Spring Break

Spring Break was April 5-9 I am just now getting to blogging about it. It was so fun to have Ethan home for the week. I am really looking forward to summer. I love having my kids here and on our schedule. I tried to plan fun things every day that didn't cost much.

Monday: Not fun We had to do laundry
Tuesday: Kid Swap with the Clarks. They have two boys Ethan and Jake's age. I took the younger boys and Candice to the older boys and they played all day. It was a lot of fun.
Wednesday: Jay's Jungle in Provo. Its a pet store. I didn't have my camera only my cell phone and its a new phone and I'm not sure how to get the pictures off. The boys loved it. The worker there was FABULOUS! He knew we weren't interested in buying anything but he got out almost every pet the kids wanted to hold. This included hamsters, rats, snakes, turtles, and a bearded dragon.
Thursday: We went to Provo canyon and had a picnic. It was a lot of fun. I didn't realize that the entire hike was paved. If I would have known that I would have brought my stroller. I have the sit 'n stand and Jake gets tired to easily. He was the reason we turned around when we did. Ethan and Ryan could have gone all day. I felt bad because I knew Ethan wanted to keep going. So here are some pictures. Emily with the boys walking. She's such a good sport to come along being 8 months prego. Thanks Em.

Andrew in the snugli

WE had to venture off the trial for a little exploring.

Ryan making his way down

Friday: We went and visited Janni at work. We went to lunch with her and Danny in the Joseph Smith memorial building. we also went to the church's museum in SLC and then to the radio station. Janni works with the radio guys.

At Janni's office her birthday eve

Ryan at the museum. sorry you can't see his face He was too interested in what was going on around him.

Ethan trying to throw a "stone" from his sling. There was a volunteer there that came and found us and asked if we would like to try it out. It was so nice of her. My boys really enjoyed it.






Here is the radio station.

The radio guy asked my boys lots of questions I thought their answers were so funny. Here are some of them.

Who is Joseph Smith?

Ethan "he's a big statue with scriptures"

Do you talk to Heavenly Father?

Jake "no"

Do you say your prayers?

Jake "yes"

What do you pray for?

Jake "you can ask Heavenly Father for things you want like a hamster"

What do you do for Family night"

Ethan "get spankings"

Where do you want to go on a mission?

Ethan" Arizona"

Jake " I want to go to Arizona too"

Who is your favorite aunt? (Janni was sitting right there)

Jake "Janni"

Ethan "Grandpa Ed"

Thank you Janni for helping us end our spring break with something so fun. We loved it.

Happy Easter

For Easter every year I make our traditional bunny cake. Here is Spencer and Ryan with the cake. In years past I have done a white cake and used a cake decorating tip to make it look like a bunny but this year I tried something new. I did a ganache. It was a lot less time consuming and pretty good.

Here is a better picture of the cake and a worse picture of Spence and Ryan :)

Ryan enjoyed cleaning up the pan. I didn't stop him. I love having help with dishes even if they are licked clean.

Priesthood Session

Every year Mark goes to the priesthood session in Salt Lake. When we were first married I didn't really get what the big hairy deal was and why he had to go. I just thought he could just as easily (if not more so) go to his stake center and watch the same thing. But no matter how grumpy I was about it he still went. It wasn't until a few years ago I went to the Relief Society broadcast with my mom, sister, aunt, and grandma that I realized why Mark loves going. We had such a great time. I don't think I have complained about it since. I am actually looking forward to Mark's dad getting home (he has been serving as mission president for the past, almost, three years) so Mark can go with him. Mark leaves around 4 and gets home sometime after 11PM. I have started my own traditions with the boys. I try and do something fun that I normally wouldn't do. I really don't like to be at home especially when I know Mark is out have a good time. I feel like we should be too. So this year we went bowling. They just opened up a new bowling alley 1/2 mile from my house. It was a lot of work to go with all the boys but we had fun. Jake used this ramp a couple of times but then bowled without it. Until he crossed the line and slipped and fell. He then stuck to the ramp. He told me he doesn't want to go bowling again with out dad. So next time, Mark you are invited :)

Here is Ethan the winner of our game. He scored 95! (he did have the bumpers) But he also got 2 spares and 1 strike. Way to GO!

Andrew even loved it!

I had a hard time getting Ryan to push the ball. He loved standing up there watching everyone bowl.

Here's me. I bowled too. I was pretty tired by the time it was my turn after helping everyone with their turns.

After bowling we got some pizza and came back home. I got the boys to bed and then watched a documentary on marathons. So interesting. I went to be totally worn out. I was glad to have Mark back home. I hope he had as much fun as we did.

new apron

We had our relief society activity last week. It was a bazaar. For those of you who don't know what a bazaar is (which I didn't) it was where the relief society sisters got together and cooked meat pie (basically a pot pie) and jello and then sold all their hand made things. Anything from pillow cases to sock monkeys and quilts. We were asked to display something we made that could have been sold and come in casual attire with an apron. I was getting tired of my old apron so I just sewed myself a new one. LOVE IT! I just bought a book called A is for Apron. It has 25 apron patterns in it. I really want to sew more but I have a list of things that I need to be sewing so another apron will just have to wait. And if you are wondering what I displayed here it is. I have been making ties lately. I wanted all my boys to have matching ties including Mark and then I am going to make myself a matching pencil skirt. How fun. So here are the first two ties I have made. I these ones fit Andrew and Ryan. They are pretty easy to make and I think they look so cute on.

Ethan photo shoot

Ethan took my camera the other day. When I found him with my camera he was taking pictures of a comic book. I wasn't very happy since he isn't supposed to use my camera. Luckily he got some good ones of himself.

Jake's birthday Part 2

We had a busy day on Wednesday! And I think that Jake had a good time. When he woke up we let him open his presents.

This is one of my favorite pictures. He just opened up his penguin costume and Mark is holding it up so he can have the full view. This picture says 1000 words! (I am glad that I stayed up late making it all last week it was worth it.

Here's Jake in his new costume, arms out

arms down

and sliding like a penguin

We went to Kangaroo Zoo during the day with his friend Bryce

Ryan climbing the highest slide at kangaroo zoo!

Jake with the real live Chuck E. Cheese!

Jake blowing out his candles. I love this picture as well since Mark is covering Ryan's mouth so Jake can actually blow the candles out himself.

Here is the cake that Mark put together. Decorating cakes with Mark is my favorite thing. I love Birthdays!

Happy Birthday Jake

I can't believe Jake has gone from this to this!

Happy Birhtday Jake.

(ps there will be another post with more pictures sometime in the not too far future)