Fastest time, Easter, and conference

3/28—Ella drew her first person!  Josh says he’s the one that taught her how.  Cute little cone head person!

Jenae and I went running.  I ran my fastest 3 miles ever. 

Later that night was the General Women’s Broadcast.  It was a great night with so many great talks.  Afterward, Jenae, Megan and I went downtown to Pine State Biscuits and then to Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt for dessert.  Yum!!!  The cake batter flavor was amazing! So nice to get out and hang out with the girls!

3/29—Andrew was hired by Uncle Chad to take care of their cats while they were out of town.  Andrew and Luke had a little bit too much fun scooping the poop!

3/31—Blowing a dandelion at soccer practice

4/1—Perfecting her “people”

The weather played a dirty April fool’s joke on us and reminded us that we had no snow all winter.  This hail was as close as it got. 

I painted Ella’s fingernails for the first time!

4/2—Neighborhood Easter Egg hunt—Ella was there, but was throwing a huge fit so didn’t feel like being in the picture. lol.

Little kids got to go first!

Then the big kids turn! 

Checking out their candy!

4/3—Dying eggs.  Ha!  True brotherly love going on in this picture.  

Darrin and I pretty much sat back and let the kids dye the eggs on their own.  It was weird not to be super involved.  We only had one spill, and I did have to bleach Luke’s white shirt after lol.  I love having older kids!

4/4—General Conference!  The kids begged me do it the conference bags again.  It’s been a long time since we did it last, but they must have enjoyed it!

Inside the bags were crafts, candy, puzzle, word finds, shrinky dinks, coloring sheets, chips, soda, etc…  It worked pretty well to keep them half way interested. 

These are a couple of the crafts they did. 

While Darrin was at the priesthood session, we went to the library and took a walk to see the ducks.  It was nice to get some energy out! 

4/5—Easter morning!  The Easter bunny brought an egg hunt and a few things in a basket like shovels and pails for the park/beach and a bath towel for each kid in their own color that they use all week long.  I’m tired of washing 3 loads of towels a week!! 

More conference!

For breakfast we made resurrection rolls.  Yum!

This is the puzzle we worked on during conference.  Josh got pretty into it.  It was only 500 pieces, so we finished it that same day. 

For Easter dinner we had Laurie and the kids over.  We ate ham, potatoes, jello, green bean casserole, and rolls.  It was a yummy feast! 

This Easter was more special than other ones, because we studied Holy Week as a family.  Every day of the week we read scriptures or watched Bible videos about what happened in Christ’s life that week leading up to the resurrection.  It was great and I definitely want to do it again next year.  I know my Savior died for me and because of Him, we can all repent of our sins and become perfect.  He knows what we are going through even when no one else does and can calm our fears and give us peace.  What a great thing to know: HE LIVES!

Spring Break 2014

Spring Break this year was a laid back one. 

3/23—Ella was so worn out from the weekend that she fell asleep on my lap.  I don’t think this has happened since she was 4.5 months old.  lol.  It was a beautiful moment, and I soaked up every second! 

3/23-3/25  I put J and A in soccer camp the first 3 days of the break.  The weather wasn’t that great but they still had fun, I think.  Well Andrew complained about going, but I think he just wanted to sit around and play video games.  Ha!  Dream on kid. 

The kids were pretty tired after they got home from camp so we didn’t do much else on those days. 

3/25—Danielle and I went to see Cinderella!  I loved the movie!  And hanging out with Danielle is always a good time.  You can’t go wrong!

3/26—Thursday the weather was nice, so we played at the park.  Then I took the kids bowling before Luke’s soccer practice.  Josh won and Andrew wasn’t too far behind.  We won’t talk about how I did. lol. 

Group picture with my goofy boy, Andrew. 

3/27—Darrin took the day off so we could do something fun.  I really wanted to go to the Tulip Festival so that’s what we did.  It was beautiful!!

 

Pouting for who knows why.

We had our first elephants ears ever.  I’d never heard of them until I moved to OR, and I’ve managed to stay away from them all these years :)  They were pretty amazing. 

Josh really wanted to jump off this high platform so we let him totally thinking he would wimp out.  Ha!  He didn’t.  He didn’t even hesitate.  It cracked us up. 

Then Luke wanted to do the same thing.  Since when are my boys dare devils!??

We had so much fun at the festival.  We were all starving when we left though, so we stopped at the outlet stores to eat dinner and do a little shopping.  The kids were all spoiled at the Adidas store by their dad.  Lucky ducks!

a birthday and family dance.

3/17—Josh’s 11th birthday.  Sheesh.  Am I old enough to have a child that old?? I think not. 

Josh woke up super early to open his presents and eat chocolate waffles.  A great way to start off any day, I think! 

After school he had his Fuel Up to Play 60 club meeting and then Andrew had an indoor game. 

From there we met his friends at a pizza buffet/arcade for his party.  He invited Drew, Tyler, Corin and Owen.  

After stuffing themselves full of pizza and desserts, Josh opened more presents. 

Then all the kids spent the rest of the night in the arcade.  It was a blast!! 

The night ended with prizes.  Why does it always take forever for kids to pick these out??  lol. 

Happy Birthday to a smart, responsible, organized totally awesome, Josh!!  Next year he’ll be 12. Yikes!

3/21—Our ward had a family dance.  Ella was super grumpy and cried a ton in the beginning, but she snapped out of it when they played the song “Let it Go.” lol.

The boys weren’t too keen on the idea of dancing, so they made and threw around paper airplanes lol. 

 

Daddy daughter dance. 

It was a fun night as a family! 

Notice Darrin’s knee brace-- He has some cartilage damage that has been hurting him for awhile.  He’s trying to avoid having surgery by wearing the brace which is suppose to open up his knee when he’s standing to encourage it to heal itself.  We’ll see if works.  It’s fun getting old…so I hear :)