What did we do over Spring Break!

I felt like we did nothing, but as I was looking through pictures I realized we didn't do to bad. With getting a whole week off this year it would have been nice to do something a little more fun, but with no car and no husband, a daughter with a broken leg and really not a lot of mula laying around, we decided hanging around home was going to be the activity of choice.

This did not end up being the most fun, but what do ya do. I really do like summer and breaks here and there, but with 5 kids, you have to have a little planned or at least warm weather (which we had neither, plus their friends next door were gone as well), otherwise your kids get on each others nerves and yours by the bucket load. Or maybe that is just me and my kids. Knightin and TJ have been fighting a lot already with TJ being a little sensitive these days and then you add to older brothers to the group who think they have to argue and fight with the 2 younger ones and you have just created the prefect atmosphere for yelling, whaling, crying, hitting, biting, and nashing of teeth. I was so ready for this Monday to come and get rid of the 4 older kids again. I do love them, but last week wasn't my favorite!

Things weren't all bad, we did have good quiet times when all 5 were playing legos. Thank You to Mr Lego for inventing those amazing things so so many years ago. They were a favorite of my husbands and now a favorite of my children. When we bought them last year we made sure we had plenty so there would be less chance of fighting, it has worked pretty well.

Todd's baby, it stays in our room so that the baby's don't ruin it!

Their creations

Kids all happy and getting along. :)

Todd's say he bought the legos for his kids, but between you and me if we didn't have kids I still think we would have legos, and whatever other toys big boys  "buy for the kids". Though it is nice that the kids love them too!

Interesting Fact:    The Lego Group began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen (7 April 1891 – 11 March 1958), a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, who began making wooden toys in 1932. In 1934 his company came to be called "Lego", from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means "play well"

One of the fun things during Spring Break was getting to celebrate Knightins birthday. He gets so excited about things and it is fun to watch his eyes light up. I decided to make a cake this year, because I just really don't like anything about the store bought cakes expect that sometimes they can have really cool decorations that I can not create. I saw on another blog this rainbow cake and it looked so cool when you cut into it so I decided that was what I was going to make. They used regular 8" pans and that was just way to much cake, so I decided to use my little 3.5" pans, but since they were so small they wouldn't stay standing up, so Knightin got I guess you could call it a log for his cake. To make it really cool though we added cars on top, that way it wouldn't matter how horrible the cake looked because the cars got all the attention. I must say that it was really yummy and very fun to eat.

If anyone truely knows Knightin, then you know that all he really truly loves is things with wheels. We have been able to get him wheeled items for the last 4 yrs. We usually get him just the hot wheel size since that is his favorite, but once in awhile we add in something else, this year it was, can you guess, lego trucks and cars. The dump truck and garbage truck are toy story so that went over great and the big rig is just a big rig, need I say more! Happy Happy Boy!

 Oh yeah I almost forgot, we had a last minute present that joined the gifts that we got for Knightin. We own a lot of Geo trax, I'm sure there are plenty that have more, but we own a lot. We spent 3 years collecting different pieces over holidays. We love them cause the kids enjoy them but also they take a lot of abuse, which is good when you have more then one boy. Anyway we haven't bought any for a couple of years, because lets face it, I have a tiny house and know where to put anymore, but Todd found a deal that he couldn't pass up. He gets these deals through his work e-mail, for county and law enforcement workers. Some aren't as good as others, but that is how we have gotten most of our lego sets. This time they had still some Christmas closeouts they were trying to get rid of, so Todd got this Toy Story 3 GEO TRAX for 1 penny. Yeap, pretty cool  huh! Know strings attached no other item to buy, yeap that is a deal you can not pass up!

We were getting the kids ready for the hunt, and TJ has to get bathed in the sink because of her leg, Knightin thought he needed a bath in the sink as well.

All cute and ready for the Egg Hunt!

