Easter Day

There was no BUNNY received this year,

but the kids were prepped for that so we didn't

have too much disappointment.

They were pleasantly pleased with the simple things

they got, so our Easter Sunday started off well.
Out of the 20+ pictures we took of the kids
these 2 are the best shots we got.
And don't they look charming???

After church we headed to Logan to spent the

rest of the day at my brother Jason's home.

We had a relaxing afternoon playing, talking and just

having a good time with family (Karli and her fam came as well).

Without fail we had a fantastic dinner

(if only we would have had some corn, haha-Kar).

But of course dinner couldn't get over fast enough

for the kids, so they could begin....

THE HUNT

LeAnne's creativity brought all sorts of fun to this

Easter Egg Hunt. Each kid was assigned a certain color

egg to find, as well as other BONUS eggs.

And they're off...

Of course Ash was easy to please

and would stop to enjoy the treats inside each egg

as he found them.

Of course Ame was in it for the WIN.

Kaipo didn't like being assigned to the color

PINK, but with only one girl (who was assigned to purple)

to really find eggs somebody had to go for the pink. Didn't take long

for him to get over the color issue though.

And here's cute little Ella havin' some fun

Don't they have a such a beautiful BIG backyard?!

Just perfect for the hunt!

and here HE is again, enjoying the goods

Ryan and Ame sorting and counting

3 loving, bundles of JOY

So, the fun wasn't over with the hunt.

LeAnne's family tradition is to have a

Easter Store, where the kids can trade

their eggs for prizes. LeAnne was so good

to think of everyone and what they would

like. This was just as fun I think as the

actual hunt for the kids.

And the less candy the better I SAY!

To Jason and LeAnne thank you so much for your

hospitality and generosity. We so enjoy our time

together with you and your family. We look forward

to MANY more good times to come.

*******************************

Our family is so blessed and we feel so thankful for the love

of family and wonderful friends. We are even more

grateful to our Savior for his tremendous sacrifice and

overwhelming, endless amounts of love.

Life is good, full of happiness and many surprises!

One last picture from our hunt at the park on

Saturday. The fun just keeps going and going...

the Show

Ame looked forward to THIS all week!

We had a date to the Salt Lake Ballet production of

Alice in Wonderland.

It was at the Eqyptian Theatre here in Ogden.

This theatre is really old, but quite neat.
We were in our up-close seats a half hour b4 the show started,
which was a long time for this girl to WAIT...

and WAIT! But finally it started. Unfortunately there

was no picture taking once the performance began.

I was pretty impressed at how well done of a show it was.

But I really don't know what was more entertaining-

watching the show, or watching my girl

filled with so much excitment and totally mesmorized by the

performance! This was true joy,

just watching her sincerely & completely happy.

She said afterwards, that it was BETTER than

she thought it would be and she thanked me

about a million times throughout the show

for bringing her on a date to THIS show!!

THAT was about the best $20 I have spent in

a LONG time!!

*oh how I cherish THESE times together*

feeling uncreative

Since THIS mom has decided against a Bunny for the kids, for Easter (or any time soon for that matter), I am feeling uncreative as to what to get instead. I feel since they aren't getting what they'd SOO hoped for, I have to come up with something great instead. I know Easter is not about gifts, and I should be teaching my kids that, but it isn't quite that easy. Do you think dad has taken one thought about any of this?? Of course not! This is just one more thing that is ALL ON MOM. So if anyone has a creative/fun idea to throw my way, I am very open to suggestions :)

gotta LOVE this

Ame was anxious to have a grapefuit, and needed a sprinkle of sugar on it. Of course she couldn't wait for mom to get down the newly filled/completely FULL tub of sugar, so she thought she would be helpful and get it down from the top shelf of the pantry all by herself. I heard a crash and a I didn't mean to do it!!! Only to come out and find THIS fun mess all over my kitchen floor. Of course I reacted without stopping to take a deap breathe. But to my defense we did need to leave for dance class in like 10 minutes and we were already running late. I wasn't planning to sweep the kitchen twice (not even once) b4 we left. QUinn's response in passing as we left and he returned home, was its OK she doesn't do things like this very often. If only I had had the same response. Of course it is easy to respond that way when you are not IN the moment and have to actually clean up the mess, while running late. Once again, this mom learned she is all too quick to react negatively, in stressful situations. Ame WAS only trying to be helpful. How would YOU have reacted????

house progress

Here is our NEW home in progress.

