April 2019

Ducks
At the beginning of April we ordered 4 freshly hatched ducklings, which the kids are really excited about.  Aria's duck is named Brownie (a golden layer duck), Zade's duck is waddles (a white layer duck), Ryzen's duck is Ninja (a Rouen duck), and Nova's duck is Splash (a Welsh Harlequin duck). Each are female and should lay a ton of eggs when they grow up.  We've been surprised how fast they're maturing already.  Within a few weeks they were full grown, and now they've almost got all their adult feathers.

Here are Aria and Ryzen with his little duckling:

  
We had to keep them under a heat lamp for the first few weeks to keep them warm.

They already love playing in the water. 

The cutest thing about these little ducks is that even though they're all different breeds, they treat each other like family.  Here they all are nestled down together in our garden.

Anniversary
Tara and I celebrated our anniversary at a fun little restaurant near the Hult Center.  Afterwards we went to see a magic show, which we really enjoyed.

Tara's Bday
We celebrated Tara's special day at one of her favorite restaurants: Red Lobster.

Dance Recital
Nova and Aria had a dance recital, which was Nova's first ever.  She spent most of the performance just standing around.  Fortunately, Aria's performance was a bit more active. :)

Aria's Bday
Aria celebrated her birthday with some of her friends from dance (Emma & Alicia). 

Easter
After the kids enjoyed the annual Easter egg hunt, they put on the new Sunday clothes Tara got for them and we got some nice pics.

Damage
During the past 4-6 weeks we've had a lot of things break.  At Zade's birthday one of the kids ran into one of the cupboard doors, which had been left open by a child, and it got torn off.  We hired someone to mow our lawn and they drove our riding mower into a tree and ripped the bagging unit off.  A portion of our garage door fell off due to corrosion from the prior owner's cat urine. Our fridge broke and flooded the kitchen floor, thereby ruining it.  Here's the kitchen floor after the boards were torn out.  The list goes on...

While these kinds of things just happen in life, it seems like the timing has been a little less than ideal.  Right now I'm teaching an extra course at work, which is taking up a lot of time, and I'm also coaching Ryzen's soccer team, which requires me to leave early from work.  I'm also now having to take Aria to her new school (Twin Oaks), so I get to work late.  Busy busy times.  With that said, everything is working out, so we just have to keep our heads up and be grateful for the blessings we do have.

Dance Competition
This past 6 weeks or so Aria has been in several dance competitions, most of which were held up in Portland.  She also participated in one in Eugene called "Turn it up". Her performance was very well received and she received several awards, which she is very excited about:
- Standing Ovation award - which is the highest level you can get for a solo performance (out of 4 categories within a division)
- Top Soloist award - which was awarded for the best soloist for the beginner division, which encompasses all girls who are in their first year of competition.
- Love of dance award - which was given for her enthusiastic facial expressions during her routines.

Here she is with her haul:

Tara's parents were visiting from Utah and got to see her perform as well, which was an added bonus.