Easter 2011

Our busy Easter Weekend...

We went to Ellensburg right after Kate got out of school on Friday and saw my Grandpa Paul who is in the rehab center. He fell a few weeks ago and has had pneumonia so he's been having a hard time. It was really good to see him and my Grandma though. Then we headed to Tri-Cities to Melanie & Milo's and I got my hair highlighted and trimmed- it had been a LONG time so I was excited to get it done. Dee Ann was there visiting. She had flown up and surprised Melanie which was awesome because she has never done that. It was her spring break. We ate a yummy lasagna dinner with amazing french bread from Yolk's (I'm still drooling Melanie!). We swung by Jeni & Kevin's to see her cutely decorated home and then went to Mattawa late that night.

The next morning we went to Connell to watch Jared's baseball game. It was a beautiful day!

Jared even got cheerleaders- whether he wanted them or not! I think he was a bit embarrassed by ALL of us cheering. Joys of being the youngest. :)

My Mom brought all the stuff for a picnic/bbq lunch. We were grilling hot dogs when a kid came up trying to buy one! We had to laugh because we weren't selling them, but maybe we should have.

Reagan and Lindsey playing. They are only a week apart so it's fun to watch them together. Lindsey was stealing Reagan's toys and Reagan would try to get them back. Reagan is so laid back and will sit in one spot for a long time whereas Lindsey is moving around and into everything. It's funny seeing the differences in their personalities.

We dyed Easter eggs and then did an Easter egg hunt on Saturday afternoon. The kids were sad when Aubree found the golden egg with money inside (she found it last year too and everyone remembered that!). So my Mom quickly got more golden eggs with money inside and hid them for everyone to find one!

Here's our kids on Easter after Church. It was really sunny and bright so they didn't want to look up. Preston was way more interested in James. My Mom made all the girl's dresses and skirts. Very cute!

And my pictures are all blurry in the corners. Weird. Not sure why. I'm sad about it actually.

Trying to get a cousin picture was even more interesting!

L-R: Aubree holding Hailey, Kate holding Reagan, Preston, Carter holding Lindsey and Paige

Us girls! Woot Woot! :)

And to end our Easter festivities, Jared had his Eagle Court of Honor Sunday night. He is a good kid and very cute I might add. :) We are proud of him!

Jared with a lot of his friends from Church.

Wishful Thinking

I got a bur in my saddle (as Kyle would tell me) and decided to repaint and redo the kids bathroom yesterday. I dropped Kate off at school and headed to all the stores to round up my supplies. I even bought bead board and trim at Home Depot and had them cut it for me to the length and height I needed. I didn't tell Kyle that I was doing this. I wanted to go home and get it all done before he got home from work to surprise him... Yeah right!!!! Hahaha! That was wishful thinking.

The baseboard or wall or something is crooked because the bead board doesn't fit right. One piece of the bead board is a little too long so I need it cut again. Since I knew I needed help figuring out the bead board issue I started painting. I was up on a step ladder holding the gallon of paint and was stepping off the ladder when I bumped the paint can and paint went all over the floor, the door, the wall, the step stool and me! I was standing in a bunch of paint. I had to yell for Kate downstairs to come get me a washcloth. Good thing she was not outside playing! I spent a long time cleaning up and then finally got back to painting. I finished painting, but that darn bead board wasn't done. It was time to make dinner and Kyle would be home. Why are projects in my head so quick and easy? I'll post before and after pictures of the bathroom once it's done.

Hurry...

We went to Chuck E Cheese with the Owens' during Spring Break. The kids had fun.

They had this bike that you pedaled and it would raise up. Pretty cool!

Is there a word you say over and over and over?! Well, I always say "hurry". I've caught myself saying it so much lately. Actually, I probably have always said it a lot, but I've just noticed how much I say it. "hurry, get out of the car", "hurry, or you'll be late to school", "hurry and do your homework", "hurry and get your shoes on", "hurry and eat your food"...the list could go on. I pride myself in being efficient and fast at things so I guess I'm always wanting to have my kids be fast too. I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't say it so much, but man, I'm always in a hurry! ;)

ABC's, Ballet and Crawling

Preston will either spell out "Bingo" and sing the song or put the ABC's in order and sing the ABC song. I like how he arranged the letters in this picture. We like to see his level of knowledge grow even if he still doesn't get that you aren't supposed to bite or hit other people! It's a work in progress. We started potty training him during Spring Break and he will stay dry in underwear if we take him every few hours. He still needs to learn to tell us on his own, but I sent him to school last week in underwear and he did great.

