March

 Collin had a club dive meet at Kino. I'm amazed every time he dives!

I was driving Collin to his meet early in the morning and we saw a guy pushing his car, going the opposite direction. I hesitated because we were on a timeline, but I whipped around and Collin hopped out and jumped in the drivers seat to help steer it and then once we passed the intersection and I felt like I could safely leave my car, I parked it on the side of the road and ran over to help push it into the gas station. I was in sandals so it was no easy task! I was glad we stopped to help.

Kids for Kindness

The YW leaders are so good to take pictures at mutual. 

During stake conference, Tanner drew this picture. He loves Collin so much. 

Camilla held another meeting of parents brainstorming how we can help our kids with the smart phones/social media/technology they face. She invited teenagers to this one so I coaxed Weston and Olive to come and talk about their experiences. Collin refused haha.

Olive made this at mutual and left it by the mailbox. So sweet.

I had the thought when driving home from my temple shift that it would be Collin's lunchtime and it would be fun to snag him from school. It didn't work out the day I thought of it so we set it up for the following week. He wanted to try the subs from Genos so I picked them up after my shift and got him from school and we ate at a park in Agritopia. Food is the way to his heart.

I miss my porch swing. I wish I was reading something other than a substance abuse textbook but here we are.

Haven't been as consistent with bedtime books as I'd like but we have steadily been reading Where the Sidewalk Ends and finally finished it! I loved that Tanner was into the poems. 

Minding my own business when a wrestling match between Travis and Collin breaks out in the kitchen. It's fine. The bigger Collin gets, there's a constant male competition of strength and dominion I don't understand. 

Early morning temple baptisms. It was fun to have Posey with us for the first time!

Olive has been getting these weird rashes all over her legs randomly. We can't figure it out. They're itchy but not painful and only last a couple days.

I took Camilla out for her birthday and we had so much fun doing a flower arranging class in Scottsdale then taking a tour of Wrigley Mansion. Camilla is one of the best things in my life. She is next level happy and generous. People don't think she's real when they meet her because how could anyone be that nice and peppy?! I'm so eternally grateful I get to call her my friend.

This book was signed by Mark Twain! And it's just sitting on a shelf in this mansion like NBD. 

Just Trav and me eating our millionth dinner at Boca. 

Spring Break and celebrating Collin's birthday early since we'll be in Flagstaff on his actual day. 

He has caught up to me and Trav in height!

He really likes his muscles and rarely has a shirt on at home. 

He has come into diving this past year and surprised me by saying he wants to go to college now and dive! In fact, he wants to dive for BYU. I'll never forget where we were driving home, when he told me. I tried not to fly out of my seat or scare him by losing my mind. Before this he didn't even want to go to college. He just thought he'd do a trade school. The kids on his club team have inspired him because so many of them are committing to colleges right now. Abbey and Ashton are committed to BYU and Chase just committed to Princeton. It's pretty impressive. I believe in him. He really has some natural talent and has improved so much just this year. 

His best friend is Lincoln Monahan. 

He likes watching Stranger Things, Cobra Kai, The Office. 

He loves smash burgers, fried chicken, pizza, jalapeno poppers, breakfast burritos, mini chimis and chips with queso. Raising Canes, In n out, Boca, Cheba Hut.

He enjoyed his art class and sports med classes this year with Mrs. Burgess and Mrs. Herring.

His favorite words: pull up (show up to something), gas (means good), buns (means bad), low key (don't know how to describe this one), locked in (focused, trying hard), cooked (in trouble), not to be confused with "cooking" which means doing amazing. Finally, "sold" means you're doing terrible at something. Also used as "You're selling or I'm selling".

He MUST shower when he gets home from dive before he will eat dinner. 

He's very particular about his hair. He uses a blow-dryer and has a system.

He steals from Travis's closet on the regular. Nothing is safe.

He is very sweet and thoughtful with holidays/birthdays. He writes me the nicest cards and always makes sure he has a present for everyone in the family on their birthday. Gift giving is his love language. Physical touch is NOT haha. He gives us stiff, obligatory hugs before bed when he plugs his phone in our room but it's like hugging a cactus.

