Oh man I forgot...climbing on the table, emptying drawers, playing in the mud and dirt to name a few!
This 18 month stage is adorable and exhausting.
I am too old for this.
But dang she is cute!
She's the cutest little monkey I've ever seen--and the most exhausting!
A little behind, I know, but I wanted to post the pictures of my beautiful children and their beautiful homemade outfits!
I decided to pull out the old dusty sewing maching thanks to the encouragement from a friend and I had a great time sewing the girl's skirts and Lyla's dress.
Aren't they cute kids?
What a great Easter! The weather has been beautiful, the flowers are blooming and the trees are gorgeous.
This year we had our traditional Easter Party at Grandma Wood's house...
Dying Eggs
Eating Yummy food, esp. cake
The Easter egg Hunt
Playing in the Bathtub
So much fun!
I know I'm a little behind, but I'm working on it!
The weather is way too beautiful to sit inside and blog...I like to spend all my time outside with Lyla.
Conference is always such a special time of year, I love hearing the messages and being able to spend 2 entire days together as a family.
This year to continue with our pancake tradition we invited our friends across the street, the Cummings, over for Grandpa Pancakes. We had a great time with them and love having them as our neighbors and friends.
Morgan and Kathleen Cummings
Cute Lyla and Dad
Hazel, Milly, Zack, Matthew, Mary and Marcus
Lyla cheesing it up with her best little friend Livy
It's good to have great friend!
Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go with Ali and several other women and their girls up to the Conference Center where we got to listen to the General Young Women's Leaders speak as well as our Prophet and first Presidency. It was priceless!
We had a great time riding trax up, listening to the wonderful messages, walking around the temple and the city center and eating dinner at the Lion House.
Shelby Bready, Ali, Katie Cornell and Sidney Bready
Plus the Moms, Kelley Bready, Joy Cornell and Me
What a neat evening!
There are a lot of things that we are good at at our house...but handyness is not one of them.
The Pinewood Derby is painful every year as we try to figure out who can help us to cut out our car since we don't have any of the tools ourselves.
Zack is always a good sport! He realizes that he will probably never win so he just tries to have fun with Dad.
This year he was an especially good sport as Ryan figured out how to make a car, or should I say covered wagon, without even having to cut the block of wood.
That's right, not a single cut! It sure didn't win, but like Ryan said, "Zack sure got a lot of attention for it." And for this year that will have to be enough:)
Zack had lots of fun at the pinewood derby, but when it was done he said, "Dad, can we at least try to win next year?"
If any of his handy Uncles would just move to Utah to help us...
Ryan, Spencer and Zack had a wonderful time at Spring Training this year.
Like Ryan said, "You can get a lot of visiting in during that much baseball." And they did!
The company was great and was just what was needed for my 3 boys.
My brother Scott is the grand organizer of this event every year. Thanks!
The whole crew.
Top: Sam, Spencer, Ryan, Zack, Scott, Matt and Billy. Bottom: Miguel and his 2 boys, Andrew and Grandpa.
SO MUCH FUN!
While the boys were away, the girls played. Mom stayed with us and we watched chick flicks all week and never cooked, but ate out most of the time. Probably not as fun as Arizona, but still fun.
Hey ladies, when are we going on our trip to Disneyland?
I borrowed this title from my Mom's blog. I have been wondering once again how to catch up on my blog and I loved her most recent post. It seems that all that we have done in the last few months could fall under that category. So here they are...
1. I love my husband. On December 27th we celebrated 16 years of marriage! There are many things in life that I wonder if I did right, but I never wonder if I married the right person. I love him very very much. This year's anniversary will always be an unforgettable one. That evening we were called into the Stake President's Office and Ryan was called to be the Bishop. It's not really the way I had planned on celebrating it.
2. Vacations with my husband. It wasn't a long one, but it was a necessary one--Ryan and I hadn't been on a trip by ourselves for nearly 2 long years. All we did was drive to St. George and spend 4 days together. We did a whole lot of sleeping and eating and enjoying each others company. We went to 4 movies, took a long hike in Snow Canyon, went to the temple, went on long walks and had a marvelous time.
3. I love watching my kids participate in things. Spencer and Zack have been playing basketball non-stop for the last few months. Spencer has made some really good friends at school and he signed up to play with them on a city team this year--"The Flying Rhinos". They are a pretty good team and the part I love most about it is that the players and the coach don't take it too seriously and they have a really good time.
Zack has been playing all the basketball he can. Ryan has been his coach and it has been a really good experience for them. Zack has also made some really good friends and they all play on his team. Ryan is learning how to be patient with very active 4th graders and enjoying it a lot.
Zack also participated in the 4th Grade Utah History Play. WOW! Talk about impressive. The things these kids learned while taking part in the play--because of it, Zack scored 100% on his Utah History test. Zack was a narrator and even got to use his clogging skills!
4. I love Milly and I love sharing a birthday with her!
5. I love good schools and great teachers! Milly was the star of the week--during the week of her birthday. I am also Milly's room mom so between highlighting Milly, taking birthday treats and throwing a Valentine's party, I got to spend a lot of time with Milly and in her classroom. Milly has an amazing teacher, Mrs. Murdock, who loves and adores Milly!
