Kids Say

Annie, "Will my eyes fall out and then I will have grown up eyes?"

Logan often says that his siblings do things "very maliciously".

Logan after a full night's rest, "I didn't get any sleep last night.  I was tossing around in circles.  My tummy, sides, back weren't comfortable...No I think actually I wasn't tossing around.  But it was a bad night for me.  I think I was thinking all night.  I was thinking in a way that I couldn't sleep.  I need to sleep all day.  I'm not even going to play!"

Logan, "Mom I like your clothes.  You are very very very pretty."  I was wearing sweats, a ratty t-shirt, glasses, and a ponytail.

Annie, "My plan is to keep my pants on all day!"

Annie, "If we drink a lot that means we are a camel."

Annie when told she was sweet, "I'm not sweet!  I don't taste good!!"  "I'm not sweet on my skin."  "Only my mouth is sweet."

Annie while my mom and brother were visiting, "I didn't wet the bed.  I bet Uncle Joshy wet the bed."

Logan with LOTS of emphasis to me, "You are REALLY heavy!  You look SO pretty!"

Logan, "When I'm a grown up I'm going to grow a beard that is longer than you and me and this house and then I'm going to shave it off!"

Logan, "When I'm a teenager I'll be longer.  I'll have a bigger head!"

Logan, "Has World War Eleven happened?"

Annie, "Sometime can you bleach my hair yellow?"

Annie during church touched my armpit and in full voice asked twice, "Why is that wet?"

Logan, "I came running in a semi-circle to find you!"

Annie after showing us how hard she could blow her nose put the tissue back in the box.  Jim, "Did you just put that back?"  Annie, "It didn't have any boogers on it!"

Logan, "Dad!  You have some white white white whiskers!  Tons of them!"

We were having a serious family discussion about speaking to each other kindly and Jim asks, "So what is the most important thing you can do?"  Logan without missing a beat pumps his fist and says, "Clean!  Clean!  Clean!"

Alex one morning and then later that same day had this interaction with me.  Me, "Can I change your diaper?"  Alex, "No!  Dad!"  Me, "You want Dad to change you?"  Alex, "Uh huh."  Me, "Can Mommy change you?"  Alex, "No!  Dad!"  I promise I didn't teach him to say that.

Logan, "Have you ever heard of the water proof bugs?  They are very very POISON!  They jump on you and BITE you!  Jumping spiders?  NO THANK YOU!"

Annie, "Dad, you have black cheeks because they have lots of pokes."

Logan to me, "You look pretty even though you aren't wearing a dress.  Every day I look at you and think you are so pretty."

Annie's friend came over while Annie was eating a bowl of cereal.  Her friend took a look at her breakfast and asked, "What are you eating?  Soup?"

Easter Weekend

We had such a nice Easter weekend.  Jim had Friday off so originally we'd planned on a weekend trip to meet up with my sister in Chicago.  She couldn't come so we chose a different city (we're 3-5 hours away from lots of big cities that we've never been to).  Then we decided that was too expensive and chose a cheaper city to visit.  From there we changed our minds again and thought we'd go camping.  By Thursday we realized it was going to be a bit too cold for camping, so we stayed home.  What we ended up doing was probably just as fun, though.  I think it's funny how many times our plans changed.

The fun started Thursday evening when Jim came home.  We dyed Easter eggs in preparation for a gathering we were going to on Saturday. 

The fancy schmancy tri-colored one was Jim's masterpiece.  :)

After the eggs, we put the kids to bed early and had our own date.  This included ice cream and a good movie in the basement.  After the movie we stayed up even later talking.  I think it was 1am before we went to bed, but I can handle loss of sleep every so often for a really good date!  I'm so glad he remains my best friend.

Friday morning we did some very satisfying yard work (see previous post).  Then we had afternoon naps (at least a couple of us needed one).  That evening we visited a lake (see school blog) that I'd taken the kids to and wanted to show Jim. We explored the fossil beds there and really enjoyed ourselves. There were fossils everywhere! We probably could have done that for hours, but wanted to let the kids play on the beach before the sun went down. So we had our yummy picnic (thanks to having prepared for camping) and played on the beach a while. After that Jim had what he terms "wanderlust" and we drove around the area before heading home.  He had his basement 'campout' with the kids that night as usual. 

