Hayden and the Road Runner

We checked out a video of the old Looney Tunes cartoons that I watched when I was a kid from the library. My kids LOVE them!!! It has been fun for me too watch them like something classic and laugh. I remembered watching all of them when I was a kid. The funny thing to me is that the other day I caught Hayden running around the house going "beep beep" She will stop for a second stick out her toung a few times say "beep beep" and run again. I can tell which on is her favorite! What a funny 2 year old!

Spring Photo Shoot

A few weeks ago my friend Julia came to take pictures of my kids for me. I have been watching how amazing she does with her kids and asked if she would "practice" on my kids. (She clearly already knows what she is doing so it wasn't much practice!) My kids were a little "shy" at first but they quickly started having fun and she took so many amazing pictures I had a hard time choosing what to blow up to put on my wall! I know I will have a hard time scrap booking them too because I will want to do 2 or 3 layouts of each kid! I really loved all the pictures and am so excited to pick up my prints on Monday! I love to have my kids pictures taken this time of year because it is right in the middle of all the birthday's and we can get them all some what close to birthday's and hit that year mile stone for them.

Her is Brock. She took some great ones of him with his dinosaurs too! I know the sweatshirt is NOT dressy the way I normally would dress my kids for nice pictures but this is his most favorite thing in the world, wears it all the time, and it is just so him that I gave in. This is Brock at Almost 7.

This is my sweet 2 year old who is soooo very 2! I love this shirt on her because of her beautiful blue eyes! She really loved Julia and was fascinated with what she was doing! It was really very cute.

Poor Ethan was last and had had a very busy day between Primary activity, and baseball tryouts just to walk in the door and be thrown a shirt and told it is his turn for pictures! He was such a good sport and I love all the pictures she took of him. She took a few with him and one of his lego projects. He turned 9 a few weeks ago and seems to just be getting so big all of a sudden!

Amelia got to go first and she didn't seem sure as to what we were doing taking pictures in our kitchen. But she did a great job, smiled nice, and there were so many pretty pictures of her! I struggle with the fact that she has decided since her 5th birthday that she longer wants to have bangs! She has had bangs since she was about 1 and I cut them since that is where they were going anyway... But the last month her two she has fought me about them , she hates them touching her face (even trimming them she hates them touching her head) and she hates me to curl them and make them look pretty! So I gave in and am letting her grow them out! It still surprises me to see her with no bangs! She is a pretty, and sweet girl bangs or no bangs! Thanks Julia for all your time you did a fabulous job!!!!

Spring break

Today was our first day of spring break that it isn't raining. So we thought we would seize the moment and get the sidewalk chalk out! My kids love to be creative so I knew this would keep them busy till they ran out of side walk!

Hayden loved to just color what ever. She started by just doodling and made a very cute pile of colors. But then when she started trying to color everyone's pictures I drew her a little butterfly to color! She actually does a very good job for a 2 year old!!! (Notice the boots that are more then 4 sizes to big she just loves her sisters boots!)

Amelia drew and colored a picture of herself!

I drew a rainbow (the one on top) Ethan loved it so much he had to make one too!

As many of you know Brock is obsessed with dinosaurs! I drew him a long neck that went clear across the street. They all went to work coloring him and Brock added the spikes to his back!

Busy life and no computer!

