April: the day we finally became real Nampans aka went to Jump Creek

Here's the deal: if you've never been to Jump Creek, you basically don't even live in Nampa. It's a cool trail/hiking area/waterfall a bit o' a drive away towards... Marsing?... and is a wayyyy popular spot to traipse around. Everyone has been there. Like, if I'm trying to facebook stalk someone who lives in Nampa and they have a somewhat common name, I scan each profile's pictures for one with a Jump Creek background. Then I know I got the right person. I'm not super sure how we managed to live in Nampa for almost nine years without EVER going there, but our time had run out. Basically our homeowners taxes were going to double if we didn't get out there pretty quick. The county was going to repossess our 2C license plates. Our local elementary school had plans to bar our children from admittance. 

Thus we had no choice: Jump Creek it was! 

We packed up the kiddos and a picnic dinner and headed out after school and day.

Right off the bat Jump Creek was out to win us over. I'm not super outdoorsy but man do I love some pretty looking rocks and greenery. I don't love them enough to learn what kind of rocks and greenery they are, but I will straight up take twenty pictures of them, no problem!

The hike/walk was pretty fun and nice and chill, which is definitely my style of hiking/walking. I was thrilled to look over these pictures when we got home and realize how photogenic we are as hikers/walkers. I don't know if Jump Creek has a tourism board or anything, but interested parties may feel free to contact us re: modeling contracts.

More action shots! Clyde especially was thrilled to scurry up and down and around, and I only worried about him breaking a bone like twelve times:

We found the waterfall! Suuuuper pretty. We hunkered down in this area for a while and ate our dinner and enjoyed the beautiful evening. 

Aaaand took some pictures! Because.

Okay, let's ignore the fact the faux pax of Jack wearing his hat during a prayer and me, um, taking a picture during a prayer BUT HOW CUTE IS JACK? His socks kill me. Sometimes Chuck and I try to help him put them on, but he assures us that he prefers them backwards.

Okay, I was mostly joking about us being rugged outdoorsy models, but then I found these next few and I'm back to being convinced that it might be our collective calling in life:

Will might be our best shot - look at that range! Prefer a more predictable, classic smile? He's got you covered, top left. You want to open up a little, give him some freedom to choose a pose? He'll hit you with the double peace signs, top right. Hood on? Got it. Hood off? He's your man.

Couple more group shots on the trail and at the waterfall:

 So glad we finally made it out there and are legit Nampans and had such a fun evening as a fam and that I have 98 pictures as evidence that I'm super outdoorsy and an avid hiker hahaha. Until next time Jump Creek!

April: Church Stuff

We kicked off April with General Conference, and boyyyy were the kiddos thrilled to welcome back the candy bowls! Will made adorable, creative labels for each bowl, first with sticky notes and illustrations (primary, Book of Mormon, repent, and thank you) and then getting a bit fancier with beaded letters (beauty, family, love, and father):

We heavily relied on rotating activities to keep everyone somewhat quiet and reverent as we listened to talks. Stickers, beads, and coloring were hits...

but building structures with toothpicks and marshmallows was probably the fave, as usual:

We were thrilled to spend time outside between and after conference sessions. Carma wearing her hat and lying on the sidewalk to color is hilarious.

Also hilarious: Carma mostly folding her arms but also trying to do a spot of coloring during a closing prayer haha.

As always, so many things were said that I loved. Here's a roundup of a few that I stole from the internet:

Sunday evening after conference was a fun occasion: Andy's Eagle Court of Honor! One of my favorite things about my calling as Advancement Chair is watching these boys be honored and appreciated for their work, whether it's a merit badge or a rank advancement. 

It was a really fun evening and Andy totally caught me off guard by choosing to present me with the Eagle mentor pin. As I said in my fb post about it, "You're a superstar, Andy, it's been my pleasure to repeatedly push you off the cliff!! 🦅"

I cheated and instead of going to Ward Temple Night, I sneaked in earlier that afternoon by myself. I took the second picture after I left and I'm slightly obsessed with the depiction of the stormy skies and the beauty of the temple in the midst of it. 

