Marching Our Way Through 2022

"Marching"... get it? Because it's March? I'm so funny. 

It's crazy how fast time seems to go by. It seems just like yesterday our kids would spend their nights playing in the playroom, and then we would read books together while we rocked them in the rocking chair. It was lights out at 8:00 and then Tyler and I would settle down to watch a few episodes of our favorite shows. Today it seems our lives just keep getting busier and busier as we watch our kids do what they love. Our nights are spent driving our kids to their extracurricular activities, then trying to get them in bed before 10:00. Rarely do Tyler and I get to watch one of our shows because it's either too late, or one of us falls asleep during it. We may complain about the busyness, but we love watching our kids grow up into amazing, smart, and talented kids. Our lives may be busy, but we love every moment together (well, we don't love when the kids fight, but everything else we love). 

Makayla brought her friend Avery to the Utah gymnastics meet. 

One of my favorite nights is here. It's the Synergy Showcase where we get to see the girls' dances! Makayla's jazz routine is called "Shake the Room" and her lyrical is "Last Ones". I absolutely love her lyrical dance and could watch it over and over. Makayla's team is really good and they all seem to be really good friends. 

Brynnli's lyrical is called "Forever" and her jazz is called "Take Flight". Here jazz is my absolute favorite because they are flight attendants. At one point in the dance there is "turbulence," and Brynnli does the best facial expressions when she does the punch, punch, punch. 

Caden is the best sport to come to all of the girls' dance events. 

I can't wait for all of their competitions this season!

Speaking of Caden... this boy has found a love for apple juice. Since he is the only one who likes it right now, he is allowed to drink right out of the bottle. I also love that before Caden goes to bed he has to have a little swig of juice because it helps him fall asleep. 

Look who got her nails did and I am here for all the spring nails. 

Just playing dress up. 

Clearly Caden is confused on the time of year since he is jammin in his Christmas jammies. 

Cute smile Brynn

This little puppy is the most spoiled puppy around. She has us all wrapped around our finger. 

It has been a little cold around here lately, so we have been enjoying our gourmet hot chocolate with metallic sprinkles. 

Daddy had to go out of town and there was no way I was cooking dinner, so we walked over to Culvers for dinner. The kids ate their cheeseburgers (shrimp for Caden) and I didn't have to do any of the cleanup. I call that a win, win!

How cute are these cuties taking Bella for a walk. 

Lucky the Leprechaun stopped by our house again this  year. Brynnli set a trap to try to catch him. 

Her note says, "Dear leprechaun, I am sorry that people try to catch you. I am not going to trick you this year. But get the candy. It is a game. The rules are don't cheat and no climbing the wall. Love Brynnli"

How cute is she? Well it turns out the leprechaun did come, but he didn't fall for her trap. He played a few tricks on us and left us some treats. 

Maybe next year we can catch him? 

Check out this cool shot...

The girls had their first competition. Makayla's duet was first. The girls did great. Brynnli's jazz dance got 3rd overall in the beginning division, and Makayla's lyrical dance got 7th overall in the beginning division. 

Terry and Craig got all of us Lagoon Season passports, and Lagoon opened up early this year, so we decided to go. 

Having a season passport is a total game changer! We went up for a few hours and we didn't ride all of the rides, but we didn't feel bad because we know we have all season to hit all of them. Makayla even made a goal to ride every ride at Lagoon. We are so excited for a lot of summer days and nights spent here. 

And how brave is Brynnli!? This is the first year she has been tall enough to go on all the big kid rides (with the exception of two of the really scary ones.) We all went on Colossus and we thought for sure she would be too scared to ride it, but she was so brave. I was worried about her until I heard her screaming with excitement as we went upside down. When it was over she looked at me and screamed, "Let's do that AGAIN!!" 

All of our kids are so brave and have gone on all of the scary rides like Wicked. 

Makayla is working on using descriptive language in her writing. Check out this amazing description of Hanna Land. 

"My cabin is my favorite place to go. I love the sound of the campfire crackling. There are trees all around the campground and animals scurrying around. I love going four-wheeling and hearing the wind. I also love canoeing in the river with the sound of water splashing and the cold water on my skin. I go up to my cabin every month with my family to have fun. 

We don't know for sure, but we might have an amazing author in our family. Makayla is seriously the best writer. 

Grandma and Grandpa Thomas came over for dinner one night and the kids played Candy Land with them. 

I think its's safe to say that Caden liked his ice cream? What do you think? 

We celebrated Caden's birthday a little early with Grandma and Grandpa Evans. Caden even got this huge donut tower. 

He enjoyed this treat... clearly. 

Can you believe 2 years ago on March 15, 2020 the world shut down from a microscopic virus? We've come a long way since then. Two years later most things are back to normal, but now we are experiencing trickling side effects like supply chain issues and rising costs. Did you know the housing market is exploding? Houses in our neighborhood in South Jordan are selling for almost 1 million dollars. Inflation is clearly rising and we are starting to see the effects of that in gas prices and at the grocery store. It makes me so incredibly grateful to Tyler for pushing us to pay off our house almost 5 years ago. The economy is scary, but we feel better prepared to take on the roller coaster ride because we strived to be financially smart. Two years later there are over 468 million confirmed cases of Covid and over 6 million deaths have been reported globally. The numbers of deaths are high, but what is on a lot of people's minds now is was shutting down the economy and taking kids out of school the right thing to do? We are now seeing the long-term effects of the shutdown on kids around the nation. It's also scary right now because Russia invaded Ukraine and they are at war. As we try to shelter our kids from the reality of what is going on, they are acutely aware of the war and know who Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are. We pray that the conflict will end soon and that innocent lives will be saved. This is truly a unique time to be alive. The challenge we face on a daily basis is to remain positive and continue to have faith and find peace in these unprecedented times.