May birthdays

What a handsome boy in his little suit!  

The month of May is always very eventful at our house!  With two birthdays and all of the "end of school" activities, it keeps us hopping!  We celebrated Jared's 3rd birthday on May 19th, Sunday.  Because it was a Sunday, we didn't do a whole lot.  It was a pretty simple birthday with a nice dinner and cake.  Jared opened a few presents in the morning and then Oma and Opa came up that afternoon after church and spent some time with us.  I made Jared a "Cars" cake.  

Heidi got to celebrate her birthday a little early this year with a friend party.  We had 9 of her little friends over on May 22nd for a little party.  Four of them are from her kindergarten class and the rest are kids from our neighborhood.   Notice the little boy to the right of Heidi with the party hat on.  His name is AJ and he is in her kindergarten class.  He has been the sweetest little friend to her at school.  He holds her hand on the way to lunch and carries her lunch for her.  He stands up for her at school and "takes care of her" (what he told his mom one day).  One day when I was visiting the school, he said to me, "I'm going to be with Heidi forever..."  How sweet!  Heidi already has young admirers...

For the party, we let the kids come dressed up in anything they wanted.  Most of the girls were princesses.   We had a few little games with prizes and a rainbow pinata (the highlight) and presents and cake.   One fun thing was that Jared also thought this party was for him, too, since his birthday is less than a week before Heidi's.  Great!  Even better :)  Both of them couldn't stop talking about the rainbow pinata all week before the party.  We had it hanging up in our kitchen all week.  You know they're excited about it when in their prayers more than once they say, "...and thank you for the rainbow pinata."  Simple pleasures!  

Heidi wanted a "horse cake"

They don't make those pinatas easy to break!  After the kids each had a few swings at it, Aaron finally broke it open with a metal bat.  We had a shower of nerds all over our carpet!

Big Number 6!

For a second celebration, we took a trip to Boise for Memorial weekend to visit Aaron's parents.  On Heidi's actual birthday, we celebrated at grandma's with a picnic and cake.  Heidi opened her presents from mom and dad and then got to go shopping with grandma and grandpa.  They also took all the kids to a bounce house while mommy and daddy, and Jordan took a much needed nap :)  

That afternoon we went swimming and the kids had a blast!   Because Erika and Kyle both had their goggles, Heidi wanted to wear some, too.  I don't think she knows quite what they're for.  I love that they smashed her eyes almost shut and she was still loving every second of it and SOOO HAPPY!   It was also fun to see how much Jordan loved the water!    I didn't expect him to get so into it, but he splashed like crazy, grinning the whole time.  

"Yeah, this is the life...  I've got it all figured out.
I've got grandma all to myself!

That night we went out to dinner at Golden Corral.   We had a great meal and Heidi got to be sung to by the waiters.  Erika had fun making Heidi a "unicorn horn" out of a cotton candy stick.  Silly girls!

Field Trips

These last couple months have been quite busy around here, and I am finally taking a minute to write a few things down.  We are loving the warmer weather and spending a lot of time outside.

Over spring break, Aaron had the opportunity to go steelhead fishing in Challis, ID with my dad and brothers.  They did pretty well considering it wasn't a really good  year up there and they had one of the best weekends.  My dad went up the two weeks following and didn't do as well.  Aaron caught 7 big fish, the most of the group, but only got to keep one.  

My mom stayed here with me and the kids that weekend and we had a good time just hanging out.  We walked with all the kids (6 of them) to the park and also to Harris market to get a treat.  It was nice to have her here.  

Aaron's family came down for General Conference weekend and it was nice to spend some time with them.  As you can see, Jordan enjoyed it too.  He got a lot of attention.  He is such a fun, happy baby!

Jordan reading with uncle Ryan

I had the awesome opportunity this year to go on TWO fieldtrips with my kids!  I go to Heidi's class once a week and help her teacher, so I decided to go with Erika and Kyle on their field trips.  Because I have a lot of young children at home, I had never really considered it an option to go on the field trips with my older kids.  Then when my mom offered to come up and watch the kids so I could go, I was SO EXCITED!!  This would be my first real field trip as a mom!  :)  

I got to go on the "long" field trip with Erika down to Ogden and Salt Lake.  We left on the busses at 8:30 am and didn't get back to Tremonton until 5 pm.  They get to go on a lot of field trips in 4th grade but this is the biggest of the year.  We went to the Ogden Nature Center and learned about wildlife and soil composition.  It was a really nice place and a good learning atmosphere.

