Pixton Life March-May-by Rachel

Petting zoo cuteness.

Isaac got tons of Scout awards, including his arrow of light. He crossed over and is now an 11-year-old scout. he had a great birthday and is loving being 11!

Caleb dressed up as and made a presentation for Thomas Edison for a school project.

We had a great Easter! Bruce decorated an egg in the design of a temple. What skill!

Alex is loving the scouting program. He has gotten 5 merit badges. One of the badges was photography. He went crazy taking pictures all over. It could get a little annoying.

Shannon dressed up as Emma Smith for an Enrichment activity showing faithful women throughout the ages.

Our library hosted a petting zoo that all the kids went to see. There was everything from rabbits to goats, and lizards to spiders. Why they wanted to see a tarantula, I don't know.

I just had to add this. Isn't she so cute?

For a day off of school, we went to Prince William Forest Park to go on a hike. We invited some of our friends, the Hendricks and Rachel's best friend, Hilary (picture above), to come along. There was a stream that we hiked to, then played in. All the kids got wet, while the parents and Maddie stood at the side watching. We had tons of fun!!!

Isaac went on a school field trip with Bruce as a chaperone. They went to a zip line place. While waiting for their turn, activities were set up for the different groups.

Alex and Rachel took a day off of school to help out in the yard. They helped to make a pathway from our driveway to the start of our backyard hill. Later, the whole family planted over 40 plants, extended our garden by a couple of feet, and mulched the garden area to make it look nicer. We still have a mix of weeds/grass/moss for our main yard but we're getting there. The only problems, are that we have almost all of our yard covered in shade, and the deer eat many of the plants that we try to plant, including all but like 5 of the flowering plants.  :P

Isaac has hit a baseball spree (no pun intended). Bruce is an assistant coach for his team, and they both love it! Between this, his robotics team, and scouting, he has had a very full schedule.

Alex has been really into robotics lately. He is saving up so he can get his own Vex robotics set to work on. Alex went to a robotics competition recently. His robot is in the picture above. Sadly, his robot's arm wasn't working until the very end of the competition. It is not much fun when that happens. :(

Today we dedicated our house at the FOUR year mark. I can't believe that we have been here for this long!  (Doesn't our yard look a LOT better?)

Rachel finally received her Young Women's Median! She is also working on her Honor Bee and her second time through Personal Progress. For some of her Honor Bee hours, she is updating the Relief Society board. She decided to do this because she was tired of a blank board. This works out well, because Shannon is the Relief Society secretary, so she gets access to all of the info. She has also entered the tennis club at her school, and loves it!

Saldivars 2015

May 2015

Hello everybody! This past week, Jeremy and I were in South Carolina visiting Michelle and her family. We had so much fun! We wish we were still there. Jeremy even told me that he could live there because it was so nice and the humidity wasn't as bad as he thought. I could live there too. Michelle, looks like we are moving in with you! :)
We stayed there for six days and went to Myrtle Beach, Chimney Rock, Hollywild, Cowpen's Battlefield, a very good BBQ restaurant plus some other good restaurants, Talon's baseball game, Strawberry Hill USA, and then hung out around their house. The weather was perfect except Saturday felt like 90 degrees which is just a little hot when you are out in the sun all day. We can't wait to go back!
I had another doctor's appointment as soon as I came back, but the doctor had to deliver a baby so I didn't get much information. After about 10 minutes of listening and trying to find the baby's heartbeat, we finally heard it. He is still beating strong. They measured my stomach/uterus and I believe they said 18 cm, but that is big for only being 16 weeks. So maybe I misheard them. That same day was my first experience of swollen ankles for the next week. Holly cow do they get big and stiff. Luckily they are back to normal now, but I am sure I will see them again.
Here are some pictures of our trip....

The waves were so big because of a tropical storm coming in. Luckily it didn't hit until we had already left. They kept telling people to get out of the water. So we had fun playing on the beach digging holes, building walls and sand castles and burying all the kids in the sand with only their heads sticking out. Very sandy but lots of fun!

This is the roughly 1600 ft staircase that goes up to Chimney Rock since their elevator was broken. Let me tell you, I almost didn't make it several times. Michelle said it is like exercising on the stair master machine at the gym.. No it is like death. Ha Ha! But the view from the top was all worth it. After going back down, we went on a hike to the waterfalls nearby which of course are always beautiful. 

Of course we had to go to Hollywild to show Jeremy all the famous animals. It took a lot of convincing, but he finally decided to go which is good because I don't think he wants to go back. It is always a fun experience, it is just a little run down and sort of ghetto, but an experience you can't miss!

Hope everyone is doing great! We love you all!