Saturday morning/ afternoon we stayed home.  I started the dough for Resurrection Rolls in the morning, and did a bunch of little necessary things as well as some fun stuff with the kids.  Jim did a little work.  I hid a bunch of plastic eggs in the backyard for a hunt in the afternoon.  It took me a while to hide them, but I was amazed at how fast they were all picked up!

Alex found the more difficult ones because he was moving slower than the other two.

My rolls took forever to rise because my kitchen wasn't very warm.  After nearly 2 hours without any increase, I finally put them in the oven to rise.  I'd warmed it just a bit.  That finally did the trick.  Once the dough had risen the first time, I could make the rolls.  These are super delicious, and super unhealthy.  Even the dough had butter in it.  To make the rolls, I had to dip them in butter, cinnamon sugar, and wrap them around a marshmallow.  Then they were rolled in the cinnamon sugar again.  After they rose a second time, I baked them.  They come out hollow in the middle, hence they are called Resurrection Rolls because they are compared to the empty tomb. 

On Saturday evening we went to a gathering with some friends.  They do an annual 'eggroll'.  It's a contest to crack each other's hardboiled eggs.  They had contest brackets and everything.  Each person had two eggs, and we had the funniest outcome!  The final four were two of Alex's eggs, and two eggs belonging to a girl in another family.  She cracked both of Alex's eggs and had to compete against herself for the championship.  It was fun.  Then we had egg salad for dinner and visited for a while.

On Sunday morning the kids found Easter baskets.  They just had a couple of simple things in them, but they were so pleased.  They played with their little items all morning.  One of the things we gave Logan was a poster of 'My Gospel Standards'.  It doesn't even have pictures on it.  Anyway, he came to me with it right after finding his basket and said, "Mom, I REALLY appreciate this."  He couldn't wait to put it right next to his bed.  What a good kid! 

You'd think I would have taken a picture of my kids on Easter morning with their baskets, or at least all dressed for church, but I didn't.  Oops.  Anyway, we had a nice sacrament meeting, and I had a very busy Primary time.  I was helping with Sharing Time, and ended up leading Singing Time.  Fun.  That evening we were invited to dinner with a family in our ward, so I didn't end up cooking dinner all weekend!  (Maybe that was part of the enjoyment of it.)  I brought the resurrection rolls to that gathering and they were a big hit!  We had a really positive visit there and ended with an Easter devotional.  What a great weekend!   

Yard TLC

Caring for a yard, especially in a humid climate, is a new experience for us.  In Colorado you water and water and water your grass, hope it grows some, and mow it occasionally.  That's all our experience (because I never paid attention to everything else my Dad always did).  You don't water here, and everything grows well.  The trick is making everything grow the right way and keeping the weeds back!

Anyway, we have a lot of bushes in our yard and they were getting out of control.  They were bugging both of us in a big way.  So we finally bought a hedge trimmer and went to work.  That was our yard purchase for the year.  The pictures don't show very well just how crazy the bushes were, but we really trimmed a lot.  Jim worked the trimmer and mowed, while the kids and I raked remaining leaves, and took care of the cut branches.  There were a lot!

Before 

Before

After

Before

Before

After  (Some on this row were cut back 3 feet!)

Aah!  We really had a nice day working in the yard and definitely improved it some.  Bit by bit we're going to get this!

Annie's Birthday

My little Anne girl is four!  She was so excited to have her grandma and uncle here for her birthday.  We celebrated all day.  In the morning we prepped cupcakes and then some of her friends came over for a party. 

Here's the excited princess before the party.

Logan was equally excited.

A couple of days before I cut out hearts and stars from some leftover fondant I had and let them dry.  The morning of I filled the cupcakes with vanilla pudding like I did for Alex, and then Mom and I decorated in the simplest possible manner.   My goals for Annie's cupcakes: 1. To buy nothing at the store, 2. To use up the leftover fondant, 3. To use up the leftover frosting from Alex's birthday, 4. To make them tasty.  Ta da!

The kids played for a while.  Then I called them upstairs for lunch.  I made breadsticks the night before, and pizza that morning.  I couldn't believe how well those kids ate!  I guess I picked the right lunch to feed them.

While still at the table, we sang to Annie and handed out cupcakes.

The cupcakes were a hit, but very few kids finished.  I guess they weren't hungry.  :)

I took a picture of all of Annie's friends.  Here is Declan.  (I was feeding him fondant while his mom wasn't looking.  Hee hee.  She didn't mind.)

Alex

Carson

Eliza

Hannah

Pierson

Paisley

Logan

Brynlee

Corey

They enjoyed themselves.