Is there a more perfect visual representation of the storms of life and the peace that's available inside the temple?

Ugh, April meant saying good-bye to this beautiful girl and her family as they moved away. Braenna was such a fun part of the youth Sunday school class I taught a while back, and her cute brother Llyam is a sweetheart and Jodi and Tim are awesome as well - we were so bummed to see them go!

Our April Relief Society activity was a fun get to know you "mixer" - I sat everyone at tables and had random questions in a standing mixer that the women all answered and chatted. Every so often, I had some sisters rotate to a new table - all while we snacked on trail mix and Chex mix and other treats :). I neglected to take any pictures of the actual activity, but somehow I became the discard pile for everyone's name tags so I got a picture of that haha.

Pack meeting! Both boys got awards, and Will received his Wolf and moved onto Bears which meant I got a pin and a hug:

Then we moved into the gym for some PVC pipe rocket fun. Turns out some Cub Scout leaders are full of hot air, who knew? ;)

Temple date with so many awesome girls that we wouldn't all fit in a selfie!

JK, we woulda fit but Karlina's husband was there too so we recruited him as photographer. 

Chuck came home after meetings one Sunday morning and gathered the boys to ride their bikes back for church. We let Clyde and Will ride on their own on a pretty regular basis, but Jack isn't quiiiite ready to make that trek without an accompanying adult. Doesn't Jack's little thumbs up kill you?

Carma and I opted to travel by van. Carma also opted to be highly uncooperative when I was trying to take a cute picture of her cute dress and cute sandals and cute hair bow.

Couple Sundays represented here, including one where I cried REAL tears during sacrament meeting when Bishop Swenson announced their family would be moving to Texas in June for a job. Pretty sure at that moment I wasn't sure if I was more mad at Bishop, at Heavenly Father, or at Chuck for knowing for a few weeks and giving me ZERO heads up haha. Good news: if you tell Chuck something in confidence, it'll stay there!

So after church when various Izatt, Swenson, and Nelson children were running amok I lined up Hunter, Andrew, and Clyde for a picture. 

Also Raquel and I have an amazing tradition - when she wears bright lipstick, I get a kiss on the cheek haha! 

Aaaand now, please enjoy a few more random church thoughts I came across and saved throughout the month, starting with this President Hinckley quote:

and ending with this from a talk given by Sister Bingham. 

I sneaked over to the temple by myself later in April and found the only tulip display more impressive than our house - aren't these so gorgeous? 

And thus concludes random church-related stuff that occurred in April. 

March: The Rest

Let's jump right into the rest of March happenings in the Izatt home with the craziest member of the family, Carma Junie! Here she is in assorted situations and outfits. Carma was all about the warming weather and eagerly pulled out alllll the skirts to wear. Her hair got progressively longer and thus crazier. Her personality got progressively funnier!

I mean, the shots of her staring in her mirror are classic Carma.

Some of the ladies in Carma's life: her favorite doll from Sister Rolfson, ME, and her speech therapist Jen. At some point each visit Carma would worm her way into Jen's lap haha.

And some Carma + food shots, because, there were a lot of them so it emerged as a category haha. Nutella sandwiches continue to keep Carma alive, but she'll also allow Karlina's cupcakes, Lucky Charms cereal (for St. Patrick's Day), bananas, and veggie straws. Balanced diet if I e'er saw one!

Don't worry, the boys were around in March as well. Mostly lying around apparently haha. That's Willy boy on the top left; one of his favorite tricks is to sneak under our bed and fall asleep. It's super funny when I go check on all the kids and CAN'T FIND HIM ANYWHERE GRRRR. Also enjoy our Easter card courtesy of Jack and Grandma Pam. I think he put so many bunnies on there just to mess with me...

We stole some cute Walker boys one day and had a swell time. Jack was thrilled to change into his Minecraft Avengers shirt when Abram arrived wearing his haha. And Chuck won everyone over by giving them an unlimited supply of whipped cream/strawberry 'ice cream cones' (whipped cream is the ice cream.. strawberries are the cones...I mean, I feel like that was clear but just in case).