The next morning we decided to take the kids to the Mona City Easter Egg Hunt. This I believe is the last year that Tay can do it, so we couldn't miss it, even though I kind of wanted to. It was cold and TJ had to be in a stroller, she wasn't walking yet. It turned out to be fun, though my kids never get the plastic eggs, some of which have really cool prizes attached to them. They did OK with candy this year, but not as good as times in the past. Knightin finally got into it this year, but because he wasn't very fast, the park was pretty much clean out by time we got out there. We did manage to get a few items that the other kids passed over. We didn't need a ton of candy in our house anyway, it just ends up being a big temptation for me. Because it is all split up into age groups, I didn't get many pictures because I was with Knightin and all the other kids were who knows where! :)

Coloring Easter Eggs was next on the agenda. This is always such a messy thing, but hey it's worth it right? The kids had a blast, all 6 of them!

Getting the dye ready

This is a piece of the paper we had under neath all the eggs and dye. It was pretty decorated already, but the kids and I had fun adding more to it, to make our first Easter egg dying work of art. I so think it would fetch a great price at auction. I'll tell everyone that our amazing talented canine did it, we will become famous!

Easter Morning is here and the kids are all decked out in their new Easter Clothes. The boys all just pretty much wear white shirts now, and had just gotten new shirts a bit ago so they just got new ties. They girls though are looking all cute and Tay all grown up in their new dresses. TJ had a different dress that I was going to have her where ( got to for the price of one at KOHL's, love hitting a good sale), but it didn't go with her cast as well. I know, I know that is silly even to think about, but hey I had a choice so I used the other one! I love that Kelten is sporting a crocked tie, gotta love that boy, and the mom who didn't notice as she was snapping the photo!

On get mark, get set, GO!!!!

Later that afternoon, the sun decided to show its shiny face for a couple of hours, just long enough for a chance to get outside and do some major egg hunting. Taylar isn't into to the whole hunting thing (to old), so she has been our hider the last couple of years and she loves and takes her job seriously. She knows where those eggs are and we found all of them this year. No finding rotten ones later for us!

 Love this picture, he is too cute!

Isn't this fun, she is trying to see if there is an egg in there. I just had to catch it on the camera!

Now for some Random pictures I got of  TJ, yes, yes I know you are all sick of seeing pictures of her. But hey this is like a journal for me, and I just need all of her hammed up pictures in here for my sake. Luv this little girl!

Taylar got these glasses and thought she looked so smashing in them, that she had all of us try them on so that we could look smashing in them as well.  What do you think?  Hollywood here we come!

So there we have it, Spring Break. Besides the weekend, which is pretty much when everything happened, the kids played with legos, legos, and more lego. So if you have ever wondered what to keep your kids occupied, and don't want to use the TV or Computer, then my suggestion would be to look into getting some legos. Best thing we have bought, since Geo Trax.

Happy Birthday Kni!

Happy Birthday to my Little Man. Knightin is such a fun addition to our family. He makes us laugh all the time. He has the silliest sense of humor. He is always coming a rattling off these elaborate stories to us (most of the time we still don't understand half of what he says, which makes it that much more funny). He still loves to give me hugs and cuddle before bedtime, my only one that has done that for this long. Knightin loves going to school and still gets excited when the bus comes to pick him up. He loves anything with wheels and loves to be on the 4-wheeler with us whenever we can take him for a ride.  He is so full of life and we are so lucky to have him in our family!

Just a few days old

1 yr.

2 yrs

2 yrs

3 yrs

3.5 yrs

4 .5 yrs

Handsome little Man!

 I love taking pictures of this guy. I have know this family for 2 1/2 yrs and he always gives me the cutest smiles and best angry faces ( usually giggling afterwards)!

 Love this face!

Get the Ant's out Mom!

TJ is having to go through some major itchy times right now, under her cast. She has been screaming and crying a lot in the last 24 hours. As she was crying this more, this is what she was saying.  "Ma Ma (she has taking to calling me that lately), there are ants in my owie biting me. Get them out, get them out!" Poor girl. I feel so bad for her, she has been stuck on the couch or someones arms for the past 6 days, she is itchy and still in some pain, and there isn't much I can do for her. Last night when she was having one of her itchy attacks. I gave in and got my wooden spoon, though I guess they say don't stick things down cast anymore, and scratched her owie. She instantly calmed down and feel asleep. That was a Happy Moment, aaaaahhhhhh!

Spring is in the Air!

