Art work and YIPPEE it's warm today!

The girls brought home some art work that they did at school. Hopefully I can get some framed and hung in their rooms (when their rooms are all done....)

It is starting to warm up a little (oh YIPPEE!) So we walked to church on Sunday (it was a little chilly... that's why everyone is huddled up... but warmer than it's been in a while!)


Everyone has been loving the warmer weather. Anaya and McKay play themselves til they are exhausted. They have been falling asleep nice and early, and sleeping in a little later. I really should get out and clean my messy garage in this nice weather....

Anaya said a funny thing yesterday morning. There were some birds in our back yard having a conversation, I'm sure, about how nice it is that it has finally warmed up, but all their tweeting woke Anaya up. When she came into the living room she said, "Did you hear those birds? They came, and I'm not even Mary Poppins!"

Spicy!

This was on Moana and Xela's blogs so I thought I would go try it out and here's the results:

You Are Ginger

Like ginger, you are a total shape shifter. You can be sweet, spicy, mellow, or overpowering. You are both soothing and unique. You are popular... yet you are often overlooked.

What Spice Are You?

Sounds about right! Have a good weekend!

Phew!

It's getting late (*yawn), but I thought I would blog some calendar events. May is always packed full of stuff. Feel free to come to whatever you can!

May 2nd - Taisha's gymnastics performance - 6:00pm at Ammon Elementary School
May 3rd - Final Ballroom performance 7:00pm at the Kirkham building on BYU-I campus
May 6th - Release date for "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer.... only posting this so you'll know not to come to the house for a few days...and no blogging, dinner, laundry etc...

Volleyball for Taisha:
April 26th @ 12:00pm at Clair E Gale Jr. High (IF)
May 3rd @ 8:00am at Sugar/Salem High School (Past Rexburg)

Volleyball for Malia:
April 26th @ 8:00am at Madison Middle School (Rexburg)
May 10th @ 8:00am at Bonneville High School (IF)

May 28th - Malia's birthday
May 29th - Last day of school!!
June 14th - Teton Dam Marathon (Rik's running.... I'm cheering)

Last week was crazy... in fact, it's amazing I'm not still stuck in last week, trying to get everything done! But this week has been much nicer. For Malia and Kayden's ballroom performance I am looking for a couple pirate costumes (they are dancing to "A Pirates Life For Me"). I remembered buying a pirate costume really cheap after Halloween this year, but couldn't remember what size it was. When I pulled it out it was too little for Kayden or Malia, but Anaya LOVED it!


If anyone has a bigger costume or two that I could borrow (or just a part of the costume... hat, eye patch, white fluffy shirt or vest etc....) would you please get a hold of me?

My favorite part of today was babysitting twin babies for a few hours this afternoon for my neighbor down the street. It was so fun! Anaya and McKay were excited because one was a boy and one a girl.


My "baby arms" are all gone though.... so my arms are actually stiff and sore from holding them all afternoon (oh, so sad....but totally worth it...I hope she calls me again!)

I have blogged this before, but good grief, it snowed again today... sheesh

Happy Birthday Kayden!

Wednesday was Kayden's birthday.... he turned 14. He had the oddest list this year: Etch-a-Sketch, Newtons Cradle (couldn't find that one), new tie and a Pinpression. We also got him a basketball hoop (it's still being shipped and then we need to concrete it into the ground). He wanted ribs and baked potatoes for his dinner, and rice pudding for his birthday cake (he had to hold his candle because I couldn't think of a way to get the candles to not sink in the pudding!) Here's a picture of him and his Etch-a-Sketch:

Isn't he cute?

Happy Birthday McKay!

Today was McKay's birthday... and he was soooo excited. I heard him wake up and say, "YESSSSSS!!" He's been counting down to today. I was a little worried though, because he was up earlier than usual, I thought maybe he would be grouchy. Yesterday morning Kayden was making McKay's bed.... while McKay was still sleeping in it (totally like Kayden to want his room that clean... are you feeling my pain to get the basement done yet?!), and he woke McKay up (imagine that...) and McKay was a HUGE grump all day yesterday! I was really hoping today wouldn't be a repeat (nothing like spending your birthday in "time-out.") But for the most part he had a great day. He opened his presents this morning, Rik and I took him to Arctic Circle for lunch (it was going to be a picnic at the park, but that would have been like going to the REAL Arctic.... winter's back...errr!), came home and played with his new toys, had his favorite food for dinner (salad and sausage... ya, I know, weird combination for dinner tonight... but those are his two favorite foods....) and then grandma and cousins came over for candles and yummy cake, and now he's asleep. Here's some pictures of the day:





Some funny quotes I heard today:

McKay, after I got him out of the tub, wrapped him up in a towel with the towel draped on his head: "I look like Jesus... or maybe Mary, ya, probably Mary."
Anaya: "Hurry is a bad word... don't say it any more!"

