Turning another year older...

Another year older and wiser too?

Woke up to breakfast in bed from my kids :)

(they were almost late for school! sweethearts!) 

heh heh... I tried to eat some of it kiddos...

it was slightly crunchy! LOL

add the butterless toast and wowza! I am spoiled let me tell ya! hee hee

Jes left a card on my pillow.

I ran to the temple with my friend Suzie and we did initiatories and had lunch at one of my favorite's - Kneaders.

Jes took care of dinner for me.

It was a great day!

Ok sweetheart of mine!

Time for you to get older too!

LOL

My Littlest Man is 6!!!

My littlest man had a birthday today!! 

He is a little excited! LOL

He wanted Mac-n-Cheese for dinner.

We opened a few small gifts

(his other gifts were saved for his party on Saturday with his Grandma's) 

He made himself this "birthday vest"

*giggle* he is SO cute!

We took him to Cold Stone for his birthday treat... he got chocolate with sprinkles and grinned from ear to ear when the workers behind the counter burst into song just for him! 

He wore is hat from school all day!

He even slept in it that night!!

It's so fun to be 6!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Cub!!

They are heading home now...

On their last day here... this is what our family visiting from WA woke up to! LOL

It blew and howled all night and Sunday morning Jes had to shovel 2-3" off the drive way! LOL Our poor chickens were in a snow cave!  

Thanks Brent and Nicole (and kids) for opting to spend such a large portion of your vacation with us!!

We LOVED having you and have many wonderful memories to cherish for a long time to come! :) 

Love me my big brother!

(and his little doll Jesse! *wink*)

Have a blast as you head off to California for your first family visit to Disneyland!!

LOVE YOU!!

Happy Birthday Party!

Friday, April 1st - we celebrated Caleb's & Jesselynn's birthdays together!

We invited the whole family to come down for dinner, cake and games, but because of the stomach flu making it's rounds through our house G'Ma & Papa came for dinner and left, and Jenny came for games. 

Can't you tell they are related! :) So cute... 

The kids shopped for some gifts at the Dollar Store, and all in all we had a good little party!

Emmalee ended up being sick all day long. Sweet Britt spent the entire day tending to her, watching movies with her out in the camp trailer. She was so kind to Emma! By evening Emma felt better.
Although...

Jestin and I quickly both disappeared upstairs after dinner... we both didn't feel well and then were terribly ill all night long and most of the next day as well.

We struggled to be "alive" for General Conference sessions, but slept most of the evening.

Jes was bummed - he was invited to attend the Priesthood session with all the men of our family at the Conference Center... but he could barely move. He slept from 4 pm until 9:30pm! Nicole was awesome! She made homemade chicken noodle soup for us and took care of all 8 kids... it was wonderful!

(THANK YOU Nic!)

Jes and I got up about 9:30, like I said, and finally, after a week of trying to get to it (haha) we finally got to play Settlers of Catan. *grin* Brent and Nicole loved it.

ha ha! We have another couple addicted to it! bwahahaha!

Park Day

On thursday (March 31st) it got nice and toasty... so we hit the pavement!

We walked along our walking trail along the river and went to the park to play!

The kids played tag...

Caleb & Kate

Posed for photos

Britt & Emmalee

Cameron & Jesselynn

Loved the slides!!

Jenny & Cody

Morgan



Push me Mommy!!

Nicole & Sophie

Awe!! My baby girl is so cute! She loves the park!

This baby girl does too! *grin*

What a cute boy!

We were so glad to have a day to play with Aunt Jenny!

And Cody proves to be a great frisbee player! :)

It was a wonderful afternoon! We all got a little sun kissed because we forgot about the need for sunscreen!! Yea for natural Vitamin D!! wahoo!!

Nintendo DS's & Downtime

Each day the kids were given some quiet time to relax, be "alone" in their own little world and play their games. 

All the older kids had their own DS, and we had a couple copies of Animal Crossing... so even though they were having "alone" zone-out time... often they would play together on their own systems the same game.

(Apprearantly they can play in the same 'world' at the same time with this game?) 

I don't love the DS's, but I must admit, in a houseful of 8 kids for 9 days... it really helped break up the "togetherness" and keep things fresh!

And it was quiet for a half hour or so...

I loved it!

Baptisms for the Dead

 

On thursday evening, we took Emma, Morgan and Britt to the Mt. Timp Temple and they were able to perform baptisms for my friend Nicole's ancestors.

We weren't too excited to learn that they have changed how they do things at the temple in the baptistry, and no longer take appointments. Once we got there, it was a just shy 2 hour wait!!

Sadly, Jestin and I did not get to participate, as we felt the younger kids that were left home could not stay there that long alone. We were glad that Brent and Nicole got to attend with them and that they brought such a great spirit home with them :) It was fantastic!

Crafting Fun!

We had the kitchen table covered more than once deep in crafting items... the kids and the mom's had a blast! :) 

Hair bows :) 

Abstract Art by Jesselynn 

Can you find my Cub in all that crafty stuff? 

More hair bows 

And a Spring wreath for my front door! *grin* 

Morgan made this darling little Mickey out of pom poms and pipe cleaners! So cute!

We crafted in between tending kids with tummy flu. It was slow moving... and we were blessed to have one kid at a time sick! LOL (yea)

We made due as we could... and kept on playing and enjoying each other with lots of hand washing and clorox wiping....

Chalk Art

On the days that it was dry while we had family here... the kids could often be found outside playing! One of the favorites was sidewalk chalk!

(thank you Dollar Tree! LOL)

LOVE the view from my bedroom window! :)