Tax Tea Day

It was a little cold. But I am so glad we went! It is so important to me that we show our kids that we get involved and take action....not just complain.

Remember everyone to vote NO on 1A!

Pinnacles!

We went to the Pinnacles this week while the kids were out of school for Spring Break. It was a lot of fun. We love going new places with the kids and showing them new things and things they have never seen before.

There were so many wild spring flowers and the weather was perfect. Grant was scared of going into the caves at first but then did alright once we got started. I was so impressed with how well Mitchell and Paige hiked! They never complained at all. It was a great day and can't wait to go there again (next time I will bring more snacks to munch on while hiking).

Easter

Saturday

The kids had a blast doing their Easter eggs on Saturday.

Happy Easter!

Fun Blog

I love this new blog I just found. Check it out!
http://www.9thwardcartoons.com/

My YW

I Love 'em!

Thanks Mimi

Mimi (my mom) took Harry out on a "date" the other day. She took him out for ice cream and bought him this little water sprinker. The kids have having a blast with it. This is holding them over until it gets warm enough to swim.

No Sweeter Words

Very few words are sweeter for a mom to hear than when one of your kids says, "Can you turn the TV down! I am trying to read here!"

Update on Us!

I try really hard to teach my kids to say "no thanks", or "no thank you" when they are first learning how to talk. I just hate it when I hear a kid screaming NOOO at their parents. So I try to make sure I always say no thanks/no thank you to my kids when I want them to stop doing something or I don't want something they are offering me.

Grant has started to say it now which is fun. Whenever I give him something he doesn't want he says, "No cue, no cue" over and over. It is pretty cute.

He is also really into playing with Paige's baby doll. He wants to dress it and change it's diaper and put it to sleep. I am loving it cause I haven't been able to play "girl" stuff in years.

Paige is getting so tall! She is up to Mimi's shoulders already. She is back to sewing which makes me happy. She is going to start swim team soon and she is really excited about that.

We moved Mitchell to his own room last week. He is very excited about this. I have been pleasantly surprised at how clean he is keeping his room. He is my little organizer when he wants to be.

Our computer has been "broken" a lot lately. (Wink...wink) I know this is a cop-out with having to stand up to Harry and his obsession with the computer lately, but it is so much easier for me to tell him that the computer is not working and he needs to find something else to do. He takes this news just fine and runs off and plays. I really need to find a pre-school for him next year, cause he is bored being home with Grant and me all day.

Fun in the Sun

Why do kids love water so much? I swear these two could play with a hose for hours on end!

Nothing much going on.

So, I don't really have anything to report. We have just been having fun in the sun the last few days. Matt put our trampoline up so kids have been having fun rediscovering that.

Grant is talking more and more so that is fun. He now calls Mitchell: Chichell, and calls Harry: Ha-we some times and other times just we-we. It makes us all chuckle.

Matt spoke at a fireside last night and did a great job. I am very proud of him! He is quite the teacher nowadays!

Landscape Pro

The front of our house has been driving me crazy. On Saturday I decided to take advantage of the warm and sunny weather and went to town on it. It was just a bunch of dead/half-dead plants, weeds, and dirt.

So I replanted a few bushes, pulled a million weeds, laid down that black paper stuff, bought a bunch of new plants and flowers, and planted them all.

Matt went at lunch time today and bought some bark for me. I just finish putting the bark in. I know it's just a small area but I am pretty proud of myself.

Mess Maker

This photo says it all.

7 more weeks

7 more weeks until Mitchell turns 8! I can't believe I am going to have another child get baptized!
Mitchell wants to have Paige sing at his baptism and so I found a really cool song for her to sing. (The primary is going to learn a simplified version of it in 2010) It is new and kind of hard so Paige is starting to learn it now. I downloaded it to her MP3 player so that she can listen to it.
In our family when you turn 8 you get a set of new scriptures and a suit (or dress). I am happy that Mitchell is excited to get both of these...I was worried he might need some convincing but he didn't. I need to order the scriptures now because there is no where around here to buy them.
It is so fun to see our family grow and change!

lip sync!

The other night we had a skit night with the YW and YM. One of my Laurels (Ally Bj) and I did a lip-sync with me. It was pretty funny! Ally tends to be on the shy side so I was excited that she agreed to do it with me.

Thanks Ally it was fun!

Popcorn popping!

Half of me loves this time of year when all the trees are blossoming. When you live in here in CA and there are orchards all around it's so pretty! But the other half (the nose/ears/eyes/throat half) hates it. My allergies have come out in full force!
I guess it's a trade off.

Happy Birthday Matt!

So yesterday was Matt's birthday. Poor neglected Matt. On that day I also had a HUGE fundraiser for my youth at church. He came home from work early so I could go to the church and start setting up. I didn't get home until about 9:30 that night. Matt was so sweet and understanding about it.
His parents came over though that night and did a great job at helping him celebrate his birthday. (Thanks guys!)
Happy Birthday MATT!!!! I love you!

Poor Paige!