Totally stealing my own Instagram caption for this next one: "Day late/dollar short but happy #internationalwomensday 💃🏻I'm continuously grateful for and inspired by women who reach out and lift and encourage one another👏🏼, who are strong and stand up for themselves and others💪🏼, who are smart and capable👩🏽‍⚕️👩🏼‍🔬🚴🏼‍♀️👩🏻‍🏫🕵🏻‍♀️🏋🏻‍♀️👩🏾‍⚖️👩🏼‍🔧, who are generous and kind and loving🖖🏼👋🏼🙏🏼. Today I was legitimately sitting in my van in a parking lot 🚐 reflecting on my parenting choices 🤔and why my two-year-olds are always impossible to contain inside stores 🛒🏪 and how much Costco would charge to have an employee sit in your car with your kids while you go inside and shop and eat samples 🧀🍞🍫🥓🍗when suddenly someone tapped on my window - simultaneously scaring me to death 😱 and saving my life 😂. Em (and Alayna!) listened to my whiny ramblings😩 and gave Carma fruit snacks🍒🍇🍓🍊 and suddenly life seemed manageable again 🙌🏼. Women are amazing and I'm convinced I'm surrounded by the very best 😘😘😘."

Aaaand sticking with the girl power theme for another minute, we had girls' night yayyy! We met over at Nycole's which meant Ruby the Dog (as opposed to Ruby the Girl) sneaked into the picture ;). It was a lovely night full of very honest talk about how freaking hard parenting is, complete with video proof. So so so grateful that these girls (and Melinda and Nicole!) provide me a safe place to vent and learn and laugh and cry and tease and eat.

Friday before Spring Break = Music programs! First up was Willy Boy, who sang and danced and played the xylophone with the third grade as they had Beauty and the Beast for their theme:

Next up was Clyde Monster! Here he is enthusiastically standing, dancing, and sitting as the fifth grade shared some selections a la Hansel and Gretal.

Overall, Carma and Jack did great sitting in the elementary school gym for the two performances.

Although Carma saw her opening when Clyde's class headed over to the glockenspiels - if you follow the progression of pictures, she slowly eased her way over riiiight next to Clyde and stayed there for the whole song. Right about the time she gathered her courage to plop right into his lap and take possession of the mallets, the song ended haha!

The beginning of Spring Break brought some visitors: Grandma and Grandpa and Eli and Bri!

We fit in a lot the couple days they were here: bike rides, library trip, lots of books, games, and snuggles.

We hit up the library a few times, first up was Cody and Will attending a cool hands-on presentation about aquifers, then Will and Clyde participated in one of the art endeavors and got to see some of their art hung up in the library! We always have good intentions of making it to all the fun activities offered by the library but our follow through is sketchy - so I'm always glad when we do make it there!

Okay, this is random but this is literally how my veggie straws assembled themselves into my bowl one day - they love me, they really love me! I love them too, despite the fact that I haven't bought any since last spring. I keep waiting for them to go on sale at Costco so I can renew my addiction...

Another Spring Break day found us at the Discovery Center with Grandpa for some fun. Have I mentioned how much we loved my dad's pass this year?

 Each of the kiddos has a favorite spot or exhibit, and it's fun to watch which ones they gravitate towards. We ran into Clyde's good buddy Brenden from church which was fun!

 Random picture from workout class. Stephanie is basically the best. We sent this to Nicole so she'd know we miss her!

Might as well follow up a workout picture with a food picture, right? Chuck delved into quiche making recently and ohhhh man. So good. Also, I had no idea until this point in my life that some people don't like quiche. WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE? Eggs, bacon, cheese, sausage, green onions, pie crust, deliciousness.

 Aaaaand we will end with the same girlie we started with: Carma June. The boys got to hang out with Grandma Pam and Carma was less than thrilled with being left behind. So when Grandma dropped them off, Carma sweet talked her way into going on her own adventure with Grammy!

 I feel like we got the 'in like a lion, out like a lamb' thing a little backwards, but ohh well haha! That was March!