A Visit with Cousins

My Mom had Dustin's kids up for a few days this summer and the kids had a blast together.  I took some pictures when we took a visit to the zoo.

Jackson's 4th Birthday

Ok, I'm back!  It's been awhile, but I want to keep a record of all that has happened this summer.  So, expect a bunch of posts coming...

On June 18 Jackson turned 4.  I can't believe it!!!  It is always fun to celebrate another year with our kids and this birthday was no different.  Thanks to everybody who took time out to celebrate with us!

Jackson was so fun to watch open presents.  He had so much fun and got some really fun presents.  Here are some highlights!

  He wanted a brown dog cake so I made another one of those puppy cakes.

Before:

 During:

 After:

With so many reasons to love Jack I can't write them all, but here are a few:
He tells everyone he "loves ya" about 100 times a day
He says the funniest things
He's a big helper (when he wants to be)
He watches out for Brayden
His smile
He's so sweet (also when he wants to be :))


He loves:
His family
baseball
football (although we have no idea how he came up with the idea)
fishing
playing with cars
playing with his brothers and sister
preschool
writing notes to people (just started getting into that)
the beach
pizza
TV and movies

Father and Son Outing/Girls Night

Last weekend was a good bonding experience.  The boys Bo, Conrad, and Jackson went camping and Hailey, Brayden and I went out.  I’m not totally sure what the boys did.  But, I know they ate great food, marshmallows, and stayed up until 10:30.

We went to Claire’s in the Mall and got Hailey’s ears pierced.  I told Hailey when she had enough courage to pierce her ears she could do it.  Yesterday was the day.  I wasn't sure if she would, but when we got there a girl was getting her ears done and Hailey got to watch the whole thing.  I think it gave her some confidence since she was older and didn’t cry. 

She was very nervous and couldn't hold still, but she did great.  She only had one tear and said, that hurt a lot more than I thought it would.  It really helped to have two people doing it so they did it at the same time.  The earrings she picked out were really cute too.  Way to go Hailey!

After that we went to show off her earrings to grandma and grandpa.  Then we went to dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe (Craigo’s).  This is Hailey’s favorite place.  She can eat like eight pieces of pizza and salad.  I’m not sure how it all fits but it always does.  Once we stuffed ourselves we went to Walmart for treats and a Redbox.  She picked a Barbie movie.  We headed home, put Brayden to bed, and had the rest of the night to ourselves.  I think it was a success because she said, “This is the best night ever”, about 100 times.  It was really a great night.  I jut love spending one on one with the kids.  It was one of my favorite nights with her too.

Here are the before's...you can just see the fear in her face

Here she is a little started after...And of course I didn't get a cute after because I forgot.  UGH!

It was funny because when the boys got home she kept telling them (nicely) that they should go outside so our time didn't have to end.  I just love our kids…

Girls Over Nighter

In the nine years we’ve been married I’ve never been on an overnight trip without Bo or the kids.  But a few weeks ago, I went with five other ladies from our ward to Park City, UT.  I had such a great time.  We went to IKEA, TJ MAXX and of course all of the outlets in Park City.  I found some fun stuff and so did all the other ladies.

It was really fun to get to know some these women better.  We had a lot of laughs.  The kids had a great time with Bo.  He does way more fun things than I do. 

Easter 2012

I feel like Easter is so commercialized and such a quick holiday I wanted to try to make it special and try to teach the kids the real reason we celebrate Easter. I searched the internet for ideas.  On sugardoodle.com they had a couple of ideas.  This is the one I chose to do Our Week Long Eater Experience.  Starting on Monday, each night we had a talk about the important events that went on the final week of Christ’s life on earth and had fun activities and treats to help the kids remember better what went on.  The kids loved it.  I did too.  Their favorite part was the last supper.  we sat on the floor with a blanket and had kababs.  Easter was a bit it more meaningful year and this will be a new tradition for us.  The Easter Bunny might start coming on Friday night too. 

We of course did the usual Easter traditions too.  The kids love decorating eggs and the Easter Bunny came to our house.  Some of the kids made it to the Easter Egg hunt.  Hailey and I got to go to a baptism that morning of a girl in her church class.

A couple of weeks after Easter my mom put on the yearly Easter Egg hunt.  It was a great success.  The men hid the eggs this year and I think they should do that from now on too. The kids loved it and all the fun things they got in their eggs.  (I loved the treats for the adults!)  Thanks mom for the effort you make to do this every year.

Our kids look so grown up in these pics...