So, just this morning I was thinking about how I needed to write a post about how much Paige loves her sewing machine. She spends HOURS on it every day just making things/outfits up. She makes little blankets and a lot of doll clothes. Almost every night I have to yell at her to turn off the sewing machine and go to bed.
Well tonight Matt was putting the kids to bed and I ran to Wal-mart to buy a few things. When I walked in the door Paige was crying hysterically. Apparently she wasn't paying attention and put the needle right through her finger nail. :(
She started screaming but Matt thought she was just yelling at Grant for bothering her. After a minute he went to check on her and she was totally freaked out. He had to unscrew the needle from the machine to get her finger and the needle out. Then she didn't want him to pull the needle out of her finger.... she finally calmed down and did it herself.
After I got home and they told me what had just happened I held her and she cried and cried. She wasn't crying cause it hurt, but because she was so scared and freaked out about the whole thing. It really shook her up. I finally got her to calm down and to lay down with her MP3 player.
She said she wants a break from her sewing machine and doesn't want to use it for awhile. I really hope this doesn't scar her from sewing for ever. We agreed that maybe she shouldn't sew at night anymore and that I should be with her to keep an eye on her.
Poor, poor Paige!

So Excited!!!

Paige has been begging me for years to plant a garden. Although we helped my Dad with many gardens growing up I really knew nothing about planting one....so I have been putting it off. I figured now was a good year to jump in and do it because of our new house has an unfinished backyard so we could put it anywhere we wanted. I have been picking many brains the last few weeks and I really appreciated everyone helping me! (Janell, Travis, Dad)

My friend Janell taught me how to make a wormery and so the kids helped me get started with that. (Did I do it right Janell?)

My dad came over today and helped Paige and I get started on our garden. Harry and Mitchell had fun playing in the dirt. We got everything ready to go! Now we just need to plant!

Thanks Dad for the help!!

Yellow Hutch

Growing up we always had a yellow hutch in our kitchen. It is a fixture in my memories as a kid. So when my parents moved back to live by us a few years ago and didn't want it anymore I snatched it up as fast as I could. For awhile I didn't have any room for it so I stored it in Grant's closet. But since moving to our new house I have redone it and used it to put all my china in it.

Here is a photo of the old hutch. It has blue painters tape on it because I was preparing it to be painted. And here is a photo of it now: What do you think Travis and Hill?

Take OFF!

Tony bought Harry a rocket for his birthday not realizing that it took some time to put together. So Tony took it home and built it for him. Today he took Harry out to go launch it (and the rest of us went along for fun). It was a little cold but so much fun for everyone.






My kids are so lucky to have such a cool Uncle Tony and Aunt Traci!! Thanks guys!

scrapbooking

Harry Turns 4!

We have had such a great time the last few days. We went to the beach for a short vacation this weekend. It rained like crazy Friday night so we all piled in Papa and Mimi's trailer to watch a movie and to sleep. Saturday was Harry's birthday and we spent the day at the beach (it cleared up thankfully!). Harry loved his new gifts especially his airplane and dog. Thanks Mom, Dad, Tony and Traci for the gifts and for driving all the way out there to be with us!

Pat Down

Grant has the habit of shoving stuff down his shirt when he wants to keep something. It's not a bad idea to hide things when you consider he has 3 older siblings who often want what he has. It is not a good idea however when we are leaving McDonald's and he decides he wants to keep his hamburger. A mashed up hamburger all over his chest is not fun to clean up.

This morning when I took off his jammies I found a toy train, a hot wheel and a small action figure inside them. Can you imagine sleeping on those things all night? He slept for 11 hours without a fuss, so he must not have been too uncomfortable.

This is the second morning that has happened. I think we are going to have to frisk him tonight when he goes to sleep.

Grant

Fun Hairdo's

Paige's hair is starting to grow out long again. She really wants it to grow out so she can donate it again. I think we are going to both donate our hair in a few months. But Paige is really bad about keeping her hair out of her face (and out of her food). So I have been trying to learn new, fun ways of doing it. There are a lot of blogs out there teaching you how to do fun new hair styles and so I have been trying some of them.

Here is the one I did tonight for her birthday! One side was higher than the other side, but it was the first time I tried it. Next time I think it will be easier.

Paige Turns Ten!!

Paige had a great birthday today! Matt surprised her and picked her up from school at lunch time. He told her they could go anywhere she wanted for lunch and she chose Sizzler's. She loves the salad bar and the fact that you have so many things to chose from. She was very surprised to have that special treat from dad.

Then after school we went to the library and got some book on gardening. Paige has been begging for a garden for a long time and so this year I am going to try to make that happen for her.

I told her she can have anything she wants for dinner and she pick Tuna Noodle Casserole???? Sounded good to me.....nice and easy!

Then tonight all the family (Papa, Mimi, Tony, Traci, Papa Paul, and Megan) came over for cake and ice cream and presents. She was very excited with all the gifts. Thanks everyone for them and for helping to make her birthday special.

I can't believe she is ten! It makes me feel so old.

I am so proud of her and the young lady she is turning into. I couldn't have been blessed with a better daughter.