Easter 2011

We had a great Easter/Birthday weekend!  We had mom and dad and Grandma Taylor over on Sunday for a Easter/birthday dinner and celebration for Kelsi and Sam :)
Bryan cooked a delicious turkey in the dutch oven, and all the good foods that go with a turkey dinner and he even made pies!  It was a great feast and it was great to spend time with grandparents :)

I was a BRAVE mom and took the baby bunnies to Sam's class at school on Friday...he was very excited.  It was also grandparents day that day...so Sam had a lot of fun things happening on his birthday!  Then, Sam got to go with Grandma Blake for his special baptism date.  He was so excited and had a GREAT time with grandma and grandpa.  It's a special tradition, as Kelsi says and (we all agree)..."Besides being Baptized, the best thing about turning 8 is going on a special date with Grandma."

Jacob had a great time at grandparents day too...they had fun playing "Smarter than a 5th grader".
Jacob had his first court of honor tonight.  He got his first patch for his new scout shirt, which I gratefully found at Savers for $7!  And I got another mother's pin...I need to find a place to keep all these pins..especially with Sam coming up...he goes to Scouts for the first time tomorrow!

We are really looking forward to Sam's baptism day on Saturday--it's hard to believe that Sam is really 8 and being baptized. Time sure flies!

Bryan and I spent the day baking...well Bry did most of the baking and I did more cleaning, but I did help with the cookies :)  And now we've got cookies and rolls in the freezer for Saturday!

This week I've been very grateful for a husband who likes to cook!  He's helped out a lot lately!
It will be our 16th Anniversary this Friday...wow time really does fly.  Sometimes I still think I'm in my 20's, and then reality hits 'cause my oldest is only 6 years short of 20!  --which means I am way too close to turning 40.  Yikes!  Yes, I'm having my first birthday crisis this year...and October is still months away.  My goal is to be GREAT with turning 37 by the time October hits :)

CHICKS AND BUNNIES!

We have 3 baby chicks!
Bryan and the kids went to IFA and got 3 chicks today. 
Bryan also got the incubator out and we're going to hatch some chicks as well.  We're planning to keep 5 hens for laying fresh eggs.

And Sara, our bunny, is going to have babies!!  Chicks and bunnies....sounds like spring to me!  We're definitely getting ready for SPRING around here!

Tonight for YW, the girls and I went to the BYU art museum Carl Bloch exhibit.  It was amazing!  I want to go back with Bryan and spend more time there.

Jacob's getting excited for his birthday this week.  He's having a friend party this Friday, watching 'Despicable Me' and playing a bunch of games!

Bryan and I went to our Stake Valentines Dance on Sat....good food, fun times.
Sam's teacher asked the kids in his class to send a non-food item for Sam for Valentines day.  All but 2 of the valentines Sam got had non-food items---Sam was so excited!  It was so thoughtful of Mrs. Laycock and the kids in his class!

CHRISTMAS WISHES 2010!

 Christmas Morning....7:00am...yes, I won out this year.  The kids were pushing for a 5:00am wake up time.  But I was feeling tired and WISHING FOR more sleep so I SUGGESTED a 7:00am wake up time and they all lovingly agreed.  So, this is why 3 of the 4 kids are already dressed.  They were up since about 5:00am waiting until 7:00am so they could wake us up...so they got dressed, ready for the day...what sweet, good, kids to wait for us!! And I got my wish of 2 extra hours of sleep!!

Karissa asked for a selection of GAMES and SHE GOT HER WISH!

We've had a lot of fun playing them with her this past week!

Kelsi asked for a SURPRISE..she got an IPOD shuffle,
and Star Wars Books...

...just what she was wishing for!
She reads the Star Wars books to Sam at bedtime...and Sam LOVES it!...so he got an extra wish!

Jacob was wishing for an IPOD TOUCH.  He even contributed $100.00 that he left out for Santa, along with a Christmas pillow he made for Santa.  He got his wish, and is LOVING his present!

Star Wars, yep, that's what Sam wished for....STAR WARS...and 'Dexter', the Dog--Sam's newest friend.

He got a very cool star wars ship, which is 3 times bigger than he pictured it would be----nice surprise for Sam. He also got Mighty Muggs Star Wars General Grievous, 

and a Star Wars Blanket, which just might be his favorite!

Let us not forget, the coolest double light saber for Sam!  

And Bryan got his wish when Sam said:
"I don't want any batteries in it." 

I've been wishing for some sort of jewelry box for some time now.  

I got more than I wished for when Bryan built me
this custom made jewelry organizer
in one of the shelves in my closet.  Loving it!

Bryan was the most SURPRISED when Santa left him
a Blue-ray player...
he's been wishing for that for a while.
He was very happy to get his wish!

We asked the kids to not buy any gifts for us this year, but to either give us homemade gifts or gifts of service.  Karissa made us these cool hats.  Jacob made us gingerbread cookies.  Sam made us a new 'dish job chart', and Kelsi made us coupon books.
WE'RE GRATEFUL FOR ALL OF OUR CHRISTMAS WISHES!

BUNNY SNOW CAVE

The snow melted...and the awesome snow fort sunk.  Sam still went outside and played all day in the snow again...sliding down the remains of the fort like a slide.  Then, Kelsi brought our bunny, Angel, out to play in the snow, and Angel, Sam, and Kelsi dug a BUNNY SNOW CAVE FOR ANGEL!

FUN SNOW PICS!

Happy Snow Day!

So we finally got some CHRISTMAS SNOW!  What a fun day.  The kids have been having a lot of fun playing in it.  Bryan took the boys on sleigh rides behind the 4-wheeler...and then snow plowed many a driveways and side walks.  Bryan also helped Kelsi, Jacob and Sam build an AWESOME SNOW FORT! FUN TIMES!

Thanksgiving and Shopping--they go together, right?

We had a great thanksgiving dinner--Bryan was GREAT and cooked the majority of it. It turned out delicious--the stuffing was amazing! We really enjoyed the long break and played a ton of games and watched movies, and of course, shopped.

Karissa and I had GREAT, CRAZY FUN at black Friday. We started at 9:00pm Thurs. night and shopped 'til 12noon on Friday! First off, we stood in line for 3 hours to get our trampoline--and we did get it!--we were 2nd in line :) It just got better from there on. We were very focused :) and stuck with our plan---got all we had planned to get, except for the Scooter Karissa wanted at Target---because Target was complete madness. But it all worked out because she found something even better at Smith's, our last stop. We hit Wal-mart a few times...Target, Old Navy, Justice, Kohl's, Roberts, Big Lots, and Smiths.
And I must say, Wal-mart was the most organized and most pleasant. We managed to stand in lines of 5-10 min. or less---we were FAST. Except Target---that was our 1 hour line.

BUT our BEST stop was at Chick-fil-a where we got a COMPLETELY FREE and DELICIOUS breakfast, including the best peppermint shakes! The moment we walked in we were handed coupons---we used them with other coupons I had---and our complete meal was FREE, and they were even kind enough to make Karissa french fries at 7:00am. Chick-fil-a is my new favorite restaurant!

Bryan's now working on building a mini-smoker for us. It's a pretty intense project, and as a sacrifice our vehicles have been out in the cold, snow---but he's been very good to help scrape windows for us and drive kids to school. And Jacob has been having fun shoveling cement---we have at least twice as much cement now! It reminds me of when Jacob used to beg to load the dishwasher because it was so much fun. I wonder how long shoveling cement will remain 'fun'!