Tuesday, May 31, 2016

May 2016

May is bustin' out all over!
May--at least, the beginning of May--is generally beautiful in Utah. It's the time of year you generally aren't freezing or roasting. So here's this throwback picture to April, just because it's funny.
In May, we spent time outside, too.
The area around Utah Lake is still kind of waking up, but that's ok because the mosquitoes aren't bad!
We celebrated May the Fourth with theme pizzas! Can you tell what they are meant to be?
We celebrated a little extra time with Tyler. He started working with Mighty Penguin doing some consulting and non-profit work. It was such a blessing that he had some contract work right after RSO finished. It was absolutely an adjustment, and I didn't think I could handle it for long. Tyler worked a lot from home and the income was not predictable. Who knew it would be his job for over 1.5 years! The flexible schedule did end up opening up some different opportunities for Tyler, including teaching a non-profit management class at BYU in the Winter Semester, which has become one of his favorite jobs.
This contracting job also led to quite a bit of work up in Salt Lake City, which allowed for some fun lunches with his siblings!
At home, Sheridan had some play dates that led to putting on plays for me! She and her buddy were great about including the younger kids.
In May, Jack got to participate in the Hope of America program with his class. They performed songs and a whole program at BYU's Marriott Center. He's in the yellow wedge in the section by the stars. See if you can find him, lol!
Tyler captured a rare image of reading Vigues in their natural habitat. Folding clothes is definitely less important than a good book!
Mother's Day, the family spoiled me and we got a great shot of some really happy kids. You can see in this image that some are already channeling their inner fuddy duddiness.
Surprise! Still plenty of time with just us 3. Cole loved taking selfies and loved the baby, so winning!

We made time for a family trip to visit the temple.
And those cute girlies performed a lovely number for us all. Dance, girls, dance!
This year in school, Henry got the opportunity to participate in a writing workshop and he was able to publish a book he wrote himself! It was a fantastic family dystopian work.

Jack tool part in a percussion group this year (ugh, early mornings!) and has his final performance in May.

He also took part in a 5th grade readers theater of A Midsummer's Night Dream as Oberon. I performed in that play in 9th grade, so it was great fun to see my kiddo perform in it this way.

On a sadder note, our family got to support our buddy William on his 3rd round of leukemia. We chipped in for awesome shirts

and inspired by our girls' lemonade stand last month, a few families came together and did a huge bake/craft sale for William. It's so hard to know how to support a friend going through such a hard, nasty health challenge. At least this was something, and the kids could participate and see that they could make a difference.

Look at these cute Dragon Warriors!
The end of the school year came hurtling to a close. Jack won some awards!

And some more awards!

Sheridan also won some awards!
Congratulations on your hard work, kiddos!
And that's a school year wrap!

Summer means lots of pool time for everyone!

Happy summer!

Sunday, May 1, 2016

April 2016

Oh guys, the hard stuff continued from March and some things got worse.
But look at these cutie pies! They make life a little better.
We celebrated Tyler's birthday in April, as we do every year, but I failed to get any pictures other than this shot of the "Y" Jack made of streamers for Tyler. Every birthday, Tyler puts up streamers in a fun, novel pattern. Jack wanted to show Tyler how much he loved him by returning the favor.
Jack is so good with his littlest siblings. He and Micah had such a sweet, beautiful relationship. Jack was absolutely one of baby Micah's favorite people.
Sheridan and her cute friend set up a lemonade stand to support our sweet friend, William, who was on his third fight with leukemia. They donated most of the proceeds to his family. It wasn't a ton, but we had so many great neighbors support what these girls were trying to do. And we were so touched that they wanted to do something to help William, and found a way to show they cared. 
April was the perfect time to go to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. Cole went for his first pony ride and he mostly loved it.
Jack was still small enough to fit on the biggest pony, but this was his last pony ride because he got too big!
Look at these cute little riders!
Annnnnd, things went south with Micah's breathing again. Just after things went completely south at Tyler's job and he left Rising Star Outreach. 
Our sweet little guy went in for a follow up appointment and was sent straight over the the Pediatric ICU for breathing support. He only needed high flow oxygen this time, and was only in 2.5 days, but it was a huge blow. The job loss already left me feeling a little broken, and then this kiddo still being unable to breathe made me wonder what I was doing so wrong to have everything go south at once.
Little dude was a champ, though. The doctors kept saying they couldn't believe he was doing so poorly because he was just SO HAPPY. Thank goodness for that!
While Micah was in the hospital, Sheridan and Jack had their GATE presentation with their inventions.
Sheridan got to present on her Book Hook. She was so proud to share what she'd invented.
Jack and a group of buddies invented a Super Season Tool--I think it was a rake/broom/shovel multi-tool. 
And Micah was still in the hospital. 
The good news was that Tyler was home, so we didn't have to juggle babysitters and schlepp kids from friend to friend. Silver linings? Fortunately, Micah was only in the hospital for a few days this time.
Tyler also got to chaperone Henry's field trip to the Hogel Zoo! Henry loved having his dad with him!
Look at this handsome dude!
We had fun and made personal pizzas. The kids love that, but it's honestly such a pain!
Micah got used to having his oxygen tube on ALL THE TIME.
That was also a major pain when trying to go places. That oxygen tank was such an awkward pain. I am so grateful we had a portable oxygen tank, and live in a time that Micah could survive this. I thank God for modern medical care.
Amelia got to show us what she was learning in PreK. She was very energetic and so excited to share her songs and poems, and everything she's been working so hard.
We got to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point and relished in the beautiful spring.
Look at these cute kiddos!
 
Oh, how we love them! April was hard, but these guys help us keep it in perspective.