What a slacker I've been!

I have a new obsession and that's why I've been such a bad blogger.  I have read 15 books since January.  Every extra minute I have I read.  For me, that's a lot since all I've read in the last 10 years was the Twilight and Hunger games series.  But, I'm trying to find a new balance so I have a new goal of blogging once a week again, and start running at least 3 days a week again.  I went running outdoors tonight for the first time since I had all of my weird neuropathy issues a couple of years ago.  It felt so good.  I've done a little treadmill running, but I forgot how nice it is to run outside.  That should start me off with a better balance and now that I have typed it on here I have to do it, right? 

Well, what have we been up to lately?  My grandma turned ninety on May 14 and we had a big party for her.  It was a lot of fun and all of our family was able to make it.  It's always fun to have everyone together.  Thanks for the pic Brooke, I stole it from your blog. 

We also had a late Easter Egg Hunt that my mom put together that weekend.  Our kids had been looking forward to it (especially Conrad who was taking about it from Easter and still brings it up.  He loves it.)  Of course I forgot my camera! 

The kids have started their summer sports and I'll be posting some pics soon.

  Last week we had a family reunion for Bo's side.  It was a lot of fun.  We went swimming at Green Canyon, went to Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat at the Playmill in Yellowstone, and it was Stampede Days in Rigby so we went to the parade on Saturday.  The kids had a blast and got quite a bit of candy. It was the perfect mix of going and relaxing.  Bo took the boys fishing with Grandpa Porter, Sonny and Taylor, and Myles and Ericksen.  They had a blast.  That is the only pics we have from the week. I don't know what my problem is but I keep forgetting my camera!  (I wonder if it's the 1000+ pics that I am working on photo booking and unconsciously don't want anymore.)

Ericksen and Myles in background

 Ericksen and Jack who decided to walk into the Teton river.  At least it's more like a canal.

 I'm not sure what's going on with Conrad

 Sonny and Taylor, Jack and Grandpa Porter

 The kids and their square ice cream cones

We have a lot of other fun things coming up.  I'll keep you posted! 

Proud Parents of a Kindergarten Graduate....with Stitches.

I am soooo behind on blogging, I'm not sure where to start.  But, last Thursday was Hailey's last day of Kindergarten.  It's amazing how much easier my day is when I don't have to drop her off and pick her up three hours later.  It has been nice to let bed time get a little later too.  We've been able to do some fun stuff together the past few nights.

Hailey's graduation was last Monday.  It was very cute.  They sang a bunch of songs.  We could tell Hailey was loving it because she was dancing in place the entire time she sang.  She got a nice certificate and a note from her teacher.  I'm grateful that Hailey had such a great teacher this year.  She really made Hailey's first year of school a great one and she can't wait to go again next year. Here's some pics.  Of course I forgot to grab the camera!  So, they aren't the greatest we used Bo's phone.

The Friday before her graduation, the school had inflatable/field day.  It's just a fun day at school where they have a bunch of bouncy houses in the gym and races outside.  About an hour after Hailey got to school, I was bathing the boys and had just gotten Brayden out when my phone rang.  (Luckily I answered it, usually I don't with a naked baby.  I paid for that and got peed on while on the phone. :)  Anyway, Hailey's teacher called and told me Hailey and fallen and hit her chin on the gym floor and probably needed stitches.  Needless to say my heart started pumping and I had a whole list of things to do before I could even get to her.  I felt terrible that she was scared and I couldn't be there.  I had to get dressed because I had just gotten out of the shower, had to get 3 boys dressed, find someone to watch the kids, figure out where in the world to take her since the stitches were on her face and I didn't want just anyone to do them (sorry if that sounds snotty, but it's her face!)  A crazy fifteen minutes later I was there to pick her up and she was EXTREMELY scared about the the stitches.  Luckily the cut wasn't right on her face, but kind of below so I could take her to the urgent care.  I ran to Bo's work dropped the kids off and got behind every SLOW MOVING CAR ON THE ROAD!  It took forever to get there.  We finally made it.  The Dr. was very nice and after a traumatizing (who knows how long) the stitches were in.  WHEW!  Don't want to have to do that again.  The rest of the day she was very somber.  Even though she got to see her cousins that she doesn't see very often.  Oh yeah, and to top it off she fell on the swing set and got a goose egg on the side of her head that afternoon too.  Poor girl!

I think about the phone call about the stitches and think about what could have been on the other end.  I'm very grateful it was just a couple of stitches. 

We are so proud of you Hailey.  You have learned so much this year.  I can't wait to see what you will learn next year.  We love you so much and are so blessed to have you in our family!

Easter!

We had a great Easter weekend.  The weather was gorgeous and the kids were so fun.  Grandma was able to come over from Boise and the kids had fun spending some time with her.  Saturday we did and Easter Egg Hunt. Jack LOVED it and got tons of candy.  (Don't worry we aren't those parents who let their kids take all of the candy from the others...LOL).  The other kids got lots too.  Then they saw the Easter bunny Hailey was the only one who enjoyed that and of course I left my camera in the car and didn't have time to go get it. :(

But, I did get some fun pics of the rest.


Here are the kids dying their eggs:

 

Here's the pics Easter morning

Here they are in their new church outfits, although you can't really see them. :)

Conrad's 5th Birthday.

Conrad's birthday started out great.  We decided to have a couple of boys over to have a Spiderman Themed birthday party.  I had fun getting ready for it.  I made the pinata, (not that it is super awesome, but it was way easy and he LOVED it.)  I forgot to get pictures of them hitting it and of the kids that were there.  Duh!  What was I thinking.

Thanks to the moms that came and brought their boys to the party.  He had so much fun playing with them.  He loves the gifts.  Hopefully your kids didn't get sick. 

By the end of the party though Jackson would not stop coughing.  He couldn't get a word in in between attacks for about an hour and a half so I got him into our Dr.  He had the flu.

Needles to say the family birthday party scheduled for his birthday was canceled.  We still had cake and ice cream and he still had fun, but was a little bummed we couldn't have anyone else over.  Thanks Mom and Dad for risking it and coming by for a few minutes to make him feel special.

 My $.50 pinata.  Much better than spending $17 on one!

April 3, his actual birthday.  Notice the chunks of frosting out of the cake.  You can thank Jackson for that!

Conrad at 5:

• still LOVES Spiderman (as you can see from the pictures)
• Can write his name, knows all of his numbers and can count to twenty.  
•  is so excited for Kindergarten and all the fun parties.
• loves making me pictures
• is the peacemaker and takes care of us.
•  is very helpful around the house.
• is the neatest of the kids and is great at cleaning his room and making his bed.
• loves playing games on Bo's phone.
• has asked many timed this winter to go ice fishing.  He can't wait to go. Bo took him for his birthday, but the river was WAY too high so they couldn't fish.  Bummer.
• loves gymnastics and is excited for t-ball and soccer this summer.

Conrad we love you and hope your birthday was all that you have dreamed (he has been talking about it for the last year).  We love having you in our family and can't imagine life without you!  Thanks for always taking care of us.

A Bunch of First's

Brayden has had a lot of firsts lately!  I have been so bad a blogging lately so here goes:

 First tooth February 26, 2010.  He now has two and is working on number three!  He is not a happy teether.

 First walk outside (really I just liked this pic)

Brayden is quite the little mover lately.  He didn't roll or do anything until he hit 5 months.  Then at six months he has been moving like crazy.  He is crawling and sitting and like to do the "Bear Stand".  He can't actually the the bear crawl.  

 This is his favorite thing to do lately.  He loves looking at his toes while he's standing.

He loves his new sippy.