Easter, Royal Wedding, and other April stuff

We did the annual Easter egg dying for family night the Monday before Easter. The kids loved it of course and Carter dyed his with no help from us. I can't believe how grown up he acts!
Claire was not helping us...more like kicking the egg dye over and trying to eat the shells. She is getting to the age of being into everything! Opening drawers, cupboards, trying to climb stairs, etc. So fun!

The boys earned a wii for Easter. They have been working hard for the past 2-3 months on cleaning up their rooms, the play room, not talking back, getting dressed, doing their hair, eating their dinner, and doing something nice for each other every day. It has really made a difference to have them working toward something. They couldn't wait to open it! We made a little pan of flour to see if we could catch the Easter bunny's footprint. He was to smart and instead left an egg in the pan with a string of clues to find the wii and Easter baskets. The baskets ended up in the dryer and the wii was in one of their drawers in their room. Sneaky!
Claire got a fun new Winnie the Pooh play phone. She also figured out how to open the plastic eggs full of jellybeans. She was in heaven eating them and her chocolate bunny! She was a mess after but it was fun to watch her enjoy it so much. She needs to fatten up a bit anyway right?
The boys playing their Lego Harry Potter game from Grandma and Grandad English. It's their favorite game for sure!
I went up to the London Market the day before and enjoyed some tea and cheese and onion pie with my cousin Megan in preparation for the royal wedding on Friday. I also picked up some hot cross buns which are an English tradition on Easter. Claire loved them!
Claire in her cute new Easter dress! So fun to have a girl!!! We also had an Easter egg hunt at my mom's house after church and Carter found 2 dollars in a couple of his eggs. They love this tradition!
Here are some other random pictures of the kids...
I had to get the traditional spaghetti face picture. Her hair is getting longer too.
The kids were loving wrestling with their dad. It is their favorite thing-I thought it was too cute to not get a picture.
Claire giving James a wet willy! haha
I woke up at 3 am and headed over to Megan's house to watch the Royal wedding. I loved it! Kate looked so beautiful (how could she not?) and it was so nice to see them so happy and in love.
After watching the wedding, I got ready to spend the day with my mom, sister Melanie, and her mother-in-law Cathy and sil Brooke. We went to BYU Women's conference and had a great day. We got to hear Julie Beck, Elder Bednar and his wife, and Stephanie Nielson (nienie) and her sisters. I was exhausted by the end of the day, but it was all worth it.

Spring break cabin trip

What an eventful trip to the cabin this year! It is our kids' spring break this week so when Mel invited us to go up with them to the cabin, we jumped at the chance! She was watching Kevin and Bethany's kids while they were in San Francisco, so we had 12 kids up there! It was crazy!
Claire and Chase were little buddies. They loved smiling at each other and poor Chase had Claire climbing all over him the whole time.
We got to the cabin late Sunday night and then the next morning Carter took a trip to the ER. He was in the garage (which he was told to stay out of) looking for a sled. He found one and was pulling it out and tripped on the string at the front of it and banged his head on the back of a snowmobile. We tried gluing it together with medical glue, but it kept bleeding so we decided it needed to be stitched up. The above picture is for Megan-we walked into the room and this wallpaper was on the wall. Megan had this wallpaper in her playroom when we were growing up-I instantly recognized it and it brought back lots of memories! Maybe time to change the wallpaper Evanston hospital?
Here is the cut that we waited 4 hours to have sewn up! Carter was so upset and would not settle down enough to get stitched up so we were going to give him a shot to make him loopy. I told him that if he wanted a toy after he would have to tell me what he wanted before he got the shot otherwise he wouldn't remember. It was that that made him decide against the shot and just be brave and get the stitches. He wanted to be the one to pick out his OWN toy. Kids are so funny. It was really hard to see him in pain and have to hold him down while they did it. I felt so bad for him. I am sure he will never forget that experience. He did manage to get a sweet lego dragon set out of it though, so it wasn't all bad!
Here are the stitches today. He gets them out tomorrow, which I am sure will be interesting. I love the pose he is doing in this photo-with no direction from me. haha
The next day James and I went cross country skiing for the first time. It was quite the experience. It was super icy and we stayed on the main road which had lots of snowmobile tracks. I managed to fall like 100 times and got huge bruises on my hips and hands. Not fun. The next day Mel and Carl went and she talked me into going again where they went. The snow was perfect powder and no tracks anywhere. It was so much fun! A completely different experience from the day before. I am glad I decided to try it again.
No cabin trip would be complete without some snowmobile rides!
We pulled this big sled behind the snowmobile to accommodate all the kids! They had a great time going over bumps and "the roller coaster".

