May
May 2nd
Noah finally lost his first tooth! I think it fell out when he ate a chicken nugget. Luckily he didn't swallow it!
Wednesday May 4th
The elementary school has provided a mother's day lunch for the kids for a couple of years now. It's quite cute. Since I have 3 kids there, I get to "eat" 3 times. Usually I eat with the first kid and then just sit with the other 2 and maybe eat something small.
Bella was the first one I ate with. Then Noah. After I ate with Noah, we discovered that they had this big frame to take pictures with. So that's why I don't have a picture with Bella in the frame.
and then Paige.
Later that night, we went back to the school because one of the teachers that has been teaching for lots of years was retiring at the end of the school year. So they wanted to put some pictures of her with some of her students into the yearbook.
Since Maggie and Paige had her, they wanted to get their picture taken with her.
Maggie, Paige and Mrs. Dow
Garrett went up to Seattle from the 3rd to the 5th to check out the amazon facilities. He learned so much and really enjoyed his visit.
Sunday May 8th
Mother's Day
Garrett made dinner for all of us and Jim and Georgia came over to eat and open presents.
We had cheesecake and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.
Bella and Noah were playing puppets with Maggie's balloons left over from her birthday.
A cute picture of me and my kiddos. I love each one of them so much--I can't believe they are all mine!
Friday May 13th
Lydia was getting her braces on today. So we had her take a picture of herself before--it was in the car on the way to school when we remembered to have her do it.
And after...
She already hates them and wants them off! Ha ha! No, actually she doesn't complain about them very often. I know they hurt, but she manages the pain really well.
Such a beautiful evening!
Saturday May 14th
Our stake was having another Pioneer Trek this summer, so in order to help the youth prepare, they were supposed to go on two 5 mile hikes. The YM/YW presidencies put one of the hikes together as an activity. They planned a hike at and around Multnomah Falls. It was so beautiful! I wasn't in YW anymore, but I went because we were signed up to be a ma and pa again and I needed the exercise! It was a lot of up and down and it was a harder hike than I thought it would be. Man, was I sore and tired after!
Gorgeous view!
So glad we could hike this together. Although, we did get separated for awhile, but we got back together again around lunch time.
Glad these two were able to participate too! They did great!
I love that they can be such good friends!
Another view from the very top. I think Garrett took this one because I never got to see this view because we somehow got separated.
Lunch by the waterfall
Thursday May 19th
Maggie's Spring Choir Concert
At the end, they changed and sang some fun songs. This one was "Lollipop"
Friday May 20th
Grandma Hansen sent Bella some fun things since she was getting baptized the next day and they weren't able to make it up here.
Saturday May 21st
Bella Gwyn gets baptized!
For part of the program, I actually talked my family into singing "Gethsemane" for a special musical number at the baptism. I think it turned out quite nice and am grateful they participated and I didn't have to sing a solo!
Glad Grandma and Grandpa McKibben could be there to support Bella. Grandpa Jim gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and Grandma Georgia led the music.
Later that night, we went out with a group of friends to go bowling and then for dessert.
The women bowled together on a team against the men.
It was a fun night. The couples that were there: The Nelsons, The Brauns, The Browns, The Klinglers, the Clements, the Allens, the Crocketts, and the Noels. Hopefully I didn't miss anyone. After bowling, we went next door and got pazookies for dessert. Yum!
Monday May 23rd
Paige taught our Family Home Evening lesson on baptismal covenants and then we played Skipbo (a card game). We had music on in the background and Lydia felt she couldn't play the game because the music was pulling her in and compelling her to dance. She is a good dancer, but doesn't want to dance in front of people. She's got too much of her mom in her. :)
Tuesday May 24th
The school that night was having a "Celebration of Learning" where the kids got to display their work and present poems and all of that jazz. The kids were very excited to show off all that they had been working on.
This is Paige presenting some of her poems in her classroom.
This is her drawing of herself--Picasso style
Noah reading a story to us.
Bella's stuffed kangaroo hanging in the hallway.
And herself sitting at her desk with her work. She was so excited about this! It was really cute. This is the kind of thing I remember doing in elementary school.
Her whole class
Friday May 27th
Field Trip Day!!
Paige had a field trip to OMSI and Bella had a field trip to the zoo. I couldn't be in 2 places at once, so I went with Bella since I had just gone to OMSI on the last field trip.
There were a ton of parent volunteers, so I only had 2 kids in my group--Bella and her friend Lauryn (she also goes to our church). The only bad thing about the day was that it rained on and off most of the day and we didn't bring rain jackets. Bella just had a hoodie.
Bella's favorite animal is the elephant, so this is a great picture.
riding on the train
Saturday May 28th
We decided that we wanted to paint our front room so we worked on that over the long weekend (Monday was Memorial Day, so everyone had the day off). The kids love to help paint, so we let them paint their names on the wall.
Lydia was taking pictures with the kids and using different apps on her phone. I thought this one was cute.
Monday May 30th
Making progress, but still working.
This is how the younger kids entertain themselves... they put all their underwear on their heads and socks on their hands. Oh my!
And Noah the Ninja
On to June!
