We love to see the temple

Our Primary at church planned a great activity this year.  We took a trip to the temple in Raleigh.  Since you have to be at least twelve to go IN the temple, the little ones don't often get to even see it!  What a great idea to make a special trip just for them to see the beautiful building and feel of the peaceful spirit there.  We even had a member of the temple presidency speak to us for a few minutes.  It was a beautiful day and the girls both LOVED it and have continued to talk about it for the past few days.  (Brandon had his soccer end-of-year-party, so missed out.)

 Trying to sneak a peek inside.  :)

Savannah and Whitney evaluated the landscaping

and came up with suggestions for improvements.

Future landscape architects?

I was so happy to share these sweet moments with Whitney and Caroline.

Wannabe Farmers

One of our favorite times of year is when we get to plant our garden!  It's one of the few family projects that we all work on together.  It's so rewarding.  The weather has been so (relatively) cold, but we finally had a nice weekend with no interruptions, so we got to work.

This year we are trying tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce, basil, peas, radishes, and carrots.  Oh, and our spinach plant from last year lived all through the winter and is still going strong.  Here's hoping for some bountiful harvests!

Spring Soccer 2013

So, the way our soccer league works, if you played in the fall and sign up in again in the spring, you get to be on the same team as you were in the fall.  Brandon was very excited about this because
1. his team was really good in the fall.
2. he already knew a lot of the players.

It was a GREAT season.  His team went undefeated, winning all eight of their games.  They scored 27 goals and only had TWO scored on them.  It was awesome!  The players progressed a lot and it was neat to see them come together and work as a team more.

The championship game for the tournament was last week.  We thought we had it in the bag.  It's a dangerous thing to think that way.  B's team ended up losing 2-1.  I felt so bad for those boys.  In the fall, they finished in second place by penalty kicks.  And this time they lost by a single goal.  Tough times.  Lessons were learned.

Brandon mostly played forward (striker?) this season.  They also put him in as goalie a couple of times.  That stressed his parents out, but he did great and didn't allow a single goal. He's working on being more aggressive & running AT the ball instead of around it.  He loves soccer and wants to try out for the middle school team next year.

 A little sideline entertainment

One of 27 post-goal celebrations

Taking his turn as team co-captain

That's a whole lotta goal to cover.

But he was calm, cool...

and under control.

Go Thunder!

What April Looks Like

Connie gave me an effective lesson on packing my van to the brim

as we loaded things for the YW yard sale fundraiser.

Look closely--can you see how the leaves make a heart shape?

Whit and her three friends all made A Honor Roll.

I was so proud of them!

They're a musical bunch of kids.

Especially love those drums.

She calls these her nerd glasses.

I think they're ADORABLE.

First family Grasshoppers game of the season.

It was a little soggy, and the Hoppers lost, but

we still had a GREAT time.

She told me this was her "smolder."