Easter 2013

This year's Easter was a little bit low-key because of having a three week old baby.  We didn't hide the baskets or do a scavenger hunt or anything like that.  I was able to take the kids to the ward Easter egg hunt on Saturday, which is where the kids got most of their candy.  They did get a few candy items in their baskets on Sunday morning.  We colored hard-boiled eggs on Saturday afternoon.  The biggest thing about Easter this year was that I made ties for all the boys,  including Corey, and I made dresses for my girls that matched (which I started working on in February) and a skirt for myself that matched the girls' dresses.  Because I have a newborn and a five-year-old girl, I couldn't make dresses that were the same, so I used the same material for the dresses.  They turned out very pretty, although the material kept fraying and was very hard to work with, despite it being such a pretty fabric.  The dresses and ties turned out pretty cute, though, and I was proud of myself.

Annmarie Joy

Annmarie Joy was born on March 14th at 10:28 a.m.  She weighed only 6 pounds, 10 ounces and was a small 18.25 inches long.  She was born with full head of dark hair, the only child of ours to be born with so much hair (and dark too!). 

The kids just adore Annmarie.  They love to hold her and feed her and talk to her.  We are so blessed to have children who just love each other so much!

Jonah Turns TWO!

Jonah turned two in March. He really is such a joyful child.  When he's not throwing a two-year-old tantrum, he is happy and goofy and super excited about everything.  He loves balls, cars, dogs, and bikes.  He loves to dance and to run.  He loves to eat and laugh.  He is a determined little fellow and wants to do everything himself and refuses help for everything.  We sure do love our little Jonah!

 car cake

 waiting for the cake

blowing out the candles

 

waiting for presents (he is leading us while we sing "Happy Birthday")

First Lost Tooth

Travis lost his first tooth over the weekend.  He was very scared about losing it, but he also couldn't eat very well because it was so loose, so I went and just wiggled it a little and it came right out.  He put it under his pillow and got one dollar!  He was very excited about it.

First (Relatively) Warm Day This Year

Saturday, March 2nd, the weather warmed up a little bit. I wouldn't call it warm, but when it gets to be about 50 degrees and it has been in the 20s for weeks and the 30s for more than a month, 50 feels nice, especially when there is no wind.  Since it was sunny and nice, and Corey was home in the morning, the boys went outside to practice some baseball.  I signed all three older boys up for baseball this spring, and Westley and Caleb have to try out for their teams, so they wanted to take advantage of a day of nice weather and practice a little.

 

 

And of course, Jonah had to practice some baseball too.  The boys had a lot of fun and it was great to be out in the sunshine after almost a whole two months of horrible haze.

Joyful Jonah

This is irresistible toddler cuteness.  I think one of my favorite stages of childhood is the toddler years.  Yes, they can be so difficult at this age, and I definitely have moments where he (and my others did too) frustrates me to the point where I am completely frazzled.  But they live life to the fullest with such enthusiasm.  I have become more relaxed with this stage as each child has come along.  I don't remember enjoying their enthusiasm and passion as much with my older kids, probably because I was pretty stressed out and worried about doing everything right.  This time around, though. even when he throws a massive tantrum, I can find something to chuckle about with it.

But I love how passionate these toddlers are about everything.  And I mean EVERYTHING.  We had strawberries in the fruit salad last week for the first time in months and Jonah was thrilled to death.  He was so excited about his fruit salad because of the strawberries; his whole face lit up and he was practically screaming with sheer delight.  He gets that way when he plays with his matchbox cars (a new love for him), his sports balls, and when dancing.  He loves cars so much that even when we're walking in a parking lot, he wants to touch and talk about every single car and he loves it when one drives by.  Today, a motorcycle passed us by while we were driving and he was so excited about the noise it made. 

Jonah just does everything with so much excitement.  It's such a reminder of how joyful life can be for us.  He loves, loves, loves copying his big brothers.  They love to draw, so he will draw.  He will get five or six crayons and scribble all over a piece of paper with all the colors and then come show it to me.  He will scream at me not only to acknowledge the drawing, but I have to comment on it too or he won't leave me alone ("Jonah, that is so colorful!" or "I just love all the colors you put in it!").  When they go outside, he wants to go outside too and gets super excited when he's able to go play with them. 

Toddlers really do show pure joy and excitement for everything life has to offer. 

LEGO exhibit

On President's Day, we went to Park City to an art museum for an exhibit of sculptures made out of LEGO's.  I can't remember the artist, but I saw a little clip about it on the news a week or so ago and decided that's what the kids and I would do when they were off school for the holiday.  The great thing about it was that it was free--the only money I spent was for gas to get there and back!

The best part of the whole day was the kids helping me get ready to go.  I wanted to leave by 9 am so we could get there right around 10 am, when the museum opened.  At about 8:30, I was heading up the stairs to shower, so I told the kids that if they wanted to go see the LEGO exhibit, they needed to get things ready to go.  I gave instructions to them about making lunch for all of us to bring, getting Jonah dressed and ready, and getting themselves ready with their shoes and coats.  When I came downstairs about twenty minutes later, expecting to find chaos, what I found was that the lunch was completely made (sandwiches for everyone, all wrapped and in the cooler, cut and washed strawberries, apple slices, fruit snacks, and desserts, plus all the water bottles filled and in the cooler too).  I found that all the kids were ready to go with their coats on and shoes and even Jonah was ready.  When we went out to the car, the older boys put the stroller in the back for me and made sure to bring Jonah's diaper bag backpack.  And Westley had even picked out some CD's he wanted to listen to in the car and put them in my CD case, which was also already in the car.  We were able to leave right at 9 am on the dot, thanks to my good helpers.

 giant dollar 

life size cat

I took a picture of each of the kids (and Westley took one of me) next to our favorite LEGO sculpture.

Jonah liked the baseball bat and ball

Travis liked the life size kid looking in a puddle at his reflection

Caleb liked Mount Rushmore

Eliza liked the fairy tale pop-up book.  There was even a story written down the sides

Mom liked the giant pencil

Westley liked the giant crayons

It was a really cool exhibit and we had a good morning.  We were even home by noon.  The drive was beautiful, the weather was decent.  It was great.