We hadn't been there for a few weeks,

and when we were there last all that

we saw was the foundation. So we were pleasantly

surprised when we went for our frame tour

this past week and saw this much finished!

Exciting to see it take shape.

They were starting shingles on the roof this week,

and sheet rock inside on Monday.

Stucco coming soon as well.

We will continue posts of the progress,

especially for grandma and grandpa :)

who are to far away to see it up close.

to STAY or to GO

The question is when you have this many yummy treats sitting in your kitchen, what do you do with it all? A lemon cake, homemade chocolate pie, mint cookies (from my VT) and left over cupcakes from Ash's party. It's just so hard for me to just throw any of it out!

And if all this isn't enough, Quinn brings home a box of fudge, from one of his hometeaching families. I just don't have the will power to throw it all away. I wish a little fairy would come in the night and get rid of it, since I can' t seem to do it!!!

A Logan Party

Unfortunately I didn't take very many pics from our trip to Logan

(I think LeAnne was better at picture taking than I was).

We finally made it up to see my brother Jason's family

and their new home in Logan. They have a beautiful home

that they have redone quite a bit and changed to look fantastic!

We hung out for a bit and then LeAnne invited the neighbor boys

over to babysit, got some pizza's for the kids and then us ADULTS

went out to dinner @ the fabulous Cafe Sabor.

Then we picked up an ice cream cake to celebrate one last time,

for our Ashy Boy.

Jason and LeAnne-

thanks for the wonderful hospitality, great conversation,

and celebrating a little with us.

And Ash thanks you for the present...

the potato heads are a BIG hit, even more so with the older two :)

forgot this one

I had to include this picture.

It was funny I was looking for Ash and found him with QUinn doing THIS...right up his alley. Ball heaven for this little guy! Such a funny shot!!!

our baby is NO BABY anymore!

Our favorite thing to call Ash has been,

baby ASH.

but THAT won't fly anymore, because our boy is 2 now!

We started off the day with (what else)

donuts.

Ash is funny because he gets all excited

to have it in front of him,

but then he hardly even eats it.

That is generally the same with all sweet treat.

After the kids got home from school and

we had lunch & play time at the Del Taco,

(because it has a playland), and wasn't McD's

we came home to

OPEN PRESENTS
gifts at this age are somewhat, especially when you already have a boy and girl (who have too many toys as it is). What do you add to the collection? Mom thought of a few things that ASH just LOVED!
ANYTHING mickey mouse made him smile :)
He also got a trike,

a basketball hoop

he is all about balls!!!

Later in the day we headed to

Jungle Jim's with some of QUinn's family.

Ash LOVED all the rides

even the roller coaster.

I wasn't sure about this one, because it does go pretty fast.

You can't see his expression on his face, but he was laughing and thought it was soo fun!

some of the rides were hard to get a clear shot of, as they zoomed by.

oh what fun

And what else for dessert, but Mickey Mouse cupcakes

Fun for all!

another GREAT lesson from Ame

After a lesson in Primary, Ame wanted to make her OWN lesson for FHE, to teach us what she learned. This is what she wrote. What a thoughtful lesson, with interesting detail. I am so glad she LOVES to do things like this, and wants to teach all of us such important concepts. What an incredible example AND big sister!

going back a bit...st patrick's day

So I was downloading pics from my camera and realized I haven't updated happenings around here for a while, so this is a bit of our St Patrick's Day WILD celebrations. I was actually watching my friends kids that day, so I tried to be a little creative (for the kids sake). There are endless possibilites with GREEN food coloring :) But mine were pretty pathetic! GREEN jello, bagels with GREEN cream cheese, GREEN leprechan drink, GREEN grapes, rainbow fish
and GREEN rice crispy treats with rainbow sprinkles.

THAT was our green fun,

expect for the surprise Kaipo found when he went potty the next day:)

turning a new leaf

Well, I'm gonna do it...

Masters of Education, in Learning and Technology

starting April 1st.

