April 2025

April 27, 2025

This week flew by! All the boys got hair cuts and Desmond looks more than a year older and it's likely he won't be mistaken as a cute girl anytime soon. He has started wanting to walk with someone holding his hands and he takes giant steps forward that he can't really handle. He's very eager to be always on the go. We had some beautiful spring days and Greyson and Adelaide are loving that they can ride their bikes to and from school. Hinckley had his first swim meet with his new team and did a great job. His goggles came off on his first two races (50 fly and 200 IM) and he finished both races! It was fun to go down to St George for the meet with our friends the Barsons (whose son is also on the team). We were impressed by the facilities there (Utah Tech University). On Saturday we watched The Sandlot for "Dad movie" and that was a mixed success (Addie understandably wasn't a big fan).

Kassie's first day of work

Springtime baby with Mama

Ready for a haircut

Haircut sucker recovery 

St George long course pool

Hinckley and Blake ready to rock

Adelaide and her stuffies

April 20, 2025

We had a great Easter morning today and a music-filled sacrament meeting. It's full Spring with swings from snow on the ground the other day and warmer temperatures earlier in the week. We've had Kassie's Sister visiting this weekend and the Burnsides down from Salt Lake. The kids participated in the neighborhood Easter Egg blitz at the park near our house, and then went to the Tulip festival in the afternoon.

Easter morning

Easter bath boy

Easter baskets

Tulip festival frogs

Tulips

Neighborhood easter eggs

Soccer fan

Preparing Easter eggs with Lee

Desmond's tunnel gift

Ready for cake!

Balloon baby

Desmond and his balloon

Desmond had a great birthday on Tuesday and was excited by all the balloons and attention. He ate so much french toast for dinner that his appetite wasn't too big for his first cake. Kassie's parents and our neighbors Dick and Cathy came over to celebrate. Addie and Greyson made some cute homemade gifts for Desmond which he was excited about as well. His hair is getting so long and he is growing quickly - he is in the very top percentile for height and weight so we'll see if that progresses.


Greyson had a couple soccer games this week and is enjoying that. He continues to spend most of his time in the backyard "playing sports" and loves to be active. Any time he takes a rest he is back to reading his Wimpy Kid books. Addie has been enjoying time with friends and was excited to ride her bike with Greyson to and from school once this week. They plan to do so more often as the weather improves which is great! Hinckley continues to enjoy swimming and is eager for school to end...hopefully he can hold out a few more weeks without too much agony!


Kassie got a new job that starts this coming week - she will help coordinate travel for youth groups (e.g. high school bands, sport teams) going on tour out of state. One of our friends has been doing this for years and her brother owns the company so we have a pretty good idea what it is like. It's a part time job, flexible, and work-from-home and will also allow Kassie to go on a trip or two each year with a group as well! She is pretty excited about it.

April 13, 2025

This was a week full of Spring with the blossoms bursting out and the sun shining warm. Desmond learned how to crawl up the stairs and has been enjoying making a break for them any chance he gets! We can't believe he'll be 1 in just a few days. 

Greyson started soccer this week and had a fun practice and game. He said "I'm the best kicker on our team!" He has no shortage of confidence. I've noticed lately how resilient and persistent he can be. When throwing him a baseball, he'll swing the bat and miss countless times but doesn't seem to ever get frustrated. He'll just want to keep going haha. He also started cutting his own waffles this week with no fits or gimmicks, just out of the blue he started doing it (this is a really really big deal. I can't stress that enough actually). He loves all sports. He just got a new football and wanted to throw/catch that a bunch too. 

Boys and bunnies

Runaway baby

Swinging time

Strenuous campout

Our full-moon view

Addie came up with a cute Easter idea, she made put a cute happy face on a plastic egg and included a note inside that informs the receiver to do something/write something nice for another person and give them the egg and have them pass it along. It is amazing to me to see something organic like this come about. It's like seeing the first little bud of fruit showing up on the tree of parenting. Incredible. 

Hinckley had his first week of club swimming and really loved it. He is excited to be getting in some really challenging workouts and we're hopeful they can build some good relationships with others on the team. He and I had a fun "strenuous" campout date where we wandered up in the hills by Saratoga Springs and camped out. Meanwhile Addie had a fun sleepover at the Burnsides in Salt Lake and Greyson watched "Angels in the Outfield" with Kassie for a date. 

I got the trampoline up and the kids have already been out there getting sunburns and freckles. It's always great when we get a thing setup/pulled out after being gone for a season. They enjoy it so much for an amazing brief period of time :) 

We love you all! 

April 6, 2025

We are happy that spring has sprung here in Lehi and are enjoying the sunshine immensely. For spring break we took the whole family on a cruise. We stayed two nights at Dahrl and Steve's to warm it up for Abi before leaving on Monday. We were unable to stop at Catalina Island due to weather, but we were able to stop at Ensenada and I went zip lining with Greyson and Hinckley. Overall the cruise was a success! Everyone had a lot of fun and made mostly positive memories. Desmond figured out sleeping by the final night and did great with going to the daycare on board for a couple hours a day. We enjoyed the food (unlimited nachos for Hinckley, unlimited soft serve ice cream for all), the activities, the time together, and the adventure of it all. There were a ton of BYU-clothed people onboard so it appears to be a common UT spring break destination. The kids also had a great time in Irvine during our visit with Dahrl and Steve. 

Last day at Silver Bear

Greyson's homemade oven

Ready for an adventure

Lunch stop at St George

Newport Beach Temple

Sunday walk turned beach adventure

Discoveries

Dahrl's reading nook

Arrived at the cruise

First Supper

Towel creatures!

Wandering baby

Cotton Candy

Ice cream and movies

Rope bridge

Ready to fly

TV time + nachos

Chocolate girl

Children

Cruisin'

Hinckley found out he made the club swim team! He also made the intermediate orchestra and will start in that group this coming school year at Lehi Jr. He's growing up before our eyes. Addie and I had a fun at-home date watching "Mufasa" the day before our spring break. She is also growing up and developing some strong personality elements that are still emerging. Greyson is into all sports and is constantly asking for people to throw balls with him or other such things. He's excited to start soccer this coming week with his friend Luke. Desmond charmed all the staff on the cruise ship and love trying to stand up everywhere possible. He loves the bunnies and was very excited to see them after our long trip.