Random Favorite Pics

I just have a few pics that I need to post - no real theme here, just like them all! ;) These are all Spring 2014 (May or June)

Last day of School

The boys are officially done with second grade and kindergarten! :( Gabe had a great year with Miss Baird and really improved his reading from first grade. Caleb has a really fun year with Mrs. Jensen and Mrs. Snedaker. I hope he can make the transition to a full day of school next year! I am most worried about him waking up and getting ready that early! Here is a picture of them on the last day! (This was at 8 am so Caleb wasn't quite dressed for the day yet… I think he slept in that.)

Zoo Trip

We took a quick trip to the Idaho Falls zoo and I took a couple pictures and one was in the same spot as last year about this time. Just thought it would be fun to compare! ;) Gabe and Caleb seem to have switched places though….

Selfies and Random pics

I really just wanted an excuse to post some of these pictures…. (and not all of them are selfies… just funny pictures…)

Pinewood Derby and Mother's Day

Okay, I am getting caught up here! I just wrote about March and April and we are only halfway through May! But so far in May, we had the Pinewood Derby and Mother's Day - which is TODAY!

For those of you who may not know (who am I kidding, I am basically just blogging for my own journaling purposes at this point!) the Pinewood Derby is a little thing the boys do in Cub Scouts. Each boy is given basically a block of wood and four wheels and told to make a car out of it. Luckily, Gabe actually has a dad that knows how to do that (I would be clueless…. the wheels would be taped onto a painted block….) So the first thing they did was cut it down to the shape of a little race car. Then Josh cut a little square out of the top that was just big enough for a little lego driver to sit in! It was so cute. He even picked on that was wearing a little helmet. Then, I helped Gabe paint it (that is my ability level.) It was pretty cool looking.
The night of the race, they had this guy come and bring this super fancy track that actually had a computers hooked up to it and a camera and it would tell you your exact time on each race! It was so amazing. People out here definitely go a little crazy to be that into Pinewood Derby. I guess this guy actually has this little side business where churches pay him to come and run the whole show. He was worth it though! He did an AMAZING job! There was music and everything! I think they ran about 10 races each kid - four cars at a time - and then took each score and averaged them out for their overall score.
When it was all done and all scores were tallied, Gabe ended up taking second place overall. It was actually kind of confusing for him though because when they were announcing the winners, they started with "Third place goes to…." then "Second…" then "First…. (Gabe)" then "Grand Prize!!!" But I don't really think Gabe grasped the concept of the grand prize actually being the best and only heard the part about him winning "First prize!" That night when we got home, he was like, "I am not really sure how I won because that other boy's car beat me almost every time!" haha I had to kindly explain that actually, that boy did win by just a little bit. That the grand prize actually meant he did the best. Gabe was still happy even with "second" though! haha

Then today was Mother's Day!!! It was a great day, even though Josh had to go to work tonight at 9:00 pm, at least he was home all day. My day started with actually sleeping in until 10 am!!! (I really can't remember the last time I have slept that late.) Then Josh made french toast for breakfast and we all got ready for church. Caleb was assigned to give his very first talk in Primary today, so we had written that last night and he practiced it a couple of times this morning. He had asked me over and over, "You will come up and help me right?" and I had said, "Yes, I will" but then when it came time to actually read his talk, HE DID SOOO GOOD! He didn't even need my help at all! He read every single word of it all by himself. It was such a proud mama moment. I just stood there and held up the pictures of the different prophets as he talked. It even had long words in it like "obedient" and "listening"! I walked out of there wanting to be like, "Everyone - my kindergartner is A GENIUS!!!" haha But I didn't. The kids also sang in the sacrament meeting, which was very cute.
Then tonight Josh made dinner and we just hung out, I called my mom, and Josh had to get to work. The craziest thing was, he got me a KitchenAid! Those things are stinkin' expensive and I really don't know how much I will use it! I had kind of said I wanted one recently, but I didn't think he'd really go out and buy one! So I am not sure what to do about that. Mom says I will break his heart if I return it. haha I don't want to do that! I am just not sure i can justify keeping a $225 mixer that I may not really use. So! We'll see if 20 years from now, when I am reading this, if I still have that KitchenAid on my counter! haha Maybe I will look back and say "I used that to start my bread-making business and used it every day!!!" haha or maybe not, it may not last another day in my kitchen. Time will tell! ;)

That's all for now! I have some serious picture organizing to do! The crappy thing is, we probably take even more pictures now than we ever used to, but between Josh's phone, my phone, the iPad, and the old camera, I NEVER know where anything is!!! I need to organize them and get some printed. I used to be so good about that! But I have been so busy with my Etsy shop (side note - yes it's going very well! ;) that I don't have much time for that anymore!

I will try though! It's on my to-do list (along with twenty other things!!!) ;)

Avery's Easter Photo Session

I asked the boys if they wanted to come to Idaho Falls and have pictures taken with Avery. You can see from the photos below what their response was….
Here is my little princess, age 21 months, dressed in her new Easter dress! Her hair is so long now I can actually put it all up!
She wasn't too smiley this day (even though the poor photographer girl tried EVERYTHING - the more she tried, the more Avery gave her this "You're crazy" look.") But at least she didn't cry either! ;)

April 2014

Easter, a trip to Yellowstone and Josh's 34th birthday were the highlights of April!

So I believe the first thing was Josh's birthday on the 18th. He chose to go out to see the movie "Captain America" with his cousin, Devin, and his wife, Charm (and me of course! haha). We love hanging out with them. You know how sometimes it is hard to find a couple to hang out with that everyone actually gets along? Like the guys get along, the girls get along, and it's fun for all? Devin and Charm are that couple for us! We are even planning a trip to DisneyWorld with their family (they have three kids) next Spring. I am already counting down the days!
Anyway, so we went to see the movie and ate dinner at Rumbi Island grill. It was a fun time!

The next thing was probably Easter - but we actually went to Yellowstone ON EASTER Sunday! (We skipped Church, how horrible, huh? Even the Catholics make it a point to go to church on Easter!!! Haha Just kidding there Gramps, I know you go every Sunday….) So we wanted to go that day because it was opening weekend and it was therefore FREE!!! We saw some buffalo but no bears or anything to exciting. Then we went to see Old Faithful and we ate a little "car picnic lunch". There was still a ton of snow there, so we didn't have the picnic on a blanket in a meadow like I had been envisioning. (You always build things up a little more in your head, you know?)

For our actual Easter celebrations, we did do a little egg hunt with the kids on Saturday at the church. Me and some of the neighbors (Brittaini - yes that's how she spells her name - Millner and her family, our new neighbor, Jesse and her husband and two kids, and Boyters were in attendance.) We hid enough for each kid to find 20 eggs, so it sure beats the city egg-hunt where you are lucky if you get one!! I vowed never to go back to one of those hunts after the first years we moved back to Idaho and Caleb left crying, with no eggs. :( So sad.

Then we headed up to Josh's parents' house for their little Easter egg hunt and cook-out. With 20 kids involved, that one actually goes pretty fast too!
On Easter morning, the Easter Bunny came and left out kids a little treasure hunt again - but this time in each egg, there was a little rhyme telling them they had to do something before finding their next clue!
In one they had to do jumping jacks, in another it was push-ups, they really got their morning workout!!
Then the three baskets were finally found in the backseat of the van. They had a lot of good car food goodies, like crackers, juice boxes, and fruit snacks, which they took with them as we made out drive to Yellowstone.
It was a pretty fun Easter!