Kayden's birthday is tomorrow... he wants rice pudding instead of cake (yum!) You should have seen the blizzard I shopped in tonight shopping for Kayden's birthday... good thing I like him!

Yippee! It's "Next Week!"

McKay has been asking for days now if it is "next week" yet, because his birthday is on Tuesday of next week. So when I told him that tomorrow is "next week" he was pretty excited. He drew this picture during church today:


He says that all those little guys are him, and they are happy because it's his birthday!

Kayden went fishing on Saturday with the young men in our ward... and came home nice and sunburned on his face:


It looked a little better today than yesterday. He said he had a lot of fun though. They canoed in, and he ended up catching 2 fish (even better... he didn't bring them home!)

No volleyball this weekend, so I was thinking we would get some work done on the basement, but Rik ran 15 miles Saturday morning, and was unable to move well the rest of the day.... moving sheet rock down into the basement this weekend was definitely out. Rik is walking a little better today though (at least I don't have ward members asking me what Rik has done to be hobbling around the church, like they did last time he ran a big run!) But he was so sore he couldn't even go on our Saturday night date to Walmart together... I had to take McKay and Anaya instead (McKay wanted to pick his birthday treat for school on Monday....he chose Twix bars... his favorite "steal from my piano treat bowl" treat... that he's not allowed to steal, but does anyway). Kayden's birthday is Wednesday.... so lots of cake this week (nothing wrong with that!)

It was beautiful this weekend! We might try for a family bike ride tonight!

Oh baby x 2!

Here's some pictures of Kawiti and Teryn's baby. I'm so excited to have some more boys in the family! Love all these babies (and that someone else is having them....)



His name is Coriantumr. Kawiti and Teryn have some more pictures here.

Oh baby!

Here's some pictures of Pono and Michelle's baby. I loved holding him tonight. He was born this afternoon and weighed 6' 14" and was 20" long. He was so alert when I was up there tonight... totally melted my heart with his wide awake eyes looking around. It's not official yet, but they are thinking of naming him Mason Casey Finlayson. Cute baby!




I went to a friends birthday party tonight and when I walked out this is what it looked like:


Ick.... I'm awful tired of snow and cold.

I'm still waiting for some pictures of Teryn and Kawiti's baby. I heard his looks a lot like Kawiti and was 6' 10". I can hardly wait to see what he looks like.

I mostly survived my Wednesday....

Update

Well I don't have anything all that interesting to blog, but I thought I would tell you what we've been up to. The week after spring break was crazy (I mean more so than usual...) with ballroom pictures, dress rehearsal and performance, volleyball, piano and everything else, but no church on Sunday, so that was nice. Anaya didn't help the crazy week either... she seems to enjoy chap sticking everything. Dora the explorer had to go right in the garbage, cause the lip stick wasn't coming out of her hair (so did a brand new shirt and a pair of pajamas....) We went out to eat Friday night with some friends (Sandpiper.... yummy!) Nanny and Papa (Rik's parents) came up this weekend to help with the basement (Pono came up and helped too) ... and by "help" I mean we are light years ahead of where we were before! We really, really appreciate all the help we have gotten on the basement. We don't actually own any real tools, so we have all my dad's stuff down there, and he's been coming and helping every chance he gets as well. I'm starting to get really excited (also could be read: I'm arranging furniture in my head....)!

Kawiti and Teryn are having a baby today, and Pono and Michelle tomorrow (both having boys!) I'll try to get some pictures. They both look much cuter pregnant than I ever did...

Kayden only has 9 days left on his Family Life merit badge that he's been working on for the last 3 months. He has to do all sorts of chores for me everyday, and has been faithfully checking them off everyday... I'm thinking I should erase some check marks....