early celebrations

Early celebration #1: Miss Lady's 7th birthday! Laityn will be 7 on Friday, April 2nd. We had her party tonight knowing that Friday may be just a little crazy...you may have noticed we leave for Disneyland the next morning! YiPPee! So tonight, we invited everyone up for enchiladas... yum... Everyone spoiled her with fairy stuff (which I secretly love too!). She also got some much needed summer clothing for our upcoming vacation. Lady has already informed me that tomorrow we get to make part of her new fairy book, the painting part. I still think of this little girl as just that. She was so tiny for so long, it's hard to believe she is just a year away from her baptism. Ooooo, I love this little girl!

Fairy teacups...and yes, she and Maddy are having a tea party after school.

Such a girl....look at her smiling about new clothes!

full of the giggles

that is serious fairy makin' stuff!

We sang Happy Birthday and then waited...waited...waited...Laityn was really thinking about her wish. Finally, after Jace blew out two of the candles for her, she made her wish official and blew out the rest! Happy Birthday Ladybug!

Early celebration #2: We had our annual Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma and Papa's house on Saturday. The weather warmed up enough to have it outside (hunting in the basement just isn't the same). Mom tried to convince Dad to write down where they were hiding the eggs...since they usually forget....no luck. We spent a good 20 minutes looking for that last egg, like usual. Dad is a really good hider, his memory of his hiding spots, not so much!

Mom! I found a egg!

I'm too busy to stop for a picture! More candy to be found!

Notice that Maddy isn't actually grabbing anything but dirt...I missed the real shot and made her pretend for the sake of my picture habit.

Tyler couldn't figure out how to hold more than 3 suckers at a time...cause who wants to put them in the basket?

Rechecking the shed for that last egg!

Serious follow through on that egg throwin!

Jace's face says it all...none of that girlie underhand throwin'!

Lady didn't realize that when you take a running start, you still have to release the egg before the line!

What egg throw is complete without a little side story. Just before Carter threw his egg, I convinced him to really go for it and throw it overhand. After some debate, he decided to follow the advice of his mother. I took this shot just as he released the egg...notice the egg is coming right at you...I glanced down to turn off my camera and as I looked back up, I took the egg full swing, right in the face! Thank goodness my mouth was closed...I may have just lost a tooth. I had a nice egg-shaped welt on my cheek/chin for the next hour. And no, the egg did not survive. I cracked it good!

Jace beat all the kiddos this year and came in second with the adults...not too shabby for my little 5 year old!

on our way

CAN'T WAIT!!

April 3rd cannot come soon enough!

trappers

Saint Patty's Day means one thing....Leprechauns are out! Carter, Lady and Jace have been making plans for all the traps they could make to catch a little man in green. Today, they put their plans into action. They are all certain they will wake up tomorrow with a Leprechaun in their traps. I have warned them about how tricky Leprechauns are...maybe he will just have to leave some proof that he came and outsmarted all their traps. I have heard sometimes they will magically change the milk green...maybe they'll even find little green footprints on their carpet.

Ready for bed and trapping!

These noisemakers will wake Lady if that Leprechaun tries to get to her money.

Carter rigged his trap to fall and catch the little man...he even put his glass vial of gold underneath as bait.

Tithing can...AKA device to warn of coming Leprechauns

More Bait

This bait is extra important because the Leprechaun will have to cross through all the yarn mazes before reaching it. He'll never make it without setting off one of the alarms!

I love how they get so excited about small things. Guess I'd better get busy looking for evidence that can be left behind at the scenes of my little trappers!

shades of purple

Yesterday was our first big enrichment....formerly enrichment....now called "additional relief society meetings". Everything came together and night was a success. The daytime setup proved not as grand. Jace came with me to help set up the gym (poor kid thinks that is his life now. He comes along to my weekly presidency mtgs and at least 2-3 visits each week). I think he actually loves the mom time. He's pretty much content to sit on my lap through all the visits...I am so gonna miss him when he goes to Kindergarten in the fall. Anyway...back to the setup. I was pulling down chairs and leaning them up against the tables. Jace crawled under the table to get a ball, bumped the chair which then fell right on his pinky. OUCH! He cried...for a long time...I ran home for a band aid and thought all was well. He pulled the band aid off a couple hours later and this is what was underneath...

I expected the colorful fingernail...

But this side of his finger was a surprise for sure

After much debate, I decided to wait and see what it looked like this morning before going in to see if it was broken. The purple was moving down the whole finger when he woke up. I was still undecided this morning...my neighbor, who is also my dentist, called and offered to take an xray for me at his office. We ran down to see Dr. Dan, and hooray for us, no broken bones! I figure that little kindness saved me about $300 in pediatrician fees and xrays. I baked my bestest cookies and took them a bunch to say thanks. Tender mercies...I see them everyday.

lemonade out of lemons

As you know from today's earlier post, I was so not thrilled with all the snow.....but....after spending 2 hours playing with the kiddos in the snow, even I have to admit, a big snowstorm does have it's good points. After building two snow forts and one snowman, we came inside and warmed up with 5 big cups of hot chocolate....and really, not too many things beat drinking cocoa and listening to your kids go on and on about how much fun the snow can be. Although, I would enjoy sitting on a warm beach and watching them jump the waves and dig in the sand equally as much :)

skiff of snow

The last news report I heard before going to bed was: the storm is tapering off. You'll only see a skiff to an inch in the valleys, and the storm will be moving and out and gone by 8 am. I woke up this morning around 8:00 (no school today!), looked outside and saw this! That is soooo NOT a skiff...more like 8 inches. So, obviously, Spring still has a long way to go. Grrrrr. Guess I'd better go get the shovels out.

summertime reflections

Took this two summers ago at Thanksgiving Point. The cousins were all lookin' for frogs...they found some tiny little tadpoles...which met with an untimely death thanks to the kiddos refilling the containers with chlorinated water....ahhh...the memories of summer. I am dying to make some more! Would it just get warm already?!

officially a teenager

Yesterday was a big day for this one-more-day-til-I'm-a-teenager-girl. She was awarded her Young Womanhood medallion during sacrament meeting. She set a goal to get it before she was in Miamaids...it took her almost one year to the day she entered Young Women's to complete her personal progress. Kenzie worked hard all year on her projects, and spent most her Sunday afternoons working on the smaller goals. We are so very proud of her. We invited the family up for a pre-birthday party last night. After filling everyone up with homemade chicken noodle soup, we got down to business. Kenzie got everything she wanted...including the muck boots and horse back riding helmet (just what every 13 year old girl wants!). She can't wait to go shopping and spend the cash, and she wore her new bracelets to school today. I'd have to say, it was one of Kenzie's best days!

Thirteen...WHAT!?!

Candles can double as a form of hypnosis...

hAppY bIrtHdaY mCkenZie! We lOvE yOu!!