Welcome Home!

 The day had arrived that Jim & Renae return from their mission serving as public relations missionaries in New Zealand!  The kids were so giddy!  Don't let Brandon's expression fool you.  He was just tired of waiting….

 Aunt Norma and Uncle Dwight

 The boys!  Doug, Cath & family were waiting in the wrong terminal, but made it over in plenty of time

 Sydney had made this awesome sign!  Then, she almost didn't bring it in.  Amanda said that they have to have it and brought it!  Sydney and Grandpa have a fun thing where they call each other by the wrong names.  Grandpa is Fred.  Sydney is Michelle.  Sydney made Jim a Fred card that was sent to him on his mission.  He loved it and put it in his cubicle and then the other missionaries in the office started calling him Fred, too!

 Kaili & Ryan

Mike teasing with the nephews

 photo cred: Catherine…..They've been spotted!

 These are my photos again:

 Photo cred: Catherine.  The Grandkids buried them in a group hug! That's when I started tearing up!

 my photos again...

 photo cred: Catherine….Amanda was in tears! Such a fun reunion!

my photos again

 I love these pictures of Mike and his mom

 The family!

 Happy & Beautiful Granddaughters

 Mike & his Dad

3rd Grade Wax Museum

The morning of the Grandparent's Return, was Brandon's 3rd Grade Wax Museum.  I should also mention that Grandma & Grandpa Gibson were in St George because Papa had to have emergency surgery while visiting Bud & Kay.  Uncle Darin was good enough to drive down there and be with my parents while they were getting through those first couple of days so I didn't have to miss this!  

 I would have been so sad because look how cute this Albert Einstein is!!  Brandon chose AB and then did a biography on him.

 He had been working on it for a few months and this wax museum was the highlight!  Two classes at a time of the 3rd graders were posing in the gym/museum and parents came to see their great work and great costumes! We had so many people tell us they didn't recognize Brandon and that they loved his costume the best!

It was a little hard to find a great wig, but we finally got one the week of.  We loved this end of year program!  So cute and creative and FuN for the kids! Isn't he so CuTE!  We love you Brando!!

Prepping for Grandparents Return!

About a month ago, Jim emailed Mike and asked him to hire a maid service to come prepare their house before they got home and to not mention it to Renae.

Well, Mike and I decided that we weren't going to hire anyone (except to clean the outside windows) and that the grandkids as well as the kids….could do the service ourselves. 

 We had a great time working side by side!

 Playing with Grandma's glasses

 And after a good day's work, we went to Smashburger for lunch!

Kellie and I took home rugs and bedding.  Then, we met on Thursday and finished the floors, vacuuming and mopping and went to put the rugs back….and couldn't remember where some of them went! The first thing Jim said when he walked in the house was, 'Is this rug new?'  Nope, we just put it in the wrong place!

Spring Break

Spring Break was really short this year.  Only Friday to Tuesday.  Mike had to work Friday, so we left for St George Saturday morning.

The girls and I went to the General Womens broadcast with the Wilson girls! We headed to Iggy's afterward because it was the least crowded of the restaurants in St George!

 It was very fun!

 Amanda was having some drama with some other friends that happened to be down there. We are grateful for Liz and her loyalty.  Amanda's drama continued through much of April and we are hoping things have settled down now. She is stressed with dance, friends and school, so summer will be very welcomed in her life!!

We saw Bud & Kay and decided to do FHE with them since it was Monday.  They wanted to go to Chuck a Rama and even bought our dinner!  They are very sweet :)

The weather had turned very nice for a week….so Brandon and I headed out to the tramp.  He was trying to perfect his front flip and I was taking pictures with my phone.  We just laughed and laughed about these poses!

He did get the front flip down and is now a pro :)

Busy busy busy

 Something about April….it kicks busy into high gear!

 So, let's catch up!  This photo above is Amanda and her friends recreating Pretty Little Liars…one of their favorite tv shows. I think they did a great job!  They also did Duck Dynasty. That one's pretty funny too and I'll post if I find it.

With the Winter Olympics happening this past February, our family was glued to fun events like Slopestyle Skiing and Snowboarding, Bordercross, among other X Game type sports.  Amanda loves snowboarding so much and so she knew about these guys below before we did, but we joined right in once we started watching!

 Joss Christensen, a Park City native, won the first ever slope style Gold in Skiing.  His Dad died within the last year. He dedicated the medal to him.  There was a meet and great in Park City on conference weekend, and so we took the kids, along with Amanda's friend, Chezney, so they could meet Joss & Sage.

 So so nice and pretty cute kid!  We tweeted that we met him and instagramed it and he liked it!  The girls were on the moon about that!

 And Sage Kotsenberg…not born in Utah…but raised in Park City….he won the first ever Gold medal in Slopestyle snowboard.

 Brandon got his skiing helmet signed….pretty dang cool!

 The girls got the photos they hand out signed and were super excited about that!

It was really fun to see them so excited to meet these guys they had seen win Gold on tv and that they may or may not have crushes on :)