Easter 2008

We had a great Easter weekend again this year.

We put on our new Easter clothes and snapped a few pictures before heading out to church.
On Saturday we went to Grandma and Grandpa Z's to color easter eggs. We are so glad that they invite us each year to color the eggs. It's so much fun! But I have to say, the glitter was definitely the highlight!

Bret kept his designated spot warm as usual. . . Reading on the couch! :)
And Shawn was pretty brave to play with the toys and stay out of trouble most of the time.

Easter morning we discovered that the easter bunny had delivered again. Our baskets were loaded!
Shawn was in heaven. He's never had a yummier breakfast . . . 1 chocolate egg, 1 Reese's peanut butter cup, another chocolate egg, another chocolate egg. . .

Our family is truly Blessed!

Saint Patrick's Day

Green Eggs and Ham Anyone?

I was so excited to play a little trick on the kids. I made a plate of Green scrambled eggs and some ham,

and I handed it to each one of them when they came down for breakfast.

They all had a nervous look on their face when they saw it.

I have to admit . . . It didn't look very appetizing.

They were all relieved when I pulled out toast and grapefruit from behind the toaster. We ended the day with "game night". . . A little Clue and Charades!

It was a fun "lucky" day!

Art Expo

Westridge had its annual Art Expo last week. The theme was "My Favorite Things" and Jenny and Tyler both chose to do 'Sculptures'. So we took a night and made salt dough. Boy was it fun!

Tyler made this "thing" and told me it was a caterpillar but then the next thing I knew it was a fence so . . .

Jenny knew right away what her favorite thing was!

Can you tell what it is?
And Katy, my little artist, made this little snowman. . . She kind of got "pushed to the side" because Jenny and Tyler needed help completing their projects and then all of a sudden Katy had this adorable Snowman made. He was complete with a scarf (not pictured), earmuffs, gloves (not pictured), buttons and a carrot nose. Her creation was pretty incredible for being 5 years old. I know she got her artistic talent from Bret and Grandma Clark, because she sure as heck didn't get it from me!

Shawnee even got to play with us.

But he wasn't so sure about it . . .

Well, if you haven't guessed yet, Jenny loves football! That's all she and a few friends do at recess is play football with the boys. And of course, you should have guessed Tyler's favorite thing . . . CHEESE! So he gave up on the fence/caterpillar thing and made a "cheeseman"! Complete with cheese colored paint and holes! Way to go guys! That was a fun project to do together. I love you all!

Jenny's Dance Concert

Jenny performed in a benefit concert for the Utah Food Bank this last week. She had so much fun. . . She was grinning from ear to ear the whole time!

She got to do two dances this year.

The names of the dances are

"Cooties" and "Miscommunication".

This is a picture of all the girls on her team.

Way to go Extreme!

You all did a great job!

Sledding at Rock Canyon Park

We did a lot of fun things over the Christmas Break, but our favorite was probably going sledding at

Rock Canyon Park.

I don't think Katy remembers going sledding very much, so it was kind of like new thing for her. And of course she loved it! She was looking for every jump she could find, and she was fighting me to go higher and faster each time. Tyler, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. He was a little more cautious. :) And Jenny just can't stop laughing!
Bret was so brave to wait in the car with Shawn. They watched Baby Einstein about three times before we came back. Thank you Dad and Shawn for being so brave!
When we finally decided that our hands and feet were frozen, we headed back to the car for a little HOT CHOCOLATE! Katy said it was a "picnic in the snow". The whole day was so fun!

Festival of Trees

We went to the Festival of Trees on Saturday. We were planning on Bret being with us, but he took off for the Cougar game in San Diego at the last minute,so it just ended up being me and the kids.

Grandma and Grandpa Z had never been

to the festival, so we talked them into tagging along.

We loved having them with us!

Shawn could tell something fun was going to happen.

What a smile!

We all did a bunch of stuff in the kids corner . . .

life-sized bubble, sand mix, reindeer spoons,

and Tyler even talked to one of Santa's elves.

Grandpa and Shawn were so brave to wait for the activities to end.

The gingerbread houses may have been

our favorite things at the Festival!

