April

Gracie turned 17 months old in April. Here's what I wrote down about her that month:

• Points to lots of things so we will name them.
• Can point to her own nose, mouth, eyes, ears, and hair when asked
• Loves being read to and will often bring books to me so I will read them to her
• Knows the baby sign language for "more", "all done", "book", "bird", and "ball"
• Thinks it's hilarious to walk around with a blanket covering her head
• Loves to carry sticks around outside
• Started throwing food she doesn't prefer vs. eating everything we give her

I love watching her learn new things!

We started transitioning Mason back into school right after spring break on April 1st. He started just going for his favorite hour of the day then we lengthened that time a little each week. There were still some rough days, but overall it went well and he was going for the entire day except for math class by the middle of May. Since math was causing Mason particular anxiety, we made the decision to keep him home during the first hour of school and do a homeschool math program instead of the school curriculum. Due to the differences in curriculum and the need to build Mason's confidence in math, we started at the beginning of the 4th grade book. There were still a lot of battles over math at first and Alan wound up doing a lot of it with Mason. Eventually though, Mason's confidence grew and his anxiety lessened and math at home became much easier. He worked on it all through the summer and didn't quite make it to the end of the book but I'm hopeful that he is solid on the skills he repeated and will be ok doing math at school during 5th grade. 

These two figures were prizes Mason earned by going to school without fighting.

Brandon Mull is one of Mason's favorite authors so when I heard he would be signing books at Deseret Book one evening, I offered to take Mason if he earned another reward for going to school without fighting. Mason couldn't wait and didn't even mind the hour long wait to meet Brandon (I minded because standing in line that long with Grace was HARD!). It was worth it to see the smile on Mason's face when Brandon found out that Mason liked writing stories and encouraged him to share them though. That was a special moment I don't think Mason will ever forget. 

Brother Riquelme taught some self-defense to the Activity Day boys one evening. Mason didn't want to participate with anyone besides me but had a great time. I think all of the boys enjoyed this one.

Spencer got to run at the Oregon Relays meet at Hayward Field in Eugene. Alan was timing it and Spencer's race wasn't until 10pm so I didn't take the younger kids. It's a pretty cool meet in an iconic stadium with lots of flashing lights. Spencer ran the 1 mile leg of the distance medley and did really well! It was a fun experience for him.

General Conference weekend! So grateful for a living prophet and a day to relax and listen to God's word with my family.

Grace only sucks her thumb if she's holding one of her "lovies" so we try to leave the lovies in her bed all of the time. Once in awhile one gets out though and then all she wants to do is rub it against her face and suck her thumb. It's very cute but we have first hand experience with prolonged finger sucking and the damage it causes so we try hard to keep it from happening often.

More track meets: I mostly just went to the home meets again this year. It's super nice that Alan is in charge of assigning timers to the nearly 500 meets his company times each spring because he can assign himself to most of Spencer's meets. That way, I don't feel too guilty for not dragging Mason and Grace all over the place to the meets. These two were home meets though so it was easy to run up and watch Spencer run his race. He mostly ran the 3k this season so he just had one race each meet.

Geoff was staying at Teri's house for some doctor's appointments for a few days so they drove over to watch one meet. It was fun to see them for a few minutes! Teri took all of the pictures though so I didn't get one of her.

Spencer participated in Junior Festival again for piano on April 18th. I had to pull him out of school to drive to east Portland for it. Festivals are a little stressful for Spencer but are so good to give him a goal and push his learning to new levels. We are not allowed to record in these settings but he did amazing as usual!

We had our usual back yard egg hunt on Easter Saturday. Grace thought it was fun to run around the back yard but really didn't get the concept of collecting the eggs. Haha! And she doesn't eat candy yet so she got special baby crayons in all of her eggs. The Easter Bunny finally realized that no one really likes jelly beans and just gave Cadbury mini eggs this year. The boys were happy.

That afternoon, Spencer had a pit orchestra performance for the high school's production of The Sound of Music. This was Spencer's first time participating in something like that and he really enjoyed playing the keyboard and the people he performed with. The rehearsals and six or seven performances kept him VERY busy during April though and I don't know that he wants to commit to something like that again. Alan and I each went to a different show and we were both impressed. It was fun to see so many talented kids we know from the Stake.

Happy Easter! I finally get to buy my little girl Easter dresses! She was too wiggly for a good photoshoot but was still adorable.

Easter was very late this year and fell on Spencer's birthday for the second time in his life so far. He turned 17! Because Spencer had been so busy with school, track, piano and pit orchestra, he really didn't want to do much for his birthday. I think he mostly wanted to stay home and take a nap so that's what he did after church. Spencer asked for a keyboard for his birthday this year so he could plug headphones in and practice after Grace was asleep in the evenings. (Her sleep schedule and our tiny house had been making it hard to practice.)

I could say so many awesome things about Spencer. He works so hard in everything he does. I never have to worry about his grades and he manages to do so well in school despite being very busy. (He took the ACT in April and scored a 34 without one ounce of studying for it!!!!) Spencer has a lot of musical talent but I think his biggest strength is his ability to make friends with lots of different kinds of kids. His kindness and varied interests allow him to fit into lots of different groups and I have seen him be a positive influence in many circles. Spencer is a good help at home and is intentional about spending time with Grace like his patriarchal blessing counsels him to do. He doesn't get stressed easily like I do but we have similar senses of humor and like to laugh together. And, Spencer just tries really hard to do what's right. He takes personal prayer and scripture study seriously and we trust him to make judgement calls about movies when he's out with friends. 

Spencer opted to have our traditional Easter ham dinner instead of lasagna that evening. I think I made lasagna the next weekend though. 

After dinner, Spencer just wanted to go on our usual Sunday family walk. It was a little rainy.

I took Grace to the allergist in April to rule out any allergies as the cause of her eczema. We wound up only testing for dairy and that came back negative. Not surprising, but frustrating to not have any more answers.

Cute, big girl learning to climb better.

Dad and Mason date to watch The Minecraft Movie. (I wasn't sad to miss that one. Haha!)

And last, a really cute photoshoot of our almost 18-month old! It was hard to catch her sitting still but the chair helped. It was my mom's chair when she was little. I repainted it for the boys when she passed it down to me and I love it! Not quite as much as I love this little girl though. :)