 'wrestling' and 'rain.' We had record breaking rain and major flooding in Houston this year. For the most part... we played in it. But some of our neighbors didn't have quite so much fun. We hope that things keep getting better.

 Some people from the shadow creek ward asked Nate to sing in a trio with them. Nate loved it and the spirit was so strong. I'm so glad I got to hear them.