Sleeping Where?

Kyler is the funniest sleeper I know. He is always moving around after we tuck him in and sometimes we find him asleep in the craziest places... in the toy room, crammed in his closet, etc. A few nights ago I went up to check on all the kids before going to bed and found Kyler asleep in this little toy bin. He totally cracks me up. I helped him get out and stretch back out on his bed because I know how my back would feel in the morning if I slept like that! He definitely keeps us laughing!

Chicken Noodle Soup

We had homemade chicken noodle soup after church on Sunday. Brenner was my little sidekick in the kitchen and it was so fun to have him jibbering nonstop to me while we rolled out the noodles and cut them into strips. He has a funny little personality and I enjoyed having him right beside me wanting to help with every step of the process. Gosh I love these days of cute little helpers. What a fun memory. And the soup turned out yummy.

"My 2 Front Teeth"

Grandma Bev pulled out Lexi's 2nd front tooth last week much to all of our relief. It was only hanging on by a thread and would twist around and just hang there (and drive me crazy!) but Lexi would not let anybody touch it. Grandma Bev must have the special touch because Lexi didn't even hesitate at her offer to pull it out. Hallelujah! And Grandma even gave her $3 to boot. Wow! That's better than the tooth fairy! Lexi looks so cute with her gap tooth smile, and talks so cute with her little missing-tooth lisp. I love it! It's adorable!

Easter and General Conference Weekend

Since Easter Sunday fell on General Conference I let the kids wear their Easter clothes a few weeks early. My two youngest are hard to keep tucked in! But I love when they all match. They are such good kids. I'm so thankful to be their Mom.

We started out our Easter weekend with a Pizza Party in the living room for Movie-Night-Friday. The kids thought it was great fun and little did they know it was because I was exhausted and didn't want to do anything hard. Thank heavens for pizza delivery, one big blanket on the floor, paper plates, and water bottles. The kids thought it was a real party! Love the simple things.

Between General Conference sessions on Saturday was Dave's family's big Easter Egg Hunt, something we look forward to every year. But it was a raging snow blizzard and the main road out of our Valley was closed (we found out after driving for 15 minutes, so we turned around and came home, amidst tears and wailing). So I went and got some Easter eggs and candy, and after General Conference we had our own Easter Egg Hunt inside our house, which turned out just fine after all (although we missed all those cousins)!

Getting ready to find all those hidden eggs. Oh the excitement!
My cute little Easter bunny...
They each found lots of eggs... on the fireplace...
...in the bedrooms...
...behind the couch pillows...
...and even in the piano.

While Daddy was at the Priesthood session the kids made up their own fun. Jumping from the bannister...





After seeing Brenner trying to follow the older kids up and over the banister I decided to cut that activity short and we made Easter Cookies. I loved this idea and the kids and I had a good discussion about the Atonement while we read the scriptures and added the different ingredients. And the next morning the cookies were hollow, representing the empty Garden Tomb. Amazing! Quite the fun little object lesson.

Sunday morning dawned at 4am with the boys running around the house looking for their Easter baskets. Good thing the Easter bunny was on top of that one and had them well-hidden! I ushered them back to bed for 3 more hours. Then they woke up and went on the scavenger hunt for their Easter baskets which were filled with a few things they could do during Conference. Sunday was spent coloring pictures for our Conference Wall (as the kids call the wall where they hang the pictures they color during all the sessions). General Conference always speeds by so fast and it's hard to believe it's done when the last session is over. I love it and I'm so thankful we're able to listen to our dear Prophets and Apostles and I can't wait to re-watch it and read again in the Ensign.

After General Conference we had a simple Jerusalem Dinner. We all sat on pillows on the floor and ate food that maybe Jesus would have eaten in Jerusalem. The kids loved it. Our meal wasn't very authentic Middle-Eastern but it made a fun memory. We had chicken, crackers, cheese, avacadoes, cucumbers, grapes, raisins, almonds and yogurt. Very simple, but it made an impact and the kids said they want to do it every Easter.

