What's up May?

April 28th Our family bought a new house! So the month of May has been a blur of homelessness after school, boxes, an overlooked birthday, more boxes, and RAIN. It has rained nearly everyday since we moved in. It is currently raining (no surprise there) with thunder and lightning tagging along.

Isn't this the cutest dog? Man, I sure love petting this pet. Occasionally she tags along for the after school homelessness. Here she is waiting at our neighbors (neighbors always no matter the distance!) in between school dismissal times.

So, on the morning of Dan's birthday I said, 'Uh, Happy Birthday! That's all I got. Sorry!' We took time to eat out dinner.

We aren't crazy.

Just a bit delirious from packing!

Moving, so fun.

Lucy was so confused at first. So many places to sleep. Which floor should I stay on? Who should I follow around? When can I go home? She is adjusting now.

Speakin' of our awesome neighbors... these are the girls at the principal's retirement party.

The awesome Raven 6th Grade Middle School Band.

The trophies to prove it.

I got a crazy call at 8:30pm on a Saturday. 'My husband has said I have to leave the house. Will you go somewhere with me?' Dani and I went to downtown Frisco and found a great little restaurant. Mmm, fried ice cream.

We are the champions! Alex's team won their division. Trophies coming soon!

We are being crushed! Risk was our first Sunday game at our new digs.

Fun? Yeah, fun is a field trip to Lego land with kindergarten.

Fun? The front row of a movie theater is never fun... still at Lego land.

Yep, baby cakes has mastered the art of 2-wheelin'! We practice 10 min every day. Now I'm working on distance.

This is the coolest vacuum I've ever bought. Yes, I realize that isn't a very cool thing to say. But I do love this vacuum. I'm afraid I've used up all my gift vouchers for any gift giving holiday for the next 3 years. I'm thinking I'm only getting candy from here on out. ;)

This is amazing because this was day 1 of the car parked in the garage. It isn't beautiful and it isn't done, but it is parkable! Thanks, Dan!

Just to prove how awesome the Middle School Band is, tonight our director and band was presented with a very prestigious award, the Sousa Foundation Sudler Cup. Actually, this band (and middle school) technically is the best of the best in Texas. Glad we could enjoy it for a short time.

Girls Trip to Cancun

 Johanna and I flew Sun Country DFW-Cancun on Friday morning. We got to escape our crews for 4 days-3 nights. It was rainy in Plano at our departure, and raining when we got back. Thankfully, Cancun was a lovely 88deg the whole trip.

 We stayed at Petit Lefitte, a small resort (50 or so rooms) in Playa del Carmen. It was an eerie quiet sort of place. Only 3 kids, all super quiet.

 This is a view from our front porch. Here is the salt water pool, the grill/bar behind the pool, and the beach just beyond that.

 We enjoyed finding a new towel animal everyday we had our rooms cleaned.

 We sort of stink at selfies. But we did manage to get a few we could share.

 Me down at the beach. There were too many rocks on our beach front, so we had to go up or down the coast a few minutes to get in safely.

 We went into town (spending all of J's cash on the way). We had lunch a local joint, Del Fogon. Very yummy!

 We shopped at Wal-Mart for some souvenirs and snacks. What girl from NWA wouldn't get her picture taken outside Wal-Mart Mexico?

 Shopping for us was sort of challenging. We were short on cash (hence the ATM J's at), we didn't know what we wanted, and we had a time constraint. But it turns out all our purchases were big hits back home, so we must have done a pretty good job.

 When we got back from town there was a Mayan presentation going on down by the bar.

 These hammocks looked so cool, but actually, they were very uncomfortable!

 Tortuga for day 2.

 More selfie practice.

 We ventured up beach a ways to a huge resort. It took us 20 minutes to walk from the beach to the main building.

 Pictures on our last night. We only made friends with the cab drivers, so we didn't get any nice shots of us together. But since we weren't going to get anything framed, we figured it would be ok!

We had leftover pizza from lunch the day before. This we ate while waiting to check-in at the airport. We had a lot of fun on this girls' trip. I hope we get to go on another one... soon!

DMCO Easter Concert

Macey performed in another DMCO concert this spring. Her group sang the Mormon Tabernacle Choirs version of 'Give Said the Little Stream' and 'Oh Happy Day' a gospel song. The kids performed well. It was another great concert. I am so glad Macey gets to be apart of such a wonderful organization.

Rehearsal the night before the concert.

 Day of concert before start of program.

Our Macey had to perform at 2 concerts. It makes for a long night!

 Happy family! Ryan was less enthusiastic about sitting through another concert.

 Our 3 kids in a good moment together.

March update

 Another snow day. Macey and Megan tried building stuff, but this snow was too powdery to pack.

 Ryan's angel.

 Snow fun with the Sumners.

 Dramatic Play area in kinder is decorated as an airport this month. Macey really enjoys being the pilot!

 Guinea pig fun over spring break. For spring break we stayed home and played with friends. Best friends, new friends, acquaintances that have been begging for playdates, etc. Just a lot of fun.

 Lucy really wanted to play with the piggies, but they aren't really into puppy games.

Here is a sneak peak of Macey's concert, which is tomorrow night! This was taken during spring break rehearsal. Brett Stewart is at the piano. Macey is the girl with the white headband.

 Alex was invited to play church ball. This is the championship game. He played for ONE play, about 45 seconds! The 8th ward had a tradition to uphold, and they did it. They won.  Coach Jeff Hein bought ice cream for the team. A pretty sweet reward for warming the bench! (Mom was very happy to have Alex warm the bench. Those boys are big!)

I found this awesome clover patch. I took Ryan and Asher to pick 4-leaf clovers. Asher was diggin' it. Ryan was bored out of his mind. And Lucy would lie down in front of me and rub her face in the clovers squashing my hunting grounds. I did find one. The 4th leaf was gimpy. I hope that doesn't reflect the luck I'm going to have this week!

Alex is 12

 Alex requested that Macey make his birthday cake. I'm not sure it tasted all that great, but he was very happy with it. And she was very happy to make it!

 Alex got to have a sleepover for his birthday. Our family doesn't (generally) do sleepovers, so this was a BIG deal. Both siblings got their own sleepover out of the deal. I hope we are set with that for another year or two!

 On Friday night we had 7 extra boys come over. We actually had snow and not ice on this day. And since everywhere we were planning to go closed early, we had the boys bring snow gear. They went to the park and played soccer in the snow and other various activities.

8 (12) year olds can be a lot for one little house.

 And, watching a movie with this group is impossible!

 They did finally go to sleep at 12:15. A bigger house with the boys on the other side would have equaled a later bedtime, but they were too close for comfort for me to be crazy all night!

 Saturday was Alex's actual bday. First picture being 12.

 Matt's bday was the week before. I joked this was his 4th picture being 12!

 More fun in the snow with sleds.

 Or just rolling down the hill.

 Being 12 means being ordained to a deacon. Grandpa came into to town for this special event. The Bishop is on the far right and the scoutmaster (he is also our home teacher) on the far left.

 Goofing around on a Sunday afternoon.

Monday night we went to Raisin' Canes for dinner. Dad, grandpa and Alex went to a trumpet performance downtown after this meal. A fun weekend for our oldest boy!