Easter time

This year we had our Easter egg hunt on Saturday.  We did it for a couple of reasons.  The first was I hate that the focus of Easter is on egg hunts and Christ generally gets forgotten with all the candy.  I know that can happen at Christmas but Easter seems worse.  Maybe it happens because Easter is on a Sunday every year or there are not any Christ centered activities the month leading up to the holiday.  Who knows?  The second reason was because we have early church and there was no way we could have an egg hunt before (which the kids would expect) and still make it on time.  The kids were bugged that the egg hunt was on Saturday but they quickly forgot their frustrations.  The sad part was we were still late on Sunday, just not as late.

After the Easter egg hunt, we went to brunch at the Egg & I.  This was so much fun and something we never do.  Finding our eggs on Saturday followed by brunch might become a tradition.

On Sunday, Brian and I took some time to talk about Christ and his atonement.  The kids missed some of the festivities that day but I think over time it could become normal.

 Here we are in our Easter attire.  Out of 10 shots of the whole family we didn't have a perfect one.  Instead of a self timer we should have a neighbor come over and shoot a couple for us.  We also did some photos of all the girls then all the boys but we are not professional photographers and those shouldn't be posted.

A mess up with the timer so Brian put it to good use.

 Tanner has had enough, but we forced him to stay for a few more shots.

One Year Older and Wiser too

Braden was finally given a friend birthday party this year.  He had been dreaming of that day for a long time.  The anticipation almost killed him.  Luckily he lived to enjoy the special day.

The theme to the party was Super Mario Brothers.  I had some great themed games planned but the weather didn't cooperate.  I got flustered and forgot that the coolest game could be done inside so we skipped it.  I never really got back on track and I had a lot of time to spare when we had done everything.  Good thing it was five year old boys and they didn't care or notice.

The first game that didn't get played had the most prep work.  It was an obstacle course avoiding king boos (white helium balloons with faces), climbing through a pipe (our tent tunnels), hopping over piranha plants, stomping goombas (balloons with faces) and reaching the flag.  Of course I didn't take a picture either.

Some of the piranha plants.  The big one was for the obstacle course.

Then we had some Bowser dodgeball downstairs.  Brian was Bowser but we never got his costume on him.  The boys didn't care.

We did a scavenger hunt around the yard.  They were looking for yoshi eggs, bricks, mystery blocks, and coins.

This was one of the bricks they had to find. It contained 2 mushrooms.  The yoshi eggs were plastic easter eggs that we put white dots on.

I didn't want to do a pinata but it was a special request by Braden.  I am always worried someone will get whacked with the bat and that worried increased thinking about boys swinging the bat.  Watch out baseball teams!  Someone of these boys have a strong swing.  It is amazing the difference between the girls swinging at Macy's pinatas at 5 and 8 years of age compared to Braden's little friends.  The boys would have won.

Baseball here we come.

Then it was onto cake and ice cream.  Followed by presents.  To kill time they played with the little Mario characters they received in the favor bags.  Eventually they made their way outside to play with Braden's new stomp rocket.  Only one kid got it in the eye from impatient, not fully comprehending why to wait little boys.

Another attempt at cake decorating.

Some of his best buddies.  This one is with Trey. Dylan is also in the picture looking at a gift.

Braden and Zac

Cameron and Braden. Cameron is only 9 months older but a quite a bit taller.

I hope Braden had a good time.

From his family he received lots of legos, another wii remote and a baseball mitt.  He chose to go to dinner at Ihop when he went shopping with grandma and grandpa.  When he went shopping he chose a large r/c car and 2 small lego sets from the lego store.  Grandma Carol gave him clothes and another set of legos.

Happy Birthday little man!

The Funnies

Macy was going to a birthday party.  The gift to her friend was a bird house to build and paint.  She looks at the box before I wrapped it and became so excited.  She said "It's 3D.  I've never seen one like that before."  This is when I wanted to comment, "Well that is because you have seen them only in 4D".  I refrained.  Then she read some of the marketing on the box and exclaimed "and it's made of real wood".  She thought it was the coolest gift.

Leprechauns don't visit our house but they visit tons of friend's homes.  Kelsey keeps hoping that one day they will stop by on St Patrick's day.  Maybe those pesky leprechauns will come when she has kids.  Anyways, I found the following note she left out.

It says "Dear Lepercon can I have 100 dollars or less than 100 dollars but not 0 dollars."

Parenting: Brian's Style

I love Brian and he is the greatest dad.  The kids love him and they know he loves them.  He takes time to play tickle monster, tag, basketball, Super Mario Brothers and even Just Dance.  He has helped Macy on reports. He has helped all of them write talks for church.  But reading books to the kids is not his thing nor is listening to them read.

He has been known to skip pages and lines when the girls were little.  He wasn't thrilled when they had a book memorized or when they learned to read and they could catch him pulling this stunt.  I have also heard him tell the girls to go pick out another story because the one they chose was too long.

