April- May 2011

 This was a busy time for us. My best friend Andi, Brian and I ran a 5k. That was a lot of fun even if my out of shape husband was running backwards to encourage me. What a showoff!! (I really like that guy!) And Andi just hightailed it out of there and went on to win in her age group. She impresses and inspires me everyday!

We went to Kansas City for the Temple open house. My sister in law was about 9 months pregnant so we took her little girls and went to a childrens museum before our appointment time at the open house.

This was in a room that was centered around balls and here they raced balls down a track.

 Cooper was a puppy at the vet

 The Temple was absolutely gorgeous. It was rainy so we didn't get to spend too much time outside but my favorite part was showing the kids the sealing room and telling them that Brian and I got married in a room just like that and how special it was and we were able to see ourselves in the mirrors as an eternal family and it was such a sweet experience!

 The kids have really enjoyed the nice weather and playing in our jungle of a back yard. I have not idea what they are doing but they are having fun!

 The YMCA had a really fun safety awareness day. There was so much to do for the kids and they had a blast.

Face painting

Police dog

Muny kids performed

 We enjoyed the slip n slide once! That's it, just once. It is fun in theory but no one could really get the hang of it and they were getting skinned up knees and even with soap they were not doing good. Then when we saw what it did to the lawn we decided it was not the best toy after all  I remember that being amazing when I was a kid!

Then my Sister in law had her baby. It was her 6th girl and she is as sweet as can be. Her name is Nora. Being her 6th, we got the privilege of having her next to youngest little girls come and stay with us for a week and it was a lot of fun!

 They got to play the "boy dress -ups" as MaLeah called them

 We had a lot of tea parties. Moset were at the bottom of the stairs for some reason.

 We played in the water table a lot! MaLeah is such a poser!! She loved taking pictures. So cute!

 Then it was Mothers Day and Addie made me the cutest card I have ever seen. I will keep it forever. It had a poem in it that read...
I am growing like a flower
With all your love and care
All your hugs and kisses
Make the good time that we share
I am growing like a flower
We know that is true
So I made this card in kindergarten
To say, "I LOVE YOU"
 And then it had her hand print holding flowers. So cute. They all took great care of me and Brian made a card and talked to each of the kids so they could each put one thing in it that they would do for me. Coopers was to send me to a two hour "time-out" and the kids thought that was hilarious but it was my favorite one!!

 I made a wedding cake for a wedding standards night for Young Womens and that was a lot of fun.

 Callen was supposed to attend this karate tournament and I thought he would absolutely love it. I thought it was pretty cool. But the boys thought it was way too loud. We didn't stay too long.

 but it did wear cooper out!

Birthday time

 All the boys in our family have birthdays really close to each other. Callen had a transformer party for his 5th birthday. It was a lot of fun but I don't think the girls enjoyed it as much as Callen would have liked them to. He had an optimus prime cake that I tried to follow a picture and lets just say I am not an artist but it was ok (it tasted really good!). It started with an obstacle course in the basement blasting from their planet to earth.

 We had bean bag tosses that Brian painted in the decepticon and autobot symbols

 We had a few more games like a transformer memory game where I took a picture of all his transformers in their person form and their vehicle form and we had to match them. Then we had all the kids show us their best transformer moves on the trampoline. Callen has mastered his quite nicely. Here he is doing a transforming flip kick. He loves to do this and he makes a "sh sh sh sh " sound as he transforms. It is pretty funny

 Addie got him a transformer of course

 Then I tried to do a little surprise for Brian  on his 30th birthday and so I had some friends meet us at a restaurant and surprise him when he walked in thinking he was just going on a date with me. Not as many people were there as I would have liked but his birthday just so happened to be on a very busy weekend. He was very surprised though since I have never successfully pulled off a surprise for him.

 Cooper became obsessed with buses while I was in Idaho for my sisters wedding. So I made him a bus cake for his birthday. It was not my best work. It seems I am digressing quite a bit in my cake making ability so we just call this the "short bus" Cooper was happy with it though! He is such a big boy and we love him so much!!

Red Robin

This is the red robin fundraiser night for Addies school. It was fun to see so many familiar faces as we ate and socialized. Brian was out of town so we went with some of Addies friends and their Moms. Tyler and Ava are good friends of Addies

 Here they are with their teacher Mrs. Higby. They were so extremely excited to see her. She was getting there right as we were leaving. We really love Mrs. Higby!!

Moon Dough

 We did a few fun activities during the day. This is Moon dough. Not quite as mess free as it bagged to be but maybe a made it wrong. However, the boys had a really great time with it and Callen was able to get really creative and made some really cool sand castles!

Valentines day

 WE didn't do anything crazy for Valentines day this year like I have done in the past. We just did our traditional Valentines Day treasure hunts. I did this as a kid and now I do it for my kids every year.

Here is Addies heart shaped hair do for Valentines Day!

So after school the kids come home to the beginning of a treasure hunt on the front door and they have to find what color will be theirs and follow the clues.

 They had a blast like they always do and the treasure this year was different ice cream toppings When we put all the treasures together we had huge ice cream sundaes as a family. They all got their own little surprise too! It was a fun day and full of love!!

Emma's Baptism

 Our Niece Emma was baptized and we were able to make it to Kansas City to be there. Cooper was waiting for the hoopla to begin!

Here is Brian's brother Austin and the nieces and nephews that were at the baptism

 Brian's brother got to baptize Emma. How sweet to have this memory for her. What a good Uncle Brenden!!

 I made this for Emma. I love getting to make their cakes. I have made Austin, Olivia, and Emma's baptism cakes. They are so nice to let me do that! I love it!

 We had a lot of fun at Angelita's house afterwards.

Snow Day

Our first snow day with kids in school. Obviously we needed to get out of school I mean you can almost not see the grass!! Ha ha! This is definitely not Idaho!! We enjoyed it though.

Cooper only liked it for a few seconds!! He was so cold!

 Callen was so excited that he went out in his jammies. He kept coming to check on me though so he could get his hands warmed up!

 Cooper called it quits pretty fast and opted for some hot chocolate instead to warm up his hands.

 Pretty view from my front door. It was really just a dusting.

 Addie playing with her neighbor friend Payton.