Kids Pics

There were a lot of pictures this year so I decided to split the last entry up.

PS I found a missing entry. Somehow Braden's birthday post didn't get scheduled and was left in draft mode. I wanted to leave everything in chronological order, so if you are dying to see what took place and all his cutness check it out here.

Photo shoots

This has been the year of the photos. In January my family had their photo taken (it was my mom's Christmas present. Then in April it was the grandkids time for Brian's mom for Mother's Day. Then my kids were due and so over Spring Break I dressed them up and took them in.

Tulip Festival

I know those here in the state may not believe it, but we did have one beautiful weekend in May. Luckily this was the weekend we chose to visit the Tulip Festival. The grounds were gorgeous. The weather perfect. The kids had a good time and I bought myself a new purse.

I know, doesn't exactly seem like me. But I have been dying to get something a little more wild. My old purse was begging to be retired (it has been with me for several years) so I jumped when I saw something I could handle. Actually a few weeks before I had another purse picked out but Macy was with me at the time and as soon as she saw it she had to have the purse. I was out of luck because she had enough birthday money for the purse. I just couldn't bring myself to buying the same purse as my 7 year old.

Back to the Tulip festival. My mom and sister came with us and that just added to the enjoyment of the day. After several hours Brian dragged us home. He was hot and hungry.

We even purchased a frog at the festival. Mom agreed because it was an aquatic frog and could not leave the water. It also did not require any extra care. It could live with the goldfish we have had since last May. The frog was named after a favorite cousin until mom said no and the name was changed to "Daphne".

Well the sad news is the frog did not live long. He died 3 days later. Not sure if it was the trauma of being hauled all through the gardens, being underfed (we lost the food given to us and could not get more until 2 days later, however, I was told these frogs should only be fed every 2 to 4 days), being overfed (Brian overcompensated for losing the food), being scared to death by Darla aka: Braden (Imagine seeing 2 small holes and 1 gaping hole filled with lots of white rocks at the waters surface and then hearing a thunderous noise yelling "hi froggy" over and over again. Now add a large stick like thing stabbing into the water trying to touch you. Get the picture.) or if there was something with his water (we gave him his own space for a day to make sure he was eating). Anyways his burial was the luv.

Here are a few parting shots from this fun day.

Spring Break, Easter,and birthday

The worst thing about laundry (besides actually finishing it by folding it and putting it away) is the interesting surprises that can be found in the dirty mess. Today was my lucky day because the item I found was not too nasty to tell. Today I found in Kelsey's pocket a glob of dried out pink stuff. Not sure what it was exactly but I am guessing it was the silly putty from Easter. The pink was a similar shade and it was stuck to all the fibers in the pocket. If it was silly putty, it is definitely easier to clean off of fabric when dry. On Easter Sunday Macy managed to ground in silly putty into the sleeve of her new Easter sweater in the middle of Sacrament meeting.

But todays post is not about laundry so I will bring back my focus. This post goes out to my sister who is tired of seeing Larry the Lobster on my blog and wants to know about Macy's birthday and Easter.

Easter week also means Spring Break to those with young children. Tired of the miserable cold in Northern Utah (which still won't leave for good), we decided to trek on down to sunny St. George. We sure did pick it right. The weather couldn't have been better and we lived it up only to cry huge sobs when we got home and had to put away the flip flops.

While in St. George we met up with some good friends and spent the day in Snow Canyon. We played in the sand dunes and then took a hike. The sand dunes were nice because it had rained recently so you only had to dig down a little to find cool, moist, sand castle sand. After we took our little fam on the Hidden Pinyon trail. This was the best idea. It was about 1.5 miles round trip and included a nature guide. There was a pamphlet with 19 different plants to find. This kept the girls interested as they ran ahead to find the next numbered marker. Maybe only once did we hear "Are we almost done? My legs are tired." The trail itself took you through some very scenic areas. It had a little bit of climbing, some flat areas and some hills. Braden the trooper didn't want to be carried. He was big and tough. If his sisters could do, so could he. He did most of the trail himself and you should have seen some rocks his little legs had to maneuver over.



Took a small detour on the way down and stopped at Cove Fort. Well worth it.



One day we took a "short, little, easy drive" to see Toquerville Falls aka La Verkin Falls. One website recommended four wheel drive vehicles. They were wrong. It should have said "four wheel drive required". I would have loved to have seen a car try to get there. The kids laughed and bumped their way there.



Why did Braden cross the road? Because he thought this tube would keep him safe. He loved walking in this tube any chance he got.

 Another day we went up to Gunlock Reservoir because we heard they were letting water out of the spill way. This was the prettiest spill way I have ever seen. If you ever get the chance to see this, do it.

During this trip we decided to give Macy one of her birthday presents, a new bike. The weather down there was a little more conducive for this item. She was so excited and Kelsey was excited to get Macy's old bike. You should have seen how cramped Kelsey's legs were on her old bike. Kelsey has tried riding without training wheels a couple of times but she still needs more work and a lot more courage.

