Emmett Wrenn

We got a new nephew the day before Easter :) The boys now have their first cousin on the Wrenn side!!

Yesterday we went up to meet him after church and bring Ian and Stephanie dinner. We spent the afternoon together, chatting, playing and taking pictures :)
Zachary was in love with baby Emmett. He kept saying what a cute cousin he was and held him several times. Zachary also tells me a lot that I need to grow another baby in my tummy, he is such a little lover.

Here are the glowing new parents!

We are so happy to have another little cousin to grow up with.

Zoo trip with the cousins

My sister Kristy and her husband Jess came for a visit at the beginning of the month with two of their kids. One of the weeks highlights was going to the zoo together :)

Lots of fun sliding down "the hill"


















































Surprise guests in the gibbon exhibit, a mother duck and her 11 ducklings! You can't see them well, but they are in that yummy green water.

Special hands on guest near the elephants!

We also went to the park and had lots of outside fun on the ranch :) Thanks for the visit Kristy and Jess, Sierra and Grant!! Love you guys.

Keedo boys

William, Zachary and Jameson all wanted to match today. Turns out, they each have a different color Keedo fish shirt :) Say "Disney Land"! (that's what they wanted to say instead of cheese)

Easter fun

We had a very nice Easter weekend. Friday night the boys colored eggs and then Saturday they had two egg hunts. One inside and one outside. Because hunting for eggs is too exciting to do just once :)

 

 

Sunday we focused on why we REALLY celebrate Easter and enjoyed our special Easter conference with the stake and Elder Bowen from the 70. It was a beautiful meeting. I even had the opportunity to go to a 3 hour leadership conference in Camarillo on Saturday and hear from Sister Bowen as well as Sister Wendy Nelson! That woman can talk and boy does she have a lot of amazing stories to share. It makes sense that Elder Russell M Nelson's wife would have a lot to share :) and boy did she share!

Nothing to special for Easter dinner... Billy left at 2:30 for a week long training class up north. One of the girls that I visit teach, who is single, joined me and the boys for dinner. I made something new from my blood type cook book. Turkey sausage zucchini boats. They were pretty tasty actually :) I would definitely make them again. I liked that the recipe called for fennel seeds and I just harvested some from the ranch last week, so I got to use some!

Tomorrow we will have one more fun little egg hunt with our play group. The boys are looking forward to that. I put little sticky men in the eggs that I am bringing. Hopefully they are a hit.

Tee Ball

Well, William is well on his way to becoming a baseball legend ;) at least, his parents think so.
We are 4 weeks into Tee Ball and William loves it. He has now completed four Saturdays of fundamentals and station practice. Next Saturday is his first "game". I am so curious to see how this will all go down! Most of the kids have their parents standing by their side the entire hour, helping them along. I know if nothing else, it will be pure entertainment for all. William doesn't seem to care either way, he just loves being on the field with his mitt and uniform... and his buddies too.

Family Acorn Gathering Camping Trip

Last week our family went camping just up the coast a little ways on a nature preserve. We joined a little over 100 other people, participating in a "gathering" experience, where we all came together to learn from one another's primitive skills. During the week, there were multiple instructors who held classes on everything from knife sharpening and wood carving to tracking and pottery. There was yoga instruction offered each morning, I attended two mornings. Billy learned how to weave a basket with cattails and went on a tracking class where he tracked a coyote and a bobcat.

 

 I took a trail walk and learned all about some of the local edible and medicinal plants that I see all the time and never knew of. Who knew all these "weeds" everywhere were so awesome :) I also learned a little about the benefits of fermentation and made a sour croute. (well, it's in the making... fermenting)
The boys participated in a kids club where they had circle singing time, went on a nature walk and got to shoot a bow and arrow. They got to keep their bow and arrow too! We have been having some fun since we have been home. They also did art each day, painting and leaf rubbing.  We would have all done more, but we got rained on the first day there.

 

They served breakfast and dinner each day, we were responsible to bring food for lunches and snacking. In prep for this, one thing I did was make salads in jars!! Taco salads, they were so wonderful :) and it's amazing how much salad fits in a jar. They hit the spot for sure.

It was a good experience for our families first time tent camping. 3 nights in a tent was a good start for us and the education and experience was a good one for us. Who knows if we will return for the gathering next year... but, we have gotten our feet wet for camping:) Maybe I will try taking the boys this summer, to camp at the beach for a night with some friends.

we camped next to our friends, the Ford family, Billy's coworker Chris is the one who told us about the camp. This is their tent called the Kingdom! We had two small 4 man tents. 1 for sleeping and 1 for gear :) We will tent shop soon.

 

 

1st Tooth!

William lost his first tooth! What a big event for our family... it's just another little reminder to me that he is growing up. His tooth fell out last night, while we were camping, around the camp fire. There was a little celebration with all the random people who were directly around us at camp. It was pretty fun/ funny.
He had showed me earlier in the day that it was loose and I think it was bugging him so much that he just wiggled it all day until it was out. He kept saying, "Mom, my tooth feels so weird!" and "I just can't wait for it to fall out because it's hard to eat with a loose tooth!" Well, it didn't take long at all for that little thing to come out :) He looked at it and said "Mom, my tooth is soooo little!" What a cute boy. I told him that the tooth fairy probably couldn't find us where we were camping... but I totally forgot to have him put it under his pillow tonight now that we are home! Whoops. I guess we will do it tomorrow night. :)