Dax's Birthday

It's the birthday boy!

Dax turned 10 on May 1! We sure love having him in our family. Dax is the most thoughtful and caring boy. He is always looking out for others, and trying to make people feel good. One thing we're proud of is his excellent manners. Dax excels at everything he does: school, sports, music, and even his testimony. We love what a great example Dax is, and we are glad he is our best eater, too!

Dax got to celebrate his birthday twice. Grandma and Grandpa Daniels came to town a week before his birthday, and so did some of the cousins. They all gave him presents and hugs, and it was a fun way to kick off his birthday week.

Dax got this huge bowling set and a gold Karl Malone card from Grandma & Grandpa Daniels.

We love visiting with Grandma Daniels.

On his actual birthday, Mom told Dax that she would take him to lunch. So when she picked him up at school, she asked him where he wanted to go. She was definitely surprised when he said that he wanted to eat at home. Dax is a great adventurer, but he is our child who loves to just spend time at home and with family. So Mom and Dax ate a nice lunch at home.

Dax was ready bright and early on his birthday.

The kids were singing to Dax when I went to pick him up. 

Can you see the snow in this picture? Dax loves when it snows on his birthday. 

We went out to eat at Brick Oven for his birthday. Dax was scheduled to have a baseball game at 8:00 that night, so we went down early to eat and enjoyed the all you can eat pasta. By the end of the meal, Dax said he wasn't feeling too great. Then, on the drive home, it started to rain. So Dax's game was cancelled, and since he wasn't feeling well, we skipped his mint brownies and enjoyed those the next day.

We love the root beer and pasta at Brick Oven.

Mark ate most of his chocolate mousse pie. 

We did let him open presents and he was most excited for the Big Red soda that Dad bought him in Arizona. Dax fell in love when we visited the Hubbell Trading Post. Happy Birthday Dax!

Dax loves to snuggle by the fireplace.  

He has read this book a lot of times since his birthday!

This was the perfect ending for Dax's birthday!

We had mint brownies the next day. He requested blue frosting. 

Dax had a friend birthday party the next week. He invited his two buddies Josh and Carter to jump with him at Airborne. They ran around jumping, dunking basketball balls, and play dodgeball for over an hour. Then we came back and had ice cream! Easiest party ever!

These 5 took on lots of other kids in dodge ball. 

Dax got pretty good at this part of the obstacle course.

Dax loves jumping here at Airborne.

It was fun to be with friends and brothers.

April Fun

April kicked off with a bunch of fun in Arizona for Spring Break, but we also had a lot of other fun things happen during this month. We especially enjoyed the visits from Grandma & Grandpa Daniels, Melanie, and Stephanie!

A lady took our picture for us and she said her signature picture was sideways, so this is what we got!

We had all of these people staying in our house at once!

Stephanie came down to surprise Melanie, so we had lots of crazy lunches!

Our boys love playing with the cousins.

Seth had to create something to race an egg. There was a race for fastest and farthest. He won the fastest. 

After the Easter Egg hunt, the boys played some basketball with Dad and the neighbors. 

We visited a new baseball park and Mark loved it!

These are the poses that Seth loves right now!

They all got sick after the spinning toy.

Mom loved this catcher's mask, but it apparently wipes out children.

Seth is very interested in listening to music, so he asked if he could go for a run with his headphones on.

So much fun with the blossoms!

We got to visit Baby Animal Days at This is the Place. We loved the new playground and Zipline.

Dad even took a few rides on the Zipline.

Seth loved holding the chicks.

Dax is not as comfortable with animals, so I was very proud of him for picking up a chick. 

Seth and Mom got to go on a field trip to the farm. It was Seth's first field trip in kindergarten.

He held a baby bunny.

He also touched a lot of goats!

But Seth's favorite part was the giant slide!

We enjoyed April and would have liked to stay in the month of April to avoid the Mayhem that comes in May!

Piano Recital

Mark and Dax had their final piano recital in April and luckily, Grandma and Grandpa Daniels were able to come. They each performed the song they had learned for Federation or AIM. Dax and Mark both did well. Dax earned his first Federation cup for getting superiors 3 years in a row. Mark earned a second Federation cup for 6 years of superiors. Mark can play many hymns and is quickly catching his mother's abilities. We are so proud of their music accomplishments.

Dax playing away at the recital. 

I love how focused he looks in this picture.

Mark is fun to watch when he plays. He is very intense.

Mark played a fun jazzy song.

We are very proud of Dax and Mark. They are great pianists.

Seth also had a music recital for his music class. We were in Idaho during the rehearsal, so he wasn't exactly sure where to go, but he did great. Seth got to sing lots of songs, but he played a song on the piano, too. He has learned so much in music class and is already becoming a great pianist. He picks things up so fast!

Seth was all smiles at his recital. 

Seth had his song memorized, too. 

Seth with his friend Ryker in the background. 

Seth was super excited to get this medal for finishing his second year of Let's Play Music.

Easter

We had a lovely Easter this year. We were able to make it to the annual HOA Easter Egg hunt since all of our soccer games were in the afternoon. The boys were really excited, and Mark decided to do one more hunt. They had fun eating donuts and searching for eggs. Of courdse, they had overflowing baskets by the end.

Seth is so goofy!

The older boys like all the candy!

We also enjoyed a Passover Dinner together which has become a tradition. We love sitting around talking about the Savior and eating food. Our boys look forward to it, and are getting better at trying new foods.

Our Passover meal looked really pretty. 

Mom eating with the boys in the "upper room."

We've done this tradition for two or three years.

Dad loves dying Easter Eggs, so mom made sure we didn't miss the tradition this year. She ended up being the most proud of her striped egg. We ate a lot of egg salad for the next week.

We went all out of the egg dying!

Mom made a pretty striped egg. 

We had lots of beautiful colors.

Dax's favorite egg was a nice blue. 

Mark chose the red distressed egg as his favorite. 

Seth liked both of his bright pink eggs.

On Easter, the boys got new ties for church and it was "snowing" blossoms at church, so we had a snowball fight after our meetings.

The boys looked so handsome in their new ties. 

I like this family picture a lot!

Blossoms everywhere!