National (Junior ) Honor Society

For the first time this year, two of our kids decided to join the National Honor Society (Junior version for Eli). We are so proud of how hard all of our kids work in school, and it was fun to see Ali and Eli honored in this way.

 

Classwork

Eli has done some cool things in classes at school lately: extracting some of his own DNA (the white dot at the bottom of the vial):

And building this little basketball game in Industrial Ed:

Eli was also honored as a Student of the Month and I got to go to a little breakfast to celebrate with him and the others who were also recognized.

Eli's friend Noah (who we used to do before and after school care for in Elementary School) was also being honored, but he didn't come down when they called the kids to come. Noah's sister had come from college to surprise him, so I went and told the Principal that Noah hadn't come and they tracked him down haha.

Phone Savvy

I don't even know how to get the effects on my phone that he uses:)

Lego Ninjago

Logan and Eli wanted Jake to watch Lego Ninjago so much that Logan promised to pay him a dollar if he watched. So they watched the show for quite some time. And as promised, Jake got a dollar for watching TV! Fun!

 (Author credit by Jake)

Youth Conference

One of the days of youth conference was downtown Chicago, and I got to go help out. I spent most of the day with Ali's group of nine wandering around Chicago and then doing activities as a whole group at the church building downtown. We walked about 10 miles and were so thankful for the miraculously beautiful weather (it was supposed to be windy and rainy, but it was mild and pleasant all day!). 

I enjoyed being a group leader with my friend Jodi hanging out with other friends when we found a minute (some pretty cool people tend to help at these kinds of events!).

I spent a lot of the day with Ali, but got to see my boys sometimes too.

Easter

Happy Easter! We're so thankful for our Savoir and all He makes possible. I'm thankful for these kids who may have been emotionally blackmailed into taking this picture ("You don't have to be in the picture, but it would make me happy and would be a way to show me you're thankful for a fun Easter...")

Idaho

For Christmas this year I asked for a plane ticket to visit my friend Josette in Idaho. In April, I was finally able to go see her! We had such a good time, mostly just talking and talking! We did do a few fun things too, like go to the Idaho Falls Temple:

And I had never been to BYUI, so that was for sure on my list of things to see:

I also got to see my brother Jesse, and meet his fiance Valerie and her son Weston (they got engaged the day before I met her!). 

We drove a couple of hours to Jackson Hole Wyoming and saw Grand Teton National Park. Most of the roads and trails in the park were still closed for the season, but we still got to take in some amazing views.

I was so thankful to the Clarks for hosting me and to my family for keeping things running while I was gone. It was a lovely break and an amazing visit.

Double digits

Jake is now ten! He was very excited to do his scavenger hunt at the mall for his party, and his team won, which was also fun. His gifts included a robux gift card, an excavating kit and a lego set that he originally wanted for his actual birthday!

For his birthday, he got a lego set and a Diary of a Wimpy Kid Clue, which the whole family had a lot of fun playing. We lit ten candles on his double- layer cake that was made by Eli. He's my favorite yougest kid :)

 

 (Author credit by Jake)

Freebies

Logan always gets free cookies from Crumbl, but he's come home with some other fun free food lately: bags of JUST the marshmallows from Lucky Charms, Boxes of Fruity Pebbles, and bags of those yummy frosted animal crackers. Yum!