One of my favorite parts of the field trip was just riding on the bus with Erika.  We got to talk and listen to music and get to know some of her friends.  We even got to play a game of "ticket to ride" on my iPhone.  pretty cool!

After Ogden, we headed down to Salt Lake.  We went to the "Daughters of the Utah Pioneers" Museum, which was really neat!  I could have spent at least 2 more hours there (we only had an hour).  If you've never been there, you need to go sometime.  It is right next to the capitol building to the West. 

Then, we toured the state capitol building.  This was also very interesting for me!  It is a beautiful building, built very ornately.  It was fun to learn about all the history behind it and what goes on there.
I don't think I've ever toured it before.  Tours are offered free to the public all day long.  The last time I entered that building, it was for my JUNIOR PROM!   Yes, I had my prom there and it was so amazing.  I had forgotten all about it until about half-way through the tour when I looked around the huge lobby and realized I had been in there before.   Great memories!

On May 5th, I also got to go with Kyle on his field trip to the Golden Spike Historic Center.  This is also a must see!  It is located in Promontory, UT, about an hour West of Tremonton.  You just show up and they do a whole reinactment of the nailing of the last golden spike.  They have two films to watch and a small museum and picnic area.

I was worried I wouldn't get to go when the teacher emailed and said my name was not drawn out of the hat to go as a chaperone, (of all the parents that wanted to go) I was devastated.  I really wanted the chance to go and spend  some time alone with Kyle.  I felt it would be good for me to spend some time with him alone and strengthen our relationship.  Then, she wrote back and said they had a few more spots- whew! When my mom said she couldn't come up because she had women's Conference, my DAD offered to come up and watch my two little ones.  At first I was really reluctant.  My dad was going to come up?  Well, he came up and I was so grateful to him.  He did wonderful with my boys and they had a great time with them.   I am very appreciative that he made the sacrifice to give me a day with Kyle.

I was proud of Kyle because of how inquisitive he is.  He is always asking really good questions.  He loves to learn and is such a good student.  It was fun to see him in his class with his friends.  We had a really good time together and I am so grateful for the opportunity!  

On May 15th, Heidi had her "graduation" from kindergarten.  They sang a bunch of songs and then were presented their "diplomas".  It was very cute.  I have had fun this year going to her class once a week and helping out.  It has been a great year for Heidi and we are so happy with her progress!  She is doing math and reading so well.  She loves it so muchI often find her trying to read in the dark up on her bunked by some light coming from a crack in the curtains.  She LOVES to read which makes us so happy!

Heidi and her teacher Mrs. Bowcutt.  This is Mrs Bowcutt's last year teaching- she is retiring and has taught over 30 years!  We were so lucky to get her as a teacher!  She has been a great teacher for Heidi and we will miss her.  

On May 16th the kids had the chance to run in the school "jog-a-thon".  They run around a track in the field to earn money for the school.   They can get someone to pledge them a certain amount of money per lap.  Well, I guess I underestimated my kids' stamina!!  You will not believe how far each of them ran!  Kyle ran the farthest at 36 laps (that's over 4 miles!), Erika 32 laps, and even Heidi ran 22 laps!!!  None of them wanted to stop until the end.   Each lap is 1/8 mile and I told them I would give them each 50 cents a lap.  (Do the math...)  I was so proud of them, though, for their endurance!

It has been a good school year!   Bring on summer...

Easter 2013

We had a lovely Easter weekend down in Salt Lake with my family.  The weather was so nice, Aaron spent half a day Saturday golfing with his brother down in Orem.  I took the kids to my grandma Parkinson's Easter egg hunt and then we met up with Daddy and Dave and Tara's family that evening at a park in Orem.

All the Schulz grandkids who were at the Easter Egg hunt at grandma's house.

 The Easter bunny came to visit our children at Oma and Opa Michel's house this year.  The kids had fun going on horse rides with Opa and playing with the new baby chicks!

Sunday was a beautiful day.   The kids had fun looking for their Easter baskets right after church and then we had a nice dinner with my siblings that evening.

Erika with her Easter basket

Heidi was excited because she got to
sleep in  "the purple tent",  her favorite color.  

What a handsome fella!

Heidi was the first one to find her basket, and was so excited!

Kyle had to search awhile to find his-  he's always up for a challenge.

Kyle was really proud of himself this time because he got a pretty good
hang of riding the horse all by himself in the front field.  

