Zavoral Villa: Spring in Full Swing

We have been enjoying spring time a lot here! These pictures are from April 10 to May 5.

I took the boys to the park one morning on our way home from Momtime (an interfaith group of moms that get together for devotionals and friendship once a week. I love it!). Dallin fell asleep in the car, so I got to play with Tanner all by himself. Even though it was just for about 15 minutes, Tanner was in heaven to have my complete attention!

I gave Tanner some under-dogs on the swing. He loved it!

For about 3 weeks, Tanner went crazy with drawing and writing. He just drew and drew and wrote and wrote, every chance he could get! Here are some of my favorites of his drawings.

On April 11, Jeremy and I helped take our church youth to the temple in St Paul. It was a big day for us, something we spent over four months preparing for. We told the kids that "April 11 will be like heaven." And it really was!

We had sixteen youth come! Eleven of them had names of deceased family members to do baptisms for. (We believe in baptism for the dead, as Paul mentions in the Bible. Those who die without a chance to be baptized can have baptism done for them in the temple. I love how God provides a way for all his children to be baptized so that they can return to Him). It was an amazing experience to be with these kids in the temple. After the temple, we had a special devotional at a church leader's house. The Spirit was very strong both in the temple and at the testimony meeting. Then, we had lunch with all the kids at Chipotle. I think it was a day that will be long remembered.

On a different note, Dallin can blow bubbles! I gave him bubbles to play with while I did the dishes. Then a couple days later, I found out that sometime in those two or three days, he figured out how to actually blow bubbles!

For family night about a week after Easter, we decorated Easter cookies since we didn't get a chance to do it earlier. We had fun.

Dallin's latest pretend game is playing "baby." He's been doing this for a few months. He was tickled to pieces when I wrapped him up in our dolly's blanket and gave him a bottle. I actually knitted this blanket when I was about 13 years old for my future children. So it was fun to wrap him in it.

Dallin plays baby very well by saying "goo goo ga" and whining and going to "sleep." It's funny cuz he takes a bottle much better as a pretend baby than he did as a real baby!

We we've been involved in a lot of missionary work lately. The Elder in the picture giving thumbs up was visiting our town for the day and really wanted to come meet us. Why? Because he was companions with Jeremy's cousin, who is serving just a few hours north of us. I guess this guy wanted to see if we are as cool as our cousin, Elder Bryan. It was a fun surprise to chat with him and feel so close to our cousin.

We have been enjoying our porch swing!

Multiple people at the office (about 8 people) have told Jeremy that they love our porch swing and that they see me and the boys on it when they drive by. It's been weird to learn that so many people watch us! Most of our neighborhood is home to Hormel corporate employees, and lots of them pass our house on their way to work.

Jeremy has been trying to appreciate the warmer weather by taking walks on the Hormel trail at his office. These walks are often the only time he sees the outdoors all week because there are very few windows in his work space. He usually finds critters on his walks, including this deer. Last week, he almost stepped on a snake. Jeremy recently started a weekly Trail Walk group. He schedules a 15 minute break each week for coworkers to take a walk with him down this path. I'm really glad he's doing that!

We painted bird houses one day. I realized later that it was dumb to paint with water colors because the rain washed all the color away. Oops! The boys probably won't mind painting them again. They had so much fun doing it!

We enjoyed dinner at the Anderson's house one Sunday night. The boys loved all of Jeff's guitars.

Here's Tanner with a playdate!

And here's Tanner chilling in front of the TV during his quiet time while Dallin naps.

Our grass became green really quick!

Curious George came to visit at the Hormel Nature Center.

Dallin and Tanner were so excited.

Here's a letter that Tanner had me write.

I found the boys making a funny tower with some groceries. Dallin said it's a "temple." Tanner said "No, it's just a funny looking building."

One day, I found the boys busy doing stuff with stickers and the calculator. When they get their minds on a special mission, there is no stopping them. It's hilarious.

Bedtime! After our Epic Family Trip, we spent three weeks training Dallin to fall asleep without us in his bed and to stay in his bed all night. We used the book "Goodnight, Sleep Tight" to help us, and it actually worked really well for us.

Now I feel like Jeremy and I are more united in efforts during bedtime routine, and it's nice that the boys stay in their beds when we put them to sleep! Next step is to train my little bug to keep his hands where we can see them!

Dallin also does this to Jeremy, so depending on how you look at it, you can either be less worried or more worried. I just see it as his way of being close to us. He is getting better about holding our faces when we tell him no hands down our shirts. But at bed time, that little arm has a hard time going anywhere but down our collars!

I took the boys on a short bike ride. I will take them on more rides as soon as we fix the left wheel.

We had lots of warm evenings in April, which meant we ate lunch and dinner outside several times.

We eat in style.

Our play time has depended largely on which side of the house the sun is shining. At this point of the year, it's too cold to be in the shade. One day, Tanner figured this out all on his own! "We should play in the front because that's where the sun is shining and it's warmer." Later in the day he noticed, "The sun MOVED!! Now it's shining in the back yard! We should go out there this time!" So here's a picture of us playing in the front during the morning. I caught Dallin in mid air!

We're so glad when Daddy comes home.

The boys enjoyed the sandbox one day with their playdate buddies.

We started some projects. Jeremy found rot on one side of the shed.

He took it all out and figured out how to replace everything with wood that we already owned. Later, he added the siding.

The first weekend in May, it was our turn to clean the church building. Jackie came to help us, and she gave the boys some Popsicles while we cleaned the kitchen. Jeremy didn't know about that, so when we were done, he took the boys out for ice cream. I have a feeling that our boys are going to really look forward to the next time we clean the church.

On May 2, it was garage sale weekend in our town. Jeremy and Tanner found this skateboard at the garage sale next door. Tanner was so excited to be "cool with a skateboard like Uncle Jon!"

That same day, I helped the church girls with their bake sale to raise money for girls camp. Thank you to all who participated. They made enough to cover 2/3 the cost for every girl.

We enjoyed a round of golf with Leighsa, who was taking a golfing class at the community college. I did really well for not playing for over two years. The walking did me in, though.

Leighsa put forth great effort, hee hee.

It should be noted that April was a big month for my back. I FINALLY went to a chiropractor and started getting treatment. From what the chiropractor can tell, I have disc degeneration in two of my discs, so that's contributed to a lot of my daily pain. I'm feeling a little better with the treatments, but the first two weeks was really uncomfortable. (this is the best picture I could find to represent me taking care of myself, haha)

One night, about an hour after putting the boys to bed, Jeremy almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the piano playing. He found Dallin singing, playing and turning pages through the hymn book. What a silly kid! Jeremy let him finish his song, then tried to be stern with Dallin. But that little love-bug was so adorable playing the piano that Jeremy couldn't do anything but smile.