Carl and Mel before cross country skiing

Eating breakfast with the boys Kale, Carter, Blake, Brevin

Brynlee and Preston
Some other fun events of the cabin trip were-Carl getting the suburban stuck in the snow the first night, dealing with the care taker at 11 at night with his shirt off, having the power go out for 4 hours and almost packing up and going home...we didn't have the best luck I guess! It ended up being great even with all of that happening. We had lots of relaxing time, magazine and book reading, yahtzee and boggle playing, wii playing, ping pong, sledding, and lots more. I think this will be our last mini trip for awhile! James can't handle Claire crying in the car anymore! haha

Idaho Trip

We had lot of fun in Idaho again this year. We decided to make it an annual thing to go up for Greg's birthday. The whole family went up and all 6 siblings were together which was really fun. First, on the way up to Boise we stopped in to see our friends who moved away about 5 years ago, the Nelsons. I got no pictures of our visit, but it was so great to see them! Kristen made us a yummy lunch and the boys played great with her kids. Anyone with legos is their best friend! :) We stopped in to see Ben at work at the bank which was fun to surprise him. I miss that family! It was a nice break for the kids to break up the drive. Thanks Nelsons!! We got to Boise and stayed at Uncle Mike's house again this year. The only difference from last year is that he had built an entire indoor pool room on the side of his house. It was unbelievable! I think my kids were in the pool for a good 8 hours one of the days. It was so fun!

The pool had a huge slide and diving board. Carter won the prize for most times going up and down the slide, he was obsessed!
They also had a huge workout area and hot tub.
We had a big barbeque one of the nights in the kitchen in the corner. I got to try fried asparagus which was super yummy. Uncle Mike's homemade Idaho potato fries fresh from the farm weren't too bad either! :)
Claire loved the pool, she could have stayed in there all day. I love this picture!

Carter after another trip down the slide

My cute Presto boy

Dad, Uncle Mike, and Mom

We also went out to Greg's favorite mexican place in Nampa and had a birthday lunch for him. 36 and looking fabulous!

We came back to Jamie taking all the kids on buggy rides. How adorable is this?! The kids loved it! We love to see our Idaho "cousins"! Till next year...

Steamboat

James, Kate, Chris, Melanie

We have done lots of fun little weekend trips lately. My bff Kate emailed me in early March to see if we wanted to join them at the end of the month in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. We love it there and also love Kate and Chris, so we had to go! Our other friends Melanie and Ryan also came which was a fun bonus. Getting there was a nightmare. It was snowing when we left, but the roads were clear so we decided we would be fine. Not the case! After we passed Heber, it was a white out! We almost turned around but then it was sunny and fine. We had to stop for sheep and deer in the road (2 seperate times) and then really bad roads right before Steamboat. Claire also hates the car so she screamed pretty much the whole way. By the time we got there our nerves were shot! Thank goodness the way home was easy.
The kids had a great time playing in the snow all day and then jumping in the hot tub at night. Aspen (Chris's daughter) and the boys were instant friends. They thought she was so cool because she had her own Nintendo DS and she let them play it! There was also a little snow cave that Kate's brother had made last time they were up there. I wish I got a picture because it was so cool. The kids made it bigger and loved hiding in it.
Ryan made us a yummy dinner the first night of Chicken Tikka Masala with homemade naan bread. It was so delicious!! James made a traditional English roast the second night complete with yorkshire puddings. Yummm!!
Most of the time we just hung around the cabin but one of the days we took a trip to the soda shop to get some ice cream. Carter and Preston got fun stuffed animals as their prize for the trip. Carter got a shark that he lovingly named "sharkbait", and Preston got a puppy he named "snowflake". Those boys and their stuffed animals...

The time went by too fast! We had so much fun having just a relaxing weekend watching movies, playing games, laughing our heads off, and catching up on what everyone has been up to. Thanks Coates family!!