I'm nervous to go back to school, it's been soo long and to do an online program makes me even more scared. But Quinn has persuaded me and I'm just gonna do it! He convinced me it was a good time to get my Master's and with half tuition, it was hard to pass up the opportunity.
When I do decide to go back to teaching, this kind of knowledge (in technology) will be such a valuable insight to stengthen my teaching ability. Who knows where else a Master's Degree could take me, someday???
*WISH ME LUCK*

Her VERY own

Ame has been quite the $$ hagler. She has sold some old toys and has just saved money given to her by the toothfairy, allowance, and gift money. One of the things she sold was her old LITTLE bike. She thought she was too grown up for the princess bike, plus it was a smaller bike. And now she has a new bike that she bought all on her own. She was very excited and quite proud! The bike happen to have a sticker on it that said Amethyst (I guess cuz it was purple). Right away she recognized HER name in that word, so we carefully peeled off the extra letters, and now her bike is even personalized just for AME.

SOrry Pops

OK, so now I have viewed the last post

and realize that it STILL isn't working properly.

Sorry Dad, but I am done trying to make it work.

It's the thought that counts, right?!?!?!?!?!?

Enjoy what you can of it.

Try them all, maybe it is my computer.

Video-REDO for our SPECIAL Grandpa

Grandpa, we know this will get to you a bit BELATED, (we had some video technical difficulty and had to redo the video clips) but our thoughts are filled with just as much love for you! Hope you enjoy our creativity. This was mostly all thought up by little Miss Ame. Gotta love HOME movies, you get the real thing, with NO editing :)

*Hope you had a Happy Birthday*

We Love You!

Hope you enjoyed the show!

Update

Just to update, it was NOT strep, but we are still going to finish out the antibiotic just in case there is any other infection in there we don't know about. But Ame is back at school and doing much, much better (thank goodness), and no one else has gotten sick.

Is it strep???????

Ame had to make a visit to the Dr. yesterday morning, after a long weekend of having a sore throat, fever and just being soo uncomfortable. The Dr. did a swab test, which came back negative for strep, but with the symptoms Ame has had, and the eye infection she woke up with Monday, the Dr. decided it would be best to start her on the amoxicillin, then when the lab work came back in 2-3 days she would call and let us know if Ame needed to continue the anibiotic. If it was negative, then at least it would have cleared up her eye-infection, and if it was positive then we would already be 3 days into the 10 days of taking the medication. Ame has HATED having to miss school, but we stopped off and get her homework, and to make things a little better, she got a SMOOTHIE. That makes anyone feel better, right?!

A Great Lesson

Ame is soo great at coming up with lessons for

Family Home Evening.

This week she got out her

Picture Book of the Old Testament and

made a lesson about the Creation.

Here is the picture she drew to go with it.

She constantly amazes me at her

creativity and detail.

Kaipo's FIRST

Today, our handsome 4year old gave his FIRST talk in Primary.

Our TRUE lamanite, with his mohawk and all :)

He did really well, minus not being able to hear him.

Of course today was the day there was no microphone,

for all the little sunbeams to be in charge of opening exercises.

Kaipo, much like his older sister,

jumped right up there with no hesitation and FULL of confidence.

Mom did have to whisper the talk to him,

he didn't quite have the same drive & ambition

as his sister-who memorized her first talk.

We don't know who was more proud,

Kaipo or his parents!

We love you BIG boy and are so grateful for

the strong, intelligent, amazing young man you are!!!

I didn't catch him b4 he undressed after church,

but I did get him to sit still long enough, so Ame could

video him saying his talk. We wanted to share it

with Grandpa and Grandma, who we know

wanted to see it. And just in case you didn't understand

all the words of his talk, here is what he said:

(Each Family Member Has Important Responsibilities)

My home is a place where I feel loved. My mom and dad work hard to make our home a happy and safe place. They teach me and help me learn to choose the right. My sister teaches me too. She also plays with me and helps me do nice things for others. My little brother is learning to be a good helper and is really good at putting everything in the garbage. I try to be a nice brother. I also try to be a BIG helper. I am really good at showing love, by giving lots of hugs and kisses to my family. I want our home to be filled with love, so I help us remember to say family prayers. I love my family and I know that I am special.

we are LOVIN' this warmth

We spent the afternoon enjoying the beautiful warm weather.

We had a nice walk, enjoyed some cool refreshments, skateboarded
golfed

and rode scooters

It really couldn't have been more

PERFECT

60* weather

a BELATED birthday thanks!

Grandpa & Grandma...

I haven't officially received my birthday money,

(Aunt Karli says she has it right on the desk).

But I got this today, with the $$ I am getting from you.

