Class gift

We made these bags for Trey's class at school to auction off for a school fund raiser. It was really fun and I thought they turned out really cute. The grapes, bugs and flowers are the thumb prints of the kids in Trey's class. And the rest is puff paint that we added later. So fun. This is a great project to do at home with your kids for mother's day gifts, or for any occasion.

Seth's hair cut

No, it's not Seth's first hair cut! He's had so many I can't keep track any more. He's the kid that was born with a FULL head of blonde hair. We got so many comments about his hair when he was born. I have to say, it was pretty darn cute. I would include a picture of when he was born, but it's too much work. Those pictures are on a cd somewhere else. Maybe I'll add it later.

Anyway, here's Seth before his hair cut. We let it get really long. It was kind of fun and quite curly. I'm a fan of short hair for my boys because I DON'T like dealing with BED-HEAD!! I'm not a fan. And when it's short, you don't have to do anything. But this was so cute on Seth, we let it hang out for a while before I finally chopped it.

The after shot in the tub.

Funny things

Sometimes little funny things will happen that will just make my day. Yesterday one of the things happened. And it won't even be funny to retell, but when I re-read it, it will put a smile on my face and make me chuckle. Yesterday after I picked up Trey from school, we all got in the car and Trey and Justin sit way in the back of the van. Seth and Emma (she's our friend that we carpool with) in the middle. I could hear lots of laughter, but I wasn't paying attention to what it was about. It went on for a couple of minutes before I really paid attention and I looked in my rear view mirror and Trey and Justin were being blown to pieces, and LOVING it!! They were cracking up hysterically. The sight was just too funny, I started laughing and couldn't stop. I was driving and laughing so hard and having a hard time keeping my eyes open because I was laughing so hard. The wind was blowing against us and making it extra windy and blowing right on the boys. It just made my day. I love laughing like that. I wish it happened a lot more. But when it does, I love it! I wish I had a video of it. It'd make a great you-tube video!

Utah Disaster!

Surprise surprise! We went to Utah again and yes...everyone got sick!!! I swear it happens every time! But this time it lasted about the entire time! The day we got to Utah, Justin threw up and was sick and was sick the next day Friday too. He was doing better and everyone seemed to be fine the next couple of days during General Conference and Easter, which we were so grateful for because my parents had the whole family over for Easter dinner. Then Monday night Justin threw up all night long and was sick the next day. Then Thursday Seth was throwing up, Friday it was Trey's turn to throw up. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, Seth was miserable on Saturday and I took him in to the doctor and he had double ear infections, just as I had suspected!! What a chaotic mess! And now we're back home and my family that we left there is sick! I felt so bad, we couldn't leave, we were just infecting everyone around us! I had so many moments of frustration, I wanted to scream and shout! Why did this have to happen?! I was feeling sorry for myself a lot, and I was angry. And then today at church, I started thinking about a trip that we took to Utah almost three years ago. It had a similar story, with a much different attitude. Basically Justin got very sick and was hospitalized for four days. It was one of the most terrifying weeks of my whole life, but instead of having a miserable attitude like I had this trip, I felt so close to Heavenly Father. I had nowhere else to turn, and I felt His arms around me the entire time. I still remember after Justin got released from the hospital finally and we were back at my parents house, I caught what Justin had and was sick in bed upstairs. But I had this overwhelming feeling of joy and gratitude for my family that surrounded me. I was in tears with happiness and feeling the spirit of God. It was possibly the worst week of my life, and at the same time, one of the most spiritual weeks of my life. I thought of this today, and felt bad that I had such a terrible attitude this week and that I had such hard feelings. What a difference at attitude can make. Next time I'll try to do better, but I'm hoping there is no next time! I mean no more sick vacations.

We did however have a few moments where we felt good, so these are our highlights of the trip.

Easter Sunday we had everyone over to my parents house. We had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard for the kids.

Two of my sisters, Krissy and Linda.

Sweet little Megan, my niece.

Ryan didn't actually come with us, but was there with the young men at church for General Conference. So he snuck away for Easter festivities to come hang out with us, it was great.

The whole trip, my boys were in love with these bead necklaces, especially Seth. He couldn't get enough of them.

It snowed a few days, which was kind of fun! Trey built a little snowman and Justin kicked it over, Trey was not too happy.

The doctor told my dad not to be working in the yard or shovel snow because of his heart, so Trey went out on the deck one morning and asked for a shovel. I thought he was just going to play around. But when I looked out there a few minutes later, he was shoveling the deck. I asked him what he was doing and he said that he was going to shovel the deck because Grandpa wasn't supposed to. I was so touched by this little act of service!

Another highlight was when we got to go see our friends the Edwards that moved away from us last summer! It was wonderful to see them and we miss them so much! Kristen was such a great friend and our kids got along great. They live in Highland in a beautiful house.

Justin and Ellie

Blake and Trey were busy playing video games, and loving it.

We had a few nice days of sunshine toward the end of the trip. They found my brother's wagon and Trey gave Justin and Seth rides around the yard. We love Grandma and Grandpa's yard and wish it was ours!

Another huge highlight was going skiing with my sister Krissy. I haven't been for 10 years and it was incredible! It's like riding a bike, you don't forget how to do it. It was one of the best days I've had in a long time. Thanks Krissy for a WONDERFUL day! AND, thanks mom for watching the kids, even though Trey was sick that day!

Although we had to cancel many of our plans, and we couldn't hang out with family members and friends that live there, we still love to visit Grandma and Grandpa. Trey said when we were leaving, "We have three months of summer vacation, and I want to spend the whole three months at Grandma and Grandpa's house!!" What do you think about that mom?! It was just too funny because although I know my parents were so happy to have us, it had been a long and exhausting week for everyone, especially after cleaning up so much vomit! The timing of the comment was great.

Are we ghetto or what?!

Tonight we had an open house at Trey's school. When it was over, Ryan went to get the car and the three boys and I waited at the curb for him to come pick us up. It was dark outside so it was hard to see the cars. Trey was watching each car that approached carefully to see if it was Ryan. Finally he said, "Isn't Dad EVER going to come?" And right after he said that, I heard a loud, squeaky car coming down the street, and I said, "Well can't you hear the car coming now Trey?" And then just as he was about to pull up in front of us, the front right headlight (which had been dangling for a while now) fell off the car. It couldn't have been more perfect timing!! It was like straight from a movie. We had a good laugh. That car is just falling apart more by the day. We do have a much nicer and newer version, but it's in the shop today.

Another Family Walk

We went for another family walk last weekend, and captured some more pictures. I love the green grass on Lime Ridge Open Space right now. Soon though, it will be all yellow, so I'm enjoying it while I can. We found a scenic spot and snapped some photos, not of the scenery of course, but of us! :)

I love having Ryan on our walks, then he gets to pull the wagon instead of me.

St. Patrick's Day

I was trying to be a little more like my friend Amber this year on St. Patrick's Day. She's always doing fun and festive food for holidays. So this St. Patrick's day I made a fun little pudding pie with a kiwi clover on it, it was yummy. For dinner I found a great idea, but it didn't work. I was going to do little bagel pizzas with the cross section cut out of a green pepper (would would also look like a clover) but my green pepper ended up being way bigger than my mini bagels. Oh well, it was a cute idea. There's always next year. The boys wouldn't have eaten the green peppers anyway, so we just did the pizza bagels. And a funny little thing...I was talking about leprechauns with my boys and we were headed to the store and when we got out of the car, Trey was totally convinced that he saw a leprechaun funning away! Then he went all around the car searching for him and found a little gold looking piece of medal and thought it was a gold coin that the leprechaun left him. I couldn't have planned it any better!