Each night I listen to Kelsey read for 20 minutes.  The other night this was not done before I had to leave to Young Womens so Brian was given the assignment.  Braden wanted to play Super Mario Brothers with his dad that night too.  So Brian multi-tasked.  He told me he listened to Kelsey read while he played Super Mario Brothers with Braden.  I can only imagine how well Kelsey was able to read, she gets easily locked on to the TV and video games, and how much of the story Brian heard, he too has a hard time focusing.  In the end the task was completed and Braden knows his dad loves him.

Southern Carribean

 To celebrate my birthday and Valentines Day we took a cruise with friends.  Okay we didn't go because of those reasons.  It just happened to be the dates we picked.  We had a great time hanging out with Tanya & Clyn Robinson (she was a cruise organizer), Julie & Roger Harrison, and Melissa & Chris Bremser.  Brian was our entertainment director and he planned some amazing things for us (like always).  We laughed and laughed some more.  I was so glad we went with these guys.

First stop was a day and a half in San Juan before boarding the ship.  We rented a car and drove around the island.  There are some neat forests in Puerto Rico.  At one point while driving through forest we rolled down our windows and it sounded like a relaxation CD.

Sunday we went to church and met the mission president's wife.  We told him a young man in our ward would soon be reporting to them.  Then we toured El Morro the ginormous fort.  We strolled a few of the streets of Old San Juan.  We didn't spend too much time doing that because Brian couldn't relax because he was afraid we would miss the ship.  Downtown in crazy on the weekends.

 

Next up surfing in Barbados.  I loved surfing.  I got up too.  Too bad I got burnt pretty bad from lying on my board for 2 hours.  I applied sunscreen and it was overcast.  I guess I was really white.  I had to cover up really well for the following 2 days.

 

What more could I want on my birthday?  An extremely delicious chocolate cake, surfing, dark chocolate dipped strawberries in my state room.  I had it all.

 Here was our water taxi driver and our land guide in St. Lucia.  He drove us through an arch on our way along the coast.  He said that should give us another 10 years of marriage.

 We saw the Pitons (hopefully someone in our group has a better picture of them than us).  We sat in a waterfall that was a warm as bath water.  The water came from near the island's volcano.

Sugar Beach on St Lucia.  The white sand was imported.  The island is volcanic so most of the beaches are a darker sand.

 Check out the blue water in Antigua.  Actually all the islands had beautiful water.  Here we chartered a small yacht for the day.  They took us snorkeling, fed us lunch and showed us the island from the water.

"I'm sailing Dr. Leo Marvin.  I'm sailing."

 St. Maarten.  Here we rented a car, did some sea kayaking, watched the huge jets land as we sat on a beach and found a secluded beach.  We also saw a lot of topless women. 

Very few people were on this beach.  It is a stark contrast from the beach we just came from.  That beach was were the airplanes fly in just feet above your head.  That beach had tons of people and lots of partying.

St Croix was one of my favorites along with everyone in the group.  We found a company that offered guided hikes.  The owner happened to be a farm boy from Idaho who decided laid back island life was for him.  His brother liked the idea and joined him in St Croix.  They even had a brother that served an LDS mission but they were not participating Mormons themselves.  Not sure about the rest of the family.  They were cool guys and shared lots of information.  They started off the hike with fresh coconut water for everyone.  We tried 2 different varieties of coconuts and they each had their own flavor.  Roger ate a termite.  I saw a huge ugly spider.  We tried a princess pea.  It tasted like lemon and numbed our tongues and gums a bit.  One of the guides uses it for his one year old son when the son is teething.  We were told not to touch the millipedes there because they would burn you.  All sorts of interesting things.

 

 

Our end goal was the Cambola Tide pools.  The 2 guys with dread locks were the guides.

Our one picture of a formal night.

By coincidence most of the group ended up on the same flights home.  Here we are eating Philly cheesesteak sandwiches in the Philadelphia airport. 

 

Great vacation! Hard to be home. Can't wait for the next trip to paradise.

Quick review

 This is Sniffles.  She is the newest member of the family.  Santa brought her for Kelsey.  I guess he forgot that he can't talk animals in his sleigh.  Sniffles has turned out to be a great pet and Kelsey and Braden still have not tired of her.  Kelsey wants to get her a lease to talk her on "hops" around the neighborhood.  I think everyone enjoyed their Christmas presents this year.  Macy was given Saige, an American Girl Doll (that doesn't get played with just like I thought it wouldn't).  Braden opened jumbo legos.  He wants more for his birthday but I don't wear we will store them.  Brian got a TV and blue ray player to help motivate him to use the treadmill (this was something he wanted).  The kids wrapped up odds and ends from around the house for Tanner.  Kelsey is so generous.  She gave $30+ of her own money for charities we as a family participated in this Christmas.  Then she spent $35 of her own money and bought Tanner a blanket that has become his favorite.  He has to sleep with it each night.  I got was given a new ipad.  I was so happy and surprised by the new toy it has been a lot of fun and useful.  Then for my birthday I bought myself a new iPhone.  I am so connected and hip now.