Easter Eggs

It's Easter Egg coloring time again! We colored them last Tuesday. It's always a fun thing to do. I love it. Kyler enjoyed making his speckled. Lexi drew cute little faces, bunnies and flowers on hers, and Porter cracks me up because his hands always get as colored as the eggs. Brenner had fun this year and colored on some eggs and dipped one or two over and over in different colors. He loved it. One of my favorite Easter-time things to do.

You've Been Egged!

I want to create more opportunities for our family to serve others. So on Monday for Family Home Evening we picked a couple houses to egg! I'd heard of this idea and thought it sounded so fun and would be fun for the kids. ISome cute neighbor friends, Carson and Sophie were here to play so they helped fill the eggs and went with us to EGG the houses! They all got so excited as they scurried around the yards hiding the eggs. It really was a fun thing to do and we all giggled as we ran back to the car to drive away uncaught! I could tell by the twinkles in their eyes that they were each feeling the joy of serving!

Lexi's Lost Tooth

Lexi finally lost one stubborn front tooth. Both of her top front teeth have been loose for months but she won't wiggle them. She came down int he middle of the night one night last week and said her tooth was on her tongue. I'm glad she didn't swallow it! So this picture is the only one I have of her with her lost front tooth. I thought it was a cute one with Sophie and Kallie who were here one afternoon. They thought it was so funny to blow bubbles in their milk. Then they took a blanket outside in the playhouse and had a freezing cold picnic with crackers and cheese.

General Conference

We're so excited for General Conference tomorrow. Someday we would love to go to Salt Lake and experience General Conference on Temple Square and at the Conference Center. How neat to be there! This weekend we'll be snuggled on our couches together to enjoy hearing from our Apostles and Prophets. I can't wait!

I wanted to share some fun coloring pages for your kids, very cute since Easter is also on Sunday. Click HERE for the page below and some other with Easter baskets to fill with eggs as you listen for certain topics.

And I saw this idea for these cute little travel packets for kids and thought it would be fun while listening to Conference. My kids are excited to use them.

Hope you all have a nice General Conference and Easter weekend!

April Fool's!

Okay, so I'm little out of control with these minor holidays, but I couldn't help myself today! I've been so excited for weeks. There are so darn many fun tricks to play on kids and my kids are a perfect age this year to do them all!

I switched their drawers so when they woke up to get dressed all their clothes were mixed up. The boys thought it was funny. Lexi did not.

I made pancakes for breakfast with cupcake liners in them so they were harder to cut. Lexi saw me do it to some so she wouldn't eat one. (I did make some normal pancakes they could eat too.) Kyler cut into his and thought it was a pretty good trick! Poor Porter didn't realize and kept cutting and cutting and before I realized it he had eaten several bites and 1/3 of the cupcake liner! Ooops!

Then I packed their lunches. This was my favorite part. I poured out the water and filled little water bottles with Sprite. I opened the bottom of little snack bags and put carrots in one and cookies in the other, then stuck them back together with double-stick tape. I emptied the raisins out of boxes and filled them with jelly-beans. They LOVED it!

When they got home from school I had balloons blown up and twisted instead of tied, and shut in the tops of some doors, so when they opened the doors the balloons went zig-zagging around until they were out of air. That was pretty funny.

For dinner we got to use the fancy glasses with punch. But it was really jello!




I told them we got to have dessert first and eat cake before the meat loaf! April Fool's! The cake really WAS meatloaf with mashed potatoes for frosting! They thought it was hilarious! They even ate it!


Does it look appetizing to you? haha


Although dessert looked like meatloaf and potatoes it was really rice crispy treats (made with cocoa puffs) and vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce for gravy. It cracked me up how much it looked like REAL meatloaf and mashed potatoes! The kids really thought it was great. And it was easy to do. Most all of these ideas come from Family Fun.




I also made a fake Parking Ticket for Dave. He's working out of town so I gave it to my mom earlier and she found his truck to put it on the windshield, but the funny thing was that he actually had a REAL parking ticket already on his window! So I guess it was a little April Fool's trick on me! We had to laugh about that one. Seriously, what are the odds? Too bad the cops weren't in on April Fool's Day!

It was a fun day... until the boys thought it would be funny to play a trick and put toothpaste in our bed! Stinkers!