6. I love funerals. I don't love it when people die, but I always love attending a funeral and seeing family and hearing all the wonderful things you didn't know about the person who died. Last week my Aunt Judy died. I have never been particularly close to her and I didn't know her all that well, but after her funeral I had a new found love and respect for her. Not only for her challenges but her talents and her abilities.
7.I love good people. Leaving Springville was hard--but as many people told me, there are good people wherever you go! We have made some new and wonderful friends already here in American Fork. Our new neighbors across the street --The Cummings, are choice people and we already love them. Lyla and Livy are fast friends and whenever we are outside, Lyla walks straight to their house and up to the front door.
Another family that we have come to love quickly is the Bellon Family. Tina (the Mom) teaches the kids piano and Ken (the Dad) serves with Ryan. All our kids line up fairly well and we have loved getting to the know them. Last night, both the Dad's were gone and we made pizza and let the kids entertain themselves.
Gilly, Maren, Milly and Lyla had fun dressing up together.
8. I love both of our parents! They do so much for us and I can't imagine what I would do without them.
9. I love Family History and I long for the day when I can spend more time doing it. It has been a blessing in my life to have been able to associate with Ton and Toni, our family in the Netherlands. We are planning a Dalebout Family Reunion, probably in the Spring of 2013 and I can't wait.
10. I love mine and Ryan's siblings and our interaction with them and their children. I am already in love with our new neice, sweet little Anna Rochelle Dalebout, and I can't wait to hold her and love her.
10. I love my kids! I love who they are and what they are becoming. I especially love their interaction with Lyla. Lyla is keeping me young and tired but she has added such a sweet spirit to our home. The kids are so taken with her and so are we. She is a joy in our lives.
I am so blessed!
What a busy and fun month.
On December 5th Spencer turned 14. We had a combined Birthday celebration for Spencer, Derrick (Dec 3rd) and Dad whose birthday was on December 7th.
A week later Ryan ordained Spencer to the office of a teacher.
It's so great to have two very supportive and wonderful examples for Grandpas.
Spencer is a great kid and we're so happy we have him.
For the next few weeks we spent much of our time making neighbor gifts, buying cousins and sibling gifts and attending many performances.
Clogging Performance
Spencer's Choir Performance
Zack and Milly's school Christmas Program.
A few weeks later Amy and Scott and the kids came to town. We had so much fun playing and enjoying their company.
On Christmas Eve Mom hosted a huge Wood/Dalebout party. We enjoyed a lot of great food and especially company. We had the traditional talent program and most importantly the Nativity.
I love having Christmas on Sunday. The next morning after Santa Claus had arrive, we woke up early and opened presents and then headed over to the Church for a Christmas Sacrament meeting Program. The program was so neat and it felt like we really focused on the Savior instead of just presents that morning.
Here are the kids on Christmas Eve in their traditional Christmas Eve jammies.
Christmas Morning. We allowed Lyla to sleep in:)
Milly got a Nintendo DS.
Ali got a Kindle--Surprise surprise--now we see her even less then we did before.
Spencer and Zack got a PS3 and a couple of games.
And Lyla got a bing bag, some books and an orange.
Later that day we spent time with the Kimballs and Mom and Dad eating food and playing lots of fun games.
We partied for the rest of the week--ice skating, playing on a ropes course, attending basketball games, going to the movies, playing games, and eating lots and lots of yummy food. We also got to celebrate Ashlynn's Birthday at Brick Oven.
Ryan and I celebrated our 16th Wedding Anniversary amongst all the fun by going to the dinner and to a movie. Still the best decision I have ever made:)
We were so pleased to have Grandpa Dalebout with us during the week after christmas as well.
After the Kimballs left, all the Wood boys were able to attend the Jazz Game and the Wood girls went to the movies.
On New Year's Eve Day we attended the Roger's Family Christmas Party. The following Monday we had a delicious 2nd Thanksgiving dinner made by Geri. All the food was good, but the sweet potatoe "dessert" was to die for.
One of the neatest parts of the month was when we were able to take Aaltje Dalebout Hanse and Maarten Hanse and their ten children's names to the temple and have them sealed. Aaltje is my Grandpa Dalebout's Aunt, and the Grandmother of Ton Hanse. It has been an incredible experience working with Ton to make this happen and it was a very neat experience.
It was so neat to have Mom and Dad home from their mission, Scott and Amy here from Kansas and especially Grandpa Dalebout who has worked so hard to try to bring his family from the Netherlands to the Gospel. What a special day.
On New Years Eve we enjoyed spendiing time with our great friends from Springville, the Hyers. They are like our family!
What a great month. Happy New Year.
Six days before Mom and Dad came home from their mission, we moved out of their house and into our new house in American Fork. Hallelujuah!
Two big and very exciting things.
First the house, here are some pictures...
Isn't it cute? I wish you could see the darling red door. Ryan jokes that if the whole house burned down but my red door stayed standing, I would still be happy:)
Excuse the mess, but besides the red door, this is one of my favorite parts--a cubby for each child to put their coats, jackets, backpack and shoes.
This is the kitchen/great room.
The loft.
And the family room downstairs.
We got moved it and Mom and Dad's house cleaned just in time for them to arrive home. We have missed them tremendously and are so happy they are home. We spent the day at their homecoming and afterwards at their house with family and friends.
It's been a great couple of weeks!
