The Birthday Week

 I had another wonderful birthday this year. I turned 37, Amy 39. As usual, we had a lot of fun going on our sister birthday breakfast together. Being a little older isn't all bad. You know how to do more things. For example, edit pictures to make yourself  look younger!

We annoyingly struck the exact same "spontaneous" pose. (yes we also have the same jeans).

Anticipation...

Here's to another happy year and some really yummy juice.

A little later in the day... (Campbell and Sadie have swimming lessons together this year)

Birthday dinner with the family that night :)

Eating outside in a less controlled atmosphere suits 4 lively kids, but also puts you and your food at risk from the trees above. As we soon found out.

The next night I had my birthday girls night out with friends. Sadly, the server couldn't get my camera to take a picture. I thought she was doing something wrong until I tried it and realized my camera was the problem :( A sad (and probably expensive) discovery. But it was a fun night out to "Oreganos", one of my favorite restaurants, with some super girls :)   

Also, we took a family bike ride the day before my birthday.

I played on "Picnik" before it closed this week :(  (tree in our front yard)

Dana surprised me with a mini-getaway last night.

And a movie I was excited to see. Oh yes, I enjoyed it :) It had all you could want in a good romance: A really GOOD, handsome guy to come rescue the girl, a kissing in the falling water scene (rain, etc), a happy dancing scene, external forces trying to keep them apart, but love conquering in the end. This one also has some really beautiful shots of nature and some cute kid and dog scenes. Really, how can you go wrong?

Oh also I have been enjoying my present from my mom for the past couple months:

Our other shower has gotten REALLY lonely.

Sadie's Bake Sale

After 8 years of preschool I thought I had pretty much seen all the cuteness it had to offer. But Sadie's preschool teacher this year has so many great ideas. She has really been so much fun and Sadie loves going so much. One thing she does, is each year she helps the kids put on their own bake sale. They make the dough as a class (measuring and following a recipe), and then she gets to spend all night baking.

Sadie was beside herself with excitement. Everything was a quarter and the kids were in charge of telling their customers how many quarters to pay. Then they put the money in a play cash register and the goodies in a bag they decorated.

Ms. Tiffany also told them to invite any extended family that lives around here. So Sadie had to invite Mamie and Campbell. Amy even had to take Campbell out of her preschool early so it was so sweet that they made the extra effort to come. Sadie was SOOO excited to see them :)

Oh and when anyone walked in, all the kids chorused, "Welcome to our bake sale!"

I can't believe we're done with preschool in a month- forever!

A Win-Win

Sadie LOVES making Scout do tricks.
Somehow he figures out what to do even though her words don't sound quite the same as they do with the other kids. Especially "dake". (my fave)

Scout LOVES food. You can bet he performs quite willingly. Even "roll over".

It's very cute.
I'm really enjoying my mornings with Sadie :)

Spring Training

If we have the chance on a Saturday morning we like to go to the high school and let the kids run the track. Until now we've always timed them on one lap. Well with Emma starting Jr. High next year, and thinking about doing cross country, we decided to have them run a mile.
And they're off!

Dana ran with them and paced them so they could do the whole thing.
Sadie ran one lap then played on the bleachers. Dana was mainly running with Emma and Eli who both did it. Holly kinda ran ahead of them- skipping half the time and ended up beating them. It was kinda funny.

Well, to me.

Eli wanted to run more when they were done and did a second mile!
This Saturday's supposed to be rainy but we want to go back as soon as we can and try for a 10 minute mile. Dana's hoping to have a least one running buddy in the future. He gets a glimmer in his eye whenever he thinks about it.

*update: The rain basically missed us and Dana took the 3 older kids back that Sat. They got about 10 min, 20 sec, so now they have a goal to shoot for.

Vinegar

We had Emma on her own video first but I put that picture of her on my last post which pretty much covers her reaction.

Oh and they did give some to Scout. He didn't seem as affected by it as we did. Or maybe it's just because dogs don't do the crazy facial expressions :)

Easter 2012

Hi! How are you? Long time no blog. A few things have been the cause (for me at least- I don't know what your excuses are).

1. I don't have the photo editing program I'm used to since we got our new computer.

2. I've been waiting for inspiration.

3. I left my camera battery charger in Ca. so I haven't been taking as many pictures.

But regardless, life has been moving on and in great ways, so I'm here to update :)

SO after several bags of Mini-Eggs and gaining what I like to call "the Easter 5" (I still have 1 bag hidden. Shhh! Don't tell Dana), Easter finally came.

Friday we colored and decorated our eggs.

As usual, my highly artistically under-valued husband, made the coolest eggs.
After we were done, Eli got the idea of tasting just a little sip of vinegar. Of course all the kids had to try, then Dana followed. Then they all started chanting "Mom! Mom! Mom!" until I gave into peer pressure. Anyway, it was pretty funny and I'm going to put a video on here soon.
Saturday we had our cousin egg hunt. We lined up the kids and missed having the new grandkid who's supposed to be in the very front. Well we just miss him period but this will have to do... they sure are growing up fast...
We had 53 hard-boiled eggs and lots of plastic ones so there were plenty for everyone. Eli found the "golden egg"- or one of them. We never really figured out if it was or wasn't, but he was pretty excited.
Sitting down to enjoy their spoils.

Here's the proof that the kids are getting so big. Ahh look my baby Holly- so cute!

Easter 2005
Easter Sunday turned out to be a little different in the morning. Sadie woke up with a really bad stiff-neck that hurt to even walk around so Dana took the kids to Sacrament while I stayed home, and then we switched so I could go to Primary. So I didn't get any pictures of Easter dresses this year.

Easter dinner was extra fun though because my cousin Kristy and Jeremy and their kids were able to join us.


We stuck the kids out back- which they prefer anyway.
Their girls fit right in and they all had a great time running around and playing. Good thing they'll be adding a boy soon- we need a few more of those.
Hoppy Easter!