It completely CAPTURES my attention,

and anything that does that for me,

obviously must be pretty fantastic!

(I have been playing with it ever since I finished lunch)

I kept telling my mommy that she was the BEST

for getting it for me, but she reminded me several

times that I needed to send my thanks to YOU!!!

So, I am telling YOU...

YOU'RE THE BEST

thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

please don't

As much as I want my Ashy Boy to become more independent and not SUCH A MOMMA's BOY, I really don't want him to grow up so fast either. Ame was reading on the calendar today and realized that Ash's birthday is THIS month. I know...he will be 2 soon!! I wanted to document something that I have been stressed about with him, of which he has made some great development in. That would be his speech. For the past several month I have been worried because he wasn't speaking much, definitley not as quickly as his siblings.

Here is a list of the words he is saying (that I can think of, off the top of my head), some may not be understood by others, but definitely by most of us here at home:

-MILK (by far his MOST favorite word-would drink it all day if I let him)

-apple

-eat

-ball

-bu-bye (bye, bye)

-more

-bath

-mom

-dad

-aipo (Kaipo, but doesn't pronounce the K)

-Ame

-all done

-uh huh (not quite sure how to spell it, but that is his yes response)

-nose (it sounds like no, but I figured out he was wanting me to wipe his runny nose-which has been running a ton lately)

I'm sure I will be adding to this list as I think of more, or as he develops more of a vocabulary :)

Way to go my growing boy!!

Pine Wood Derby

QUinn is STILL the elder's quorum president and as such was in charge of the Pine Wood Derby again this year. They had one last year and it was such a hit, that they hosted it again. Funny thing though, Quinn didn't make a car this year or last. Lucky for Kaipo, one of the Young Men brought an old car and GAVE it to him. Oh was he ever excited! The boy who gave it to him, said his car was awarded for being a cool lookin' car, not for its speed.

As you can see, Kaipo was no winner, but he didn't care about that, he just loved that he had his own racing car!
SOme of the racers, with their cars (Ame is peeking through to show off Kaipo's car). We didn't have as good of a turn out as we would have hoped for, but we had LOTS and LOTS of Nachos to enjoy (and are still eating, maybe not so enjoyable the 3rd or 4th time around)! QUinn was behind the scenes in all these pictures. But he pulled off a fun night, enjoyed by all who came :)

Flirty Aprons

This was one of the Valentine's Gifts Quinn gave me.

He was pretty impressed with HIS ability to find

yet another CREATIVE gift.

I told him, not to seem ungrateful,

but it is soo much easier for a Husband to shop for his Wife,

than the other way around. He reminded me how

much effort he spent finding this and the yummy

chocolate covered strawberries that came with it.

But...to back me up...how many wife's out there

AGREE WITH ME???

Here's the baking girls, stopping for a quick

picture, during our hard work in the kitchen!
You've seem Ame's apron b4, and isn't mommy's
new Flirty Apron soo cute?!

Ame and I tried this recipe out for our FHE treat tonight.

If you like peanut butter AND chocolate it's a great one.

I couldn't find the swirled chips, so I actually

used Reeses mini baking chips.

My kids LOVED the candie pieces.

Of course they aren't hard to please,

but this crowd gave a big thumbs-up!

Brownie SWIRLED™ Peanut Butter Cups

Estimated Times: Preparation - 20 min Cooking - 13 min Yields - 12 servings
Ingredients:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon water
3/4 cup NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® SWIRLED™ Milk Chocolate & Peanut Butter Morsels, divided
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 350º F. Grease 12 muffin cups. COMBINE sugar, butter and water in medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH (100%) power for 1 minute or until butter is melted. Add semi-sweet morsels; stir until melted. Add egg and vanilla extract and stir well. Add flour and baking soda and stir until blended. Allow to cool to room temperature. Stir in 1 cup Swirled morsels. Spoon a heaping tablespoon batter into each prepared muffin cup. BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top is set and wooden pick inserted center comes out still slightly wet. Place muffin pan on wire rack. Centers of brownies will fall upon cooling. If some do not, with back of teaspoon, tap center to make a hole. PLACE peanut butter in small, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH (100%) power for 45 seconds; stir. While brownies are still hot, spoon a scant tablespoon peanut butter into center of each brownie. Top with remaining Swirled morsels. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Run a knife around edge and carefully remove from pan.