The Rest of April│In Review

After Spring Break, the rest of the month of April flew by. 

Our dear Penny had a birthday in April so we had to celebrate.  

Penny is a wonderful part of our lives.  She is so thoughtful and always is up to hanging out with our family, which I love so much.  Not much has to be going on, she loves to converse and be part of the kids' lives.  She's always interested in their little lives and my life and Scott's life.  

She makes us feel important. 

So on her birthday, it was our time to make her feel loved and important, because she is. 

She is definitely a blessing in our lives and we are so glad that we get to live close to share part of our lives together! 

The Friel and Jensen kids with their favorite Penny.  

Jana is another thoughtful person and brought a little special present for Penny! 

She loves Cheetos and the 'red' coke! 

I absolutely LOVE her expressions in these pictures! She was soooo excited!!!!! 

Happy Birthday Penny! and thank you for so many things but especially thank you for the time you give to us! You are an amazing lady! 

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My dear friend and old roommate Betsy got hitched!!! 

We are beyond happy for her and glad she finally found her prince charming.  

She asked me to take her wedding pictures after the temple ceremony and at the reception.  

I was a little nervous but had a grand time bossing everyone around to pose for pictures. 

It was a happy day and I'm so glad I was close to be part of it. 

I always have a blast when I'm around these ladies.  We have shared so many wonderful and defining moments in our lives and I'm so happy that we have kept in touch all of these years after living together.  There is just something about living with someone, day in and day out, it is a special bond.  They are all so talented and wonderful and I'm grateful to know them! 

Congrats my dear little Betsy! Jonathan is one lucky man! 

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We also had some special visitors.  The Encisos are some lovely old friends, my mom and Julio were in the same ward in Perú, many, many years ago...and I grew up with Julio's nephew and Julio's sister Ester and my mom were good friends too.  We have kept in touch through the years and Julio's daughter Michele and her husband Matthew were graduating from BYU with their master's degree so they came for commencement and their convocations.  We were so happy to host them, since I know Michelita since she was a little girl and I have such love for the whole Enciso family.  They are literally the salt of the earth! Such wonderful, thoughtful, productive people, the kind of people that you want to be friends forever. 

Julio is a man of energy and such zest for life! 

We loved being around him and loved visiting with him and his wonderful wife Kim.

Kim is a woman of many talents, she is Vietnamese, an amazing cook and seamstress.

She is so passionate about food and told me I have to join the homemade yogurt cult! I LOVED her encouragement because I grew up eating homemade yogurt and I know I am cheating my kids by not feeding it to them! So she gave me directions and I'm determined to start making my own yogurt.   

One morning, we were sitting around visiting with Julio and Kim when Julio noticed this little play stroller that was ripped.  Brielle got this stroller when she was three and a half and Brookie has inherited it.  Since they are both amazing at sewing, they made a brand new cover for it! Julio figured out all the settings on my sewing machine and set up the thread, Kim cut out a pattern in 10 minutes, and in literally less than 30 minutes it was done! I was so impressed and so grateful that Brookie now has an almost brand new little play stroller! 

On their last day, we had a very traditional Peruvian breakfast of artisan bread with Botija olives, herbal tea and fresh fruit! It was the perfect way to say goodbye to this wonderful family. 

Brooke became so fond of Julio and this little girl doesn't easily make friend with new people. 

So glad that Scott got to meet them too, these friends have known me since I was a little girl. 

It was time to say goodbye.  We loved having them for a few days, I absolutely love having visitors and even better when they are people I love!:) 

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The rest of April was spent enjoying the nice warmer Spring weather and Braden continued with his obsession with dressing up as Harry Potter! That boy is obsessed! He'd come from school every single day and change into his Harry Potter clothes and write a scar on his forehead with my eyeliner. All of his nice, white shirts for Church are dingy from all the wearing and getting them dirty from playing outside.  

This one particular day, he got in trouble for something and got put in timeout in our bedroom, next thing I know Harry Potter was in timeout and had fallen asleep! I couldn't help it and I had to snap a couple of pictures of this, so he doesn't forget how much he LOVES Harry Potter.  A few weeks ago, he even told me he wanted to change his name to Harry and to not longer call him Braden.  

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We finally filled the sand box with sand and it has been a hit with our kids and the neighbor kids.  

I love that our little yard/patio area is being used.  We have been working so hard to try to beautify that space, most of the last weeks of April was spent tilling and fertilizing the soil to plant our garden, Scott did a little bit of landscaping in the yard area, which is small but it was in major need of some love, we hung some cute lights and I'm looking forward to sitting out there this summer enjoying the warm summer nights.

Working on the garden and beautifying that space has proven to be so satisfying and we are so excited to be first time gardeners! Scott and I have been waiting for this moment for a while now and we are so happy we have a little bit of space to do it.  We go out there every day to check on the progress and to marvel at our little sprouts!!! We are so ridiculous! Sometimes, Scott says, 'come out there with me to look at our sprouts.' ha ha! So funny! I love it! We planted radishes, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots and quite a few flowers from seed.  So it has been so fun to watch everything sprout.

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Soccer season is almost over and although sometimes going to practice and games is like pulling teeth for Brielle, it has been a good experience for her and she loves it when she is there, it is just the getting her there! 

They had their individual and team pictures taken and looking at these pictures makes me realize how much Brielle has grown! She is not my little baby anymore, she is full into childhood! It breaks my heart and fills me with the most intense joy all at the same time! 

These kids are all in the same primary class and they are all literally the kindest, sweetest kids around! They are silly and cute and fun to be around. 

...and that is how we spent the rest of April.