Easter Weekend

During our stay in Hurricane over Easter weekend the daddies were able to help Grandpa Christensen around the house. He is still recovering from his shoulder replacement and help was greatly appreciated. 

My brother Jonathan took a ride on the lawn mower. He was able to mow mom and dad's yard and  

GG pa's across the street. 

Our dad helped finish the steps on their new porch.

Kylie was a great help! 

When the outside work was done. Jonathan fed GG her lunch. 

That home made pizza made her thirsty!

After lunch Grandma and Kylie gave GG a little massage. 

Kylie really enjoyed rubbing the lotion all over GG's arms. 

When her arms were done they gave GG a little foot massage.

After a hard day's worth of work Grandpa made homemade ice cream for everyone.

Cousin Noah is asleep on the couch but what happened to Brayden?

Must have spent too much time in the sun!

                                                      Who sleeps underneath the mattress?

And on a hard wood floor too?

Playing with cousins

During our Easter weekend in Hurricane the kids seemed to spend most of their time outside. It was beautiful weather. My girls were so excited to open the box of summer clothes to pack with. 

Kylie is definitely one of ours. She loves to be outside.

She really loves spending time on Grandma and Grandpa's car's. 

Hunter and cousin Noah was trying to out beat each other with how many times they could jump keeping their balance. Neither one of them did very well, or so I thought until I tried doing it.

 I was lucky to get 2 jumps in! Pretty sure I'm glad I didn't let Hunter try to take my picture.

 Madelyn and cousin Carlaya tried to build a fort in an apricot tree. They used a wheel barrel to get their supplies back and forth

Going back to get more...

Using a hay string that was tied between 2 trees the kids played volleyball.

Boys vs. Girls

For fun the kids decided to do a "real" egg toss, like I did during my 4th grade Easter party.

With every toss caught they had to take one step back.

Oops!

Someone got egg faced. He was a good sport!

Easter weekend is just not the same without being able to dye eggs together.

GG was able to sit at the table for a few minutes watching the kids dye their eggs. Too soon GGpa came back to get her to take her home.

We love spending Easter at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Not all of us were able to make it this year and they were missed. Hopefully next year we can do it all again!

4th Grade Easter Party

I love being at the school with my kids. They love seeing me there and I love knowing what is happening at the school. The past two years I have been on the Booster Club. Instead of having to choose one out of my 3 kids classes to help out in I'm there for the whole school throughout the year. This year I decided that I still wanted to be in the classroom with my kids so I signed up to be in charge of one holiday party for each of them. This was my last one for the year. The 4th grade room mom has been TERRIBLE this year. The teacher knows it, the kids know it and there hasn't been anything we could do to fix it despite the phone calls asking to help or just take charge. I was thrilled to learn this room mom was moving and wouldn't be around to get in my way for this last party. I went all out and everyone enjoyed themselves. 

 To start off our party we hid the kindergarten Easter eggs for their party. One of pro's about being in such a small community and school is that we can do things we wouldn't otherwise be able to do. After the eggs were hidden we went on an Easter egg treasure hunt which took us off school property. I didn't have to get permission slips or even ask the principal. I just had to make sure I had an adult with each group. I had 5 groups and we had clues that sent us to the Library inside the school, the Fire Station down the street, the flag pole in front of the school, the cemetery up the street and ended at the swing sets on the playground. All 5 groups went to different spots at different times so that they weren't following each other. I was running the entire time so didn't get any pictures. At the end the big treasure was otter pop's. The kids were thrilled they could have as many as they wanted. 

 After a short break I started in with are games. 

We had an egg-race. How many eggs can each team get to their opposing bowl in 2 minutes? If the egg dropped off their spoon they'd have to go back to the start and start all over. The winning team got 18 eggs! 

Our next game was trying to put 5 eggs in order. From an egg with one jelly bean up to the egg with 5 jelly beans. Only one team got this right.

Our last team game is always the favorite. Dipping your nose into vaseline to get the cotton ball to stick. Afterwards you have to run to your bucket and get the cotton ball to drop inside with no hands.

Our next game was the balloon pop. 

Everyone tied a balloon to their ankle and then had to try to pop their friends. 

 My last game was a egg toss. A real egg toss! The kids couldn't believe I'd bring real eggs, not boiled, for them to throw to each other. The kids started with a partner who was standing right in front of them. With each caught toss the kids were suppose to take one step back. I was surprised how many times eggs were dropped and didn't break. The kids thought this was the best part of the whole party.

After all our games they each got to decorate a cupcake. So glad I had this opportunity to help in Madelyn's class. It was a great party. The teacher has requested me to be her room mom next year since she's moving up a grade in teaching. Whether we are still here or not it made me feel good. So glad she appreciated all my hard work for the Easter Party.

Madelyn and Softball

I've told my kids that they can play any sport but only one sport at a time. Since Madelyn is currently playing volleyball she wasn't going to play softball. However after sign ups I was contacted and told that softball wouldn't start until the end of April or first of May, after Volleyball. They were a bit short on players this year so Madelyn decided she'd play after all. I think someone made a mistake while looking at the schedule. This young lady has been playing volleyball and softball for almost a month now! She's gone every day except for Friday's at one practice or another. Thank goodness volleyball will be over this week.

Madelyn had her first ball game last week in sunny and warm Kanab. However the wind picked up and it quickly went from warm to cold. None of the parents and families were prepared for the sudden change in weather. We were all huddled under a blanket trying to keep warm and away from the wind.

She did good. She's got a great arm.

