Proud Moments......

Last month, Kate had her spring dance concert.  She did a dance to "Say Hey" from Alvin and the Chipmunks.  She did such a good job.  I was impressed with how much she has improved in the last year!  I love to watch her dance.  It is a proud moment for me! 

 Then, a couple of weeks ago, Kelly got a call from his Lieutenant.  She happened to call on his day off and began the conversation by saying that he wasn't in trouble or anything.,,.,...phew!  You always wonder when your superior calls on your day off.  ; )

She told him that on Saturday the city would be having an award ceremony.  She proceeded to tell him to be at the city park at 8:45.

So, Saturday morning we got up and headed to the park.

The city was giving different public safety officials awards for various things.  Kelly was given the award for "Police Officer of the Year!"  We were so happy and proud of him! 

This is Kelly with Chief Diamond. Here is a little of what Lt. Shober had to say in his nomination letter. "Officer Zierse has been a very consistent producer in the patrol division. He continually leads the department in citizen contacts and self initiated arrests.  He has had an impact on the crime in West Jordan because of his commitment to knowing who is out and about in our community. I have found him to be very professional and courteous in his dealings with the public."  The letter goes on to give and example of a situation Kelly was in that showed his "proactive mentality."  Congrats, Kelly!  You deserve it. 

Oh and along with his award he got 52 free meals to Chick-Fil-A!  We have already used 7 of them! ; )

Another proud moment was a few weeks ago when Kelly participated at Kate's preschool for "Community Helper Week." 

 Katelyn got to introduce her dad, but for some reason she got shy and couldn't remember what daddy did!

I think a highlight of the presentation was his handcuffs!  All the kids wanted to be handcuffed together.  Here is Kate and her buddy Ryker being handcuffed.  They got a kick out of it!

And of course checking out this car!  What kid doesn't think that is cool?!

I love listening to Kelly talk to people about his work. He sure makes me proud!

Then last week, Katelyn had her Preschool graduation.  Technically it was more like promotion to next year, since she has one more year until Kindergarten.  They put on a fun little program and then we went with her friend Ryker for a celebratory ice cream cone!

So those were some happy and proud moments in the last month!  What a good time we have had!

Our Fire Pit..........

Last summer we bought a fire pit, but never used it.  So, a couple of Sundays ago, we pulled it out of hiding and put it to use!

 

It was a chilly evening, and after everyone had a chance to warm up, we got the marshmallows!

Baby Phoebe enjoyed her first experience with a campfire!  She is too cute!

 

Jace and marshmallows, what a combination!

It was a great evening and I am sure we will be doing this a lot throughout the summer! 

FFFN......Friday Family Fun Night!

Kelly took last Friday off and we decided to take Trax downtown!  My kids love Trax and since the whole family can ride for free with Kelly's work ID, it works out great!

So we decided to walk around Temple Square and admire the beauty!  It was a wonderful night for an activity like this!

One of my favorite things to do on a lovely Spring evening is go to Temple Square.  I just love to take in all of the beautiful things around the temple.

 Kelly and I have been doing this for such a long time now.  It first started when we were first married and living in a condo right behind the Conference Center.  We would often take a nice stroll around the temple grounds.  I love how it has become a tradition for our family to keep doing this!

I especially love the flowers!  They are all so pretty!

Kelly of course has to pretend to throw at least one child in the fountain!

Kate and more pretty flowers!

I love this picture and it isn't because I look so awesome in it ; ) but because I love what has become of our family.  Almost 11 years ago Kelly and I stood on these very steps in our wedding clothes, celebrating our new life together.  And here we stood again, yes a little bit older, but with a family that we love so much!

I would like to think that I know the first thing about taking good pictures, I really don't, but I had fun pretending that I do!  And I have to say that I love that I figured out how to make my pictures bigger in my posts!

This picture was taken by Connor! I was off at the bathroom with Kate and you can see Kelly on the phone in the background.  They boys wanted to take pictures of each other!  They got some pretty silly ones!  This being one of them!

I just really can't get enough of all the flowers.  So beautiful!  I wish I could pick all the flower beds up and move them to my yard!  I am always in heaven when I look at all the gardens here.

Can you tell the kids were so happy to take yet another picture! 

They were pretty good sports about letting mom take so many pictures!

Not sure what these are but I love them!  Anyone know what they are?

After Temple Square we went to City Creek for some ice cream and to let the kids play in the play area.

We had a pretty good time.  And I didn't realize how many pictures I actually took until I started posting this! It was a perfect night with perfect weather and perfect compnay. I love our family tradition!

Connor's 9th Birthday!

I am overdue for posting about Connor's birthday!  He turned 9 on April 23rd and we had a fun night celebrating!

After school we loaded up the family and went to Planet Play.  That was what he picked for an activity.

 We had the pizza buffet, which is actually pretty good.  Some places make you wonder!

 Miniature golf, skee ball,

go carts. laser tag, and miniature bowling were some of the fun things we did!

We made home just before bedtime, we had just enough time for cake!

Connor had a pretty good day and we had fun celebrating!