Easter Fun

We did a few fun activities leading up to Easter this year. Friday night we colored eggs.

We do our egg hunt Saturday so on Sunday we can focus on why we really celebrate Easter. Here are the kids getting lined up and ready to dash for the eggs. Isaac was more interested in the grass then anything else.

Run, run!

Opening the goodies. We also have a tradition of the Easter bunny bringing the kids a game. The Easter bunny almost forgot this year, but on Friday night Samuel asked me what game I thought the Easter bunny would bring. The daddy bunny made a quick trip to the store and got hungry hippos. Chuck and I both had this game as kids.

And the kids love playing it. I've lost track of how many times we've played this game over the past two days.

After our little egg hunt we went to the park for the city egg hunt. It was cold and rainy this year, but that didn't stop us.

We were thinking there would not be as many people at the park because of the weather, but there were still a lot of people. Samuel ran clear across the field from where we were standing because he had his eyes set on a patch of blue eggs. He actually gathered almost a whole bucket full. Bella only got 4 eggs. Chuck was with her, but she was watching everyone else instead of gathering.

Getting soaked!

Are You Even Kidding Me Moments

The past week I have had several of those moments when you think "Are You Even Kidding Me!". Last Saturday evening Chuck was gone to Priesthood Session, Grandma, Grandpa, Trina and Wes were staying at our house, but they were all gone as well. So it was just me and the three kids. It all began when Samuel and Bella decided they wanted to come in from outside, after they had been digging in the red dirt, at the same time that I noticed Isaac had a blowout. I decided I would deal with Isaac's mess first and the other kids would just have to wait a minute to come in since they were covered in dirt and would need some serious cleaning. They weren't happy about having to wait and were pounding on the glass door and making all sorts of raucous. I finished with Isaac, let the other kids in and stripped off the dirty clothes. I hauled Bella up to the tub and told Samuel not to move off the rug until I came back for him. As I was adjusting the water, Bella peed in the tub and I had to start over with the water. Then I came out of the bathroom and saw baby Isaac had climbed almost to the top of the stairs. I caused him to lose his concentration and he fell over, but I managed to grab him before he tumbled too far. I then took him into the bathroom and set him on the floor. I came back out of the bathroom looked into the kitchen and couldn't believe my eyes. I saw Samuel peeing so high it was going above the kitchen table and splattering all over the floor! And I thought "Are You Even Kidding Me!"

Me: What are you doing!!!!
Samuel: Well mom, you told me not to move and you were just taking too long.
At this point I hustled down the stairs and was trying not to laugh - I mean I really couldn't believe he had just peed on the floor. It was so shocking it was funny!
Samuel: Mom, what are we going to do about this?
Me: You're going to clean it up.
Samuel: Oh no, I don't want to get pee on my hands.
All I can say is I love my concrete floors and yes, Samuel did wipe up the mess!



Bella has been potty trained for months now, but she has been giving me grief with the toilet paper. She is so independent, but in this case it's killing me! She always stuffs way too much toilet paper in the toilet, but the other day she wiped herself with a whole roll of toilet paper and then flushed the toilet causing it to almost overflow. So I removed the toilet paper from the kids bathroom. Then she found my stash of wet wipes and used a whole new box just getting a little piece of poop on each wipe and stacking them up nice and high around the garbage can. So I removed the wet wipes from the bathroom thinking without toilet paper and wet wipes I have solved this problem. Then I heard her in the bathroom and went up to help her since there was now no means for wiping - or so I thought. When I opened the door she handed me a wet washrag with poop on it! She had dipped it in the toilet and wiped herself yet again. And I thought to myself "Are You Even Kidding Me!" - but I must hand it to her, she's resourceful!


It's also been a week of crazy accidents. We were making little bunnies out of Easter eggs and had almost finished our project when Isaac woke up from his nap. I was trying to strap him into the seat at the table and Bella went around the back side of the table, got her leg caught in the glue gun cord causing it to fall on her face! I about cried myself when I saw it happen because I couldn't do anything to stop it with Isaac in my arms. Luckily it was just a cool melt, but she still got a nasty little burn on the side of her chin.

Today we were making cookies - I found a great new recipe on the back of the cookie cutter - the secret ingredient Almond Extract. Oh they were so yummy! I plugged in the beaters and went back to the pantry when I heard Samuel start to wail. He had turned the beaters on and managed to hurt his finger. It scared him more than anything and he was very dramatic about the whole event!

It's just been one of those crazy weeks!

Isaac's Early Birthday Celebration

Happy 1st Birthday Isaac!

(His actual birthday isn't for another week, but we had an early celebration this weekend to make it easier for my family to be here.)

Isaac's birthday theme was "SO BIG". It always amazes me how much these precious little babies grow in a year - and he really has gotten SO BIG. To go with the "SO BIG" theme I made the giant cupcake (thanks Kaicie for the cupcake idea!), Grandma made Isaac a giant riceball which he did not want to stop eating and of course the vege's were just for fun.

I took a ton of pictures - 1st birthdays are special - so here are just a few.

This cake was much easier to make and decorate than Samuel's cake I made last week. Thank goodness!

Isaac usually eats anything I give him, but he was a bit hesitant about taking a taste of the cupcake. Chuck finally had to shove a piece of frosting in his mouth so he would finally take a bite. Once he got a taste he didn't want to stop and kept taking bigger and bigger bites.

The other kids were jealous of Isaac's giant riceball!

