my birthday etc.

I've sure had a great birthday today! Curt had to work but while he was gone Matthew made me a birthday card and we just hung out and had fun! When Curt got back he brought broulim's chicken (YUM) and a chocolate silk pie! We took the chicken and rolls on a bike ride for a picnic in the park. Then we came back and ate our pie. The only candle we could find was a 2 from Hailey's birthday, but it works just the same. Better than having TWENTY SIX holes from regular candles in our pie! (plus it's much easier to blow out and therefore more likely I will get my wish haha) Last night we went out to Olive Garden with the kids and my parents. I think I'm still full from that!! Well, I got to eat leftovers for lunch, that contributed I'm sure. I've been spoiled rotten and spanked plenty to make up for it. I have such a wonderful family!

I had a couple of other pictures left over on the camera I wanted to post too, and I thought I might as well put them here.

Hailey has been having tons of fun with all of her Easter stuff. This day she was a bucket head all day long I thought it was so funny!

Leftover cake from my birthday dinner at my parents' on Sunday while we still had all the family up. Hailey sure knows how to enjoy it :)

Here's the balloons Curt got me! Balloon bouquets can brighten anyone's day!!

Now I'm closer to 30 than 20, but I think I love life more every year!

Easter Pics

This was the best family group shot we could get!

Curt had already changed out of his clothes while I did a lot of picture taking of the kids.

Keep in mind that the above picture was after a lot of this...

too much this...

this....

and a little of this...

and way too much of this...

finally I got a couple of these in there!

Is this normal? Are all kids this difficult to photograph or just mine? I have never had a professional photographer since Matthew's 1st birthday disaster photo shoot. I'm just too worried that I will pay money for a whole lot of squishy eyebrows, squinty cheesey eyes, flailing arms and back of heads.

It was a wonderful Easter though!!! My family came to our ward and that made me feel so special haha.

Too bad Matthew was too shy/nervous to give his talk. Isaac did a wonderful job in his place though!

All the family's gone home now and we're in withdrawal mode. Probably for the next 3 days.

Easter activities

Lance and Kara, and Vicky and Kurt and their families came to stay at my parents' house for Easter weekend! Today was a huge day full of activities.

The day started with egg dying after breakfast. This is always a hit with the kids of course!

Coloring was too much fun to quit just after the eggs coloring, so the girls continued! Hailey enjoyed the special attention from Auntie Vicky! They discussed the ins and outs of why everything on her paper is pink.

Such little artists!

The boys all piled on Grandpa to play Angry Birds while we passed the time before we went to see a matinee at the theater.

Hailey and Adessa finally got tired of coloring and decided they needed some fresh air. Vicky caught these moments on my camera for me while I was sewing shrugs with Grandma for the girls.

They were doing the "spider" on the swing. You know, riding criss cross together.

I wish it were a warmer day! We would have stayed out all day long! As it was these girls did NOT want to quit. And seeing the fun they were having who can blame them?! Hailey loves her cousins! Hailey really loved everybody this time. Last time we were with family she was really shy and clingy to me.

Here's the lineup before the egg hunt could begin! This shot is minus Sam, but at least everyone is looking!

Here we get "big baby" Sam (as hailey called him)

Hailey found a few eggs and then pretty much was done. She just wanted to run around and play on the swing after that. Matthew happily collected her eggs for her and put them in her bag.

All of the kids had a lot of fun! They planned it well so that each egg had initials on it so they all ended up with equal eggs. Grandma is so good at equality!

Hailey just wanted more swing time, but notice she did take the time to get a chocolate out of an egg and stuff it in her mouth.

She was very excited to get a pink bucket from the Easter Bunny!

Matthew was so pleased with his Easter Bunny loot too!

Even the adults got to go on a treasure hunt! It was so cute! A while back Matthew drew "clues" and we each got one as to the whereabouts that our golden eggs were hidden! Mom had written words on them too, in case we couldn't understand his hieroglyphics. Maybe it's because I'm his mom, but I didn't need the words!

My egg was hidden in the sandbox UNDER the cover. That was tricky!

Lance thought the eggs looked delicious!

But the real treat was inside! Thanks mom and dad....er...the Easter Bunny I mean!

We had a great day and I'm looking forward to the Sabbath where the real Easter celebration happens. I am so grateful for Christ and the Atonement!

Matthew gives his very first talk in primary tomorrow too!!!!!!! He said he is nervous and I told him that it's ok to be nervous and that I still ALWAYS get nervous to give a talk but that I know he will do a great job and everything will be fine. I hope it goes okay and that he will actually do it!

ps I posted to my pregnancy blog (link in the upper right of the family blog. click the picture "Round Three")

St. Patty's, Bike ride, Easter Egg hunt

St. Patrick's Day we had Lucky Charms and green milk to start the holiday off right! The kids thought it was hilarious. I think their favorite part was that I didn't even get mad when they ate all the marshmallows and just left the "browns." It was a holiday, after all!