He is funny and a good time. I got comments from my siblings after our cruise that they got a kick out of sitting near him at dinner because he was so funny. 

He has ideas about his "fit" as they say. He's particular about his clothes and style. He's always been aware and concerned about what other people think. 

We got the nicest voicemail from his seminary teacher when the year ended. Sis. Kersey complimented us on what a wonderful young man we are raising and said he was respectful and helpful during class, offering thoughtful comments and being someone she could rely on to be a good example. Boy that was a 180 from his first time in her class last year! Our Collin is growing up. 

He likes cooking. He and Lincoln will go to Frys on the weekend and buy ingredients to make fried chicken sandwiches for fun. 

He's fairly tidy. 

He likes his comforts. I think he sleeps with 3 pillows and just as many blankets. 

He's pretty nice to Weston and Olive. Could be nicer to Tanner but Tanner bugs him. He doesn't like contention and tries to keep things peaceful at home. 

It's a joy to hear him bless the sacrament. He is thoughtful and respectful. Not overly exuberant about church, but I think he appreciates it and quietly has a testimony. 

I never thought my super hyper, never sits still, never stops talking kid would become this mellow, chill teenager that I have to pull information out of! I love this stage we're in and I love him so much, he'll never know. I'm proud of who he is and who he is becoming. He has been around a few times when I've been struggling with something and he has been so sweet, speaking words of comfort. Stepping up in a protective, caring way. He got his patriarchal blessing this past year and that was an experience I'll never forget. I was incredibly humbled seeing into his future and learning more about his spirit and the valiant, brave, loyal person he is. I wish I had understood that when he was young and I was overwhelmed and impatient. I have thanked him for being the oldest and being our experiment. How is he 16?!

We kept with tradition and spent the day at the Arizona Grand! We got lucky and went on the one warm day of the week. Grandma treated us, which was so nice of her. Weston brought Regan because Rusty couldn't come til later in the afternoon. 

Payton has been so sweet writing back to us individually. Olive loved getting her letter!

We really wanted to get a family snowboarding trip in, but couldn't find a time until spring break. Which worked out great, because I don't think Collin would want to be doing anything else on his birthday. We left Wednesday morning and drove straight to Snowbowl. I helped get the kids situated with their rental gear and took a few pictures then retreated to the car to spend the day studying for school and preparing for my gospel Doctrine Lesson on Sunday. Truth is, I don't like snow sports. I have no need for speed, I hate being cold and the whole thing makes me nervous. I was so happy that they were off having fun while I could get stuff done. 

That night we picked up Canes for the kids and they are at the hotel, then Travis and I went to Pizzicletta. The kids weren't interested in "weird" pizza so it was a win, win. Afterwards, we went to Target and got a bunch of birthday decorations to spruce up the hotel room for Collin's birthday the next day.

I decided I would ski on Collin's birthday so I could help out and stay with the younger kids and Travis and Collin could have fun together on the bigger slopes. Weston was learning to snowboard for the first time, so he stuck with us most of the day. He was on his bum the first day and I think he was regretting his decision a bit, but by the second day he was doing much better. It was good. I even had a moment where I thought, "Ok, I can see why people like this." Hahah. We were lucky because it hasn't been a good snow year here but they had a huge snowstorm this past week so the slopes were in good condition. Then, it started snowing that afternoon as another big storm rolled in. We went back to the hotel to get changed and braved the bad weather to get Collin some Texas Road House for his birthday dinner. Traffic was bad and cars were sliding off the roads but thankfully we were fine. Against his wishes, we told the waitress it was his birthday so he got the honor of sitting on the bull and having the whole restaurant pay attention to him! We had candles but no matches as we sang Happy Birthday back at our hotel and shared a little cake I had bought. I hope he had a memorable 16th birthday! We are so glad he was born!j

On the last day we packed up the car and they all headed to the slopes but I got a late check out and stayed in the room doing school work and my lesson. My view was pretty!