So the past week we have been computer less! It is like being in detox! At least once an hour I would think, I should check... oh yeah I can't do that... I should email.... oh I can't.... It got easier each day but I still felt like my right arm was cut off! At least I have great counselors in primary so I could pass the buck on a few things that needed to get done and I couldn't! Thanks to our wonderful Bishop we are back on line!!!! So what have we done in this week of being computer less...
For St. Patty's day we had our usual green dinner. I don't have pictures sorry! But we had guacamole chips, green wiener wraps, green jello, cabbage. I know weird combo's but lately the tummy is getting what the tummy wants! I made Malt-O-Meal cereal for the girls in the morning and added a little green food coloring just for fun. Amelia thought it was fun. Hayden took one look and said Yucky! She only ate her toast! I just had to not look while I ate because it looked like we were eating play dough! MMMM!
Larry and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on the 20th! We went away for 2 nights and 3 days with the wonderful blessing of my mom coming and staying with the kids!! What a blessing. We couldn't have gone with out her. It was so relaxing to not hurry, not unload a pack of kids each time we went somewhere and just be footloose and care free. But there is always that time where you think, "if the kids were here they would love this!" But the next minute you are walking into a shop full of tiny blown glass things and you think, "if the kids were here I couldn't come in here with out HAVING to buy something!" We went and saw a movie in the middle of the day on Friday. We saw "Knowing!" It was better then I thought it was going to be and it was at the top of my list on what I wanted to see!!! We walked on the beach and found some killer deals at the outlet mall in Lincoln City! It was very restful! Anyway It was wonderful to spend so much time with the man I love!!! It is spring break now and I am trying to just keep the kids busy. I give them a few jobs each day, something fun to do and hope for the best. It has been raining all week so it is hard to say go out side and play!!!! Oh how I wish I could! They are being pretty good though I can't complain. I may reward them by taking them to go see the new movie "Monsters VS Aliens" on Friday. We only take our kids to the movies once every 2 years or so, so they will think this is an amazing treat! We will see how worn out I am on Friday! On the fun side of things I guess the word is getting around fairly quickly that we are expecting baby number 5. We weren't going to really make big announcements for another week or two because of my high miscarriage rate but enough people know now we might as well make it public knowledge anyway for those who don't know. We are about 11 weeks along. I am technically due October 16th. I have gone 3 weeks early every time (I take that back Brock was 2 weeks early not because he wasn't trying to come earlier my DR MADE him wait!) Anyway we are planning the last week of September most likely! This is perfect for me and I am excited about the timing! I think Heavenly Father knew what was going to work best for me and my family! As in right after school starts, long enough before Primary activity and primary Program stuff that we should be ready to go!!! Our kids are all very excited! They had been asking for another baby and are all voting on boy vs girl baby. We won't be finding out before hand so they will get to be surprised!
The only other new things right now are Amelia is in Gymnastics. I will post pictures next week when she has her next session. She is loving it!!! She also went and got all caught up on shots today so that she could get registered for Kindergarten. She had to get 5 shots and she hardly whimpered! What a brave brave girl!!! The doctor was very impressed!!! I asked her afterwards, "so are Hayden's bites worse then shots?" She told me that Hayden's bites are worse then the shots! (Hayden is a biter all though it is getting much better! We go weeks with out incident now instead of a day or hours!)
Brock's 1st grade teacher had her baby 2 weeks ago and won't be back for the rest of the year. He has a great sub who was Ethan's 2nd grade teacher. We love her and we were sad when she retired but are glad she can fill in in this capacity! We made her a fun present to put pictures of her baby in. She loved it!
Ethan and I finished the second Harry Potter book last night and were so excited we ran to the Bevan's for the 3rd! We are hooked!
Hayden is as cute as ever and quite the entertainer! She makes us all laugh daily!
My kids had a wonderful time with grandma. She came with lots of crafts to do with them. They were all so excited to show us the fun things they had made, and tell us the fun things they did. They made pizza's with her, painted and all kinds of fun things! Thanks Grandma!!!!

Primary Quarterly Activity!

This years Primary theme is "My Eternal Family." I have been really excited about it and having lots of fun coming up with ideas of things to do with it. I got an idea clear back in November on an idea of a quarterly activity and I kind of morphed it into what I really wanted to do to introduce the theme in a fun way for the kids. We had our activity today and this is what we did.

We started out in the primary room where I talked for just a few minutes about what a Proclamation was. That we have one today and how it tells us all the things that we know are important about families. We gave each family a big manila envelope and sent them to stations together. At each station they received a puzzle piece to their Proclamation to the World on the Family, and a FHE kit that taught all about that theme, or sub topic in the Proclamation. So they could take home 6 packets to teach their families all about families, and the proclamation. We had some amazing people from our ward go all out and play prophets for us! It was really wonderful!!!!

Station #1 They met Adam and Eve and learned about the Creation!

In this station they met Alma. He taught them about being bound with cords and how he broke them. But how families need to be so strong they can't be broken. He taught them about the 7 parts of a successful family that are in the proclamation.

Joseph Smith taught the kids all about the plan of salvation, and the importance of temple marriage.

Nephi taught the kids about what it means to be obedient to your parents and how that strengthens your family.

Primary Activity Cont...

Here is Nephi playing a game with the kids that helps teach them the importance of being obedient. (It was a lot like Chutes and Ladders.)

Abraham and Sarah taught about the importance of having a family, and how happy they were to have Isaac when he was born!

Here is Sarah showing the children the kind of lamp she had to light their home (they had lots of fun things to show the kids!)

This is "President Hinckely" teaching the children about how grateful we are to have families, and how important it is to follow the prophet.

The activity went well. I was really happy with the wonderful job all of our helpers did! I know they put a lot of time in and we are so thankful to them. I hope that the families use and enjoy their FHE packets. They were a lot of work but so much fun putting together. Every minute is worth it if the families use them and enjoy them!!! I know our house will be spending the next 6 weeks studying the Proclamation!!!

Brock's music program

Every year at Monmouth Elementary School they have music programs. They are always well done, cute and fun for the kids. This year the 1st and 2nd graders did one on Aesop's fables. It was really cute. There were 4 different skits and songs in between. Brock had been excited about the whole thing for weeks.

He did a great job singing and doing the hand motions they did with all the songs! Even Hayden couldn't help but dance and do some hand motions a long with them! If you can entertain a 2 year old for 45 minutes you are doing good!!!