 Christmas can be so crazy.  In December the kids asked when we would gingerbread houses.  I didn't want to squeezed another thing in so I said we could do them in January when they were off-track.  I kept my promise when they asked.  It is hard not to take over and add my ideas.  Maybe one year I will make a house of my own.

 They lasted an hour before they started eating the houses.  That was all the longer I could hold them off.  Then they thought it would be fun to try eating them without hands.

 January Tanner started to eat solids.  He wasn't sure at first but now he loves to sit at the table with the family and have some of his own food.

 Kelsey dressing Tanner up.

Macy got a hold of my phone and snapped this lovely photo of herself.  I have quite a few lovely pictures on the ipad too.  I have not shared my passcode to the phone with them so my memory is not filled with photos.  That and because I don't want them to use my phone for games.  They are always wanting to get "bapples" for me on the ipad.  I have yet to play Minion Rush so why they think I want "bapples" is beyond me. 

This was Kelsey's valentine box.  We had to make this a couple weeks before Valentine's Day because I was celebrating that holiday on a cruise.  I forgot to take a picture of Macy's box.  Hers was an ipad.

And here are my cute boys sharing a cart at Costco.  I think Braden is a little big for this ride.

There is so much

Where to begin...

How about funny things? I don't here to many funny statements from my girls anymore, besides girly goofiness.  I guess that is because they are growing up and they understand a lot more now.  But you are in luck because I caught a few and wrote them down.

Macy:  About a month ago around dinnertime, the time of sheer chaos, Tanner wouldn't settle down.  He couldn't be the number 1 priority at the time so I had to let him fuss while I was finishing the 10 million other tasks.  Macy came to the rescue. She started talking and playing with him.  When I could finally turn my focus to Tanner, Macy says to me as if I could easily do one more thing "If you would just talk to him, he would be happy."  I don't think I will ever say that to her when she is a mother, but the thought crossed my mind.

Macy does not lack confidence in some areas of her life.  This winter she played basketball.  According to her she is the best basketball player.  She would come home from practice and say she made more baskets than anyone else on the team but during the games she hardly ever scored.  She was dreading soccer practice because she has an awesome coach that makes them do conditioning 2 days a week.  I told her that to be a good/better soccer and basketball player she needed to the conditioning.  She informed me that she was already good and that it wouldn't help her.

Kelsey:  Another mom overheard a conversation between Kelsey and her friends and relayed this story to me.  The girls were talking about church when Kelsey says "when I grow up I don't think I will go to church as often.  And I will get my ears pierced two times."  I could only sigh and shake my head.  Kelsey has always complained about going to church.

Braden: He is a real home body.  I have a hard time getting him to the daycare at the gym.  I never know what he will say when a friend calls to play.  Sometimes if they live "too far" he will tell them he doesn't want to play unless they come to his house.  Even if they live "close" he makes them come to our house or he won't play.  One mom asked him if he wanted to come play with her son (a primary friend) and he bluntly said "no".  But some days he is begging for a friend and wants to go to their house.  I never know what blunt statements will come from his month when it comes to playing and sometimes he really embarrasses me.  He had one friend ask if he wanted to come to his house to see his new Star Wars toothbrush (the kid was real excited and always wants to play with Braden, it is his preschool buddy).  Despite the other kid's excitement Braden said flatly "no".

Tanner:  He is just beginning the funny stage.  He growls all the time.  He definitely growls when something is happening he doesn't like.  But he growls a lot for no reason.  It is really funny and most people notice his deep, throaty growl.  I call him our little monster.  He is a really happy and gives big huge grins.  He loves his siblings and gets excited when they come home or when they play with him.  Braden is pretty good at getting him to giggle.  He loves to "make out" with me.  He even made out with Calee the other day while we were helping Emily move.  He grabs on to the face and just attacks with his mouth over and over again.  Of course the mouth is always open and you are pretty wet after.  He is more prone to this when he is tired.  He started sitting around 6 months.  His bottom 2 front teeth came in at 5 months.  He is into grabbing everything.  If he gets a hold of an item it will be sopping within seconds.  He drips drool constantly.  He gets a big ring of water on his shirt as he sits and plays with his toys.  He was a lot drier when he could only lay on the ground.  He is still a big kid.  At his 6 month check up, which was closer to 7 months, he was 28.5 inches long (90%) and 18 pounds 8 oz (75% and his head was in the 70th percentile).  This means he is in the 9 to 12 month clothes.  He is not great about a schedule.  Four days before Brian and I left for a cruise he decided to have a routine and sleep through the night.  By the end of the trip the routine was gone and there were a few bumpy nights of sleep.  I think he is back to sleeping through the night but he is an earlier riser than most of my kids (I think I had to force Braden to sleep later).  He is up around 6 or 7 and he likes to go to bed around 8:30 with 2 naps during the day.  Oh and he is a jabber mouth.  He has to get his 2 cents in and babbles constantly.

Pictures to come soon.
*Warning: Soon is a relative term :)