March!

Oh my goodness, I just scrolled through this post and almost threw up at how. freaking. many. pictures there are. It took me a day and a half just to load the pictures because blogger randomly kept doing all but four and I was too lazy to find those four... but I did finally this morning... and for a while I thought maybe it was a sign that I should break this into two shorter posts, but that sounded also like a lot of work sooo let's just do this thing:

Starting, as perhaps all posts should, with a picture of the cutest daddy/daughter duo this side of the little creek across the street from our house:

 

This was after church the first Sunday in March, which was actually an area conference broadcast from Meridian. Elder L. Tom Perry spoke to us and it was so wonderful.

 Later that week we availed ourselves of Grandma Pam's free time as she watched the kids so that Chuck and I could attend ward temple night, and then the next day so that I could attend a funeral and help at the luncheon afterwards. I got home in time for a walk and took this picture, which I love mostly because of the people in it and also because it looks like Jack and Clyde are skipping as part of some sort of Newsies song and dance number...

Favorite guy, favorite place, favorite level of pixelization...

That weekend the kiddos and I met up with my papa to go to a rock and gem show in Caldwell. This is the sort of thing that I always think sounds super cool but highly unmanageable by myself - but it was perfect with Grandpa along! My dad loves rocks and gemstones and the boys were quickly enthralled:

They had some fun hands-on activities for the kids; pretty sure we went through like twelve trays of sand as we sifted our way to some pretty cool finds.

Sometimes I take pictures of my kids facing the sun just because it makes me laugh. Thanks Dad for a fun day!!

After the rock show, we came home and played in the front yard until Chuck got home from work! There was some bike riding (Jack just recently made his debut as a legit bike rider) and some Harry Potter wand wielding, and some pretty attractive selfie taking ;).

Sister Corse (my Sunday School team teacher) turned 86 the first Saturday in March, so we celebrated the next day in class with decorations and treats and a group picture. She LOVED it and we love her, so it was perfect.

I don't remember why I took this other picture of Sunday School, but I just love those girls! And the bottom right is from when Chuck and I headed over to Skyview later that week and saw Bethany in the Crucible! Oh man, I hadn't read or seen that since high school; it was pretty intense. Bethany was fantastic.

Of all the things that Will has inherited from me, his least favorite might be teeth that don't wiggle and fall out on their own - sorry kiddo! His two front bottom teeth were holding strong, even while the adult teeth were coming in behind and it was causing enough discomfort that we decided to get them yanked out. Probably will happen again - I think all my baby teeth had to be pulled at the dentist. Will was a superstar though; he loves the dentist and the doctor and all of that - he was SO excited to get his name up on the 'lost tooth' poster in his classroom at school :). His note afterwards made me laugh though - "How will I eat?"

 Luckily after a milkshake with Daddy, he felt good enough to come home and join in on a family bike ride and fun in the backyard.

The new library had its big grand opening in March and we were sooo excited! Chuck had a prior obligation that morning (reffing church bball, hahaha) but the kids and I braved the chill to watch the ribbon-cutting ceremony. They were all possibly less than thrilled but we love Nampa and we love the library and I promised that someday they would think it was cool that they were there for this occasion.

We came back that afternoon with Chuck to explore the inside and hear a couple of his young men play with their respective orchestras as part of the opening day festivities. We also admired the new children's area, learned how to use the automated check-in system, and found Clyde's circle amongst the elementary school-provided artwork. The new library is amazing, and we love it!!

Random pictures after church the Sunday before St. Patrick's day. Have I mentioned how much the kids love the new playpen, aka truck?

That night Chuck and I got to don our Scouting finest for a Court of Honor! As the Scouting Advancement Chair I got to present the boys with their awards and merit badges and as the Young Men's president, Chuck got to explain all of the upcoming summer activities. Oh, and as the Bishop, Bishop Swenson got to explain the financial side to the upcoming summer activities. Basically I got the fun job ;).

St. Patrick's Day was merrily celebrated with Lucky Charms for breakfast and Will brought home this worksheet, prompting loads of laughter - the idea of finding legit gold coins never entered Will's head, but gold-wrapped chocolate or golden colored cookies?? He's there.

We had a Relief Society activity that night (that I spoke for a couple minutes at! fun) and as part of the theme, we could dress up. I obviously opted to.

The older boys started piano lessons in mid-March. We had talked about it a while ago, but Will randomly announced at the beginning of the month that he was getting piano lessons for his birthday. Super matter of fact. The next day I read that a friend in our ward was offering a ten-week beginning piano course. Perfect timing!

Both boys have jumped right in and love it; we've since switched teachers (Sister Rodriguez moved) but we were able to make a pretty seamless transition to Sister Christensen and the boys are doing great!