When we got home I noticed the pillows on our bed were messed up but didn't think much of it. Then Travis realized what had happened. WINNIE! That stinker slept on my pillow while we were gone!! I even found a dog hair as proof! Gah! I'm SO glad he figured that our or I would have just slept in our bed that night not knowing!! Lincoln had been coming over to walk her twice a day but she was home alone at night. There are major downsides to being her favorite. 

Travis bought a badminton set at Costco. We went through a badminton phase in Buffalo. It's so fun.

Lane opened his mission call! He's going to Xalapa, Mexico the end of July. His friend, Sawyer, got called to the same place, same time. So cool!

Megan was in town with her kids so we met them at their resort for a day in the sun! The kids are to the age where they all run off and play and we get to visit. Just little Navee hangs out with us. We got Grimaldis for dinner and Jeni's Ice Cream. 

I was at the orthodontist and looked down at a magazine and realized Collin's friend's parents were on the cover. Their son, Chase Sorosky, dives with Collin on his club team. They are both orthopedic surgeons. How about that?! 

Weston and Regan trying to make a ginormous pancake.

I challenged our family to share a Book of Mormon with someone this Easter season after writing their testimony in the cover. Since I'm writing this in August, I'll update... Travis gave his to an assistant at work. I gave mine to Jessica Folcannon across the street. Olive gave hers to Jacquie Conners next door. Weston gave his to Liam Dickson. Collin and Tanner never did share one but hopefully one day! 

Olive has been complaining and complaining she can't see the board. I took her to a new eye doctor, Dr. Yamamoto, because mine moved. So happy to have found him! Loved him and his office. Olive's eyes are fine. She's right on the border of a possibility of using glasses. So we went ahead and ordered a pair. She's thrilled. 

Marcie is serving as secretary in her stake Relief Society presidency and they had the privilege of providing lunch for a regional training that Elder Uchtdorf was at. Bron was also there! She did all the decorating and made all the green salsa and cookies. I felt back because we were out of town skiing, but luckily we got back into town Friday night so I had time to make a couple batches to help her out. I dropped them off on our way to Katie's baby shower in north Mesa. She did such a good job with the decorating and it sounded like it was an incredible experience for her!

Katie's mom and sister threw her this shower at her mom's house and it was so cute. It was fun to have Olive with me too! Can't wait to meet this sweet baby.

We had the kickoff fireside for the Easter Pageant! We are so excited to get to do this with Marcie's family this year!

Super Saturday!

Baby Jane was the main attraction! We set up our tents next to each other and had so much fun with the Figs. It was hot, but they ended early and it really wasn't too big a deal. We even stayed after it was over because we hadn't had a chance to eat our chicken salad sandwiches yet haha!

Grandma paid Collin a visit with a big bouquet of balloons!

The week after Super Saturday was scene breakdowns for core cast so we were back at the pageant several times that week at night. 

Second Super Saturday!

This one was longer, but we were prepared and had a great time. This year is much more relaxed knowing the songs and lines. I didn't think I would get into character right away because it's so emotionally taxing, but everyone else was all in, so I did too. We love being with cousins but are bummed we aren't in the same "family group".

Olive had to miss a dance competition because of rehearsals and I felt terrible that that affected her team and created extra work for others. After the second Super Saturday we rushed over and she was able to be in one of the tap dances. Posey was there too!

Collin was ready for a change.

We celebrated Mom and Dad's birthdays at Charlestons. 

As an April Fool's joke, I bought 30 of those little Jesus figurines on Amazon and Weston and I snuck over to my mom's house and hid them everywhere. She's also been a fan of April Fools day and I thought she would get a kick out of this. I was right! She loved it and the family group text was soon dinging whenever she found another one, haha. 

There was a youth, church concert in Mesa that the boys went to with their cousins. It was organized by the general YM and YW presidencies and was open to everyone. I've loved listening to gospel songs these past couple years and was happy when they reported knowing some of the songs that were performed.