the race is on....

you all know which race I'm talking about...

that race to the end of the school year...

We've had two economic fairs,

one talent show,

tryouts for musical theater...

which Maddy happily made!

tryouts for acapella choir...

which Kenzie made!

Carter's final chorus concert...

Kenzie's benefit concert...

read-a-thons...

class parties...

freshman dances...

and still to come:

field day...

freshman Lagoon day...

yearbook day...

last day of school craziness...

like I said,

the race is on!

seriously...

could he look LESS interested?

and yet,

he wants to be in chorus again!

the benefit concert was beautiful...

they raised $4700 dollars in one evening...

the money was donated to the Pack family

who lost their 18 month old in car accident at Christmastime

and a little girl who was kicked in the head by a horse in December.

such sad stories...

Jace lost a fight with the bike rack this morning at school...

I had him back home with ice by 8:05 a.m.

another random picture...

just had to document Tim's garden boxes....

they.are.awesome.

cooper

...this is cooper...

7 weeks old

lab/australian shepherd mix

and now residing in my garage

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

If you know ANYTHING about me,

then you know I am not a lover of animals...

but after nearly 18 years of being

married to an animal lover,

and having 5 children who are in love with dogs,

I CAVED!

...and truth be told...

I'm kind of in love with this little guy.

...and this little bit of sweetness is all ready

for her first mother/daughter tea party...

We curled every single strand of hair...

and Lady could not have been happier.

We attended a "fancy" tea party at the church

complete with tiny triangle pb & js.

We decorated hats with flowers, feathers,

and all sorts of girly stuff...

Laityn was in little girl heaven.

the break

we didn't have big plans for spring break this year...

but at the last minute, we decided to

take a quick trip to Moab...

very.good.decision.

The weather was beautiful...

right around 80 both days

Our first stop was little wildhorse canyon

It was the perfect hike for our family...

we took our time and let the kids climb

up, down, and over all the rocks

and they were all completely content.

 after the hiking was done,

we headed over to the valley of the goblins...

how have I never been there?

it's a kiddos dream!

 climbing...

 planking...

 peeking...

posing.... 

 we made it to Moab around 5pm

and headed to Pasta Jay's for dinner...YUM!

We stayed up late watching a movie

and just loving that we didn't have to be up too early.

In the morning, we drove the potash scenic byway

where we hiked up to some dinosaur footprints

and saw petroglyphs...very cool.

The rest of the day we spent in Arches.

We hadn't been there since Maddy was a baby,

so the kids were pretty impressed with everything.

 The last hike we did was to delicate arch...

it almost killed the little ones off...

but once we rounded that last corner

it was totally worth the hour and a half of whine time!

beautiful!!

It was a great little break from good ol' AF

and now we're ready to push through

the rest of the school year

and all the craziness that comes with it!

easter

We finally had an easter saturday without rain!

First time in a few years...

grandma and papa had a massive

easter egg hunt in their backyard...

papa got real smart this year

and made a cheat sheet of where he hid the eggs...

sometimes it takes a good hour to find that final egg...

but not this year

cause papa was able to give some hints to help us out!

 after all the candy was divided

we pulled out the eggs...

and the throwing began...

the under 12 age group went first...

and I did not get hit in the face this year!

Carter was the proud winner

and moved on to the over 12 competition....

my eggs usually end up wildly flying over the fence,

but somehow, this year, I managed

to bounce mine across the yard and right through

the ladder of the playground,

right next to the fence

with NO CRACKING!

I think I've only won this thing one other time

EVER!

Such a fun day with the family!!