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!

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!

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!!!

Up to date

I've been so busy....I don't know how I got so far behind. Then, when I did have a little bit of time, it felt like I couldn't blog about anything current because I had so many old posts not updated. Sigh! The truth is....our wedding invitation company has really picked up lately. It's good! It's really helping us with our debt plan. Weddings are such a seasonal thing that I have to be grateful for the orders when we have them! But, all the time on the computer designing wedding invitations sure makes me want to get right off when I'm done. So, our poor blog is what suffers!

Well...hopefully catching up will help me stay caught up!

Valentine's Day!

We had a lovely V-day this year!  I think the kids were equally as excited as for Christmas. I love how everthing is so magical to kids!

Dave really spoiled them this year with Pillow-Pets. I'm relieved - I've heard about pillow pets on nearly a daily basis for over a year! Even though she has one, Bria still points out all the different varieties every time we go to Walmart! Sigh!

The kids and I also surprised Dave with a little love note after school:

(please ignore the fact that Max is still in his PJs at 4:00. Obviously that never happens around here..... I apparently made him get dressed before his dad got home and gave them the pillow pets.)

We finished the day with a lovely heart shaped pizza!

It was perfect!!

A Busy Week:

The end of February brought about an incredibly busy week! Dave (or rather Pix & Flix) was hired to shoot a video and run live feed for the IASC conference. It's for all the high school student counsels in the state and is sort of like three days of constructive partying. They have music, dancing, motivational speakers and more music and dancing. Dave's been going for the last 4 or 5 years to do this job. He always take one of his guys with him to help, but this year he took me! It was so fun and nice to get out of the house for a while! I wish I had pictures, but we were so busy with the video, we didn't have time for pictures.

My favorite part was the motivational speaker. They brought in Dr Taylor Hartman. He's the guy that created the Color Code. Most people know it as the Color Code, but the book is actually titled The People Code. I had heard of it before, but it was completely different coming from the creator. I thoroughly enjoyed it and went and bought the book right away. It's a really good read and I highly recommend it!

We were gone to the conference Thursday through Saturday. On Saturday, Dave also had a bridal fair. So, we had his guys fill in during the morning and we came as quickly as possible to trade places. I really should say Dave got there as quickly as possible. I pretty much dropped him off and headed up to pick our kids up.

Well, Dave got home really late Saturday and hurriedly got un-packed and re-packed for his work trip on Sunday. His school district invited 5 people to go to a Positive Behavioral Support conference. We feel really honored that he was invited and definitely a lot more secure with his job. With all of the budget cuts, it's scary being at the bottom of the totem pole!

Here's one of the only pictures Dave took while on his trip:

Isn't he amazing at photography! I guess he's already so busy with videography, though.

Anyway...he got home late Wednesday night. I mean late, like midnight. He went to work on Thursday and Friday. Friday, the kids and I picked him up from school for yet another small getaway. His cousin got married in the Manti temple and hired Dave to do the video. For this type of thing, normally Dave would go it alone, but since it was family, we all went.

I love this picture! We had a really hard time getting Logan to stay for the picture. I think we tried at least 20 times. I love how Max is putting his hand on his forehead in frustration!

Well, that wraps up our busy week in February! It was fun, but we were sure glad when it was over....especially Dave. I do have to say, I love it when work is also fun and allows us to got on mini-trips. Especially after such a long winter!

Other goings on:

Logan turned 18 months old! He has been such a handful! I really love this little stinker!

Max is in love with all things Star Wars. He was so exited about finding the lost Star Wars Wii game yesterday, he began chanting "Star Was! Star Was!" He was too excited to remember to pronounce his Rs. He's such a cutie! He is getting into full Kindergarten mode. We registered him for kindergarten a couple of weeks ago. I can't believe he's already old enough! Where did the time go!

Bria is coming along nicely in school. She is learning to read better and better every day. She also love to listen to me read to her. She is such a wiggler, but when a book comes out, she listens on the edge of her seat. We've been reading American Girl books and most recently Anne of Green Gables. That one surprises me the most. The language is so advanced for a seven-year-old. But, she loves every minute of it! She is also quite the player. When I say player, I mean as much as a girl her age can be. I suspect she spends hours crawling around the playground at school. I washed her pants and realized that she only had 2 good pairs left! He shoes are also quickly wearing out and she's outgrown half of her school shirts. I can't believe how big she's getting!