I know this is just a fact of life.
Right now, I love the stages each of my children are in.
I know this season won't last much longer, and I'm trying to savor each moment, each experience, each day, with my children during this brief moment in time.
Right now, Ammon is in the 4th grade. This is his last year at the elementary school. He loves his teacher--she's truly wonderful. He's excelling in most subjects. He has good friends. He's enjoying his life. He's increasing his skills in the areas that he loves most--reading and writing and, of course, P.E. He loves sports and he does so well at them! He is a responsible little boy who is quickly becoming a young man.
I'm happy to see him doing so well. I'm glad he's content with his life at the moment. I spend time alone with him occasionally in the evenings doing homework or talking, and I'm grateful for every chance!
Right now, Jonah and Micah are in Kindergarten. This is their first year at the elementary school. They adore their teacher--she's so much fun! They enjoy learning and are doing so well with learning letters and numbers and writing names and recognizing words. They love their class. They've made new friends. They are so happy with their life! They wake up in the morning and play with each other for a while until it's lunch time and time for school.
At the moment, it's fun for me to watch them learn and grow and develop their personalities. Two mornings a week, they are home alone with me, and it's fun to watch just the two of them play with each other!
Right now, Kanyon goes to preschool two mornings a week. He looks forward to it, and he's really grown since starting school in February. He isn't as angry. He doesn't bang his head as much. He uses more vocabulary and communication. He's sleeping better at night. He's potty trained. He wakes up in the mornings and says "I'm happy". Preschool has done wonders for him. And on his days off of preschool, he loves playing with his brothers in the morning before they leave for Kindergarten.
He's so much happier and I love listening to him and watching him play with his brothers and others at the moment! Four afternoons a week, he's at home alone with me and we relish the time together.
I watch my four boys interact with another in the mornings and in the evenings. I watch them play with one another, I watch how they care for one another, how they speak to one another, how they share with one another, how they love one another.
I wish I could bottle up this time, this season, this stage of our lives. I love seeing my young children living life to the fullest in their youth, filling it with happiness through playing and exploration and adventures. It brings my inner-child, as well as the mother in me, so much joy!Before the next phase of our lives begin, I will enjoy these precious moments for as long as they last! Because I realize and I know that they don't last nearly long enough.
Josh and I took time to "smell the flowers" by taking a short trip to Twin Falls on our anniversary.
We went inside the beautiful temple there and afterwards went to Josh's friend Lance's wedding reception.
On the way to Twin Falls, we dropped the boys off at their favorite "big" cousins' house in Stanley. They had an awesome day playing! They loved all the toy trains--especially Kanyon!
During this time of year, the trampoline gets to be brought inside their large house. They had so much fun playing on it--especially Ammon, Jonah, and Micah!!
THE MIDDLE: After lunch, Josh picked up a big mower for the golf course at the TORO equipment distributing place. Then we drove to IKEA and perused the giant store for 2 hours. It was marvelous. I fell in love with the whole store! It was so fun and relaxing to walk around with Josh and talk about ideas and plans and likes/dislikes and our future. We surprisingly fell in love with this (and I can't wait til we can buy it!):
THE MAIN EVENT: We went to dinner at T.G.I.Fridays--I just love that place! We were going to meet up with my friend and Josh's cousin Amy for dinner, but our schedules were just 'off', and we missed her (I still feel bad about that, Amy). Then we drove to the E Center to see MUSE in concert!!! Josh loves that British Rock Group, and when I heard they were coming, I knew he would definitely want to go! We both wore our England T-shirts for the special occasion! 
Seeing Muse in concert was absolutely amazing!! I am now a huge fan! Josh thinks they are even better live than recorded! They are fabulous performers! They had awesome lights and special effects and their music was just incredible!!! We loved every minute of it! It's now at the top of our list of favorite concerts! My sisters Tawna and Trina were there, too, and I was glad to experience it along with my sisters!
The curtains over the three columns were dropped, revealing the musicians in the center:
The grand piano came out for two musical numbers:
The key-tar was really cool, too:
Some of the lights were simply mesmerizing:
Giant eyeball balloons were dropped from the ceiling and floated around the crowd until they got popped, which produced confetti from inside them that was thrown all over:
At the end of the final song of the encore, the smoke columns were produced:
I'm SOOO glad we were part of that spectacular event! Did I mention how amazing their musical talent was?! Seriously, they were SOOOO good!!! The only bad part of the entire magical and relaxing and lovely day was driving back to Tremonton from SLC. There was a giant snowstorm, it was dark, the road signs were covered up, the streets and highways hadn't been plowed, we were pulling a big trailer through lots of traffic in heavy slush. It took us 2 hours, which would normally be an hour drive, but thankfully we arrived safely (even though we witnessed multiple accidents along the way).
For the "Wine Me", he received a bottle of his favorite Sparkling Cider, Cold Duck.
There were classic lines, like: "Shut the fridge door, I can't afford to cool the whole house!", "Shut the front door, I'm not trying to heat the outside", "I trust you, it's all the idiots on the road I don't trust", "You better beat me to the car", "Let's GO if we're gonna go!", and "Where's your mother?", just to name a few.
There are also gold, silver, and mystery eggs that are worth higher dollar amounts (between $5 and $20 more!). Those are the eggs that everyone wants and searches for!!! Because not only do you get extra money, you earn the unofficial title of the Gold Egg Finder, the Egg Hunt's Top Title for the whole year!!! My mom records everyone's earnings as well as who found the gold and silver eggs, so we can look back at previous year's hunts and see who's won big and who hasn't. Josh has found the gold egg multiple times, but I've only found the silver egg once.
Ammon found the gold egg, the silver egg, and two mystery eggs.
Jonah found the 3rd (and final) mystery egg. 
Micah liked searching for the well-hidden eggs.
Kanyon was just excited to be egg-hunting at all!!! 
The boys with their full baskets after the egg hunt was over!
The adult hunt always goes last. The anticipation leading up to it includes smack talk with the siblings and several proclamations of "This year I'M finding the gold egg". This year, the adult hunt included more than just the regular siblings and spouses. Mick and Cody's families were unable to come, so we had cousins Ben and Liz join us. Ben brought his girlfriend Bridget and Tabbi's friend Josiah also came! It was exciting with all the "fresh blood"!!
After several minutes, it became apparent that the big-ticket eggs were in the bushes, so everyone scrambled over there to search the area. 
The "official" family rules state that you cannot win both the silver and the gold eggs. But since I'd found the silver egg first, I wanted to continue to search for the gold, because it's worth more! Nobody's ever actually found both of them, though, so after I found the gold one too, we had a family consultation to decide what to do. My mom picked a random number for the silver egg winner, and Tabbi had that numbered egg, so she received the earnings from it.