The other teams pitcher was TERRIBLE. But I understand these girls are young and just learning. The balls went sky high or were grounders 3 feet before the ball reached the girls. Most of our girls ended up walking because of the balls including Madelyn. She was a little disappointed that she didn't hit the ball but she really didn't have the chance.   

Playing outfield! She loves it out there.

 She'd prefer to play outfield than hit the ball. She's seen other girls get hit with the pitch and I think she's a little scared of the ball now.  Hopefully she'll overcome this. 

Madelyn was suppose to have a game last week but her coach's father unexpectedly passed away. Can't wait to watch her in the next game. Hope she has fun!

Hunter and Baseball

The Baseball season has begun....

Hunter's 1st game in sunny and warm Kanab, Utah.

Here batter, batter batter..... 

He made it to 1st. After a few more hits from his teammates....

It's a home run and his fans go wild!

While in the outfield he got to play 2nd base.

While mom, dad and Madelyn are content to sit on the hard metal bleachers for 2.5 hours his younger siblings play behind us on the rocks.

The season has just begun and it's got me running. This young man has a 2 hour practice 3-4 nights a week  with 2 baseball games a week.  We won our 1st game and then lost our past 2. Hunter was bumped up to the Major league because players were needed. He is the youngest, shortest and smallest on the team. He practices hitting and catching in between school and his practices and many times on the weekend. I really hope all this practice will do him good and his coach will play him a little more. I did the score board at last nights game and was quite surprised to see that even the "best" players , the 7th graders (Hunter's in 5th) really struggled too. Sure hope he enjoy's this baseball season.

Hunter turns 11

It's hard to believe this little man of our's has been part of our family for 11 years! 

How did this happen? Where has the time gone?

 He let us know that in just 7 years he will be leaving on his mission. 

What??? 

Hunter is currently in baseball and has a late practice with Madelyn having her practice right before him. Wanting all the family to be home to celebrate we woke everyone up at 5:45 am. Despite the earliness of the hour everyone was more than willing to jump out of bed for a birthday party. 

Hunter loves to read. For quite sometime now he's been asking for a bean bag of sorts that he can sit in it and read in his bedroom. This was a total surprise and he loves it!

Really surprised about the Hobbit Lego's. 

                    Hunter also asked for some new clothes. Really?? A boy wanting new clothes? 
    So we picked him up a few new shirts and a jacket. He also got a swinging baseball that connects 
       to a pole so that he can practice his swinging with out having to have someone throw him a ball.
                                                                 Best $25 present ever!

We have a long time tradition of having pancakes for breakfast. Hunter should have had 11 pancakes all stacked up with 11 candles on top. However, this kid really does not like pancakes. So I caved, and made him his favorite, a breakfast burrito. We tried to have the eggs hold the candles. Yeah.... didn't work very well. But he loved it still.

Later that night after everyone was home safe and sound we broke out his requested raspberry cheesecake. I really wanted to make a cake but he doesn't care for that either!

                              It was the best cheesecake ever, according to the birthday boy.

Yum! 

With having baseball practice in the evenings it gets cold. Not cold enough for his big heavy coat because he runs around and gets hot but cold enough that he needed more than just a long sleeve shirt. When I saw this jacket on clearance I thought he'd like it. I thought the "crazy" face would be on the back of the hood not the front. He loves it! The eye part is made out of mesh so that he can still see out of it when it's zipped up. His teacher thought it was pretty cool too! She kept having him zip it up to show it off to the other faculty members. 

Happy Birthday 

Love you!

Daddy Daughter/ Mother n' Son

Earlier this month our elementary school had their annual Daddy, Daughter Dance.

My girls were so EXCITED!!

Daddy had to work that day in St. George so the girls got a ride down with 

an Uncle and their Dad met them there.

These two can be such "goof balls"!

Sure love em'.

Glad they had some time to spend with their dad all by themselves. These are the activities that they will always remember.

A few weeks later was the Mother n' Son Hoe-Down.
It was a big night that I was very much involved with. We served dutch oven potato's, chicken, sour dough biscuits and ice cream. After dinner we had our pictures taken and learned to line dance.

It was a great night for Hunter and I to spend some one-on-one time together.
I will sure miss these fun times at our next school next year. Hope they have something just as good!
I really believe that these kind of events are the ones that my children will remember having at school. 

2013 Family Pictures

Last August I asked someone local to take our family pictures. We were finally able to make our schedules match up and had them taken in October. I was charged a $50 sitting fee and then $10 per picture, no cd and no unedited picts. There were several that I really wanted, some of the girls, some of the boys and some cute ones with Kylie and her Daddy. Kory wasn't employed at the time and was a full time student so I didn't have the funds to pay $10 per picture. I decided to just order one picture of each of us and a family picture. And than I waited and waited and waited. I finally got them in mid February, yes only 4 months later! 

Hoping one of my best friends may take them later on in the year. It would definitely be worth the trip back to Arizona. 

Hunter at 10 years old.

Loves to read, play basketball, baseball and rip sticking. 

Loves to be outdoors. 

Madelyn at 9 years old.

Loves to write and draw.

She loves to play basketball and volleyball.

Emily at 7 years old.

Loves to read, play with friends and ride her bike.

Brayden at 4 years old.

Loves pre-school, riding his bike and playing at the park.

Kylie at 15 month old.

Loves her daddy!

She likes to color with her older sisters and look at books. 

She will sit at the table for almost an hour at a time playing with play-doh.

Our Family 2013