I love when Spring starts peeking its head out. Driving down the street with all the pink and white blossoms. It makes me smile. This year I'm just a little more excited for spring coming, because its just not everyone elses trees and flowers it is mine too! I have lot of trees in my yard that we planted late summer last year, and a few of them are early bloomers. I got so excited that a couple of trees and bushes were starting to show their leaves that I had to take pictures and share them with you all. Spring just can not come fast enough for me. I need the cooler temps and rain to go away, so I can enjoy the beauty of all the things warm weather brings.

This is our Fat Albert Spruce that we picked up a couple of weeks ago and just haven't gotten in the ground. I absolutely love spruce trees, the Blue Spruce being one of my favorites. They get so very big though (not that I will see it big for a very long time), so when we saw this little beauty and it only gets 15' I couldn't pass it up.

Blooms

My Blooming Trees and Bushes. My Maple, Choke Cherry and my bushes are all starting to get leaves. 

These are pictures that I forgot to load up on my catch up blog. These little beauties are my children's Valentine Day Boxes. I don't know if it is every Elem. school does these,  but here in Mona and our last school in Provo did, it seems the kids are in competition with each other to see who can have the biggest and coolest box. I do not like this tradition, but don't know what to do. At least I didn't have to do much on them. My 17 yr. old nephew came over and helped them make them. He loves doing it, so why not. Taylars class actually had a contest and she won "most creative" and I guess tied for one of the other ones. Her box is the Minon.

Cinderella For a night!

KC my niece has forever wanted to have a Cinderella dress, and what better time to have one then for Junior Prom. My sister made her dress and she looked amazing and they had a lot of fun. The other dashing young man is my Nephew Bryant, he has the date in the purple.

MIA for 8 months, so sorry everyone!

Well I have been MIA for about 8 months now, so I have a lot of catching up to do. I'm sure I will miss things, since I am relying on photos to help jog my memory of what has happened over that time period. I still am having a hard time figuring out how to navigate this newer version of Blogspot, so these are not going to be in any order. I don't know what happened to throw me off schedule of blogging in the first place, but once it got a little behind it was easier to just ignore it as it piled up month after month. I can tell you this though, I have not liked trying to catch up at all. I know I could have ignored catching up and just started from today, but then I would have know record placed anywhere of our families happenings. You see this is my only form of journaling that I have as pathetic as it is, so I must keep trying. I hope not to let that happen again, so don't give up on me those who actually read my blog and like to see what is going on in our crazy lives. So here goes, again remember there is no order.

TJ's Birthday Party! We had it at "Pirates Island" in Orem. They had a blast in the pirate atmosphere, eating pizza, playing games and of course TJ loved getting her gifts as well.

Kelten Celebrated his Birthday at "Cornbelly's Maze. He took his 2 best friends. There were all kinds of things to do. They had fun experiencing all there was to do. Next time, we need to go a little earlier so that we can actually do everything, we so ran out of time!

These are my sweet babies yearly pictures. I don't know what I did to deserve such cute kids!

Here are some other photos of kids and families that I got to take pictures of.

My kids having some fun in the Snow this winter.

I love taking landscape Pictures.

I have put some pictures of Audrey before, these are of her second shoot. She picked from these to put on her new album she put out. What an amazing ladies and incredible talent.

Tay with her Twin cousins, Brendan and Brandon

Aren't silhouette pictures cool?

 My Kelten is all grown up and getting baptized. We got very lucky and had most of Todd's family as well as mine here for Kelten's baptism. My sister-in-law (Todd's sister) also had her 2nd baby blessed that weekend. So with all that we also got to have my sweet niece Bekah baptized on the same day. She waited an extra fast sunday to get baptized and travel to UT. That in my book is very cool, it is very exciting to get baptized and hard to wait. Thank you Bekah for sharing your day with Kelten and us.

Our Pumpkins this year!

We decided this year to make tye-die t-shirts for a FHE activity. I had seen a tutorial on these pumpkin shirts and thought it would be fun to do with the kids. They were a lot of fun to make, but also a huge mess. We will see if I have what it takes to try it again. So here you have it my little pumpkin kids, so cute!

