Good-Bye 20s...

Hello 30s!  On March 29th, I turned 30.  Man that is still so weird to think about.  I'm 30!  No longer in my twenties and inching closer over that hill.  Craziness!  Well my 30th birthday was pretty rad.  My awesome sister was determined to dress me up and make me feel beautiful for my birthday and DID SHE EVER!!  She did my makeup and hair and bought me a new shirt and watched my kids so we could go out to dinner.  Then she baked and baked so many delicious desserts for a little party we had with family.  I felt so very loved and very beautiful all night long!

Katie also bought me JT's new album and dang I love it!  Mirrors is my favorite and I could listen to it on repeat over and over again. Benny took me to P.F. Changs and it was good!  I love that husband of mine, he's so handsome and oh so good to me.

So I may not be where I pictured myself at 30 and I haven't got it all figured out yet but I don't think I would be who I am without all those years of experiences that led me to this moment in my life now.  Things are no where near perfect but I have to say that, so far, life is good at 30.

Life According to my Phone

 Back in the early part of March, we got new phones, iphones to be exact.  Well I love mine so very much and have joined the world of instagram and phone pictures.  It's so easy and convenient and I love capturing the every day moments.  So here's a rundown of our life through my phone.

1. Blooming trees at the park while spring was here for a minute.
2. Hooray for Fridays!
3. Mutual activity looking at the sky, hello moon.
4. St. Patrick's Day on our way to church.
5. The Solar System for Shelby's class.
6. Kitty loves when someone will actually play with him.
7. Little treats for my lucky charms.
8. Spiderman!
9. Nothing beats a desert sunset, I love them! 

1. My snuggle buddy.  2. Jump for joy, Spring Break is here.  3. They called themselves the plain white tees
4. Braids to match with NCAA on all the time in March.  5. Scooters.  6. Noodles arms? Nope, muscles!
7. Scooters at the park.  8. Craft time during break.  9. Park time while the weather was gorgeous!

1. Sleeping like I used to, with a foot propped up.
2. He talked to some women police officers at Subway and thought they were super cool and loved getting a junior deputy sticker.
3. Bus ride for a field trip.
4. Singing with his school choir group and totally getting into the music.
5. Legos...all over their room!
6. At the Smith's Center for a play with Shelby for her field trip.
7. Dixie got a ponytail after her bath.
8. Road trip to Utah for a baptism and blessing, so much fun!
9. Beautiful open road heading home.

This Week...

Time has gotten away from me and I can't believe I haven't even blogged about my birthday. But this week has been unusually challenging. 
A stomach bug hit Shelby- she is a violent puker and its no fun seeing her sick
Money is minimal- I don't like talking about this but funds are so tight as we try to get approved for a home loan
Boston bombs and Texas explosions- Stryder asked me to stop watching the news and I gladly obliged, too much scary stuff
A computer crash that almost cost me my 13,000+ pictures- so grateful Ben figured out how to save them all
Fights and tears from all three kids- I think we are all so very ready for summer break
All of it makes for a super stressed out and tired momma. A momma who is dealing with her own mess of stuff that has her overwhelmed. It felt good yesterday to make and bring a meal to a friend, it fed my spirit.
I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. And maybe I'll get around to blogging more next week.

My Favorite Faces

 On Easter, my sister snapped a few family pictures of us.  It was a little bit bright so we got lots of squinty eyes but I love these.

 Then a week later, I made the kids throw on their clothes again and captured a few individual ones with more eyes showing. 

Oh how I love these faces something fierce.

Blue and Gold and Derby

I love Cub Scouts!  I love what it teaches and helps my boy with.  Earlier this month, was the annual Blue and Gold dinner celebrating the birthday of Cub Scouts.  This year our ward combined the dinner with the pinewood derby and it was such a fun night. 

Ben cut it down to the shape he wanted and did some initial sanding and then Stryder sanded the rest.  He also helped paint it.  He was super proud of his car this year.

He came in 3rd 3 times and 2nd once, a much better performance than the past years.  His car didn't make it into to the finals but he won for most colorful and I think he had a really fun time.

What's We've Been Up To

We've been keeping busy around here.  It seems like school is what keeps us the busiest.  Back at the end of February, Shelby has her 2nd grade Patriotic Program.  She was Kentucky and now joins the ranks of those able to sing the 50 states song.  She is such a smart girl and doing really well with school.  I love helping in her class and both of us will be super sad when she moves on to 3rd grade.

Then last week was Nevada Reading Week.  It's a favorite in our house.  I love getting the kids dressed up and they love that Friday they get to wear pajamas.  This year had some pretty simple days which makes it easier on this mom trying to get three kids dressed up.  We had crazy sock day, and backwards day, and word shirt day (they had to wear a shirt with good words on it), and of course Dr. Seuss day.  Stryder went as the Lorax and Shelby is a Sneetch.  Soren didn't dress up for Dr. Seuss day because it was the kindergarten field day and I didn't get any pictures of that because I was too busy doing the parachute :)
I missed taking pictures of them in their pjs because we had family in town and again, super busy.  We had a great weekend with Ben's family and did an early Easter Egg Hunt with all the kids and just all hung out and laughed and visited.  We can't wait til our trip north in April.  It doesn't look like the busy-ness is stopping any time soon.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day has come and gone and I'm just now getting around to posting pictures.  Things have been a little crazy busy around here with the usual family, work, school stuff but it's a good kind of busy.

I had so much fun doing homemade Valentine's last year that I decided to do them again this year.  Stryder's were the Star Wars ones and we just printed them from a site I found.  Soren's were the Koolaid drink packs with a little printed note taped on.  Shelby's were the most time intensive but I loved them.  I braided 19 friendship bracelets in a couple hours and we attached them to the little printed card.  Super cute and fun all around.

On Valentine's, it was also Moms and Muffins day at the kids' school.  This is an early morning picture of us before we headed out.  I also got to help out at both Shelby's and Soren's parties.  Ben and I didn't really do anything but luckily Saturday after dealing with a broken washing machine and a bad back, we got to spend a couple hours alone at home while my sister took the kids to play (thanks Katie).

This past weekend was also the second half of the Young Women's Book of Mormon sleepover.  I am so incredibly grateful that I got to be a part of it.  It was pretty amazing and such a huge testimony builder.  Not something I'll be forgetting anytime soon.