Dance Recital, Graduation, & Leaving Arizona

My Lyla loves to dance. She never gets sick of it and makes up dances to every song she hears. Her dance recital was at a crazy time right after graduation and a few days before we moved, but we loved watching her dance. The timing was perfect so that Nana, Papa, and Grandma all attended, along with Josh and his family who came for a surprise visit! We loved all the company in our home. 

Graduation!! We enjoyed our time at school, the schedule was busy at times but Paul also had frequent and long breaks which we loved!! Then he had 7 weeks off before starting his job. We're really missing all the time we were able to spend with him. Paul worked so hard and did really well at school.

Cute little graduate supporters!!

As always, it was hard to say goodbye to our good friends in Gilbert. There were three different families who lived in the house next door to us and we became very close to all three even though the longest we had with any of them was 8 months. Annie & Kenny Mcaferty moved in sometime in February and we loved getting to know them!! Their 2 1/2 yr old Maggie seemed like part of our family! She would come over multiple times a day and just walk upstairs to try on princess costumes. Lyla loved having a smaller version of herself around to boss around. Before we even met, we both joined the YMCA down the street and loved going swimming together almost daily before we moved.

I've almost tried to be anti-social in the last few places we've moved because I know how much it hurts to get close to people and then have to leave them which I seem to do over and over, but these and other ladies reached out in so much kindness and I quickly felt very close to them. Again, I knew each of them for less than a year but am so grateful for the impact they have had on my life and all I learned from them. I hope to stay in touch and watch their darling children grow from a distance. 

 We loved our corporate move- they came and did all of the packing and loading- Paul had to stop me from doing anything cuz that was weird for me. It was still pretty stressful cleaning making sure we had all of our things separated for the 4 weeks before we would have our belongings unloaded- somehow we didn't forget any of the important things. 

Spring updates

 Paul took Trevor to a Mariners spring training game and that boy was in heaven! He got a new hat and even a new jersey to wear (although it didn't come until an hour after they left for the game). He talked about their plan to go to the game for days before and was excited to go out just the boys. He got a little restless during the game but overall it was a success- Paul loves showing the kids his interests. 

 We made fruit pizza and the kids were proud of their decorative abilities.

 We had a great visit in April from Alyssa, Cassidy, and Tyson. Jared, Allison and Dallin joined us for General Conference weekend and it was so nice to celebrate Easter together and to go to the Easter Pageant.

 Of course the kids loved the egg hunt

 Pretty sure this little cutie would have been thrilled just to carry around her little bag

Kaylie with baby Dallin

Lyla just adores Alyssa. Lyssa is always willing to spend time doing whatever Lyla asks and she makes each visit together so special. It was so nice to spend time with my younger sisters and just chat whenever we wanted. Love them!

 We're going to miss going to splash pads year round!

 Our ward had a big Easter breakfast, egg hunt, and other games. The kids are flexing their "huge" muscles before the tug a war

 Making homemade lemonade

 The kids filled up their money jars (doing their daily jobs, quiet time, not throwing fits) so we went to get ice cream. One of the rare occasions when everyone is guaranteed to be happy!

 Mommy & Lyla date to watch the new Cinderella movie. So magically to watch it with her- she asked questions the whole time and was memorized by it all.

Disneyland!!

We loved our Disneyland trip in March. The kids talked about it for months and were so excited. Of course, everyone got an awful cold right before the trip. Trevor had to go to the dr with a croupy cough, Kaylie just wimpered and cried the whole drive, we had to stop a million times during the drive cuz Lyla had diarrhea. Pretty miserable and stressful. I asked myself over and over if we should just drive home. We got to our hotel, Desert Inn and suites and didn't have a great night- Kaylie woke at 2 and wouldn't sleep. But miraculously we all woke up feeling decent! We went to CA adventure the first day and loved it! We were there early and were able to do a lot in the morning before any lines picked up. The kids especially loved all of the shows and parades. By 6:00 we had pretty much done everything we wanted to and Kaylie had fallen asleep- we tried to wake her but she was out. So we went to the hotel and got to bed early which was so nice. Friday we went to Disneyland- the first few hours were amazing without lines so we were able to do almost everything we wanted. The one regret was we went first thing to meet Tinkerbell because Lyla really wanted to do that, but the other fairy friends weren't there yet and Lyla was heartbroken. We should have gone back but didn't think through it well enough until late in the afternoon when they were closed. Although we had pictured the kids loving every minute and being happy, grateful kids the whole time, there were almost constant tantrums along with begging and whining.  The "best" was when we bought some Dole ince cream and started giving it to the kids while we waited for a Frozen show to start. We were putting some of the ice cream into a cup for Kaylie, and Lyla started kicking and screaming about how we messed up her perfect ice cream and it wasn't right anymore. Yep, we were those parents spoiling our ungrateful kids. After that we took a break and went back for naps which helped a lot. That night we pushed through exhausted Trevor's crying and screaming to stay in the park until Fantasmic started. Lyla especially loved the show so I'm glad we did, although we were all completely worn out by the time we got home. It wasn't an easy trip, but over all we're glad we were able to pull it off. Probably won't be back for several years!

 The kids could not believe they were talking to Elsa and Anna.

 Our friends Corbin & Brittany Smith met us at Disneyland and hung out with us for a few hours which was so fun to catch up! Our good friends from Gilbert were also there and it was fun to spend time with them- Lyla loved dancing with her sweet friend Lia.