Monday we went for a little bike ride with my parents for family night to the movie rental store. It turned out to be a little chillier than we anticipated but the kids were bundled warm and I got plenty warm pulling them, especially up that hill! They still absolutely love the bike trailer and I love that the weather is good enough to do it again before my belly gets too huge! the dirty speckles on the window are from a day I pushed it too much though and had to bike home in the rain from dropping Matthew off at preschool. Hailey was dry and warm of course, and I would have been fine except I wore flip flops and my toes were numb! Hey, it wasn't raining when we left. Come to think of it I had no choice that day. Curt had the car at work. We love the bike trailer still the same and try to find time to take it for a spin almost daily!

Today World Gym Fitness Center sponsored a free egg hunt for Rexburg. It was fun to go, but obvious that they did not expect that many kids to show. It's Rexburg for crying out loud. Dad mentioned we should rename it to Kidburg!!!

Poor Matthew didn't get one single egg. Too crowded, too few eggs, too small of space, and too little organization.

Hailey found two and one empty shell. She was happy to share with Matthew though. As luck had it she got one blue egg and one Pink. All she needed was the pink. In fact she picked that one up, turned around and high tailed it out of there. Grandma had to coax her into going back into the masses to collect another.

They had the 3-5 yr olds line up along the wall and then go in by themselves to the raquet ball court. Most of the kids weren't happy about that as Matthew reflects here in this picture. It was frustrating for me that I didn't even get to stand by my kid, let alone watch him do the hunt! Rather silly.

This was the only view I had of him due to the crowd.

while we (grandpa and I) were waiting in line with Matthew, Grandma and Curt got to take Hailey around to get her face painted, win a fish and a chocolate sucker! I think they had a much better time than Matthew did.

standing in line for the fish pond.

Thanks for coming, mom and dad!

I can't wait for our family to all come up this weekend for Easter!

Merpeople

While watching bubble guppies this morning Matthew asked me if boys could be mermaids too. I said "absolutely, but they are called mermen." Then he decided that he wanted to be a merman. Of course Hailey wanted to join in the fun! I thought it was so cute how they wrapped up their legs and wiggled around!

To get Hailey to look at the camera while taking pictures I always say "look at the eyeball in my camera!" today I said it and she got a curious look and decided to come investigate to see if there really was an eyeball in there!

It's interesting how the second child learns so much from the first. When Matthew was little I was always the one making up the imaginary stories and giving him all sorts of facts about where dragons live, how fast superheros can fly, what animals really say to each other....now I just step back a lot and listen to the amazing games that Matthew makes up for Hailey and I realize that she is picking all of this stuff up from him! No better teacher either, Matthew has got such an imagination! Sometimes it makes me feel guilty that I'm not involved in every creative play situation. I guess that's how it's meant to be though. Still the same I can't help but get involved sometimes when the game gets really interesting! haha But it seems like I'm more of the audience to a play now. The best play EVER

baby journal

http://luckybabynumber3.blogspot.com/

As I did with Hailey, I am writing a journal to discuss different things about this baby instead of sharing it all on the family blog because some people get really bored with the details while I find I can't talk baby enough.

check it out if you are interested; don't if you're not.

only one post is up anyways

My Video 3/2/12 at OneTrueMedia.com

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Treasure Hunt!!!!

I hope when I grow up some day that I will be just like my parents. My mom always insists that she is not creative, but she is just so humble. She's reigns supreme when it comes to awesome ideas to make kids HAPPY!

Today we went to Grandma Janet and Grandpa Kit's house for a

TREASURE HUNT

I think Matthew's favorite part was reading the clues. He read words I had no idea he knew how to read. These clues led us around the house (and outside too brrrrr) searching for pieces of treasure (candy, juice box, small items) until finally we ended up at Fat Cats in town to play arcade with our treasure tokens. It was an awesome day and such a help to me too because I feel like I've been the most miserably boring mom lately. Thank you mom and dad, I have a feeling we will be doing many "treasure hunts" around our house for the next while :)

First thing they got to decorate their treasure chests with awesome stickers.

Then the search began! They did a great job keeping the beginning of each clue the same so Matthew got the pattern of it and then putting words in that he would recognize so as we filled in the other words he started recognizing more and more from clue to clue. And even if he missed a word or two he knew what it was saying. After a few he wanted no help at all and got annoyed if I tried!

Hailey was so happy to follow Matthew and hug her treasure chest.

"I found a treasure!"

As Matthew kept saying all day, "This is a great day for a treasure hunt"