Kate showing me a position in ballet (not sure what position it is!). She enjoys taking Ballet, but also wants to do swimming, karate, gymnastics, soccer...yeah right! We'll have to do it one at a time. She is learning how to deal with friends (mainly in the neighborhood) and the drama that comes with that. It's been hard to watch her get sad when a friend hurts her feelings. But the saying that "Three's a crowd" is SO true. She still loves school and is already looking forward to 1st grade because she gets 2 recesses and can eat her lunch in the cafeteria!

Lindsey is 8 mo's old and has been a stinker lately on sleeping. She is crying through the early morning hours and keeping us all up so we are sleep deprived. She is officially crawling now and pulls herself up to standing against furniture or toys. She loves to get Preston's trains and he gets frustrated. It's kinda funny though. :) She has her top 2 teeth now and her hair is growing in and getting fuzzier all the time. I just wonder what color it will be. Her eyes are brown- the first for my side of the family because we are all blue eyed. She's definitely a social baby and very alert.

Spring Break Visitors

My Mom, Jeni and her kids all came over to visit during Spring Break. Marci joined us for dinner and it was fun to have them come visit. In the afternoon, we took the kids to the Children's museum and Jeni and her kids' haven't been to our museum so it was fun to take them and show them everything. They had fun and it was really busy because of Spring Break. I forgot my camera so I didn't even get any pictures of them there! Also, the pictures I got of the cousins at home are totally lame, but I posted some anyway.

My Mom doing puzzles with Preston. They found some missing pieces to puzzles that were in different boxes. I should have her come more often to help get them all sorted out!

Kate with Carter and Paige. She LOVED having them visit and had so much fun playing with them. She asked, "if we lived next door to them could we play with them all the time?" I think that would be her choice. They played beauty parlor and make believe family, of course.

Aubree, Paige and Lindsey playing with Jeni and Marci chillin'. We had fun hanging out.

A picture of the chaos and mess! I need a bigger house! If only...

They all left and spent the night down at Marci's house. They took Kate and Kate was so excited to spend the night at Marci's. They all love spending the night at Marci's because she has 2 sets of stairs! (I'd be complaining about that, but they think that's even more fun! haha!) And because she has chocolate milk. Oh the simple things. :)

Preston, Lindsey and I met up with them the next day at Southcenter to do some shopping. We ate lunch at Bajios and then my Mom, Jeni and Marci all left to go back to Mattawa. My parents, Jared and Marci were leaving the next morning for Rexburg to attend Jeff's graduation from BYU-Idaho. Woo Hoo Jeff!

News, Spring and Fun

Kyle got a job offer from Union Bank and will offically be an employee later this month. He has been working as a contractor for the bank for the last 6 months and we didn't know if they would extend his contract or hire him. They really like him and wanted to hire him. The offer isn't the greatest (working as a contractor was much better pay, but if he stayed as a contractor they would probably get rid of the contractors and we would MUCH rather have a job than be unemployed again!!!). So we are glad to have the security of a job rather than just contract work. At this time, I'm not planning on going back to work and I'm going to enjoy my time at home.

Here are some pictures of Lindsey Lou Who (that's her nickname...I called her that b/c it reminded me of Cindy Lou Who from the Grinch movie and it stuck). I let her feed herself spaghetti and cottage cheese and that's always a mess afterwards. I don't know if she got much in her mouth!

We find Lindsey in interesting spots around the house. One day, I was in the kitchen and I heard her grunting in the living room. I went in there to check on her and she had knocked over the magazine holder and one foot was stuck in between the bars of the magazine holder. I should have taken a picture because it made me laugh. I was just surprised she wasn't crying.

Kate will tell me often that she loves having Lindsey in our family and that she is so fun. I'm glad she likes her! One girl in Kate's Kindegarten class doesn't want another sibling because then she wouldn't get as much attention! That's what she says! Oh dear...good thing her Mom doesn't want anymore. haha. I have to brag about Kate...she is reading at a 2nd-3rd grade level already! She is doing so good and it's amazing to see the books she reads. I doubt I was reading like that at her age!

We have Spring Break this week so I'm trying to potty train Preston (I.do.not.like.potty.training!) and we will visit the Children's Museum and maybe the Zoo if the weather is better. We've been getting lots and lots of rain lately. Those flowers better be beautiful later this spring. We finally got our iPad2! Dee Ann got it for us in Vegas (she had connections at the Apple store down there) and shipped it to us the next day. She rocks! I have tried getting one since it came out in early March. I have stood in line a few times and they never have enough. Kyle has also stood in line for a few hours and he was 5th in line even, but they didn't have the one we wanted. Grrr. It's been annoying trying to get one. It's our combined birthday/anniversary/whatever gift. It's been SO fun to have. Everyone plays it and we have even used facetime (like Skype) to talk to Grandma Dee Ann on it. I love technology. :)