Happy Spring! I'm not sure why but this month absolutely flew by! We had a great month with a lot of fun and activity. We got into the 80's a couple of days. It was so beautiful. We all enjoyed a lot of outside time during the warm spell. We had a great Easter this year. On Saturday Our friends Shanna & Brent invited us over for an Easter egg hunt and lunch at their house. We had such a fun time. Thanks again Shanna! They hid enough eggs so all the kids were able to find a ton of eggs. While the Dad's hid the eggs they had cute crafts set up for the kids to do. We enjoyed a yummy lunch as well. The kids really enjoyed the day. We came home after the egg hunt and finally got around to dying some Easter eggs. Ashby loved it...Dalton wasn't interested. Here is Ashby holding one of her favorite eggs she decorated....pretty creative. For Easter one tradition we do is to give the kids a new picture of Christ in their Easter baskets every year to put in their rooms. This year we also gave Ashby her 1st Book of Mormon. She was so excited to have her own scriptures to read now, and has been doing great reading them everyday during quiet time. My Grandma Forman (Ashby & Dalton's Great Grandma) just got her call to serve a mission! She will be serving in the Salt Lake Family History Center for 1 year. Her farewell talk was on Easter Sunday. We all went to hear her speak. She did such an amazing job. We are so proud of her. We will certainly miss her while she is away. Now our family will have 3 missionaries in the field at the same time (my parents, my grandma & my younger brother)....pretty cool. We had quite a busy day Sunday. After Grandma Forman's farewell we went to a nice lunch at her house. Then we drove back to Ryan's parents house for Easter dinner. We had a yummy barbeque with hamburgers and hot dogs. Rich and Cheri had the kids decorate their own Easter bags and then they hid a different color eggs for each kid. Some eggs had candy and others had little notes they could redeem for prizes and toys. The kids really liked that! Ashby & Dalton had a lot of fun playing with their cousins. They flew kites in the backyard, played soccer with Uncle Alex, and Dalton even got to sit on Grandpa's motorcycle and start the engine! The grand finale was FIREWORKS! Kind of different for Easter, but so much fun! The kids were loving the sparklers!! Thank You Rich and Cheri!! We had such a fun time! For FHE on monday we decided to take the family to a Reno Aces baseball game with our friends the Lee's. The Reno Aces are this area's first-ever Triple-A baseball team. The stadium is right in the middle of downtown Reno. It was so beautiful and clean. The atmosphere was incredible. They have a kids park right in the stadium as well as a bounce house for the kids to jump around in. We sat right on the grass over the outfield. The kids loved it, and we all had a great time. Ryan is already itching for season tickets. Ashby loved meeting the mascot Archie the Ace. Dalton loved the bounce house.

We are excited for May to start with swim lessons for Ashby and more warm days to come hopefully! Our pool in our gated community is scheduled to open Memorial Day weekend. We are excited about that!

Last night Ashby had Kinderfair at her Elementary school. We were able to meet her teacher and see her classroom. They gave us information about Kindergarten and had the kids do fun Reading and Math activities. Ashby and I both had a fun time. We are excited for her to start school finally. It seems like she has been ready for a long time. The reality is starting to set in for all of us now. Ashby will probably be starting in July if we get the track we want. She will be in year round half day Kindergarten. Her preschool is almost over and will end the last week in May. Ashby has really grown up this year. We are very proud of her. We know she will do great in school!

Does this face look old enough to be a judge? We don't think so either!! In addition to working at his firm, Ryan took another position as a Judge for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. He will be handling all their civil cases and juvenile matters. Ryan will be starting his new position in May. He is looking forward to the new experience. Ryan has also been playing basketball Saturday mornings at the church with some other guys. It has been fun for him.

 

 

 

Stefani is keeping busy with the kids and enjoying the time she has left with the both of them at home! Ashby could start kindergarten as early as July here. I started up my Women's basketball league at the YMCA again. It has been a lot of fun and a great way for me to stay in shape. Ryan is so sweet to support me and adjust his schedule and step in to help out with the kids when I have an early game. I am saving the money I earn for vacations this summer. We are planning to go to Disneyland again and a few other short trips. I have gotten some more website jobs to design, so I am excited about that. I am still running like a mad woman on the treadmill and loving it.

My sister Kristi and I are very excited to announce that we have started a Custom Digital Photo Card Business. We have some great custom cards for all occasions, Holidays, or invitations. customphotocards.blogspot.com

Check out our entire Collection @ www.customphotocards.blogspot.com

Ashby is 5 years old now! We just signed Ashby up to play AYSO soccer in the Fall. She is really excited to start playing. Ashby is also going to start swim lessons in May. She passed Level 1 last year and started swimming by herself last summer. This year she will be in level 2 and we hope she will be able to improve on her swim strokes. Lately Ashby has really been into doing chores!! I hope this stage lasts! So I made her a chore chart and she has been diligently making her bed, cleaning her room, etc. At the end of the month she will earn $5.00 allowance. This way she can start learning about paying tithing, saving money, and how to budget. So far she has kept up on her chores great. Go Ashby! Ashby is still loving her dance class and loves showing off her new steps she learns. Her performance will be on June 2nd and 3rd. This year they will be performing The Wizard of OZ. Ashby's class (the youngest ones) will be the little munchkins. We are all excited for the show! Ashby still loves to read. She enjoys reading chapter books from the library lately. Some of her favorites are Junie B. Jones & Magic Tree House Series. She loves doing "homework" and will do pages from workbooks all by herself without being told to do so during quiet time each day. What a kid! She will start Kindergarten this Fall...maybe even as soon as July (depending on what track we get since her school is year round). She is very excited about going and we know she will do great. Ashby loves going to her Preschool 2 days a week. Right now they are learning about life cycles of animals..so her teacher bought caterpillars for the children to watch and see them to turn into butterflies and she also ordered tadpoles for the children to watch and observe the tadpoles turning into Frogs. Ashby has just soaked up every minute of it. Every day she tells me, "Mom I love being a Scientist!" Miss Susan has the children write in their Scientific Journals everyday what changes they see in the caterpillars. Ashby is so blessed to have such a great preschool teacher!!

Dalton is 2 years old. He loves to play with friends. Some of his favorite friends are Ashby, Mom, Daddy, Papa, Grandma, Uncle Michael, Aunt Kristi, and Aunt Kim. He also loves talking to his friends that are far away on the phone especially Aunt Shelli & Grandma Becky. He smiles so big when he gets to talk to them! He is always making us laugh with his goofy personality. Lately he loves going outside with Ashby and playing on the swings with her. He loves all the movies his sister does. He is obsessed with The Little Mermaid!! He loves all the scary parts...especially Ursula the Sea Witch! I finally broke down and bought Ashby and Dalton play foam swords. With the condition that they do not hit each other only hit sword to sword. Needless to say it is one of Dalton's favorite toys! Ashby and Dalton have a great time running around together chasing pretend bad guys and fighting on the same team. Dalton also loves motorcycles (probably b/c his Papa rides one). Papa Bellows got him a toy motorcycle and he absolutely adores it! Thanks Papa! Dalton continues to be such an affectionate and sweet boy. He will often say I love you Mommy unprompted and give me a hug or kiss.


For more on us visit our blog at

www.ryanandstefani.blogspot.com

Ashby & Dalton before church on Easter Sunday

 

Ashby watching the game from our seats

Ashby at Dance class. Her big performance is coming up on June 2nd and 3rd. She will be a munchin in the Wizard of Oz.