Zavoral Villa

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Spring!

We really enjoyed springtime. Jeremy found a great deal for a riding lawn mower, so now it only takes 30 minutes to mow the lawn instead of 2.5 hours.

We have enjoyed some great bike rides. Maddie, our friend and house mate, came with us for a family ride.

Jeremy has stalked up a bunch of lunch food at work. He rides his bike to work almost everyday, so he doesn't have time to come home for lunch each day.

We have gotten a lot of gardening work done, and I have a gardening friend. This is Tiffany and her son. She is using one of our garden beds to learn how to grow some veggies (don't worry, I've told her I'm an amateur myself). Tanner loves playing with his buddy while we mamas work and chat away.

I got to spend a day with these four boys, they all play so well together. I felt super happy when I found out the little one calls me his White Mama. LOVE it!

Dallin is always giving me loves and climbing on me, and stroking and hugging and kissing me. His language of love is definitely physical touch!

It was a sad day to say goodbye to my friend, Serious.

Seriously gonna miss her!

It's a good thing her sister Jackie moved back to town, or else I would go crazy!

This one made me laugh out loud.

Trying to get a photo with these two is more challenging than with my own kids.

Tanner made this picture of him, Uncle Matt and a monster!

Church Playgroup at the Grush Farm was a big hit! Dallin liked helping collect the eggs from the chicken coop.

He LOVED trying to feed the cows. My little animal lover.

Tanner had his last day of preschool! Every morning was a challenge to get him ready for school because of his anxieties. And then on this day, he cried all the way home. I know he had a great time and I'm so thankful for his amazing teachers!

I also had my last days of teaching music for the year with my sweet preschool and kindergarten classes. I got pictures with some of them that I can't post. It was a really great year working with so many wonderful kids and teachers! I also had the chance to do some music classes at Tanner's school, which was really fun.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Outer-Space Birthday Kid

Dallin turned THREE on May 18. We were so happy to have him in our lives!

We kept the celebrations simple with a family party on the Saturday before. Dallin has loved learning about planets. So our little Dal Pal asked for an outer-space birthday cake of all the planets. I am not a baker, but I put forth some effort and came up with a pretty neat looking cake. Dallin helped me buy all the ingredients and make the cakes. I did all the frosting while he took his nap.

At the party, we all wore our space shirts and danced to all the planet songs that we know.

Then we sang and brought the cake to DJ. He loved it!

My little love bug!!

Maddie joined in the fun, too!

Here it is! The edible version of our solar system, including the dwarf planet Pluto, asteroid belt and a space ship.

Pluto, Uranus and Neptune.

Jupiter and Saturn were my favorites to make.

Dallin chowed down on the spaceship, which was a granola bar covered in frosting. He also ate Earth because it's his favorite planet. He likes it the best because "we live on erf."

Lots of happy faces while eating, singing birthday and planet songs, and playing planet trivia. "Mommy, which pwanet is the biggest?" Umm, Jupiter! "Yeah! And Mercury is the smallest pwanet, and Mars has two moons, that's one moon TWICE!"

He got some great presents from Nana/Papa and Gramz/Grampz. I like that there were just a couple things for him to open because it made the gifts more special, and it kept us from getting too many things.

On his actual birthday, I was blessed to have some alone time with Dallin in the morning. He chose to go to the Spam Museum. That's my boy! He really enjoyed playing in the kitchen area.

They have some fun computer games, too.

That night, we had a fun time eating out at the updated Perkins. During dinner we did an activity that Dallin chose to do for his birthday service- we wrote letters to some special family members. Then we enjoyed our free piece of pie.

These are the silly faces of our Dallin Jerold that we get to see every night at the dinner table. He is such a goof!

Dallin is silly, happy and kind. He loves hugs, cuddling and rough housing. He will do almost anything you ask him to, loves to help, and loves tagging along with his older brother. DJ has a gift for making us laugh. He is a peace maker like his Daddy. He doesn't like loud noises or anything remotely spooky, but he has little fear when it comes to climbing and jumping and dancing. Our Dal Pal loves animals, reads to himself, and sings constantly. His caretakers and teachers say that he is very easy going and always plays well with the other kids. It is so fun watching this skinny little kid grow and discover the world. I'm so happy to be your Mommy, my Little Love Bug!