 Christmas Fun. A couple of the pictures are from the lights at "Old Mills Park" in Nephi. They do a pretty impressive lights display for our little town. The kids love going each year and walking around and enjoying the scenery. The rest are the kids PJ's for our ward Christmas Breakfast. Tay was a little extra dressed up because she got to be one of Santa's helpers.

FOr the Breakfast, there was also a gingerbread making contest. This was our entry, we had fun making it. We won the best over all prize.

Christmas Morning. My camera wasn't doing very well this morning, so there aren't a whole lot of pictures. We have a pretty simple Christmas over all. Our kids get three presents, plus their main gift. We decided several years ago that we didn't want to have to worry about out doing ourselves each year. The idea started with the 3 gifts from the wise men. I love that my kids never expect any more then this. Under our christmas tree looks pretty meger compared to some, but it works for us. They always get a new outfit, and books, that is 2 of the gifts. Then they get a gift that they have asked for. This years main(or santa) gift was legos for the 3 oldest and play houses for the babies. And if anyone is wondering, yes my almost 12 yr old daughter asked for legos too. She is my husbands daughter! Christmas was a sucess this year.

Injuries. We have had our fair share over the last year. Knightin started it all with a broken leg just a little over a year ago. Ki went in for stitches twice. Tay got stitches once, plus we had to take her in for a possible fractured jaw. Knightin also went in for a really bad flu, and almost had to be put on an IV drip for Dehydration. TJ has had 2 yeast infections. Both KI and Kelten have had good Bike accident road rashes, Ki's is the one in the picture above and now TJ has a broken leg from a tramp accident. The sticker foot picture is what my poor kids feet often looked like last summer. We are hoping and praying to have our grass in this year, which will solve that problem. I am hoping for a much less hospital, doctor office visiting year this year.

 These are just cute pictures that I captured that I just wanted to share.

Ki's birthday celebration. He just wanted more legos, so that is what he got.

My amazing friend that I meet on my mission in Ireland came to visit recently for 2 weeks. I had so much fun during her stay and was sad to see it end. This is one of the things we did while she was here. I took her down to see the Manti temple, it was such a gorgeous day. We got to eat lots of good food, visited and talked for hours upon hours, read books. Visited the malls, wal-mart, Burraston ponds, and did plenty of relaxing too.

For Christmas we decided to get our family another little dog. We had to give my daughters this dog Poovy to another family. He just wouldn't stop nipping and biting my babies. It was a very hard thing for Taylar. When a family in our wards, mini poodle had a baby and she was sweet and chocolate brown we decided it was time to try again. So here is the new addtion to our family "Hershey Kiss" She is 6 months old now and still tiny. She barely tips the scale at 3 lbs. I don't think she will be getting a whole lot bigger. Jake the goldendoodle in the other picture was my sisters dog. He needed a new home, because of changing circumstances in their lives. He is 4 and a great dog over all. We thought we would give him a try. My family (Todd) wanted a big dog and if we were going to be successful at having a big dog this would be the one to have. Trained over all and non-shedding. He is working out ok, we will see if I can handle it for the long haul. I am not a dog person, I don't dislike them, I just usually like them better in someone elses home. Only time will tell!

 Tay took signing lessons last year from Audrey and had her first and unfortunately  her last recital in Dec. She did great and it was a huge accomplishment for my shy little baby girl. The picture is of her and Audrey. The other picture is from New Beginnings. I can't believe my baby is growing up and is almost 12. She is very excited to go into Young Womens. She will be 12 in 2 months and barely hits the deadline for Girls camp, by 1 day. Fun stuff, to be getting older.

 Knightin has had some struggles over the last couple of years and has been working with UT's early intervention programs within the preschool system. He has made leaps and bounds this year (not so much last year). He is still behind, but making huge progress for him. We are still trying to decide if we are going to put him in Kindergarten next year, but still have a little time for that. One struggle he had was with his fine and gross motor skills. So him riding his bike is a big deal for us, go Knightin. He still is slow and can't get it every time, but it is a start.

