April

General Conference/Easter! 

We started Saturday morning off with DONUTS before Conference.

Who will win, the alligator or Shannon?

 Clearly, the alligator.

 How we kept busy while watching the different sessions of conference: Dying eggs, pretending Hayden is a baby...

 drawing/coloring...

 and playing picasso tiles!

 Rachel's minimalist art:

 The finished product after egg dying:

 Our Easter Decor, for Easter dinner with Granddaddy:

 Our Microwave broke. We went a couple weeks without while we debated about whether to try to fix the old one...then we finally bought a new one and got it all installed! Yay for being able to warm up leftovers and pop some popcorn again!

 Spring Break! We went to feed the ducks.

 And once it started raining we went to get Maliya's ears pierced! AAHHHH!

 Hayden has developed a bit of an obsession with watching our visitors as they leave. He really stresses about making sure he can get to the window in time to see them go. He always opens the window, too, so that he can repeatedly yell "GOODBYE!!"

 Rachel made this cute banner for Maliya's birthday. Ten already???

 She wanted to get her presents opened first thing in the morning! (After her requested birthday breakfast: Coffee Cake)

 A new fancy recorder!

 A Wrinkle In Time

 Jewelry and a box to keep it in! She's been so excited to get those ears pierced!

 Then we rode Trax up to Temple Square.

Katie tried to count how many missionaries we saw at Temple Square. It was super cute.

 Waiting for the train home. They had these funny sculptures/rocks.

 Surprise! Another present! A MOUNTAIN BIKE!! She was really wanting one!

And everyone else wanted to join in the biking fun!

 Maliya's reaction when her dad put one candle in her cake and said "Look, it's one candle and zero candles. That's how you do 10!"

 Then Maliya showed him how to do a better "10"

 A 1 and a 0

 I can't believe she's 10. Even now. Weeks later. I'm still so upset about it.

Who would sleep with their face smashed up against the headboard? Rachel.

Maliya got to take a few friends to the Curiosity Museum and then Swig for her birthday.

 And some balloons/treats from her Activity Days leaders. She got so spoiled!

Date night at paint nite!!

 Enjoying the nice weather with Ellie and Cece

 Katie getting a little run in.

 Wink wink.

 Rachel wanted me to take this picture and put it in our blog book and say "Look how little Rachel looks next to this big dump truck!"

 And Maliya wanted in on that, too!

 Katie wanted to be like Rachel, so she struck this pose when I came in to say goodnight to her!

 Mommy son date to swig!

 Puddle stomping! We were a little too late getting outside and most of the water was already gone. But it was fun, anyway.

 Puzzles!

 Rachel's field trip to the aquarium. I wasn't there but her teacher is great about uploading pictures from their class onto a classroom instagram account.

 And then there was SNOW!

 Hayden and I were able to get out and play in it before it all melted.

 Katie and Hayden...so, who was being naughty and made it so you had to sit and hold hands???

Yup.
Brian's grandma passed away, and we decided to go ahead and miss some school and some activities we had planned on doing, so that we could all go to the funeral together.
Snow again!

 But then we took off for sunny Arizona! A quick rest stop in Saint George:

 Along the drive, we found ourselves driving through Nothing. Nothing Arizona. Hee hee

 When we got to Great Grandpa Topham's house, the kids were astounded that he had a pool right in his own back yard!! Coolest thing ever! They persistently asked to hop in right then and for the remainder of our stay in Arizona.

And it was adorable to see my sweet Maliya try to help Rachel learn to swim.

We also went for a gorgeous evening walk.

They were able to each choose a doily, hand crocheted by their Great Grandma Topham.

Who's attacking whom?

On display, outside of Great Grandma's funeral, were a number of pictures as well as incredible items that she had made. She was a very talented and service oriented woman. It was fun for the kids to see it all and learn more about her.

Brian's immediate family that was able to come to the funeral:

Brian's dad's immediate family:

At Great Grandpa's house, after the funeral. All the girls were allowed to pick out some of Great Grandma's old jewelry to keep.

That evening, we rewarded the kids for having been SO good over the last two days, by going out to ice-cream.

Desert scenery.

We stopped at the Glenn Canyon Dam...

 And even checked out the Hayden Visitor Center! Nice!
 

Stopped at a little local burger place for some dinner. and Brian tried one of their deep fried twinkies! Dipped in chocolate! Yum!

We stayed at a Hotel in Cedar City, along with Grandma and Grandpa, and enjoyed some swimming!

Then off to Paragonah for the burial. It is a tiny town, the city park was adjacent to the church, so the kids were able to keep busy while we waited.

There were several Tophams in that cemetery.

We got back Saturday evening, just in time to go to Brad and Gayle's birthday "Murder Mystery" dinner. It was a really fun activity and Gayle got a peanut and a raisin in the end. Apparently an inside joke with her kids.

I walked outside one day and found Maliya trying to climb onto the roof. I'm glad those decorative rocks don't go any higher.

Hayden and I out on a bike ride while his sisters are at school. He's a pretty cool kid.

On a bike ride, and we found another one of Hayden's bikes that he left somewhere around the neighborhood. So I rode it back. Ha! Not really. That would have been awful.

My little princess, carefully practicing her spelling.

Tulip festival!

It was fun to look for all the clogs with names.

The First Vision scene in the Light of the World garden.

 "No pictures, please."

 SO hot and tired.

Rachel's teacher had their class vote on an endangered species to "adopt" (get a stuffed animal version of), then they each got turns to take it home and do journal about what they did together.

Maliya ran her first race! The Tulip Festival fun run!

The polar bear came to support, too.

She did pretty well, 4th for her division.

As we walked back to the car, Hayden was just talking Katie's ear right off. I was struck by how grateful I am that my kids are friends with eachother.

The bear was a participant in all our activities for the weekend...

Window washing...

Card games...etc

The kids have been spending hours at a time playing with Picasso tiles, lately. They are drawn to them before school, after school, after dinner, any spare minute they have.

Hayden fell out of bed one night, before I had even finished saying goodnight to Maliya! It didn't wake him up, either. He must have been pretty tired!