Brock was the only kid in his class with a yellow visor. I wasn't surprised he is obsessed with the color yellow and his teacher knows it. I am guessing she did some trading to make it happen. What a sweet teacher! She will only be there 2 more days since Saturday she is having her baby and she won't be there for the rest of the year!

SHARK!

Ethan got this toy shark a few years ago in his stocking for Christmas. It is usually up stairs in the boys bathroom. Last night Ethan brought it down to have a bath in our tub. The result was pretty funny. This morning it was in the tub and I started the water for the girls. Hayden was pretty concerned that it was in there. I took it out and tried to give it to her and she wouldn't even touch it! I tried putting it back in the tub next to her and she kind of freaked out (mean mom!) It cracked me up that a fake plastic shark with half it's jaw missing would scare her so much!

Baby Ethan

I thought I would share just a few pictures of Ethan from his first year. I could spend hours making a slide show but I think I did a whole bunch last year too.... So I thought this would be enough. Just to remember where he started from. The first set are from his first 2 weeks (excuse the "old school" scrapbooking)

I think he was about 4 months old here

These were his 6 month photos

His first Halloween (about 7 or 8 months old)

Ethan's 9th Birthday

In honor of Ethan learning how to ski for his birthday I made him this fun little cake. I did it as a surprise. Normally my kids help plan the whole thing and have an idea of what they want for months ahead of time. But this time I asked him if I could do something as a surprise. He loved it so it was lots of fun!

Ethan really likes the Magic Tree House series of books so he got a whole bunch for his birthday! He was really excited about them all. Although my mom also got him a book of cool things you can build with Legos and he spent more time with that book than anything. He is pretty excited to try all of the cool stuff in there!

Legos are Ethan's other favorite thing in the whole world! So he got lots of them for his birthday. He was pretty happy with them all! I asked him if he had a good birthday at bed time and he said it was the best!

Winding up for the big huff and puff!

Ethan's skiing lessons

Ethan is turning 9 on Sunday and we told him he could go get ski lessons if he wanted instead of having a birthday party this year. He was really excited to go. Grandma and Grandpa Davis bought him some goggles and thermals so he would be all decked out. Good thing too because the conditions were so blustery he wouldn't have been able to see with out them!

Dad says he did a great job and they had time to go down several runs after the lessons together. Now Daddy will have a ski partner for year to come! (Since I haven't skied since the 6th grade and who would watch all the kids if I went?) Maybe in a few years Brock will join the crew, then Amelia, then Hayden and eventually I might get in the swing of it and it could be a family event! Well see about that! Ethan is hooked though!

On their way out of town they picked up some lunch at Safeway. I had bought them some snacks too take along too. So they hate a nice hearty lunch and hit the slopes a little longer!

10 years ago!

This morning I was packing some stuff in my scrapbooking closet to get ready to go on a scrap weekend with friends and I found this old package of pictures! The date stamp for the first ones are all for 10 years ago TODAY! It just so happens that 10 years ago today was my bridal shower with my collage friends. It was held in Larry and I's to be apartment. I love these pictures because Leti cracks me up! The first one is me playing that old game where they ask the groom questions and I have to match them, every time you get one wrong you put a piece of gum in your mouth! This is the kicker! Laura didn't buy just soft bubbalisious or something she bought gum that had that awful sucker candy coating! So I had to crunch through the sucker to get to the gum part!!! (Meanie!) I drooled a lot! Plus they didn't ask Larry the questions they asked Larry's mom the questions.... so you know how that would go. I was chewing a lot of gum!!!

I love this picture of me opening presents. I wish I knew what I had opened and why it was soooo funny to Leti!!!

This is a few days later I was fitted for my wedding dress (I was only fitted one time!) The woman did an amazing job!!! Man was I skinny then... Oh to be 10 years younger and 25 lbs lighter!
Oh and for those of you who might remember or those who don't, that night is also the 10 year anniversary of Larry cutting the end of his finger off. We were suppose to go to a dance after my bridal shower. I think he just didn't want to go. The next morning I went to the temple for my endowments.... Larry was hurting pretty bad poor guy! At least he was all better 2 weeks later for the honeymoon!!!!

Play time!

There are lots of things I love about being a mother. One of them happened today. I have had 4 extras today and even though I have had 6 children 5 and under (3 of them being 2) it has been a fun day! 4 of them all napped at the same time leaving the older 2 to some quiet time, and the playing has been pretty good. The best part was I heard them all playing so nice I had to go and see what they were doing and this is what I found!

I love it when my children start to have that imagination play. Hayden was so cute pretending to cook. She would use the hot pad to take things out of the oven and tell me they were hot. She would stick them in the oven and turn the nobs and tell me "be out in a minute".

Here she is serving and eating her yummy food! She kept doing it over and over, I just love this new milestone. Now if she would stop bullying her sweet friend!