Easter 2010

Decorating the eggs was quite the challenge this year.  Austin was having SO much fun that it made it difficult to keep him from spilling the dye all over.  Poor kids had a really quick egg decorating session this year, but they were troopers!

 

Easter morning was so much fun.  The easter bunny hid eggs both upstairs and downstairs.  Austin got a little trampoline since he’s quite the bouncy kid and some toy cars.  Emma got some Littlest Pet Shop toys and a dress and Tyson got some Lego sets and some clothes.  The big kids also got “Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeak-quel” and a Wii game for the Wii Fit.  Austin was so excited by his cars that he wouldn’t leave them to find eggs.  That was BEFORE he discovered there was “nandy” in the eggs. 

 

Austin did not want to leave the toys for a picture, so I’m standing behind Justin while he’s taking this picture and making goofy faces at the kids.  For the record…they were NOT laughing with me! 

We went to Jared and ShaRee’s for our Jones Family Easter egg hunt and luncheon.  Since it was snowy and COLD outside, the eggs were hid indoors.  The younger kids did their hunt in their basement.  They ran around like mad, searching all over.  Austin was so easily distracted by the cat and then by Kamree’s guitar that he didn’t care about hunting for eggs (again, this was before he discovered “nandy” inside of them). 

The bigger kids got to hunt upstairs and their hiding places were more difficult (see the Elk above).  They are maniacs and managed to find all their eggs within minutes (at least we hope they found them all).  The best hiding place was an orange egg placed in a bowl of oranges on the counter.  My nephew, Kasen, looked at that bowl for a minute before he realized there was an egg in there. 

Finally, with the hunt done, we attempted the annual Easter picture of all the grandkids.  So much fun to try to get them all to look at the same camera and smile at the same time.  Not really fun at all.  It’s so much chaos (mostly from the uncles trying to get the kids to look at them and smile), but it is entertaining!

Tyson’s Baptism

Tyson was baptized a few weeks ago.  We had a luncheon at our house after and had a great time with our families.    Later in the day, we went to Jared and ShaRee’s (Justin’s brother and sister-in-law) house for dinner and to see the horses and play. 

  

   

My nephew Gavin checking out the horses. 

  

My nephews Jack and Trent having fun on the trampoline. 

53 Mondays - Week Fourteen

Do yourselves a favor and make this meal. Your taste buds will thank you! If you do, let me know how it goes!

Goodbye March--see you next year...

Amazing Women-Part One

 

In my life, I have had the wonderful pleasure to be surrounded by some truly amazing women, family included.  I wanted to take some time to talk about the wonderful women of my neighborhood who have become extended family to me and have taught me, loved me, inspired me, and supported me.  I am consciously leaving family out of this…so no one get your feelings hurt!  : ) 

Cristen:  My first friend I met here.  We were going to the gym at the same time and have boys the same age.  Our friendship has grown and our support of each other increased last year as both of our husbands travelled out of state for work (hers has traveled weekly for years, mine’s just started last year).  There is a strong support and bond between us that I know she has my back and I hope she knows I have hers.  She understands my frustrations, my complaints, my successes about being a “single during the week” mom like no one else and I absolutely love her for it!  She has a genuine strength to her that is admirable.

Dawn:  Dawn was the primary president when we moved into the ward.  I was asked to help out in the primary and I didn’t know her yet.  She kept talking to me and I kept thinking, “This woman is SO happy and SO chipper! I need whatever it is that she has!” I got to spend time in the primary as the chorister over the next two years-ish and got to know Dawn.  Yes, she is chipper, but she is so genuine.  I secretly crave her approval and want to be around her because she just makes things better.  She recently wrote a blog entry about not having control over what happens in your life.  You can only control how you react to it.  I so needed to read that.  She mentioned that she was consciously making the choice to “Choose love” in her life.  What a great example to me-to choose love and happiness.  I swear…I want to be Dawn when I grow up.

Andrea-This wonderful, amazing, compassionate women lives down the street from me.  She truly is an angel in human form.  She has 5 kids, but would never turn down a request for help.  In fact, she sometimes turns me down when I tell her I don’t need help, but she knows I secretly do.  I can’t say enough about Andrea other than that I just love her and am so honored to know her and call her my friend!

Shelby-My green-thumbed neighbor.  I spend a lot of time talking to Shelby on the phone, usually in brief sentences that start with, “Claire(or Emma) wants to know if Emma (or Claire) can play.”  Since we have just one house between hours, that conversation happens a lot.  But I usually get to talk to her for a few minutes after we set up the playdate and get my Shelby-fix.  Shelby is just so energetic and darling that she always makes me feel better being around her and she makes me want to garden (which I did start this year after taking her gardening class).  She’s so creative.  Her house and yard seem to always have an upgrade going on that’s just fun to watch!

I’m wrapping up (for today only…there are so many others to mention), because my children are begging me for lunch.  Seriously, begging….I’m going to make them wait just a few minutes more! hehehe!

Janae-I have known who Janae was for a few years, but only recently started a friendship with her because our daughters, who are the same age, have become friends.  Janae is a pillar of strength to me.  Through all that life has thrown at her, she is such a positive person who I swear could be another sister.  She organizes her closets by shirt color…she’s like my twin.  Hmmm…I need to ask if she alphabetizes her movies and CDs too?  She understands my frustrations of fashionable shoes versus functional shoes too.  She inspires me to be a better person, to be a better mom.  To take time to “enjoy the journey,” because NO ONE (on earth, that is) knows how long our journey is. 

I’ll add more fabulous women in another post.  I’m so blessed and thankful to have these AMAZING women in my life daily.  See why I love it here? 

One more Birthday post

I'm so glad I found the rest of the pictures from Tyson's birthday party. They were on Justin's camera...not mine! I was feeling pretty bad that I had only 2 pictures. Still, given the three hours that they kids were together, we didn't get much!

That kind of a day…

 

So, I’m THAT kind of a mom today.    I woke up to more snow outside than should be around on an April day.  I opened my door to see my steps completely covered and breathed a sigh of relief that the kids were out of school so I didn’t feel too pressured to clear off the steps or the sidewalk yet.   As the snow level rose, my mood dropped.  Justin’s again working out of town during the week and spring break means kids inside driving me nuts while I’m working.    When the temperature didn’t rise, but the snow did, I realized I’d be outside shoveling the snow today while trying to get my work done. 

Not a happy morning for me.  Given the fact that I had surgery a week ago on one ankle and am crazy ungraceful and damaged the other ankle, I was frantically hoping for some mad sun to melt the snow.  Didn’t happen soon enough, but I figured I didn’t have anywhere to go until afternoon so the snow could stay. 

I was NOT motivated to work so I was pretty unproductive this morning. That, and Austin really wanted to play catch and who can tell this face no?  Not me!

Come afternoon, I realized I’d better get working hard if I didn’t want to be up all night typing.  Emma found some leftover chocolate coins in the fridge and I caved.  Austin saw them and again…I caved.  Momma needed to work.  This is the result: 

Good mom, I know, but I did manage to get 1-1/2 hours of work typed in one hour.  After that, I tried to earn some good mommy points and took my kids to McDonalds to eat dinner and play in the play area.  We don’t go often and they had energy to burn.  Plus, while they played, I managed to sneak in some reading of THIS: 

This wonderful book deserves its own post so I will do so later.

The final result of my chocolate/McDonalds-filled day is this:  It’s 8:30 and all three kids are in bed, sound asleep. I, however, am still finishing up the last half hour or so of typing then I’ll catch some Tivo’d Modern Family before bed. 

Some days I’m a wonderful mom.  Some days my kids just think I am!