10 months

My little baby is 10 months old! That is almost 1!!! Wait, didn't I just have her?? She has been such a joy to have around here. Honestly, I couldn't ask for a better baby. I'm sure I have said it before, but she deserves the praise. She is happy, sleeps great, and has such a cute little personality.
Here are some of things that she does at 10 months-
*She is always on the move! She crawls everywhere and loves to put everything in her mouth. It makes me sweep my floor often!
*She loves baby dolls. She has 3 and those are her favorite things to play with over anything else. She laughs when she sees their faces, it is so darling.
*Claire and Carter have a sweet little bond. She LOVES him. He LOVES her. She lights up every time he comes in the room. She lights up when Preston comes around too, but he usually doesn't want her to "suck on his toys." He thinks she slobbers on everything and that grosses him out. It's pretty funny. Carter doesn't seem to mind, and will love on her whenever she wants him too. I also hear him reading to her her baby books over the baby moniter when I am downstairs. It melts my heart.
*She has been pulling herself up on furniture, my legs, and in her crib. I love going to get her in the morning or from her nap and see her standing up just smiling at me. She thinks she is so big. She'll get so excited to see me, she starts to bounce.
*When she gets excited or happy she scrunches up her nose and breathes really fast out of her nose. It is hilarious to watch. My mom says I did the same thing at her age.
*I love her curly hair like her dad's. When it is wet (like in the picture above I had just gotten her out of the bath) it is just perfect little barrel curls all over. I hope it stays.
*She is still SO tiny. I weighed her 2 weeks ago and she was 15 pounds. I take her in for her checkup next week so we will see where that puts her on the growth charts. Her cousin Chase who is 4 months younger weighs more than her! She just doesn't really care about eating and takes forever to eat her bottle most of the time. She just takes her time and relaxes.
*She hates baby food and only wants what we are eating. Her favorites are waffles, peaches, easy mac, and cheerios.
*She babbles to herself all the time. I wish I knew what she was saying. It sounds like "A-booyah-booyah-boodah. She also says mama dada and baba.
*she waves when you wave to her and will clap when she gets excited
*last but not least she sucks her thumb and grabs her ponytail when she is tired or needs comfort. It is the cutest thing in the world! It's about the only time she will let me cuddle her. Normally she is too busy looking around to snuggle with me. This little princess has brought so much joy to our family. We just love her to pieces. I wish I could freeze time and keep her at this age, she is so fun.

Carter's 6th Birthday Party

It was Carter's first "friend birthday party". I figured we dodged it for 6 years, it was time. He wanted a Star Wars party. Done. Now that he is in school that means lots of friends! School friends, neighborhood and church friends, and cousins. Whew! We invited about 18 kids and had I think 11 show up. 9 boys and 2 girls. We ate pizza, played pin the sticker on the asteroid (star wars style pin the tail on the donkey), and then we had a special visitor...
Darth Vader! I love all the boys' faces. They were all shocked, a little scared, but giddy with excitement. In fact, Carter ran and hid in the front room! haha

Opening presents-he got lots of good stuff!

After the present opening it was time to defeat Darth Vader. He had each of the kids come and battle him. Use the force Carter!

Kale giving it a try

I ultimately had to take him on to defeat him. I got him to the ground and then a dog pile of boys were on top of him trying to take his mask off. Victory! We then hit a pinata and let each of the kids fill up their candy bags. After that we ate a yummy costco cake with a basketball on it and let the kids play until their parents came to pick them up (with lots of sugar in their tummies!). It was lots of fun, but exhausting! I'm thinking this will be atleast an every other year kinda thing.

Valentines Day

I love Valentines Day. Most people hate it and think it is too commercialized, but I think it is just a fun day to remind us how much love we have in our lives. The boys love celebrating for every little holiday, so I knew they would love their "heart" breakfast.

I thought the apple hearts were pretty creative if I do say so myself! Thought them up all on my own! haha
Carter came home off the bus looking like this. He was a "walking Valentine". So darling. He was so excited to show me. I gave the boys each a box of chocolates as their Valentines surprise ( I love that they were only a dollar!)
Here is what the valentine said: There's a Valentine standing at your door. I'm one of a kind, you can't buy me at a store. I have something for you that you won't want to miss. Just pucker up and give me a GREAT BIG KISS!

James and I ended up going to lunch at the Olive Garden (cheaper and less crowded) and then my sweet friend Callie watched the kids while we went to see "The King's Speech". It was fantastic and made James really miss home. I was so happy it one best picture at the Oscars. That was our exciting Valentines Day! Till next year...