Fathers-n-Sons--Female Version

Us girls spent the night painting nails and eating an amazing fondue! It was awesome!

We then watch a chick flick that I can't seem to remember the name of! LOL!

The next morning we had an amazing breakfast of smoothies and pancakes!

Fathers-n-Sons---male version

Anthony took the boys to my parent's fathers and sons activity. They had a blast playing on the toys and doing the other activities that were there. 

They had this thing there that you could spin in, but thankfully, my kids weren't allowed to do that. Sitting was a good alternative. 

They all slept in the van! They folded down the seats, turned on a movie, and got comfy!  What a great end to a fun day!

Peter's 1st Grade Program

In May Peter had his 1st Grade program! They did a patriotic theme! 

Bad photo of Peter walking in...sigh..oh well

Searching for us...They did an amazing job singing and even brought me to tears at one point with the rendition of "I'm Proud to be an American."

The support group! 

Newest Member of Our Family

This is our new van! 

A 2005 Town and Country! 

It took us 3 very long days to decided on it. We spent most of the day Monday driving around looking at cars, most of Tuesday night, and finally decided on this Wednesday. 

It has only 80,000 miles on it, which is the lowest that any of our cars have had, and has been treated very well. It has the awesome Stow-n-Go seating that I have wanted for like forever and a DVD player, which our kids have absolutely loved.  It has side pockets in the doors for garbage or whatever! (Did you know that A LOT of vans don't have that? I thought it was a basic feature!) My favorite feature is the power doors that I can open from my key chain or a button inside in the van.  It makes grocery shopping so much easier! 

It has been awesome to have a new van...

just wish that it wasn't because of my accident. 

Andrew's Preschool Graduation

Andrew graduated from Preschool near the end of April. He had an amazing teacher that challenged him and encouraged him to be the best he could. Thanks to her, Andrew is reading! Sadly, Ms. Jeni moved shortly after this! She is, and will continue to be, very missed. 

Some of Andrew's classmates

Andrew's special present that he made for us

One last hug for his teacher that he has had for two years

Now he's off to conquer Kindergarten!

Parent's Day

In April they had Parent's Day at Peter's school to honor and thank all the parents for their help and support. Anthony and I both got to come and have lunch with Peter at this school. He was so excited to have us there. 

If you look closely, you can see my oh so lovely knee brace in this photo. I got a new one a few days after this and wore it for almost my whole summer. I may do more on that later. 

The Accident

As you can see, I was in an accident  in April.

I was in a hurry, running a little late to pick up Peter from school ( he tends to get worried if I'm not near the front of the pick up line). I stopped at the stoplight because it was red. As I sat there, my mind began to wander and think about all the many, many things that I still had left in my day to complete. My other three children were actually not fighting or arguing and were being quiet. I thought I saw the light turn green and began to proceed through the intersection. Much to my horror and complete surprise, a truck slammed into me. My first thought was to make sure that everyone was okay and then I began the process of blaming. I blamed the other driver for running the red light and wondering if they had good insurance. And I had a complete change of thought. I began to rehearse the accident in my mind. I could not actually picture the green light in my mind, no matter how many times I went through it.  That's when I began to realize that I was probably to blame. (My I-get-it moment... judge not, that ye be not judged. )

I called my husband with shaking hands and he appeared minutes later. Everyone was so kind, nice, and understanding. Even the other driver! I couldn't say that I would have been if the role had been reversed. Neighbors and friends appeared to help take care of my children. My brother called and teasingly asked what I had been doing that day but then instantly became serious when I told where I was. He came to my rescue as well and was there to drive us home when my husband had to go with the tow truck.

Thankfully, no one was seriously injured. I have had some bruising from the seat belt which had limited some of my abilities ( like bending, breathing, sleeping, or anything else that requires the use of chest muscles,,, FYI...did you know that you use your chest muscles when you use the bathroom?   Well, you do...LOL!) but that is all! Pretty miraculous considering the alternative!

I am so thankful to those that have provided service to my family at this time, whether it was taking my kids, making meals, or simply prayers. Thank you all so much!

 I have had some time to reflect on this and I have found it incredible that in a busy intersection, on a Friday, at  school pickup time, that only one car hit me, and that no other cars were involved! There was no pile up, or other fender benders. 

I had two meals brought into me with in two hours of the accident! 

There have been no lasting affects of the accident! My kids are fine. I was sure they would have nightmares or other problems but they have bounced back incredibly. (Matthew does ask me whenever we go over a bump that kind of scraps the bottom of our van, if I hit another car..LOL). I attribute this mostly to the fact that I didn't see the truck and thus didn't brace for the impact, thus causing other possibly injuries. 

And my wonderful Hero, has been so understanding and only got upset with me when I said sorry for the fortieth time. 

It was a nice, sweet lady that was driving the truck. It could have been a mean-tempered man who jumped out of his truck and yelled at me and called me a lot of bad names. 

I have been so blessed!!!

A Kitchen Update

I finally talked Anthony into getting a new faucet for our kitchen! I love it!! It has been awesome to have a high neck! So much easier to fill pans and do the dishes! 

We also got a new dishwasher...

Suzy likes to do the pre-rinse. 

April Conference

Conference has always been something that I have looked forward to and dread at the same time. Looking forward to having the spirit in my home and being able to hear council from our prophets and leaders is my favorite part BUT with four small children it has proven very difficult to actually get anything out of conference. One day I found this idea on Pinterest and decided to give it a go. It was AWESOME!!!

For every member of the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12 Apostles, I made a bag with their picture on it. In each bag was either a treat ( a healthy and non sugar to help with hyperactivity) or an activity (like playdough, velcro sticks, playdough, coloring pages). My kids were really excited by this and with every speaker where running over and seeing if their picture matched any of the bags. When it did they would sit quickly and do the activity until it was time to do the next bag! AWESOME!! 

We were actually able to sit and watch two full sessions at our own home. Usually we decided to drive around for a session so we can hear. We did decide to go to my family's for the Sunday sessions since its tradition. 

This was by far the most favorite activity. Marshmallow temple building! 

This is Peter working on his. 

Andrew doing his. 

My brothers decided they needed to get in on it as well.

The family all together.

Julia found Uncle Glen's skateboard later and decided to test her moves.

I'm really excited about the idea of conference coming again soon. My kids can't wait to see what will be in our bags this time. 

Our 2012 Easter

We celebrated Easter this year by doing this countdown. Instead of doing them all in one setting like my family did when I was little...we did one every day for 12 days for scripture study. It was a great way to bring Easter into our home.

We had a new cousin come into our family. Cute baby Jenna! 

We headed down to Firth for conference and had fun dying eggs during one of the breaks.

We then had our annual egg hunt! 

This is how Matthew felt after a weekend at Grandmas! 

The Monday after Easter we had a Tietjen Family Easter Egg hunt!

It was a great Easter and we had a lot of fun being with family and remembering why we  have Easter.