3 April 2016

Last fall a friend gave us a box of unwanted tulips bulbs.  Helen and her friend, Paige, helped Becky plant them along our garage.  We're enjoying the beautiful mix of tulips that have bloomed this month.

Sofi applied for the Eccles scholarship at the University of Utah this February.  She received an email earlier in March requesting an interview.  Since we live in Oregon, they were willing to interview her on Skype.  Becky and Brandan listened in quietly and Brandan took a photo without Sofi noticing.  Sofi got a phone call on Friday letting her know she won the scholarship!  The scholarship is an amazing opportunity.  Besides full tuition, room and board and a stipend for books, she'll receive special programming and support through the Honors college including mentorships for graduate school.  We can't wait to see what she does!

 Thanks to spring soccer starting a week late, our family enjoyed the entire General Conference live. We've reveled in our long weekend.  On Saturday, Brandan listened to conference outside while he cut dovetails on a jewelry box he is building for Sofi.

Our kids have been using a lego stop motion app to make movies this weekend.  The free app lets them add music and special effects to their movies.  Their longest movie is about 30 seconds long.  They're pretty cute to watch.  Abe built a stand to hold their iPhone so the photos line up from frame to frame.

This is a photo of Sofi taking a nap in-between conference sessions.  We loved all of conference.  Favorite talks include Elder Kearon, Elder Gong, both of Elder Uchtdorf's talks and a special shout out to Elder Holland for his awesome dinosaur visual.

Brandan and Abe went with a group of deacons and dads to see Batman V. Superman after the priesthood session of conference.  The 3D glasses for the movie reminded everyone of Clark Kent.  They also coordinated their movie dress code -- collar up, sleeves rolled, one side untucked.  In the photo are Spencer, Malakai, Tate, Abe, Carter, Ashton and Jake.

Today was Abe's birthday.  Helen baked Abe a special birthday cookie while he was gone on Saturday night.  Abe popped the lenses out of his 3D glasses and has worn them all day, especially for photos.

 Helen saved some of the delicious cookie dough for him to eat.  Abe invented a new breakfast-- cookie dough crepes.

 Abe got a slackline for his birthday.  He and Brandan set up the slackline between our mimosa and maple trees.

 Abe, Helen and Gibson spent much of the afternoon outside learning to walk on the slackline.  They can each balance for several steps.

 The slackline has pictures of gibbon monkeys on it.  Gibson likes that gibbon is only one letter different from his name.  This is a photo of Gibson doing his signature gibbon move-- jumping from the slackline, grabbing a rope and swinging down.

 Here's Abe blowing out the candles on his cake-- 13!

 Abe liked Helen's rainbow cake and asked for a shorter version of it.  Abe is a great kid-- creative, quick, hard working.  We're proud of the skills he's developed this year in math, Chinese and as a great cook.