Her friends brought her some really fun gifts.  She's been enjoying them a lot.  After presents the party was over.  It was a very simple, noisy, fun party. 

That evening we went to the park.  We started with a little teeball.

Teeball didn't last long, so we ended up at the playground where Jim met up with us.

After the playground we had round 2 of presents.  We'd saved all of the family presents for when Jim could be home.  This included family presents for Alex.

Sarah sent Annie this fun dress-up skirt.

Annie was very excited about this doll that my mom brought her. 

We had almost as big a mess as Christmas!  The sleeping bag and camp chair were for Alex from Mom and Sarah.  We'd saved our gift of sand toys for him for that night.  Annie also had a couple of cute dresses from Sarah, some clothes and waterbottle from us, and a gift card from Papa (my dad).  We need to take her shopping.

The final big present was from Jim's parents.  They sent a tricycle for each of the birthday kids!  Jim put together one that night.  Alex has been thoroughly enjoying it ever since.

Mom and Josh Come to Visit

My mom and brother, Josh, came to visit during their Spring Break last month.  SO FUN.  We had such a wonderful visit.  The only thing that would have made it better is if it had been longer.

They arrived on Saturday evening.  We had dinner, visited, and my mom and I went shopping a bit.

On Sunday we went to church and had a relaxing day.  Silliness was on the agenda every day.

A pre-church photo shoot by my mom.  (BTW, most of these pictures are from her.)

On Monday we did some prep for Annie's birthday party (that day is a different post).  My mom thought it was funny that the kids were getting into the flour and making a mess while I was making breadsticks.

Also on Monday, we went to the Amana Colonies.

We had so much fun at a popcorn shop.  The gal working there was so nice to let us sample everything we wanted; we probably sampled a whole bag worth!  We did buy several bags, though, so hopefully it was worth her while.  :)  The Man Cave was next door, and we were having a VERY silly day. 

We visited the rocking chair, of course, and played with the fun wooden toys in the shop.

Do we look ready to pull a wagon?

Mom visited Fabio in the outhouse.  Except, she informed us that he is really Billy Ray Cyrus.  Should I trust the sign or my mom?  I don't know.

We played on the old tractors.

We also visited a few shops and had lots of laughs at the signs they were selling.  My favorite was, "It's hard to stay optimistic when your fat jeans become your skinny jeans," and, "I used to skinny dip; now I chunky dunk."  We really had a fun day.

This picture is out of order; I think this was Sunday morning.

Also Sunday morning...

Skip Tuesday because that is another post, and on to Wednesday.

Wednesday and Thursday we went to Nauvoo.  The weather was so nice and the visitors were few so we had a really relaxed visit.  On our way over the Mississippi River, we had to wait for the drawbridge because a barge was coming through.  That was kind of neat, but time consuming.  I'm glad we weren't in a hurry.

The kids helped take care of the lawns at the visitor's center...

The flowers were beautiful.

So were the bushes and trees.

We went on the carriage ride the first day.  That was fun, except for the moment Alex almost fell off his seat when we crossed the creek.  He was a tad scared, but recovered quickly.

Here we are waiting for the carriage ride.

We stayed in a two bedroom, two bathroom condo overnight for $67.  Talk about a fantastic price!  If we hadn't had out of town guests with us, it would have been only $50 because we live in the temple district!  The only pictures I took during Nauvoo were these ones of the condo.  Hehe. 

Anyway, the kids and I took a break in the condo while my mom and Josh went to the temple during late afternoon.  Alex had a nap, and I made dinner.   

That evening we went to the play that the senior missionaries put on each night.  We really enjoyed the humor in it.  The kids even got to sit on the front row, so they really enjoyed it.  I actually ended up on the front row as well (reserved only for kids), because Alex wasn't keeping to his seat.  The next day all of the missionaries recognized us!  I was a little embarrassed, but they understood.

On Thursday we saw more of Nauvoo.  Logan took this picture of the Mississippi River.

We also went on the wagon ride.  (Obviously we aren't on it in this picture...)

We visited the old burial grounds and found an ancestor!  That was pretty exciting.  He's my great great great grandfather (I think...there may be one more 'great').

"In Memory of William Casper who died August 5, 1846, aged 62 Y 5 D."

A random picture in Nauvoo...

This is at the burial grounds.

We went home early that evening and just enjoyed visiting.  On Friday, Mom and Josh headed home.  What a nice visit!