We drove home in time for Easter. The Easter bunny came and dad didn't take very many still shots of the egg hunt and the movies are not worth posting. A "grandma bonnie" thing happened. One egg was never found. Our Easter bunny thought she was smart and left a count of how many eggs were hidden. Well it didn't help and as far as I know one is still missing. Luckily it was a plastic egg. I think one of the kids must have found it afterwards because I have cleaned and still haven't seen it.

After the egg hunt we ran over for pull-aparts and breakfast at my mom's house. Then we ran home for 1 PM church. After church we ran over to dinner at Brian's mom's house. It was relaxing. Oh yea, I had to substitute in Primary too.

I am impressed if you have stayed with me this far. You may be wondering what else we did for Macy's birthday. Well it spread out over a two week period. For presents she received money and clothes from Grandma Carol and Grandpa Alan , a shopping trip with Grandma Wendy and Grandpa DeVon (she brought home a Barbie corvette that Braden enjoys along with 2 Barbies and something else), a new MP3 player (because she lost her other one), the new Taylor Swift CD and a squinkies gumball machine (it dispenses squinkies not gumballs). She took doughnuts to school for her treat. For her night out she chose Incredible Pizza (and no no one took pictures, I had the camera and was playing with Kelsey).

Happy Birthday to you

Just in case you are not into reading to relax yourself, now you can play ball to get things to flow. At least that was Braden's thought process, I think.

Actually this was one of Braden's birthday presents from his grandparents. He loves this toy and thought basketball should be played every second of the day. So he brought it in for me to have a turn. With the help of suggestion from grandma and grandpa, the basketball hoop is what he chose. They were daring enough to take Braden out for dinner and a birthday shopping trip to the toy store. He really enjoyed himself.

But seriously, who needs toys when you can have a box. The basketball hoop box was used as a sled, a bed, and even a slide. The slide function was a little defective but Braden didn't mind. He would lay on it and try to slide. When that didn't work he scooted himself to the bottom saying "weeeee". Sadly the box went out to recycling today because I was tired of looking at it. That is what happens to toys sometimes. They just disappear.

Braden wanted to help with his own cake. He did a good job dumping ingredients in and he didn't have to fight with his sisters for a turn. They were somewhere else at the time. Braden and I didn't even have to share the beaters. It is so much easier to cook with one than with 2 or 3. There were no hurt feelings and no one crying "that's not fair".

Here is the finished product. It combines his two favorites: "Basetball and Sooby Doo". The kid is fanatical about basketball. Earlier in the month before March Madness began Braden went to Brian with the remote and asked "Watch basetball on TV". He asked that over and over.

Braden was so excited to blow the candles out. He was huffing and puffing as I was lighting them. We had to tell him to wait. I was afraid he would hyperventilate he was blowing so hard. He was so patient as we sang, but when the song ended Kelsey beat him to it. She blew right as we said the last "you" and got one candle. Luckily there was still one but we had to tell her to stop otherwise she would have gone after it too. Oh and Braden got a big spit ball on the cake because he blows so hard. Not sure who got that piece.

Here is the birthday boy sporting some of his new duds. He was excited for the hat and glasses. If you can't tell he put them on himself. Grandpa helped with the tie.

We helped him out a bit with this shot. He received some other clothes that he was excited for too but they are harder to put on. His other gifts were monster trucks, a hot wheel, a Toy Story semi, Lightening McQueen, and guns that shoot foam discs. All have been hits. He has carried all the vehicles everywhere and dad is tired of reloading the discs. In fact, these birthday gifts have been the most successful. Usually there have been one or two gifts that the girls have asked for that see only a minute of play time. That bugs me so bad. It seems so wasteful to have purchased the gift. And I also know that the toy will eventually add to the mess when the tornado comes blowing through the play room. It may not be played with, but you can bet it will be dumped out any time those sirens go off.

Happy Birthday big boy! Your stats from your yearly check up were 27 lbs. and 35.5 inches tall. Oh and you ride in a "booster seat" wink, wink, nod, nod. It just looks a little different than your sisters'.

Larry the Lobster

Last week Kelsey's preschool went on a field trip to Red Lobster. They have been learning about oceans and seas and so this was the grand finale. Some parents were snickering because you teach the kids all about the animal life in oceans and then you tell them how to eat the animal life.

That is Larry. The manager said he was seven years old. She didn't mention that Larry would never get any older and that tomorrow she would fish out a new Larry from the tank.

One of the other girls really wanted to take Larry home. Thank goodness Kelsey didn't ask.

Touring the kitchen. No hair from us made it in anyone's food.

Enjoying a light refreshment of fries and "chicken nuggets" shaped like shrimp. Not many liked the nuggets. Wonder why?