Easter Activities

 

Local Easter Egg Hunt...notice the frozen pond behind the kids.  It was so cold Austin's fingers were purple.

 

Easter Egg Hunt with some families in our Ward yesterday.  It wasn't frozen but it was rainny and a little cold.

 

Decorating Easter Eggs yesterday. Cold but warm enough to decorate eggs outside so I wasn't so stressed out over someone spilling.

 



 

Easter Morning Egg hunt before Church.  They had a great time and I'm pretty sure 12 hours later their candy is at least half gone.  Oh well, it's part of the holiday right!?

Spring Break 2013

The week of Spring Break is coming to a close and even though it was quite uneventful it was nice not to have to get the kids to school and dance etc. 

The weather wasn't that great, last year we set up the tramp and had short sleeve shirts on, NOT this year.  It has been really quite cold and there have only been about 2 days that it was warm enough for the kids to go outside and play.

 

 

 

Besides on Friday teaching Olivia how to ride a two-wheeler and Austin actually getting to use his bike he got for Christmas. 

 Claire and Madi

 Olivia and Grace

Emilie and Savannah (Church and Activity Day buddies)

 

Friday some friends came over to play for a few hours right before they moved to Seattle, Washington.  They have 3 girls the exact age of my girls and Olivia and Grace are in the same preschool class and they are in our Ward.  (It was sad for my girls to see them go and even tonight when I tucked Olivia into bed and told her Monday she could go back to school, she said, "It will be happy and sad to go back to school, happy because Miss Jenny will be back and sad because Gracie won't be there.") 

 

 

Saturday night we rented "Wreck it Ralph" and watched that as a family.

 

 

 We had two friends (Leila and Greydon) say over for two nights (Sunday and Monday) while their parents were out of town, so we are calling that a sleepover and playing with friends.

 

Tuesday before our friends went home, we went to the library.

We had a playgroup at the church on Wednesday and then meet dad at the West Lakes Hospital (where he is working this month), went to lunch, and went shopping for a new bedspread.  It was a nice day when we got home so the kids played outside with their friends for a few hours.  Later that night I was planning on finishing the shopping by myself but a 1/2 hour after Jason got home he got called back in and stayed the night at the hospital (not worth the drive back home) so instead of going by myself,  the kids and I left at 7pm and got home at 9pm after going to 4 stores looking for bedroom stuff (it's a good thing my kids just go with the flow, most the time, because that is the story of our life.) 

 

Thursday we went to the gym which they were excited to do and then went shopping for more bedroom stuff and took back 1/2 the stuff we had bought the night before.

 

Today, since it's the last day of break I decided to take them swimming after I got done working out, so that's what we did.  It was fun except the life guard told me the rules are 2 kids per adult but if I keep them all within arms length and stayed in the shallow, even though 3 of them had life jackets on, then I would be okay this time.  We did our best and had fun but I felt like he was always watching me. 

  Then we went to the mall, Savannah wanted to go to Claire's and I decided the play place would be another fun, cheap, place to go.  We ended the day going to Dairy Queen because we had free sundae's there and came home to watch a movie. 

 

Overall it was a fun day and a fun week (at least when they weren't fighting.) 

Can't believe there are only 2 months of school left!  And since it is Spring now I can't wait for Spring Weather, but we will have to wait because it's supposed to snow again Sunday.

 

 

two-wheeler!

 

On Friday, March 15th the kids started Spring Break and lucky for us it was a nice day.  Olivia came and asked if I would come outside and help her ride a two-wheeler. (We tried last year but she just wasn't ready.)  We got everything on tennis shoes, knee pads, elbow pads and a helmet, reviewed the 2 rules, only look forward and keep pedaling, and we were off.  She did great!  I let go the very first 10 seconds and she was doing it, the only problem was that she wasn't pedaling so she would tip.  We practiced and practiced, me running by her grabbing her when she was about to fall (I got a really good workout in fact my legs are still hurting, I was so winded 1/2 the time I could barely run by the end.)  She could do it she would just stop or get scared and sometimes run into the snow banks.

We took a break and went to the park, then after dinner she wanted to do it again.  This time when she got on she just needed help getting started and then she was off.  (It was cold again yesterday and it's supposed to snow tomorrow but hopefully we can find some more time to go out and ride.)

Snowmen

(Olivia, Leila, Madilynn and Savannah. Hayden had to go home right before the picture and Savannah is having a hard time because the snowmen weren't done and I was taking a picture...sometimes life can be really hard)

 

Saturday we had snow on the ground and it was actually warm enough for the kids to go out and play in it.  They made some really cute snowmen all by themselves with fruit snack eyes, licorice mouths, carrot nose, and stick arms.

"Parrot" by Olivia

 

I just love this picture Olivia drew, it makes me smile every time I see it.

my life

Jason asked me the other day why I haven't been blogging and frankly it's because I don't have much to blog about...I didn't even take pictures on Valentine's Day.
But for future reference this is what a "normal" day is like for me

4:15am tell Jason his alarm is going off and push snooze in case he doesn't wake up.  Then after pushing snooze 5 times I realize he is already out of bed and taking a shower, so I turn off the alarm and go back to bed.

6:15am my alarm goes off but I don't get up until my second alarm goes off and the second snooze has gone off. 

6:50am Wake Savannah and Madi up and get them ready for school.

7:35am Send them to the neighbors for their ride to school

7:45am-8:55am finish feeding Austin and Olivia (they have woke up amid all the chaos or lately they have been waking up before Savannah and Madi...can't wait for day light savings). Get ready for the gym, clean up breakfast, get Austin and Olivia ready for the day, check my to do list for the day.

9:00am-go to the gym (just started taking spin classes and really like it.)

10:20am get home from the gym, take a shower and get ready for the day.

11:00am feed Olivia and Austin lunch and get ready for preschool

11:20am leave for preschool

11:50am It's me and Austin so depending on the day, we go grocery shopping, run errands, etc.  If we have no where to go we come home do laundry, clean, do Relief Society stuff, etc.  Some times Austin will watch TV and fall asleep (that's the only way he will take a nap)

2:00pm Pick Olivia up

2:55pm Pick Madi, Savannah and the neighbor girls up from school

3:10pm after school snacks, homework and more cleaning

4:30pm Start dinner

5:30pm-6:00pm Dinner

After dinner, clean up dinner, get the kids ready for bed, read books, family prayer, etc.

8:00pm bed time

8:30pm kids are finally in bed (only took a few hours)

8:45pm Jason and I watch TV until one of us is too tired to stay awake which is around 9:30pm :)

Add Wednesdays Dance for Madi, every other Wednesday Activity days for Savannah, Thursday Dance for Savannah, watching MaKenna every day after school, and picking up extra preschool kids some days and that's my life for the most part (some days have more things like visiting teaching, Relief Society meeting and Presidency meeting, Costco, etc). Oh and we can't forget to add LOTS of drama, tears and yelling.  And that's my life!

Someone is 35!!

Someone turns 35 today! Someone is getting old!  We love her so.  Allison is one of the most selfless and loving person you will ever meet.  She is such a good mother/wife to her children and husband.  She would do anything for their happiness.  She has done all of this pretty much as a single mother while her husband is gone working all of the time.  She is the spiritual leader in our family and keeps us all well-grounded and anchored to the gospel.  The world is a better place because she is here.  None of us could imagine our life without her!  She is special.  We love you Mom!! 

Love,

Savannah, Madi, Olivia, Austin, Jason