"Christ the Lord is risen today"

So we had a nice Easter this year. The kids didn't get up crazy early...yea!! They enjoyed their baskets...yea!!! I asked Rob to take pictures while I was working on the meal since everyone was headed to our house for dinner that evening. The kids didn't enjoy this...boo!! So the pictures were a pain and took awhile. Tanner heading to the tot-lot where they had an egg hunt after they were done hunting in the backyard. Cooper had the camera and caught this photo.
Here is Cooper's self portrait he took while he was suppose to have been snapping pictures of the egg hunt since I was cleaning the kitchen mess up. Ummmm.....not a lot of the egg hunt just of Cooper, his bike, a lizard, the ground, blurry objects......you get the idea.Walker and Carter were happy to pose for me.Kennedy always has a pose ready for the camera!!We had a wonderful Ham dinner with ALL the trimmings. Lots of desserts too. One of the desserts my Mom had brought sugar cookies, sprinkles and frosting from the bakery at Walmart so the kids could decorate cookies. Sadly we forgot to pull these out until after Amy and her family had left so not all of the kids got to enjoy it. I love this picture cuz if you look carefully you can see that while both 16 year olds were participating in cookie decorating they were also texting on their phones....talented I tell ya!!!I had wanted to get a picture of Tanner and Haylee but Miss Lynzee was being ornery and kept putting her hand in the way so this is the best one. Well Lynzee also got frosting on her Aunt Jessie......yes on purpose..... and when she wasn't paying attention Jessie got her back and a frosting war ensued!!! Silly girls!!It was nice to have family around to celebrate our Savior.

Have You Ever????

So one afternoon I was in the office downstairs and I heard some children talking. As I listened I realized Kennedy was having a one way conversation.....then I realized no wait someone is talking back to her and it wasn't Walker....
So I go upstairs quietly with my camera cause I thought she was playing lil ponies and maybe had mastered some really great fake voice for them......but I found she had opened her window and was talking to the two little girls next door!! While it was a cute conversation on playing in backyards and what are you eating for lunch and my sister can't talk anymore she has to get in the shower, Rob drilled a screw in the windowsill when he got home for fear of her falling out the window. Kennedy cried. Oh well it was fun while it lasted. If you look carefully you can see the neighbor girl pressed in her screen. hahahahahaha What is funnier/kinda sad a few days later I was in the office and my window was open and I heard the little girl calling "Hey lil girl are you there lil girl,lil girl". So she enjoyed it as much as Kenna did.

Honor Roll Awards and The Music Man....

So as usual Cooper received Honor Roll again. Here he is sitting with his classmates waiting to be called up to the front to receive his award.Here he is shaking hands with the Principal Mr. Heath and you can kinda see his fabulous teacher Mrs. Knight at the podium.
Here is everyone in the class that received awards that day. He also had his first orchestra recital. The participation in it was voluntary as they had done their concert the week before.My camera was acting up so I didn't get great pictures at all. Him and his friend choose to do a duet with their trumpets. Here he is sitting waiting his turn.Here he is waiting for his friend to get up and to start. Then my camera didn't flash quick enough and the song was over and he was sitting down. He did a great job. The teacher said she is pleased with his trumpet skills and if he practiced more often he would be a great trumpet player. We are so proud of him for doing this duet it is completely out of his normal comfort zone! Way to go Cooper!!!

1000 years of Scouting.....Blue and Gold Banquet

So every February Cub Scouts hold their annual Blue and Gold Banquet to celebrate the Scouting program and honor the boys and their leaders.
This year the Boy Scouts of America celebrated it's 100th birthday while the Cub Scout program celebrates it's 80th birthday. Here are Carters very dedicated leaders: Brother Marken and Brother Evangelesta. They are always dependable on having a fun activity and also teaching the boys a thing or two. They are displaying the posters from when they taught the boys about astronomy. Rob and I appreciate all the patience they have for Carter.Time to eat! The thought behind the food this year was "Food Boys Like". So they had hot dogs & Nachos. It was great. A lot of Cub Packs do an annual Father and Son cake contest and then the cakes are the dessert. So Carter picked out the cake flavor he wanted which was white and then they swirled in blue and yellow into the batter to make it a marble cake with the Cub Scout colors..Blue and Gold. Then I made them some frosting and colored it for them and they frosted it.
Carter decided on what he wanted it to look like which was simply Happy Birthday with polka dots.
These are a few of the other cakes.
Then Carters Den did a skit...didn't quite hear and understand it but they had fun. Then it was award time!! YEA!! Go Carter!!
The O.A.(Order of the Arrow) came out and did a super job of awarding one boy his Arrow of Light award.
Here is how Tanner enjoyed most of the night....ummmmmm....ya still not really enthusiastic about scouting!

On Your Mark.......Get Ready.......GOOOOOOOOO!!

So this was Carter's first Pinewood Derby and he was soooo very excited!!!
So we followed the path to the pit stop and registered his car and you could make any necessary repairs there too.
Then it was off to the photo ops.....
as you can see Carter enjoys his picture being taken!
Here is the track.........
Here are his competitors........
Here are the trophies that our Cub Committee Chair made for the boys....super cute and creative I think.
Here is Carter with his pit pass on and his trophy and car......he didn't place in the finals but who cares it was fun for him!!

This is the whole group of boys.
Of course I had to get Walker and Kenna's picture!!

