Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter Weekend

I think Spring has finally found it's way north....well temporarily, anyway. We had a beautiful day yesterday and I could hardly even feel the wind. It's almost like heaven smiled down on us so we could celebrate the resurrection of our Savior.

We actually started our celebrating Saturday (and if you ask Bria, it started Thursday with her class Easter Party). Dave's family had a big get-together with an egg hunt and all! It was great!

On the way to the party, Max kept putting his Easter basket on his head. We thought it was funny!



At first, Logan didn't really understand what all the fuss was about. It didn't take him long to realize that candy was hidden in the eggs!




Grandma and Grandpa gave all the kids "shooters". They launches white balls into the air. The kids loved them!

All the cousins (that were there).
 It was such a nice day! Earlier in the day, Dave finally got out the Gator and charged it up. So, when we go home, the kids could finally use it! It's been such a long winter and poor Max has often complained the he couldn't go outside and ride the beloved Gator!


Easter morning, the kids were up bright and early! We actually had to send them back to bed for a while!

The hunt! Max got so excited, he accidentally burst an egg open and spilled Jelly Beans all over!

Logan didn't care about finding the eggs, only retrieving what was inside!


Notice his mouth full of candy!!



We invited Dave's parents over and had a lovely ham dinner. Then, in true kid-overeating-candy fashion, we had 2 kids throwing up last night. Sigh! Logan started in the early evening and Bria woke up in the middle of the night. At least it's spring break. And, the nice weather we enjoyed all weekend is so over! We're back to wind and freezing temps!

And to celebrate the true meaning of Easter, here's a great video:


Friday, April 22, 2011

More updates

Sheesh! If I could just keep up, I wouldn't always be so behind on our blog. It's a vicious cycle. I don't post, then I feel like I can't update with a new short post until the previous post has been added. Then, I get more and more behind and put off updating more and more.


So, here I am finally updating April!!

We've been super busy....but no surprise there. We always seem to be burning the candle at both ends and continually add to our to-do list. April is always interesting to me. Spring doesn't exist in Idaho. It stays winter here until the first part of June and then seems to get hot overnight. April seems to tease of warmth...the snow melts and the grass turns green. But, it's also very windy, and just barely warm enough to start photosynthesis. Then, mornings like today, we wake up to a small blanket of snow reminding us all that spring has not yet arrived.

Business in Oregon

Anyway...April started with Dave going on a business trip. He went to Eugene, Oregon. (That's where he served his mission). Oregon is one of our family's favorite places, so the rest of us were quite jealous that we had to stay home.

Dave was pretty busy, and only took a few pictures.

Dave loves to take photos from the airplane and they always look really good. Mine always look like a flash reflecting in the window!

Dave with one of his co-workers.

This bus is awesome! Only in Oregon!!
A little more detail.
While there, he got to see our favorite people in all of Oregon, and only brought back 1 picture! Bria was so disappointed!

Faith was dressed-up for her school play.
All jealousy aside, we are all greatful that Dave has been taking these business trips. With school budgets getting tighter and tighter, we are thrilled that his school district wants to invest in training for him. It definitely makes his job more secure!


Bria

Bria had quite the busy month. She has been working hard in school and has found that first grade only gets harder and harder. She is reading really well. I think her only problem is she wishes for more play time! I keep telling her to hang in there....summer is just around the corner! To relieve some of the stress, her teacher planned a pajama day at school after the ISAT testing. Bria was looking forward to it the entire week. So, we got her dressed up:


She went to school, had a blast at the pajama party and came home with a note saying that Monday was national pajama day and the whole school was invited to wear their pajamas! So, Monday morning, she got up, didn't get dressed and went to school for a second time in her pajamas:

Max

Max has actually had a lot going on too. He normally lives the most carefree life of everyone in the family. I'm sure that will change with Kindergarten coming, but for now, I'm letting him enjoy life.

His biggest news is his first lost tooth! (Our kids seem to loose their teeth really young!)


Don't let the happy photo deceive you! This was no easy feat. His tooth had been loose for a long time. It got so loose that it was pretty much hanging by a thread. But, he would not try to wiggle it and he WOULD NOT let Dave pull it out. We tried all kinds of persuasion, but he was determined to lose his tooth on his own terms. Finally, with a small amount of begging, Dave convinced Max to let his dad help. It literally just popped right out and Max didn't even feel a thing! The next morning, I think Bria was more excited about the visit from the tooth fairy than Max. That kid cracks me up!

I also wanted to share this handsome and grown up photo. We got him some new church clothes for his birthday. I can't get over how sharp he looks! He is quite literally his dad in miniature.



Logan:

Let me first start by saying that I love this kid! I really love him. But, he is every kind of trouble right now. He climbs. He empties drawers. He plays in the toilet. He draws on everything. He throws tantrums. And, he is just too darn cute to stay mad at. I've had a lot of anxiety about summer. The older kids love to play outside and are terrible about closing doors in their hurry to enjoy the outdoors. I've had more than one nightmare involving Logan running into impending danger by sneaking outside. I've been brainstorming ideas that will either keep him locked in the house or at the very least, contained to the back deck (unless, of course, I'm outside with him). As if I hadn't already suffered enough anxiety and stress on my own, Logan learned how to unlock our back sliding door and then open it. He's such a smart little stinker! He's probably been watching closely for a while, the figured it out on the first try. This may be a long summer!


As for me....I've been super busy too. Cooking, cleaning, designing, organizing, parenting, researching, reading....and just about anything else I can fit on my plate. If I can ever get my act together, I'll start blogging some of the projects we have going on in life. There just always seems to be a part of me that thinks I have to have everything done before I can pick up the computer and blog. The problem is....everything is never done! Half the time I'm luck to get anything done!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Swimming

Our ward had a swimming activity again this year. One great thing about living in Idaho is the natural hot springs that seem to be all over. There is one only about 45 minutes from our house and they use it to heat a huge swimming pool. The water is just as warm as a bath tub! They actually have to cool the hot spring water so the swimming pool isn't too hot! Warm swimming pool water = my kind of swimming. One of the sisters in our ward took pictures while we were all in the pool, so we got tons of great pictures!














Friday, April 1, 2011

Arrrrhhh! It's a party, matey!

Max turned 5! I can't believe he turned 5! He's never had a friend birthday before, so we wanted to make sure he got one this year. We found a cute idea for a pirate party and Max loves pirates!

The Invitations:




 The Decorations:




The Birthday Boy:



The Cake: 




The Friends:


The Activites:

Dress yourself up as a pirate


Pin the Flag on the Map

Playing Pirate, Pirate, Captain (duck,duck, goose)


The Presents:




Blowing Out The Candles:



Happy Birthday, Max! We love you!!!