Easter

We had a wonderful Easter!!!

We have always kept up the tradition of the Easter Egg hunt at tautphaus park.  It became a little difficult this year since the girls could participate so I went with the girls to their age group, Chris took Landon and Jaden was ALL on his own.  The girls were a little timid and needed a little help from me. We all met together to go through the goods and that is when the girls realized how great it was.  The boys did awesome too!

 During the girls nap the Chris took the boys for some fun so I could hid their baskets.  We do baskets on Sunday to try to keep Sunday more in line with why we really celebrate Easter.  Thankfully the boys love this Saturday tradition.  We only hid the boys baskets.  We also got a family fire pit.

On Sunday morning the kids dresses in their Easter Best!  They weren't the best at allowing me to take their pictures....little stinks!

 After Church we got to enjoy a lovely dinner at my grandmas.  The boys loved spending time outside and only came in to grab a quick bite and hunt for their bag from grandma.  The girls loved the attention they were getting and were a hoot.  They danced, ran, played, gave hugs, were so much fun!

A very successfuly Easter!!!!

green

4 years ago I started a tradition of a green party with Jadens friends for St. Patricks Day. I've really tried to end this tradition and he just wouldn't have it this year. We literally invited friends over the day before and threw the party together the hour before. In fact, I planned absolutely no entertainment. I told Jaden that was his job.

The kids had a blast.  I was amazed at the creativity they had in entertaining themselves for 2 hours.  They tried to get green cucumber into their mouths from the forehead without using their hands.  They played leprachuan, laprachaun, gold (aka duck, duck, goose).  They hunted for treasures (they each took a turn hiding treasure candies through the house.  They played Gold (tag).  I think that is probably the most giggling I've heard at a party.  I think kids planning the entertainment will be in every future party's agenda.:)

On St. Patricks day we hid chocolate gold coins through the house for the boys to find.  Jaden built about 5 traps and blamed EVERY mishap of the day on the leprachan.  For breakfast they had green pancakes and monster smoothies.  Yes...in the morning my kids look like Orphans.  Not one of them likes pajamas and by morning aren't sporting anything but their underwear/or diapers.

Later in the day we enjoyed Green Chips and dip! 

kids n' snow

We were getting a little stir crazy at our house and needed a little getaway so off we went to the kids n' snow event in West Yellowstone.   They had so many fun activities for the kids and we had a whirlwind weekend full of lots of fun....and exhaustion.

We went to the Imax Theatre and watched "Yellowstone.".  The kids enjoyed yummy ice cream cones and popcorn.

For dinner we went to the Gusher.  The girls went without a nap and were complete terrors...we ended up taking it to-go.

They had so many fun activities for the kids.  They had mini- snow mobiles.  Landon even drove one all by himself.  They loved it.  They also had sledding, ice skating, and smores.  I pulled the girls around in a sled as we went to the different activities.

We stayed at a hotel that had a waterslide. The girls came and played for a little while and then kicked and screamed their way back to the room.  Landon wouldn't go down the slide for the first hour, he just sat at the top.  After a shove from Jaden he realized it was a blast and went on it over and over and over.  They loved it.

While we were there we also went on a mini-snow coach ride into Yellowstone Park.  The girls enjoyed the 1st hour and then it was a nightmare.  A poor nights sleep plus no nap make for some very unhappy girls.  We were glad for that ride to be over. 

Chris and I were completely beat when we got home.  We may need a long rest before we do another mini-vacay with the kids.:)

SOCCER

The boys both played soccer over these last couple of months...Jaden has about one more month to go.

Jaden had begged for months to play so we finally got him signed up and decided Landon needed to be out of his comfort zone and we signed him up too. 

Landon was amazing.  I would never had guessed how well he'd do.  He wasn't nervous and got out there and kicked the ball.  I couldn't believe how confident he was and how excited he was to play.  We may sign him up for another session.

I somehow signed Jaden up for a 10 year old team and they had to throw him on a team that had a cancellation at the last minute.  At his very first game Chris was out of town and I had to take the kids all by myself and it was completely crazy and I couldn't catch any of the game.  Towards the end I saw my brother walk towards me...I had now idea our sons were playing each other.  I didn't even know my nephew was playing soccer.  After the game ended I got the treat list and was looking at it in the car and saw all hispanic names.  I was so confused so I texted my brother and told him I thought Jaden was playing on the hispanic team.  He responded "you didn't notice that".  When Jaden heard me say something about it he said "I'm on the red team".  I love that he doesn't see anyone as different then him and their team is really good.

She's going to be trouble....

This is what we were told recently when someone saw Eli and her mischievous grin.

Yes, we predict she's going to be the most fun and probably give us the most grief out of any of our children.

As an example, Alisha was up the entire night 4 nights ago with severe constipation...so bad that after a doctors visit at 4 am and an x-ray that we needed to get her poop or else she may need surgery.  So Chris took Alisha so that I could grab a few minutes of sleep and low and behold I hear a very awake Eli.  I swear Alisha sent her a message via her mind that I was finally available.  So I brought Eli into my bed begging with her to go back to sleep.  She then decided she'd go play the piano, squeal, and make all kinds of loud noises.  When Chris got home Eli was an absolute hoot and dancing around making us laugh except that we were tired and quickly made her go to bed.

Today I tried to take some product pictures for my store.  These girls frustrate me when I try to get good pictures but Eli was again too funny!!!!  We love this little spunk and she definitely keeps us on our toes.

 

 

Happy LOVE day!!!

We love our little family so we had to celebrate in our usual Valentine dinner special way.  It was so cute because the girls had to sit at the table while I got everything ready.  They were pretty good not to touch anything.

Chris and I did very small gifts for each other because he just started a new job and the way the paychecks fall, we go for about a month without a paycheck.  Let just say I'll be breathing much easier in March.:)

For the boys vday cards we did these.  I had an idea for the girls cards that I never executed....too little time.  But really, we would have only given one to the grandmas and that's it so it's ok, right?

Birthday Boy!!!!

Someone had a Birthday and we had to celebrate!  It's crazy this kid is 5.

He is gotten to be such a funny kid and loves to tease...I think he gets that from me:)

Happy 5 years buddy!!!