Crazy Hair Day

My kids look forward to this day every year at school. We'll let the boys' hair get as long as we can stand just before the big day. (And then it's off to get hair cuts.) They love to wear mohawks...even if it is for just a day. The boys' tried and tried to talk Rachel into doing something really crazy, but she is just a little too shy for that. Maybe when she gets older and braver, she'll venture out...we'll see I guess. For now she still wants to style her hair so that it is fashionable.

All ready for the big day.

I love Zack's face in this one.

Tough guys...but seriously, it drives me crazy to let their hair grow this long.

This is as crazy as Rachel would let me get.

April Fools 2010

So this past April Fools Day, Nate and I were scrambling on how we could 'get' the kids. Well next year we have some great ideas brewing, but for this year, we had to think fast. I colored the milk in the morning, and tried to fool them with different colored pancakes. But while they were at school I had the idea to make layered pudding cups, and freeze them...so that it would be almost imposible to eat, until they thawed. I did however, place a quarter in the middle of each pudding dessert, except for one. That dessert, I place a penny taped up with a note that said, "Go look in the egg under mom's pillow." I placed a dollar bill in the egg, under my pillow. I didn't know who would get the lucky dessert...it was all by chance. They were shocked when they tried to dig into their desserts when they were rock hard. But they quickly remembered the magic of a microwave and away they went. Brady was the first to find a quarter, then Rachel. It was up to Zack and Jace (who kept asking his dad to nuke his dessert). Zack was our lucky winner of the dollar, but they all had a blast with our little game.

Brady can eat anything frozen as fast as anyone I know...he had no problem digging in.

Rachel loving the dessert.

Jace just found his quarter.

I've never seen someone so excited to find a dollar!

Rachel's Dance and Gymnastics

This past year Rachel participated in both a dance and gymnastics classes. She is really trying to find what she wants to 'do' when it comes to recreation. She keeps saying that she wants to be a cheerleader when she gets older, so I tell her she needs tumbling experience, but she loves to dance...and is always dancing and singing around the house. Luckily we found places where she can take both classes, and it wouldn't break the bank. A neighbor of ours, Stephanie Pace, runs a little dance class out of her house, and Rachel had a few friends in the class with her. Gymnastics was held and the PG Rec Center, and even though it was all around gymnastics, she learned (and is still practicing) some great tumbling skills. She starts coach pitch in a couple of weeks, and still plans on playing soccer this fall, so who knows what she'll end up wanting to do. I guess a little bit of everything doesn't hurt in the beginning.

Rachel and her dance class, her really good friend Olivia was also in her school class.

Little Bendy Girl.

She just loved her gymnastics teacher, Miss Brook, she did a great job encouraging Rachel during class.

Easter 2010

We had a great Easter this year, even with the rain. I guess that is what we have come to expect here in Utah though. That weekend we had family come up, and had Mason staying with us, so I was scrambling to find something for the Easter Bunny to leave him on Saturday. The candy was gone within a day...thankfully, and since we were busy playing with cousins, we never did get to coloring easter eggs. But the kids loved the note the Easter Bunny left that said to not wake up their parents or look in their baskets, until we got up. Thank goodness they listened. (They even hung it on the fridge for awhile until another cousin said, 'The Easter Bunny isn't real.'...I quickly removed it before the subject was brought up again. I hate losing that 'magic' with my kiddos.)

Hannah's new bed

Nate had been wanting to put Hannah in a toddler bed for quite some time. But I wasn't rushing with the idea, because nap time and bed time were just too easy with a crib. I'd just set her in there, give her a kiss, hand her a book and a passy and would be on my way. Easy peasy. But in March, he came home with a cute little toddler bed, and couldn't wait to set it up for her. That first night, she was so excited to have a new bed, that she didn't even ask for a passy, and we just seemed to let it ride. So she loves her new bed, she doesn't take a passy any more....things are perfect right? Ya...right.


This is actually where Hannah sleeps most nights. On the floor next to her bed, or actually anywhere on her floor. It's not that she doesn't like her bed, but for some reason she always wants to sleep on the ground. I've even tried to scare her and say that there are spiders on the floor, but she doesn't care, she prefers the floor. Silly Girl.

