Easter

We got to spend Easter this year in Utah with family.  It has been over 4 years since we have been up to my Grandma's.  The kids had a blast running around the farm with cousins.

 The Easter Egg Hunt.  

The eggs are filled with money.  Liv made a killing this year with over $22, the boys were jealous :)

We were also able to participate in the annual family easter egg roll.

We finished off the Holiday with fun confetti easter eggs.  The kids enjoyed smashing them on each other's heads.

Weekly happenings

A few random updates...

The kids school has an old artist from the Simpson's show and Disney that comes once a week to teach them art.  Lately they have been working on making sock puppets for a big puppet show.  I get to help with Ethan's class.  He is making a wasp, Liv's class is making bumble bees, and Cole's class is making snakes.

Here Ethan is working on the back drops for the puppet show.

Ethan recently got his first email account through school.  The kids send funny message to teach other.  They write things like, "Hey, what are you doing.  Write me back" and "Yo it's me" and "I"ll bring the soccer ball after school, can you play with me?".  Ethan even sends emails to his teacher telling her he liked her lesson.  He is cute!

Cole's class goes on a field trip every month to Hawthorne Terrace.  It is a senior assisted living facility.  They get to interview one of the resident's and they are making a book about their life to present to them at the end of the school year.  I have been going to with Cole's class.

I have also been spending time in Liv's class helping with the computers.

Liv on her last official day of dance.

Now she is working with her Gymnastics class preparing for their Spring Exposition Concert

Last, Shawn just finished up his last month of busy crazy hospital service while at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.  He had a pretty intense month and had 7 babies die while during this time. Shawn spent his last afternoon flying in the Helicopter picking up a baby in Greenbay.   He asked the nurse to take a picture of him before they took-off because he knew I would love it....and he was right!

Tournament

The boys had their first Tae Kwon Do Tournament this week.  They participated in the Great Midwest ChampionshipTournament in Mequon, WI.   They were so nervous, but they have been practicing so hard the past few weeks and did a great job.  We came home with several trophies and medals.  It was a great day.

They separate the kids by age and belt rank and even though Ethan and Cole are both the same rank, due to their age difference they were in different spots in the gym.  I spent the whole time running back and forth trying to watch all their events.  It was crazy!

The boys both participated in the forms competition and breaking competition.  Ethan took first place in the forms competition and did it perfectly.  He got pretty nervous during the breaking part and had to redo one of his kicks, but he ended up taking 3rd place.  He chose a few really difficult kicks, so I was very proud of him for trying something challenging.

Here is Ethan's Form Competition and a picture of the Judge awarding him 1st place and getting his trophy.

Cole took first place in his form competition also and first place in his breaking.  He did such a great job.

Here is Cole's Breaking Competition and a video of the Judge awarding him 1st place and getting his trophy.

Liv was my little side kick all day (these tournaments last all day long).

Afterward I told the kids how proud I was of them and that I wanted to take them out to dinner.  I was expecting something big, but they choose Wendy's because we love the fun fountain drink machine :)
Ethan loves Cherry Fanta, Liv and Cole choose a new kind everytime (sometimes even three mixed together) and I usually stick with good ole vanilla cherry dr. pepper or vanilla coke or even lime vanilla coke.  It's our favorite!

Change

Yesterday the season changed from winter to spring.  Usually that brings excitement, but today we are starting out our spring a whopping -4 degrees with wind chill and snow covering the ground.  Not a nice spring welcome.

Also, other things are changing around our home.  Especially the plans for our future. Big news is that we are not moving to Phoenix.  This is a pretty big change for us and has taken up lots of our time, thoughts and energy over the past few weeks.

It was one of those things that Shawn and I have been fighting for a while and trying to make work, but it wasn't.  To make a long story short, the company Shawn signed with has been merged with another company in the last few weeks.  We didn't know this was happening when we signed and we were definitely upset about this.  Contracts changed and future opportunities disappeared.  We thought long and hard and did lots of praying to figure out what we want for our family.  It was clear that the Lord had other intentions for our family.  We have moved a lot over the past decade and it was evident in every move what we needed to do and where we needed to go.  We were coming up with dead ends in all our efforts to move forward with Phoenix.  That mixed with the disappointing merger of the company and lots of prayers is what lead us to this choice.

The crazy part is that we don't have another plan in place...yet.  Shawn is working on something, but as of now we don't know what will happen this summer.  We are moving somewhere (because our lease is up) but haven't a clue where.

It is pretty crazy and reckless, but we feel peace and comfort with this choice.
Who knows where it will lead.

Dance Recital

We have had a week full of prep for Liv's Dance Recital this afternoon.  She had one last class practice on Tuesday, a dress rehearsal with class pictures on Wednesday, and finally the recital today.