Easter 2010

Soran and daddy. It was freezing.

Lyssa collecting candy

Cute Amber

Livi getting ready to run

This year the kids wound up going to three different egg hunts, which was better than I was expecting. I thought they'd have 4 or 5. Crazy! Anyway, our stake put on a spring extravaganza. Friday night was the "battle of the bulge" where the bishops played the stake leaders. We made a couple posters for my brother ("work that bulge" and "does your i-Phone have a basketball app?") since he's our bishop and he was playing. He did pretty well. The stake wound up winning. I decided that the stake president must have pulled them aside and said, "if any of you ever want to be released, we win." Ha ha.

Anyway, the next morning was the Easter egg hunt. Don't let the sunny weather fool you. It was freezing. It had snowed the night before. The primary leaders just threw candy out on the ground and let the kids go. I guess the plastic eggs are superfluous.

Easter morning we woke up to 2-3 inches of snow. Yeah. We are definitely moving somewhere warmer. We had a nice morning at Scott's parents' house watching conference, stuffing ourselves and letting the kids hunt for bonus eggs that held money. Then we came home, watched/napped through the afternoon session, had dinner with my family and another egg hunt. Then we went to bed sick from sugar overload.

I must add that the older I get the more I appreciate the meaning of Easter Sunday. I am so grateful to have a Savior who made it possible for me to renew both body and spirit. Easter comes at the right time of year when everything is brought to life again and the world feels new. I am so grateful for that knowledge and the impact it has on my life.

March Madness

Alien eyes

Christian's volcano

This month has been crazy! And not with basketball. Well, a little with basketball. Scott has been working about 70 hours a week lately (tax season) and then he has school on top of that. We rarely see him. But he did take Wednesdays off so I could go to YW. Camp has overrun my life. We had about 5 or 6 meetings this month along with all the other YW meetings I've been "invited to attend" (aka if you want to fulfill your calling you'll show up). I'm also in 3 book clubs again and heading up two of them so that's been busy. I started volunteering at the school also as it's almost the end of the year and I still have half my hours to get.

Alyssa has been enjoying piano, Activity Days and book club with mom. She's become my right hand as I have no husband around and I don't know what I'd do without her. Christian had basketball and soccer this month for a total of 4 games a week and a practice. Amber's getting really excited for her dance recital. I was worried when I started watching the practices, but the whole class has come a long way and it's going to be so cute. I've been taking Alivia to story time which she just loves. We take my nephew, Jacob, who always livens things up. She copies Amber a lot. Last night Amber was mad at me and said, I hate my mom. A couple minutes later Alivia whispers the same thing from her crib. It was funny. But I told Amber she doesn't get to say that anymore. I fill the rest of my time is cleaning up after Soran. She's hit the stage where she pulls everything out of the cupboards and opens all the bottles. She is pretty small still and I just love to squish her and kiss her cheeks.

My two older kids had a week off school this month because there was not enough money in the budget so the teachers took a voluntary unpaid leave. And of course they weren't going to work for free, so I got to have my kids home with me. Christian drove me crazy enough the first day that I had to come up with some stuff to do. So we decided to do some science experiments. We made a volcano, a chemical pie, playdough and went to a fun park with lots of things to try out (concave dishes you whisper into, a xylophone type instrument, different types of rocks, etc.). It was nice to have some time with them.

When tax season ends we are taking a break. Two more weeks!

I DO believe in fairies

All the pretty little fairies

Fairy Princess Amber

Mother of the fairy

Amber showing her friends how to use their best fairy etiquette.

I was at the library a few weeks ago and saw an advertisement for a Fairy Tea Party. I thought that sounded like a lot of fun for all my girls, but knew Amber would love it most. A couple days later I was trying to figure out what to do for her birthday. It took me awhile, but I finally put two and two together and we did a fairy birthday party. Everyone came over for dinner and birthday cake I decorated with pastel sugar sprinkles (fairy dust) and then we went over for the tea party. The ballroom was all decorated with lights and trees. We went to our table and the fairy king arrived to greet us and then some ballerinas danced. The girls got a lesson in etiquette--use your napkins and take small bites. They ate their fairy feast and then they got to go up on stage and pirouette and curtsy to the king. Amber got to go up and talk to him and he said he loved her freckles.

Overall, it was really cute and I think they had a good time. Although I think some of the ladies throwing it were a little too into the fairy thing (you wouldn't believe some of the costumes--and accents!). I think I'll take Livi once and we'll call it good.

Happy Birthday, Amber!

Amber holding the Easter bunny.

Craaaaazy hair!

3rd birthday. So cute!

Wha's up, bro?

Tomorrow is my Amber's 6th birthday. I can't believe it. Of all my children, I really feel that her life is the one slipping through my fingers. She was born in Bullhead at about 8:30 p.m. She came out with so much red hair--we were shocked. And she was such a calm baby. The nurses ran out of the room after she was born to take care of another delivery and left her under the lights naked and dirty for about 45 minutes. She just laid there and looked around. She hardly even cried.