Erika and Heidi riding Dusty

Cocconut Custard Pie

1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust with edges crimped
4 extra lg eggs
3/4 C plus 2 T sugar
1/3 C cornstarch
1 C heavy cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
pinch ground nutmeg
 1 1/2 C warm milk
1 C unsweetened shredded cocconut (I like to grind it up really fine.)

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2.  Put the eggs, sugar, and cornstarch in a bowl and whisk them together.  Add the heavy cream gradually, while whisking.  Whisk in the vanilla, nutmeg and milk.
3.  Sprinkle the cocconut on the bottom and up the sides of the pie crust, spreading it evenly.  It will rise to the top while baking.
4.  Put the pie plate on a baking tray and pour the custard into the crust about three quarters of the way up.  Carefully place the tray with crust in the middle of oven rack and pour the remaining custard filling into the crust until you come to the top of the pie pan.  You don't want to overfill- (If I ever have extra I like to bake it in a separate dish and eat it plain later.)
5.  Bake until the top of the pie is golden and it doesn't shake in the middle when moved, about 30-35 min.  Remove from the oven and let the pie cool, then cover loosely with plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.  The pie may be served at once or refrigerated for up to 2 days.  Serve cold topped with whipped cream.

Happy New Year!

Is this supposed to be fun, mom?  

We went up to the cabin for New Year's Eve this year.  It was freezing cold up there, but we had a great time sledding and snowmobiling.  Despite the freezing temperatures (-6), the ice was not completely frozen over on the lake because it hadn't been this cold long enough so we couldn't ice fish. 

We had fun sledding down the big hill behind the cabin and then my dad would pick us up at the bottom with a snowmobile.  It was lots of fun!

All bundled up for the snowmobile ride out 

I took this picture in the truck on the way home from the cabin.  Little Jordan was exhausted! 

The kids have had a lot of fun playing out in the snow this year. This was out on our
little "hill" in the backyard when our friend Andy and his girls came up for a visit.
  

Jan 6th- our happy baby having tummy time!

 We had a few free tickets from Kyle's Jr. Jazz, so we took our whole family to the Jazz game in Salt Lake on Jan 19th.   Since we were down that way, we stopped and visited my Oma and Opa.   We had a nice few hours together.

By the time we got to the game, Jordan was so exhausted, he just fell asleep in my arms.  There is nothing sweeter than having a baby sleep on you!   It didn't last long, though.  As tired as he was, and as hard as I tried to cover his ears, there were too many loud noises.

We had a great time watching the game until Heidi unexpectedly THREW UP all over the seat.  After that, everything was a blur.  Aaron and I were cleaning it all up and then we took everyone home.  I think we get the record for having our kids throw up unexpectedly in the most random places.  (Last year Jared threw up on Aaron in sacrament meeting.    We just thought he was really tired that day.  No one had been sick.  I think it was one of my most embarrassing moments EVER.)  We listened to the rest of the game in the van on the way home.   We wanted to take a few more pictures, but hadn't planned on leaving in a rush.    FUN TIMES!  

Christmas 2012

Erika had another good year singing with her Tavaci group.  Above is a picture at her Christmas performace this year.  She sure loves to sing and really gets into it!

Kyle brought home this "ELF APPLICATION" one day from school and Aaron and I got a few laughs out of it!  What a cute idea!   He mentioned "we have an elf at home" because this year we DID have an elf come to our house.  He came the night of December 6th, St. Nicholas day when the kids leave their shoes out and get yummy surprises left in them.  Our elf appeared the next morning, straight from the North Pole to watch them and report nightly to Santa who was being naughty or nice.   They had a lot of fun looking for him every morning as he would move to a new location in our house every night.   It is so much fun to share the excitement the kids have for Christmas traditions!  

Jordan's first time with Santa at the ward Christmas party 

We spent a few days before Christmas down at the Michel's.  It was great for the kids to get the chance to play with their cousins and for siblings to spend time together, too.   We went to grandma Schulz's Christmas party on Friday, Saturday we went on trax to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights.  Sunday we had a big dinner and Christmas program and opened some presents.  It was a really nice weekend!

All the grandkids with Oma and Opa (missing baby Jordan who was sleeping

We came home the morning of Christmas Eve (drove home in a blizzard).  It was nice to spend Christmas at home with our own family.  We had a little program that night with the traditional reading and acting out of the nativity and a lot of Christmas songs.  

What an adorable little shepherd!

What a great time of the year- when we can be reminded constantly of our Savior and the wonderful things he has done for us!   

Christmas morning was nice, too.  We enjoyed just staying home with our family, playing with some of the kids' new toys and being together.