And since she is able to get out of bed at night, she automatically comes into our room, to my side of the bed. The first couple of times I just pulled her into bed with us, but we wanted to avoid getting into that habit. So when she comes in, she is usually dragging her blankets and pillows, she'll drop them to the side of my bed, and run back in for any books or stuffed animals she went to bed with, while I lay them out for her. And she sleeps comfortably to the side of my bed, but at least it's not in my bed and it's not every night.

Next up POTTY TRAINING!

Cruise February 2010

So I figured I better write about our cruise in February, since it was next on my list and it seems to be holding all the other entries back. We had a wonderful time...I mean how could you not on a cruise? We visited some wonderful islands and had a TON of fun...of course. We first flew to Puerto Rico, where we spent 3 days sight-seeing. I'd love to go back there....so much to see and do! We went to the national rain forest there...so pretty, and lots of fun little hikes. And also took a ferry out to Calubra Island....which has one of the top 10 beaches in the world. And yes it was Flaminco Beach is beautiful. The islands that we were able to see were St. Thomas, St. Kitts, St. Croix, and Barbados. We weren't able to see the island Dominica, because the day we got there the sea swells were to high for the ship to dock, so we spent the day at sea.

Some funny stories that happened while we were vacationing:

At the last minute of packing I threw Brady's day backpack into my carry-on, thinking it would be great for the hiking in Puerto Rico. Well when we were going through security at the airport, the guard found 2 pocket knives of a descent size in that backpack. Put there many months ago, by my little cub scout Brady...always prepared I guess. I started laughing, but the guard didn't find it too humorous...obviously. Those knives were immediately confiscated.

The first night at dinner on the ship, our 'booze' waiter came around to see what drinks we would be wanting with our dinner. His name was Amol, and he was from India. When we told him that we didn't drink, he asked if we were Mormon. So we all had a good laugh, because you really don't think you'll meet that many Mormons on a cruise. But he told us to meet him on the dock tomorrow at St. Thomas and he would take us to the local branch. There were 20+ people in our group, so we added a lot to the small branch. What a fun experience to attend church in a different country. Amol was baptized about a year ago, after meeting his now fiance on the cruise ship where they both worked. They are planning on getting married this October, and live in India, even though she is from Chicago. He became a fast friend, and would visit us every night at dinner, even though we didn't order any booze!

Nate and I missed our kids a ton, but I guess Jace missed us the most out of all of them. (And to think I was worried mostly about Hannah.) At church on Sunday, he was having a hard time, and the primary president took him out in the hall to chat with him and give him a little hug. When she asked him how much he missed his mom and dad, he just lowered his little head and held up all 10 fingers. Kinda breaks my heart...what a cutie.

Here are some pics from the cruise:


Nate and Sara, Darryl and Gayle (my mom and dad), Jeremy and Emma at dinner.

I found this 'snow/sandman' on the beach in Barbados, just thought is was funny that someone would make this on a tropical island.

Best idea we've ever had when going on a cruise is to take our own snorkeling gear. We snorkeled on every island, and other cruise guests would ask us all the time where we rented our equipment at. Nate and Jeremy were a lot more daring than Emma and I, and found some awesome shells...even with creatures living inside!

In Barbados we went on the Rainforest zipline. SO FUN! I will definately do this again...it was totally safe and the workers there made is quite entertaining!

The island of St. Kitts. On the left hand side of the picture is the Atlantic Ocean, on the right hand side is the Carribbean Sea. This was by far my favorite island. Here we went kayaking out in the sea...that was a blast and quite a good work out...too bad we forgot to take pictures on the kayak's!

Nate being bombarded with baby green monkeys. They were so cute! And after the locals would throw them on you...they only wanted $20 for a picture, with your own camera. Always trying to make a buck!

Formal night...Nate and Sara. (Thanks Aubree and Ashlee for lending me your old prom dress.)

We went hiking all day in the rainforest in Puerto Rico. So pretty and green, even for the dry season. As we were making our own trail we happened across these ferns growing on trees, just thought that is was a cool picture.

The rainforest in Puerto Rico. I'd love to take the kids here someday, they would have a blast.