She is such a joy to our family. She is my most social kid and loves to be with friends. She is probably also the most girly, although that may be tough to tell. She lived in her princess dressup clothes for a couple years. People actually mentioned that they wondered if she had any real clothes. I hope the next few years will slow down so I can enjoy them a little more. I love you, Bubba!

I get to go!

I got a call from the bishopric asking to meet with me so I went in and was totally shocked when they asked me to be the assistant Girls Camp director! I am so excited! Especially as Scott said he will support me (after commenting what choice did he have and I said he could choose to be grouchy or happy about it). This is good because he has a strong dislike for Girls Camp. When we got engaged I was the leader and wanted to postpone our wedding until afterwards. He didn't like that. So instead I took off 2 weeks after we got married and left him. He wasn't too happy about that either. But he said this time he's happy about it because he's going to take a week off work and play computer --with the kids of course. Anyway, it will be great.

Amber was student of the month for February. That was NOT such a big surprise as Grandma sent out an email at the beginning of the year listing what order her granddaughters would be the student of the month. But she was really excited and got a TON of free kids meal tickets.

Alivia is starting to talk so much. The other day she was trying to talk to me and Christian was talking to her at the same time and she turned around and said, "be quite, trying to talk to mom." It was so funny. Christian is my toothless goon right now. I went into his room in the dark and started taking pictures which is why his face is so weird.

Soran, on the other hand, finally got a tooth! Last week her first tooth came through. I hope the other one will come soon as she isn't sleeping very well.

Tomorrow is my last doctor appointment for my kidney! Yeah! Although I am grateful for feeling good every morning I wake up.

Pairs

Alyssa and Aunt Anna singing a duet (Kayla dancing)

Soran and Amanda

Since it's almost Valentines day, I thought a "couple" post was due. I need to get a picture of my valentine, but he is just never around these days. Last year I was home schooling my 13-year-old sister, which was a lot more work than I thought it would be. My hats off to all who can home school, especially more than one grade! I had a hard enough time keeping track of one. This year I am baby-sitting my adorable niece. She is actually supposed to be a month younger than Soran but was born 2 months early and so is a month older. She is so much fun. Soran and her get so excited when they see each other. But it definitely keeps my hands full.

As mentioned earlier, I have taken up running with my mom. My running shoes (if you can call them that) were 11 years old. Scott bought them for me the year we were married. So while we were in St. George I picked up a new pair. I can run faster, leap higher, and go for miles. Almost.
Hope everyone has a happy pair day!

Stuff

I HATED the first snowfall, but now that it's (hopefully) almost the end of winter I think it's kind of pretty. I love the white against the blue background.


I gave Alivia a mini candy bar for going to the potty before putting her down for a nap. I thought she would eat it before going to sleep. She didn't.

Today is Scott's birthday. He is 33. Strange. I remember my parents being this age and they were old but now it seems so young. We went to St. George for the weekend where he broke in (from a long winter of disuse) his golf clubs. We had a good time, although it wasn't quite the sunshine-soaking-up trip I was hoping it would be. It was kind of cold. So nice to have a day to ourselves. We talked the whole drive down without any interruptions. I love this man. In April we will have been together for 16 years. I don't know what life is like without him.

The kids get bigger every day. Amber lost both of her bottom teeth within a week. She keeps telling me how hard it is to eat now. She was also in the science fair last week and won a trophy (thanks to Grandma). Alivia is pretty much done potty training. She rarely has accidents anymore. So nice! And a small fortune saved in diapers. Christian continus to be addicted to all things electronic. Alyssa and I joined a mother-daughter book club at the library and went last week for the first time. It was a lot of fun. We read a book on Helen Keller. She was a fascinating woman. I just thought her life kind of ended after she learned how to sign in her hand, but she lived until she was 88 and accomplished some amazing things! A local man brought some of her letters and books she had written in (can you believe she could write?) and we got to hold them. It was neat. Alyssa also made me a cookie and a birdfeeder. I love that she loves to read. Soran started crawling last week and is all over! She has already learned how to get up the stairs. She is still the happiest baby on earth. She is constantly smiling.

My nephew Matt turned 8 a couple weeks ago and had a huge birthday party at a bounce place. The kids had a blast running around and jumping on everything. It's a good thing they don't weight much, though. I think the slides were half duct tape.

I continue to be amazed at how good I feel. We have been so blessed. I feel grateful to be able to take care of my kids and am grateful for every day that I am able to get up and have energy and go. My mom and I have been going running at 6 a.m. (who knew that time existed?) and I am slowly getting better. I am so out of shape!

So that's us in a page. Life is good. Hope it is so for all of you.