FTA

This week, instead of FHE, we had FTA: family temple afternoon. We took the kids to the temple and let them walk around and touch the walls and look at the stained glass windows. They peeked in the front doors. We sat down in the garden area in front and had a lesson on the temple. We sang I Love to See the Temple and we talked about what we do inside the temple and how Jesus comes to visit temples. We read 3 Nephi 11 (parts of it) when Jesus appeared to the Nephites who were gathered at the temple. Then we took some pictures. Owen read the sign on the side of the temple for us. Then we finished it off by stopping by Chick-fil-a for ice cream cones on our way home. Hooray for FTA.

Kid Update

Updates on how everyone is doing. Owen has started baseball with his friend Luke and is really enjoying it. He is doing great at school. Olivia and I went to help out with an art project at his school last week and it was really fun to see him with his classmates. We stayed for story and snack time. Olivia just plopped right down on the reading rug next to Owen and fit right in. She loved every minute of it and Owen was really sweet with her. He has still only lost one tooth, but checks and gives progress reports regularly on which one he thinks will be next. He is our little money man. Today he cashed in all his pennies for a new piggie bank, bringing the grand total to 3 (one broke...otherwise he’d have 4). Maybe he will be in finances one day. Who knows. :) He certainly likes not having all his money in one place...diversify, right?
Owen is enjoying having his mom in primary right now and relishes the times when I can come and sit by him for a few minutes. I love seeing my kids in primary and it makes the time and effort more meaningful. Owen is perpetually creative and has great and BIG ideas daily. “Dad, can we build a tree house tomorrow?” We love our Owen.

Olivia is a tall girl who is growing quickly! Right before my eyes sometimes. I like doing these updates because it gives me a reason to stop and think about what is changing in our lives and how the kids are progressing. Our girl is just that. Girl through and through. She still loves wearing princess dresses whenever possible. She loves it when I paint her finger and toenails. She loves playing with the boys and jumping on the trampoline. She has an endless imagination and can make best friends out of anything, her fork and spoon, two rocks, a cucumber and a carrot...it’s really cute. We don’t allow toys at the dinner table, but you can’t really take a girls silverware away from her when she’s supposed to be eating.
I love having a girl and hope she has a sister one day (not an announcement!). I love having sisters. She is so sweet. She and I are still doing preschool at home together. We have fun doing that. Her mind works so differently than mine, it is fun to see how she interprets things. I am so practical and she is smelling the roses. :) I love to watch her. She loves to help and we made cookies together yesterday. I hope she likes making cookies as much as I do and that it’s something we can always do together. We love our Olivia. 


Jonah has the Rocky theme song playing constantly in his head...or so it seems. This kid will not be stopped. Unless he wants to stop. :) He just knows he can keep up with Owen and Olivia and he really does very well. He jumps on the trampoline and climbs up the ladders and down the slides. He loved the water at the beach and loved letting it push him around and splash around him. Jonah still loves trains. He loves his shoes and is very decided about which pair he wants to wear every time we put them on. He jumps and jumps - over curbs, down stairs, along stepping stones, he loves to jump. He loves books and singing Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam. He finally likes nursery too. He calls himself “baby” sometimes because that is what I call him. I didn’t realize I called him baby as much as I do, until he started referring to himself that way too. I love that he jumps up and runs to the door when any of us comes home. He has the best smile and enthusiasm. He is our bundle of energy and joy!

Easter

Happy Easter. We had a fun and busy day. The Easter Bunny stopped by our house and left a scavenger hunt for the kids to find their treats and baskets. The kiddos LOVED this.
Then we went to Church. I taught sharing time today and it was fun to do on Easter. I love being in primary. We had a few friends over for dinner and an easter egg hunt in the back yard. The kids had a great day and the weather was wonderful.

Tire Swing

Nate and I have been working a LOT in the back yard lately. It’s really not that rewarding to do in Georgia, because it grows overnight faster than you can fight it back sometimes. :) But one of the fun new additions is a tire swing. The kids LOVE it! Simple pleasures.

Myrtle Beach, SC

This year for spring break we met up with the Bywater family at Myrtle Beach. We had a great time! We hadn’t been to Myrtle Beach before, but we plan on going back. Between our 2 families we have 7 kids (pictured above). The next few posts are from our trip.
We had a fun easter egg hunt at the beach after dinner one night. The kids put the eggs they found in their cute buckets. Robyn had put their names on their buckets with cute vinyl. They loved finding eggs along the sand, in the sand castles, and along the dunes.
Then we attempted family pictures. We got a few good ones. :) After the pictures we let the kids play in the waves until it got dark. It was a fun evening at the beach.

One of the fun things we did at the Beach was to celebrate Oliver and Owen’s half birthdays. This is a Bywater family tradition and it was a lot of fun. We built sand space ships and had a water balloon and squirt gun fight. Owen and Oliver had a light saber battle. Then we watched a movie and had popcorn. The boys loved it. Owen said to Oliver, “This is the best day of our LIVES!!!” Hooray for half birthdays!

Robyn is an amazing and creative mom. She had so many fun ideas. One of them was these rice crispy treat nests that the kids decorated. Yum! We also colored eggs and had an Egg Derby. This is where you roll eggs at each other until they crash. The egg that doesn’t crack is the defending champ. The kids decorated cute bunny masks and we had a glow in the dark dance party one night before bed. It was a party! You should come to the beach with us. :)

Sunday between sessions of conference we walked along the beach and collected shells and rocks. Later in the week we painted them with sparkly paints and put googly eyes on them. They turned out really cute and the kids had fun doing it.