Hangin' Out With You Is My Favorite Thing To Do......

I hadn't been feeling good for a few days and on the first day Walker and Kenna pretty much played quietly outside my bedroom door in the hallway being good to each other and being good helpers for me until Rob got home at about 9-10 am. On the secound day same thing. So on the third day when I awoke at 9:30 instead of them waking me and I noticed it was quiet and remebered Rob wouldnt be home till like noon I went downstairs and they had turned on PBS and got my electric blankie and were just being soo good and they hadnt even made a big mess. I am one lucky Mom.

Lamb of God.......Primary Activity Day

This year our theme for Primary is:

I Know My Savior Lives

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth” ( Job 19:25)

So traditionally our first activity of the year is to meet your new teacher and to introduce the theme to the children. We showed them the bulletin board that monthly we would be moving a pair of feet around from one location to the next to chronicle the life of Christ.

Then they watched a sweet slide show with pictures of Christ set to the new song for this year which is "I Know That My Savior Loves Me".

Then the children rotated to their class to meet their new teachers.

Or to the treat station where they could decorate some heart shaped cookies. They were heart shaped to remind them of the love the Savior has for them. Our Primary President spent forever cutting and baking cookies with her husband the night before...way to go Carrie!!

The other rotation was the craft location where they made a lamb craft to remind them that they are the sheep and the Lord is the Shepard. I spent for ever painting 100 plates black,cutting 100 pipe cleaners for the mouth, going to a couple of stores for enough pink pom-poms for the nose and punching 200 ears for the lambs....at about the 100 mark I thought about maybe making the lambs be special and have only one ear each but I didn't want any of the children to be traumatized so when that part was finally done my hand was all deformed and cramped up for awhile!! The poem that we put on the back of the lamb said:
"Jesus is my Shepard, His little lamb am I.
He knows me by name;I know that he's close by.
I'll follow him in faith. And to prove my loyalty,
I'll obey all His commandments, for I know that He loves me."
The kids had a fun time and it turned out great.

Rocking around the Christmas tree, let the Christmas spirit ring......

This year I was a little stressed about how we were gonna make it a good Christmas for our children because since we are self employed in the construction trade our income has dropped drastically. We stressed to the children that this would be the leanest Christmas ever and I worried that they didn't fully understand that and would be disappointed on Christmas morning....BUT this was a wonderful Christmas!! They received the main thing they had asked for and a few other things.

Cooper got up at the crack of dawn as usual and we kept telling him to go back to bed until one of the babies awoke. Well finally at 6 a.m. we let him go wake them up. They were not to sure about the whole thing at first!

Cooper had been having behavior issues for awhile leading up to Christmas so Rob had told him Santa wouldn't be coming to see him because he was on the "Naughty" List. So he never made a Christmas list since he was only getting presents from us but he was still happy with the few things he got.

Cooper loves sports so he got a new Phoenix Suns Jersey. He also collects the Guinness World Record year books. He is all about facts and information so he was thrilled to get the 2010 edition!

Walker was so excited to get the movie he had been wanting!

This Bionicle was the only thing Walker asked to get for Christmas. He was absolutely certain he was gonna get it from Santa because he kept asking Santa and he would run and help anyone and everyone with anything and every time afterwards he would ask/point out that he was being good and nice so Santa would come. It was quite handy there for awhile when I needed him to do chores he was running and skipping as he did his and Kenna's too!! Sometimes cleaning up stuff with out ANY ONE asking him too......it was heavenly!!

I didn't get many pictures of Carter because as usual he was running all over and never in one spot for more than a second. He is always a hard kid to buy for he likes many things and rarely has one specific item that he wants. So he got a Bionicle so that he could play with Walker and of course he liked it.

Kenna enjoyed the clothes,lotion,purse,glasses, dolls, and play kitchen things she got.

She really wanted Santa to bring her a motorcycle.....not a bike but a REAL motorcycle!! It took alot of convincing that she would not be getting a motorcycle so she had better pick something else so she finally decided a bike would be fine!

She was so thrilled with her bike. She pointed out the color and the basket and the streamers and how pretty they were just like I knew she would!!

When we asked Tanner what he wanted for Christmas his list was short.....socks and a electric guitar. Well the socks were a sure thing but the guitar we told him we would try but no guarantees. We told him to think of something else...something cheaper just in case. He said that he would rather us not waste any money on other things that he really didn't need or want if he couldn't have a guitar. He wasn't sassy, rude, or trying to lay on the guilt just his normal direct and to the point self.

He got the Harry Potter movie because he has always been a fan and our tradition had always been when the next movie would come out him and me would have read the book then get lunch and go to see the movie on opening weekend together but this year we were unable to so he was glad to finally see the movie.
He was so thrilled when he did get his guitar he was choked up and misty eyed as he thanked me over and over....made me cry too at how appreciative he was.

He has been teaching himself how to play and is pretty good.

After presents we had our traditional breakfast casserole, baked french toast with homemade buttermilk syrup, fresh fruit and cinnamon rolls. Then my parents and lil sister and her fiancee came for the traditional Christmas Ham dinner with all the fixings....YUMMY!! So it was a low key Christmas and the peace and joy and happiness was abundant!! This was our first Christmas in this new home of ours and I loved it and Rob said it was his favorite Christmas ever!