Nose Getter

Today Abigail was going through one of her bags of "stuff" and she pulled out some play tweezers.  She very excitedly ran to me and said, "Mom look I found some nose getters!"  I asked her what she meant and she said these are what you use to get beads out of noses.  Although tweezers are used for many things, I doubt there are many that would classify them as nose getters!

New Independence

Ryan is starting to become so independent.  I love it when my kids can do things on there own, not because I don't want to help them, but because they get to feel that sense of accomplishment that comes from doing things for yourself.  Ryan is definitely starting to reap the rewards of independence.  He loves to clean his room and then have me come in and tell him how proud I am of him.  Sunday while I was getting dinner in the oven Ryan came in all dressed and ready for church.  He had done it all by himself and he was so proud.  He usually does a lot of it himself, but in the past I have had to help some.  Here is a picture of him all dressed and ready to go. 

I just love this boy, you can tell by the look on his face just how proud he is of himself.

Catching Up!

We had a wonderful Easter.  The week before Easter my Aunt Marie came and visited.  We enjoyed getting to see her, it was a busy week, but she got to see the boys practice soccer, Emily play tennis, and she attended an Easter egg hunt with me for Abigail and Ryan.  Tyson and Justin were  both sick with a 24 hour flu while she was here, but as far as I know she didn't come down with it.  Friday my Aunt Evie and her daughter and two children came to pick Marie up.  We enjoyed visiting with Alisa and Evie, and the kids had a lot of fun playing.  David and Mary, Alisa's children, are the same age as Ryan and Abigail, so it was fun for them.  Unfortunately Marie was so busy taking pictures it didn't occur to me to get my own camera out and take some pictures!

Easter was on General Conference so we got to stay home and enjoy the day.  Getting Easter clothes for the kids to wear is one of my favorite things to do, so I had them wear them to church the week before.  Here are a few pictures of them.

This is the picture of Justin he prefers, he has decided his eyes always look closed in pictures, so he was determined to have his eyes opened.  I love it when they go through this stage.  At about this same age Tyson was looking at pictures of himself and decided he didn't like how his smile looked.  It has taken about 3 years, but we are finally starting to see a natural smile of Tyson again.

Here is the picture I prefer.  It took about twenty shots to get one that looked natural.  He was not happy with this one.

On Easter day the kids did an Easter egg hunt in the house and then later they went and found some Easter eggs outside from Grandpa and Annabell.  Here are a few pictures of them finding the eggs outside.

Here are also some pictures from our trip to Oklahoma city that I didn't have downloaded when I wrote about it.

The hair that got Justin on TV!

The Memorial

Fun at the Science museum!

Soccer Has Started

Soccer season started, and we are busier than ever because now Ryan is old enough to play.  All three of my boys have practice on the same nights at the same time on different fields no where near each other, so it is interesting trying to get them where they are suppose to be.  Ryan is the one who has missed a lot of his practices.  It is much easier to have a four year old miss his practice than my older two boys.  Saturday they all had their first game of the season.  Unfortunately we are in Lubbock, and the wind was not cooperating at all.  It blew hard all day.  Justin's team had two goals scored on them by the wind, it wasn't even touched by a player, just one kick at the other end of the field and it blew into the goal.  Ryan did not enjoy the wind, and therefore, did not enjoy his game at all.  He stood out on the field crying because he was cold and the grass was getting in his eyes.  We are hoping he finds a little more joy out of playing soccer within the next few weeks, otherwise he may not be playing soccer again next season.  Tyson's team won 6-0 so he was excited even though it was a lot of work with the wind and all.

March Madness!

This year for spring break we drove to Oklahoma City to watch BYU in the basketball tournament.  They won their first game in double over time and played well in the second game, but didn't win.  We had great seats for both game, and had a lot of fun watching the games.  Justin and Tyson were both on the local news talking about the mighty Cougars.

Friday we went to the Zoo.  There isn't a whole lot of stuff to do there in Oklahoma city, so everyone was at the zoo.  They said they had record breaking numbers.  Ryan and I were only there for about an hour because Ryan threw up while we were in the holding room to go look at the larakeets (the good part is the exhibit was closed and so the rest of our clan got to stay and hold the birds for as long as they wanted).  Luckily Ryan felt better after that and after we came back and got them from the zoo we went and saw the memorial for the Oklahoma city bombing.  This was increadible.  There is so much symbolism in that memorial.  Even Ryan enjoyed it and still asks me questions about it.

Saturday we woke up to snow.  It snowed all day, but we still went to the Science Museum there.  It was wonderful.  It had so much stuff to do and the kids all loved it.  It was nice that it had snowed because I think it kept a lot of people away.  The kids went with Jeff to a Science Live show and they said that was by far the best thing.  I stayed out with Abigial so I didn't see it.  Saturday night we went to the BYU vs. Kansas State game, and then we drove home.  We didn't leave Oklahoma until 10:00 p.m., so it was a long drive, but it was nice to get home and be able to relax and get ready for school starting on Monday.

Sorry I don't have any pictures.  Our computer broke and it took three weeks to get it back, but now we can't figure out how to get everything put back on it, so I don't have any pictures uploaded yet.

Out of Batteries

This week I was determined to potty train Abigail, unfortunately four of my five kids came down with the stomach flu.  Abigail was one of them so potty training seemed like it was not going to happen.  I still tried off and on when I knew we would be home, but I was not successful.  I will start again tomorrow.  Once when Abigail was sitting on the toilet, and nothing was happening she said, Mom, it's not working, I think I need new batteries!  I am hoping this week she can figure it out without batteries!

The Perfect Snow

Today it is snowing again, but this is the kind of snow I love.  This is the snow I remember, when the earth is still and calm and gets covered with a beautiful white covering.  It makes you feel so peaceful to go out side.  This is the way snow is suppose to fall.  I love it, and I love what it does to the dead landscape in my front yard, it makes it beautiful again. 

 

The snow we usually get is not a peaceful thing, it comes with a lot of wind and ice and peace is the last thing you feel inside.  There is some joy in this kind of snow, but it doesn't come until after the storm has settled and the kids can go out and play in it.  This is what my kids built last time we got a big ugly snow storm.

 

  

Sometimes in our life we have those peaceful tender moments that bring us pure joy and are so easy, but other times we have to battle the storm to get to the joy.  I am thankful for both.