Isaac's Birthday Celebration

The SO BIG birthday boy! It was fun for me to gather and display pictures of Isaac from his first year. It's hard to believe my baby is 1!

Everyone taking a turn at eating the SO BIG birthday cupcake. They were all upset when I finally took it away.

Opening presents. Isaac wasn't really sure what was going on, but the other kids were more than happy to help him. Everyone actually got presents at this party. Samuel still had a present to open from Grandma Jerri Lynn and Grandpa Clayton and one from us. Chuck and I decided we'd better buy Bella a little game to open since she's not really old enough to understand why the boys were getting presents and she wasn't. In fact last week at Samuel's party she threw herself on the floor and was crying because she wanted to open a present. It's hard to be 2!

The new bike Grandma and Grandpa got Samuel. It's just right for his little short legs.

Thanks to my wonderful family for helping us celebrate the boys birthdays! Grandma Jerri Lynn has been here the past two weeks, but went home today with Grandpa. We're all going to miss her, it's sure been nice to have an extra set of hands helping with the kids and house!

Happy 4th Birthday Samuel

Happy Birthday to my Boy!

Chuck and I prayed for many years that we would be able to have a child. Those years when our heart yearned for a baby were difficult times. But as with any trial, we were strengthed and learned many lessons. Eventually the windows of heaven were opened and we were blessed with a miracle - out little Samuel. I had someone tell me after Samuel was born that with a birth of a child we learn 3 great truths. 1. How much our Heavenly Father must love us 2. How much our parents love us 3. How much our capacity to love is expanded.

It's hard for me to believe that Sameul is 4 already! It amazes me how fast the time flies as we enjoy this precious time when all of our kids are so young. Samuel is a precious and smart little boy. He is so curious about everything a asks a million questions every day. He constantly amazes me! I thank my Heavenly Father daily for sending me this little guy. He is such a blessing in our lives.

Samuel's Hospital Picture - he was such a beautiful baby - no cone, bruised and battered head like our other kids. He turned breach when I was 38 weeks along so I had to have a c-section. The nurses told us they can tell c-section babies because they look so good right after they are born.

My first glimpse of my baby. I just got one quick look before they took him away while they finished sewing me up. I could hardly believe that I was finally a mom - I had prayed for and dreamed about this day for so long! The c-section and other complications I suffered with for weeks after his birth were very hard on me, but that little guy was worth every price I had to pay.

Chuck was in the nursery with Samuel and took this picture of my family waiting outside to see our little miracle baby. Just look at those excited faces! Thanks for loving my little boy so much!

Samuel's Birthday Parites

We've been celebrating Samuel's 4th birthday for several days now.
Samuel wanted to have a Joint Strike Fighter birthday party. Fighter planes all look alike to me so Chuck found me this picture on the internet and then I superimposed Samuel into the picture. Samuel loved it!

Making of The Cake

I was trying to think what type of a cake I could do for a Joint Strike Fighter party (not a real easy theme) and Chuck came up with the idea of an aircraft carrier. That sounded even harder than what I had been thinking, but we brainstormed some ideas and came up with a way to make it happen. Chuck built the base out of cardboard and because of his engineering brain it actually had to be to scale. I kept trying to talk him out of making it so big, but he insisted if it wasn't to scale it would look stupid. I then baked a sheet cake, pieced it together and decorated the top. I thought this was just going to be a disaster, but it actually turned out amazingly well.

Decorating the cake. It took forever, and my hand was killing me when I finally finished.

Samuel kept asking me if the plane above the cake was the "best bomber". He is currently fascinated with fighter planes and bombing things.

The finished product - and yes we actually cut it and ate it. (It was so much work I seriously considered not actually cutting it and my mom kept saying she wouldn't cut it - but then I thought if we don't eat it what's the point of making it!)

JOY SCHOOL PARTY

It was my turn to do Joy School this week and so we had a little birthday celebration with our regular lesson. I made cupcakes for the kids and attached one of Samuel's fighter planes to the cupcake stand.

When I showed it to him he said, "Mom that's not the Joint Strike Fighter, it's the F22."

Me: Well we don't have a Joint Strike Fither plane.

Samuel: So you want me to have an F22 party now.

What I wanted to say: None of your friends are going to know the difference, just go with it!

Joy School friends singing Happy Birthday and opening presents.

Friend Birthday Party

We had a small boys party for Samuel on Friday. He was really sad his friend Stockton couldn't make it. We played a few games to go along with our birthday theme. The kids put together and decorated their own planes to begin with.

This was our cloud game. Burried in the clouds were as Samuel said, "United States of America Planes" and missles. The boys were going crazy throwing newspaper and digging all over to retrieve all the goodies. It was complete madness!

Once the boys retrieved their planes and missles they tried to fly their planes into the swimming pool and then they used their missles to bomb the plastic cowboys. Again this was complete madness, but the boys were loving it!

I love this picture of Samuel blowing out the candle on his cake.

Samuel's Actual Birthday

We asked Samuel what he wanted our family to do on his birthday and he wanted to go to Jumping Jacks. The kids love this place!

Chuck started this tradition when Samuel was born. He has made each kid a measuring board and every year on their birthday he measures them and records how tall they are on their board. It's a fun way to see how much they've grown over the past year.

To end our week of celebration Samuel wanted to go to McDonalds for dinner. The kids love going to McDonalds because of playland. I just have to not think about how nasty it is in the tubes. I once had to crawl a little way in to rescue Bella and it was not pleasant.