 Science Fair projects, Yuck, yuck, yuck! This is one of those things I dread every year. I didn't really even like them when I was a kid and I only had to do one. In Mona at least our kids have to do them every year, 4th - 6th. When you have 5 kids that is a lot of science projects. Tay did her last this year and ki is on his second, because he choose to do one in his 3rd grade year. I only have 11 more to go, will I survive, we will see.  My kids did a great job though, Taylar did little homemade hoovercraft, to figure out what base worked the best. A CD, a paper plate, a foam plate or a plastic lid. The CD won. Ki did his with dry ice and how liquid dish soap effected it in different settings. That was fun to watch. Dry ice is pretty cool.

 Lets see is there anything else that happened since I last posted. Well I will just give a quick summary. School started the middle of August. Taylar is in her final year of Elem. Ki is in 4th, Kelten is in 2nd and Knightin is in his 2nd year of Pre-school. They are all doin amzing in school, they get good grades and have plenty of friends. We have had 5 birthdays of the 7 of us. TJ turned 3 in Sept. Kelten turned 8 and had his big day of Baptism. Ki turned 10 and Todd and I turn 37. Both boys are in Cubscouts now. Kelten a wolf and Ki a Webelos. They have both already earned their rank patch. Ki just got his Webelos this past week and is half way towards his Arrow of light. Along with his Webelos, he earned 4 webelos pins and 9 beltloops. He is a scouter at heart. Kelten is working on more arrow points he already has 4 and can earn like 6 more I think. He will also be earning some summer time patches this summer break. I am still in Scouts. I was officially called as Cubscout Committe Chair, even though I have been doing it for over 3 years when it was Todd's calling. I probably have at leats another year or so, my Bishop told me I wasn't gettting released until he was. That goes with my Blood Drive Coordinater calling as well. Todd is over all enjoying being Elders Quorm President, though he complains  that someone else could do it much better then him. (I'm not sure about that.)  In Oct. Todd and I went to Vegas for a work conference that he got to attend. I have to say, I'm an odd one, Vegas is just not my thing. I enjoyed spending time with my honey, but I will be just fine, if I don't go ever again.It was a nice break though!!  Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went quicker then ever before. I think we had some fun times, tried a few new things that might become little tradtions for our family, but before I could breath we were into 2011. I can't even believe that we are already half way through April. My kids are out of school for the summer in a month and a half, how crazy is that!  In January Todd and I got away for a much needed weekend and had fun being without the kids for a few minutes. Febuary came and tax refunds came in and we were able to pay off a big chunk of debt and put some away for our landscaping that we are suppose to finish up this year. In Dec. Todd's little crappy commuter car died and so we were able to et ourselves another little commuter car, that we hope can keep us going for another couple of years. Last month Todd got in an accident and we were very blessed that he was not hurt in the slightest, but we can not say the same thing for the truck. It was totaled and we didn't have full insurance on it, so we said our last good-byes. It was nice to have a truck while it lasted. We try and look at the bright side, our car insurance went down $30, yahoo! There have been parent teacher conferances, and field trips, a lot of sicknesses, a lot of laughter, and from me some crying. Knightin had his Kindergarten Registration and scored low on his testing, and we found out we need to go get his eyes checked, I may end up with two cute boys in glasses. We have gotten started on the landscaping, just had the finish up of the tractor work down last weekend, now it is on to the finish work which is a ton, plus the fixing of the sprinkler system and raking rocks and more rocks to get ready for grass in July after we get back from vacation. I just some more trees yesterday, so I need to do some serious planting. I have like 50 trees mostly twigs to plant. Why do I do this to myself? In several years it will be worth it. I can't wait for my forest. Since I don't live in the foreset anymore I needed to create my own. We are in Spring Break right now, and really have nothing planned to do, except some yard work that my kids aren't to excited about. Without Todd home it just didn't sound fun to try and plan anything big, plus I have my invalid daughter, which I think I really prefer not to carry around. So we will do the whole relaxing, without time commitments for the week that sounds great to me.


Well, that is us caught up. Like I said I probably left out a ton of cool stuff that I am sure happened to us, cause cool stuff always happens to us, but this is all I can remember. I hope you all enjoyed or at least endured through this very lengthy post. I promise I will try and be better, if for no other reason, then that was a pain to do. Until Next time, have a Great Day!