Hey, It Was Easter!!

Easter/Spring Break x 2 was a crazy, long fun filled two weeks of awesome! It began with the Blackwell's coming up to our house for their Spring Break where we did all kinds of fun activities (that I didn't get any pictures of?) including but not limited to; the zoo, build a bear, a jazz game, some good dinners and desserts of course and ...I can't remember what else right now...  Anyway, that was interrupted by just a few "normal" school days and then the kids and I headed down to St. George for Jack's Spring break and Easter!



The kids all got these sweet glasses in their baskets Easter morning along with plenty of treats and other fun little surprises... of which Soph took out and had me photograph one at a time.  The Bunny also brought some silly string...it was a hit and a war broke out almost immediately.

After having some colored eggs (that we colored outside, in the dark, the night before) we headed over to a big family shindig at the park! We had wheel-barrow races, played sharks and minnows and had a pinata that Garrett made so heavy he had to reinforce the whole thing with duct tape...yeah, it was a lot of candy. We wrapped it all up with some lunch and an egg hunt...cause we hadn't pumped the kids full of enough sugar apparently.  I think next year we will try to keep it under 5 candy based activities.
Needless to say it was a good, action packed 2 1/2 weeks.

Oh I almost forgot the best part, before starting our game of Sharks and Minnows Billy jokingly said "shirts and skins, take off your shirts!" To which Sophie obliged and stripped down. It was pretty funny. (there is a small picture of it above, good stuff)
                                                                                         March 31, 2013

My Buddy

 

This is my buddy Claire.  She is one of my favorite little girls ever! I think I can speak for both of us when I say that this living far apart business is for the BIRDS!  I miss seeing this girl and her crazy antics on a daily basis.  She is such a cute and sweet little stinker and I think I am going to take her mom up on the offer to keep her with me for a week or two. Her mom offers regularly but I am pretty sure she would change her mind before really letting her go, I think Claire's cuteness is all the sanity her  mom gets sometimes;) To say I miss her is an understatement.  And I think she feels the same way, here is a little story for proof, incase you needed any;
I flew into Cedar on my way to St. George a while back and Billy picked me up on his way home from work for the weekend.  We meet Jay and the kids at a restaurant for dinner.  When Bill and I walked in together Claire was so excited to see us both and you could see the struggle of who to reach for first, after going back and forth for a minute...I won!!! She reached for me! I didn't want to rub it in too much but she totally picked me first!! I love you too Claire.
                     
                                                                                     March 15, 2013

Little Smarty Pants

Jackson received a "Principal's Award" for scoring really well on a Math pre-test. The school held a small, short ceremony one morning for the Principal to give him the award.  We were so proud of him, he sometimes (always) has a hard time focusing and finishing work on time so for him to finish and excel on a pre-test was pretty impressive! He was proud, we were proud, it was cute and Soph loves going to his school for ANY reason.


I love when they actually cooperate and take pictures together.

Soph and I found a little doughnut shop and picked out some over the top doughnuts to congratulate him. I had to work that night so Codee let them go to town on them!

                                                                                        April 11, 2013

Almost One Year Later, And Now He Is 8!

So it has been just short of one whole year since I last blogged anything... and I have no excuses.  I just stopped.  But lately I have been taking pictures again with the intent of actually doing something with them.  I hate going out of order, since I obviously have many pictures that would chronologically make much more sense here, but I think this is the only way I will ever actually bite the bullet and jump back into this... so here we go, wish me luck.

The most recent event in our house was Jackson's Birthday! He turned 8 on Friday and was baptized on Sat. May 4th. It was such a great weekend!  The Blackwell's and Kim, Dee, Kenny and Leah came up for it.  We went to Gardner Village via Trax (as per Jackson's request, he didn't care where we went just how we got there) and later that night we went bowling and had Subway for dinner...bowling, subway and Trax...really? sure kid, whatever you say. He loved it.



We woke up early Sat. morning for his baptism, it went off without a hitch it was just the right amount of spiritual and speed mixed together;) Codee baptized Jackson, Dee confirmed him and Codee bore his testimony because I didn't want to get up in front of everybody and I even got everyone to hang out afterward for a minute for some pictures!  

After the baptism we went up to Bruge's for waffles then to Deseret Book to pick out some scriptures for Jackson.  The kids played in the fountains at City Creek for a bit then we came home for naps...Claire, Sophie, Codee, Billy AND Jamie!
It is a full house anytime we have company but we LOVE it, it is pretty much what we live for right now.  We would trade our peace and quite for the chaos of company anytime!

Oh, I just remembered something else! Two Sundays ago Jackson was assigned the talk in primary, up until this point we have avoided this somehow, so I prepared a little talk for him and assumed he would want me to stand up there with him for a little support but to my surprise just before sharing time he said he would do it on his own...he didn't get that confidence from me!  I'm so glad he has it though, I was so proud of him for standing up there by himself and reading the words that I had wrote for him. He did such and amazing job, the room was quite (not usually the case in our current ward) while everyone listened and I felt like clapping when he finished.
         
                                                                                            May 3 & 4, 2013

Once Upon A Time...

Do you by any chance remember that "suh-pise" I told you about?
The make-up case that Sophia loves dearly?
Well...


 

 

She stills loves it.
Sometimes she can even talk Chloe into loving it with her:)
On this day she was flying solo and you may have noticed, she went TO TOWN with it!
She had so much glitter on herself that there was literally a trail of it floating off of her everywhere she ran outside, and when she jumped on the trampoline it poofed off of her in big glitter clouds and floated across the backyard.
It was hilarious...to me and Jackson anyway, Codee on the other hand, went inside and took a shower. He doesn't love the glitter so much.
We are still shaking the glitter off our clothes in the closet (where she created her masterpiece:)

*She is 2 and a half,
we tricked Jay & her kids into celebrating it with us this year.
*We are "working" on potty training,
wish us luck.
*She is either a super funny sweetheart
or a scratching Miss Bossy Pants.

Either way...watch out for this one world.

and a partridge in a pear tree???

 

 

 

 

 

50 something airplanes
20 cans of soda
12 crazy boys
3 large pizzas
1 ice cream cake

...and a partridge in a pear tree?

I think our first "friend Party" went pretty well.

Cow Folk

Last weekend we went to Lund to help Grandma Brown and Papa Chuck do some work on the boys school at the Ranch.
Before heading out Papa saddled up Babe for us to give the kids a ride.
Soph had been talking about this all week and when we pulled up to the corrals she threw her hands in the air and said "Ride a horsey!!"

....

 But then it was her turn...she was a little less ready for the actual getting on now...

 

But as soon as Papa turned Babe around she found her excitement again they even went into a little trot:)
and she rode again with Daddy
and again with Mama.



Then there was this natural born Cowboy who needed little instruction (and a really great horse) before he got the hang of it and took hold of the reigns himself.
He went with Papa first, then by himself, then with Kenny and then by himself again...and wasn't ready to get off even after taking her around quite a few times.
We walked her, lead her in, around, out of the corral and even got her to a trot a few times on his own (we aren't sure but the first time that happened might have been by mistake:)

Codee kept telling me how proud he was of Jackson all weekend, he worked behind a shovel right alongside all the other "mans" all day Saturday.
My kids are troopers in the car and I couldn't be more grateful for that on weekends like this one.
Soph even slept great both nights on those terrible tiny mattresses snuggled up next to me and Jackson of course slept with Ga. It was a hard workin' weekend but we were glad to do it and glad it went so smoothly.
We loved seeing the kids on Babe...we might even make the trip back again sooner than later.