Jenny and I are ready to make a tree

for the festival next year. Is anyone else in?

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let is Snow!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We woke up this morning to snow, snow, snow!

The kids couldn't get their snow clothes on fast enough.

So today, we are deep in Hot Chocolate,

Snowflake making,

and staying inside with lots of

Christmas music and decorating.

What a fun day!

Fall Leaves

We get back from story time today and Katy says to me,

"Where's the rake Mom?

I'm gonna rake those leaves."

So I handed her a rake and off she went.

The next thing I know, she's ringing the doorbell

telling me to come check out her work!

She was ready to make the big JUMP!

Shawn couldn't stand to just watch so he jumped in too!

. . . Nothin' better than
playin' in the leaves!

My Prediction Was Right!

Knowing that Wednesday was the last day of school before Fall Break, I got up early that morning to get my orders done so that we could be ready to go to Wallsburg the next morning. Needless to say, I was still doing them when the kids got home at 4:00 and I still hadn't even showered! YIKES! So Bret calls around 5ish and says he has been invited to go to the Jazz Game (GO JAZZ!) and I say go for it! "I'll just have the kids help me clean the house (which was a total BOMB!) and then we can stop at the grocery store in the morning before we head up to Wallsburg." Great Plan!

So I feed the kids and we have a big POW-WOW about what everyone's assignment is for cleaning the house. And then we are off! By now it's about 7:30-7:45.

At 8:00, Katy decides she's going to run around upstairs with her eyes closed . . . she trips on a blanket and cracks her forehead on the corner of the desk in the girls' bedroom.

I took one look at it and knew this was a real wammy! I knew I couldn't fix this myself, so I packed all four kids into the car and we head to the emergency room. They gave her a cotton ball with some numbing medicine right when we got there but . . . Bret comes home early from the game, my mom comes to get Jenny, Tyler and Shawn and then Bret and Katy and I wait in the emergency room for 3 HOURS to be seen. WAY TOO LONG!

SO . . . as stated in the title "My prediction was right" that Katy would someday be my emergency room child. But she was indeed the bravest of them all. The doctors thought they would have to sedate her to stitch her up, but she held so still they didn't have to. So at 12:30am (over four hours later) we finally walked out of there with 9 cool blue stitches! ( and several more on the underlayer).

We love you Katy! We are so lucky to have you, but next time please remember to run with your eyes open! Once we got to Wallsburg we were immediately in heaven and could finally relax. The first day, since we got up there a little later then planned, we took it easy. We fed the fish . . .
played with Maddox . . .

and did a little R&R!
Saturday morning we headed up to Park City to ride the Alpine Slide and do a little shopping. The Alpine slide was closed, but it was the last day to ride the Alpine Coaster. I was just as fun and way faster. If you haven't been on it we would highly recommend going next year! IT'S FAST!




After all the Wallsburg fun you've got to soak in a warm bubble bath. Shawn has never seen so many bubbles. He was in heaven!
On Saturday, I headed down the canyon for my sewing class, and Bret hung with the kids. When I got back Bret headed over to Roland's cabin to help with a little plumbing problem. Roland wanted to pay us back for the help, so he offered for us to play on his new toy. We couldn't let that offer up . . . so we headed out that night on "THE RANGER". Bret wrapped us all up in blankets and we headed up the canyon. IT WAS SO COLD! But so fun! We saw so many beautiful leaves . . . nothing beats being up in the mountains with your family. Thank you Bret for the fun idea!

We had so much fun this weekend! Thank you Tom and Gwen for being so generous in sharing your house with us. We had so much fun together watching shows, going for walks, riding "THE RANGER", feeding the fish, petting the horses, cooking good meals at night, having hot cookies and milk, and sleeping all together in the loft!
Our family is Blessed!

Halloween Fever

We are so excited for Halloween to come! Not only is it one of the funnest holidays, but it's also Shawn's big day! We can't believe he is going to be ONE!

The Thompson are coming soon too and we're planning a rip roarin' Halloween party! I don't think that day can come fast enough.

Here are a few Halloween tunes to help you catch the Halloween Fever if you haven't gotten it already!

We love you all!

Happy Halloween!