Chuck had just been waiting for the weather to warm up a bit to get Will on his bike sans training wheels. As an overprotective mom, I was chill to have Will stay artificially balanced for years to come, but it turns out Chuck was right and Will took right to it (with a couple requisite spills along the way, of course):

And if Chuck took the opportunity to commandeer a bike every now and then, so be it ;).

The Friday before Spring Break was music program day for the boys and it was hi-larious to see the different levels of enthusiasm between the two boys. Clyde begrudgingly sang along... Will jumped right into his role as a farmer and merrily danced the afternoon away!

At the same time, Sam's med school 'match day' could be live-streamed! I got to watch part of it before I left the house (including briefly seeing Miko and Terri in their seats!) but then mostly missed Sam announcing his match and overseeing the other announcements as president of his class - my internet connection at the music program was pretty sketchy, but I got a couple screenshots of him. Sam is such a superstar and I have loads of admiration for how smart and hard-working he is and I'm grateful for all the free medical advice he willingly dispenses!

Also that day was the state competition for high school dance teams and I got to go watch Braenna in action! (Heather was on a school trip to Europe. #priorities). I got there early enough to watch a few of the different schools' performances and HOLY MOLY these kids are dedicated and talented!

The kids and I got to help with an Eagle project one Saturday! It consisted of hanging out with Andy and Adam at the Stake Center and collecting books for a book drive and possibly fitting seven people into the truck, whoops ;). Good times!

My dad sweetly volunteered to accompany me to Stake Conference so that I wouldn't have to wrangle the four kids alone (Chuck was at work). One hilarious story: Carma was wandering around our row and the aisle way and then I got caught up in the talk for a few minutes and wasn't paying a lot of attention. I randomly turned to the side a bit and saw a family holding a little girl that looked like Carma - OH WAIT IT WAS CARMA. My stranger-anxiety child had wandered over to some random family in the stake and allowed them to pick her up, hahaha. She stayed there for a bit and then came back over to me and I heartily rolled my eyes at my stellar parenting.

Some random shots of the kids + Ashtyn during spring break. We loved that the weather was warm enough to hang out in the front yard!!

Speaking of front yards, here's my mom's!! She closed on her new house in March and after new floors and carpet and paint, she moved in at the end of the month. It's beautiful and nearby and perfect for her, and Jack and Carma swear by the rocks and rock-y sidewalk ;).

Random pictures of the four sweetest kids ever. Whenever I can't get Carma to sleep and Chuck is home, he rocks her on the front porch while they listen to church music until she falls asleep - and then he sends me a picture ;). And when Jack isn't defending our family with his Star Wars blaster, he's putting a monkey and a baby doll in Carma's high chair, hahaha. And the picture on the middle left is Clyde and Will singing primary songs together on a Sunday morning - a pretty frequent occurrence that KILLS me every time.

Okay, one thing that Clyde inherited from me is possibly his sass - I found these notes (on the left) on his homework, one saying Hi to Miss Wiltrout and one helpfully explaining that he didn't like the assignment at all, hahahaha. I seriously used to write notes to my teachers on tests and assignments all the time - legitimately really similar in tone and sentiment. The other picture is a page of notes that Clyde took for me at the area broadcast with Elder Perry. I was out in the hall with Jack and Carma, so Clyde grabbed the notebook I'd been using and took over. SO sweet.

Oh, the day after Will's birthday we may have started a new tradition: eating the leftover birthday cake... off one plate like savages... whilst sitting on the trampoline.

Ohhh Jack and Carma. Always together. Always on my lap:

We sold our station wagon in March! So sad; we loved that vehicle a lot. We bought it back in the spring of 2005 and for ten years it was a crucial part of our family - I found a few pictures of it from back in the day, little Clyde and little Will playing in it, me in labor on the way to have Will, adding loads and loads of miles to it - I think it was just under 200,000 at the end there. The Saturn will always cheesily have a place in our hearts.

We wrapped up March with a fun visit from Chuck's parents!! They got here just in time for Pops to help Chuck fix the moving van that lit'rally fell apart as I was driving it, grrr. Then they spent the day having fun and adventures (while I was at my girls' day) that carried over all weekend! Chuck and his dad switched out the seats in the truck, Terri helped the kids make super cool sugar Easter eggs, the boys got the special Star Wars pancakes that only seem to get made when Grammy's in town, and more:

On Monday while Chuck was at work and the older boys were at school, we divided and conquered: Pops and Jack went on a special manly day (pawn shops, gun stores, etc) and Carma and I took Terri around to the new library and to Target. Carma was drawn to the witchcraft shelf at the library bookstore, soooooo...

We concluded their visit with dinner from Freddy's, eaten picnic style at the park where all four Izatt children (and one Izatt daddy) adorable swung their little hearts out:

Thanks again for coming Grammy and Pops! 

And there's March! Blogged about only two months after February. If I continue at this rate, I will be all caught up never, haha...