Baseball Time

Two weeks ago we went to our first baseball game this season. As always, we had a blast. I love the whole atmosphere at the baseball games...the food, the snow cones, the lights on the field, and of course, the game.



Claire's favorite part is the train ride.


And our cute little guy in his new baseball shirt!



FLASHBACK!! Can't believe this was three years ago....

Spring!

My favorite thing about spring is getting the yard and garden ready for the summer. I absolutely love it!! With the help of my two kiddos we got our garden started and even got some raspberries planted this year.

Claire wants to help with anything and everything. And if it includes manual labor and getting dirty, all the better.
And how cute is the one sneaker and one cowboy boot combo :)




And how did this little guy help? He hung out in the swing and was good as gold while we worked outside.



And while we were busy getting the planting done, Luke was busy putting up our new concrete fence. He did an amazing job!!

Stansbury Island

I know this this is a month late but better late than never, right?? Since the weather was cooperating this year we got to go out to Stansbury Island. Yay!!

Here are some of the highlights of the day

Claire got to go on a 4-wheeler ride. At first she was scared but towards the end she kept asking Grandpa to go again.





Crue's favorite part was being held for hours and hours.


Playing in the sand with Claire's friend and cousin.


We have always wimped out and never hiked up with those that participate in the annual "tire rolling down the mountain" event. This year we decided to hike up with them. So here is the deal, years ago my brother would hike up the mountain carrying an old tire and when we could barely see him he would let it roll down with the goal of it going all the way to the bottom without stopping. Now it is tradition with several tires being carried up and half the adults and kids hiking up too.





And of course the Easter Egg Hunt was a hit. I think all the adults brought extra eggs and candy in case someone else forgot. I have never seen so much candy!!

Let me re-phrase the question

The other morning I walked into Claire's room and said "How did you sleep last night?" Without saying a word she looked at me, looked at her bed, and had the look on her face that shows she was thinking really hard about something. (Apparently I usually ask her if she slept good.) Then she got on her bed, moved around a little bit so she was laying sideways, sat up to see exactly where she was, layed back down, put her blanket on her, moved around a little bit more, grabbed her stuffed animal, then decided to move her blanket so only half of it was covering her. Then she announced "I think I slept like this last night."

That is totally not what I meant....BUT, she was pretty accurate.


This is one of my favs. She had just been moved into her toddler bed but kept falling out so we moved a big tupperware thing next to it hoping that would help. And apparently she didn't fall asleep right away - Hence the books and the dirty sock right in her face.




Praying in the middle of the night?


And I came home from a church meeting to find both of them sound asleep and crammed into Claire's toddler bed. Bet that was comfy!!

Easter

I love going to church on Easter Sunday and seeing all the kids wearing their new Easter clothes. It just makes me happy!!

The Easter bunny left some new church clothes at our house too for all of us. Okay, so really I can't say the Easter bunny did because I forgot to mention anything about the Easter bunny to Claire. Poor child, I know. Seriously I didn't even think about it. Yep, great mom that I am. So at Christmas I got wierd looks (and some mean looks too) when people would ask Claire if Santa came and she told them no. (Remember, she was terrified of Santa and asked Luke to call and tell him not to come.) Well, the same people asked Claire if the Easter Bunny came and again she told them no. They must think I am horrible.

I have to admit that it was nice not having her think that Easter is all about the Easter bunny....instead she talked about "Jesus was baptized!! Thats why we celebrate Easter. Hmmm, no....maybe he was resurrected?" Okay, so maybe she had a hard time remembering why we celebrate Easter :)










I must admit I have the cutest kids ever!!

Run, Run As Fast As You Can. We're Having a Party in Candyland

Our baby girl turned just turned three. We can't believe how big Claire is getting. This year we decided to have a friend birthday party instead of the family party that we have had in years past.

Her invitations. She had so much fun taking them around to her friends.





The kids had different games they had to play to help them get through candyland.

The first one...
When we play candyland Plumpy was eating plums and growing more and more glum with each bite of his plums. If we were to eat these plums we would grow glum as well and not be able to continue on the path. Therefore each of you will have to smash the plums in order to continue on your way.

Ha Ha...there were only two kids that were willing to pop the balloons...or I guess I should say smash the plums.

The second game....
Lord Licorice has cut down most of the peppermint forest and Mr. Mint is not able to cut down the peppermint trees for whistles and flutes so we will have to grow more trees before we move on.


Jordan and Luke were good sports and let the kids make them into candycane trees using red and white streamers.





The third game
Oh no!! We are stuck in the swamp of molasses and there is only one way to get out of the swamp so that we can continue on the path. We will have to move around a lot playing lollipop lollipop to get all the sticky molasses off.

And then they played the candyland version of musical chairs while listening to 'Lollipop, lollipop'


Then they got to follow the path that led to the table of candy. We ate pizza, sang Happy Birthday to Claire, and opened presents.












Our attempt to get a group photo




And then just when we thought the party was over, the kids decided just to move it to the backyard. They had so much fun.

The Big Sis

Luke and I are not the only ones obsessed with this little guy.



Big sister can't get enough of him either.

She runs to get me the second he wakes up and starts crying.

She stuffs the binkie back in his mouth when it falls out...whether he wants it or not.

She constantly asks to hold him


She makes sure he is with us when we say family prayers at night.



She doesn't want him to get bored in the car so she makes sure he has ample stuffed animals to keep him entertained. Apparently this is what she had in mind when I told her we needed to get Crue ready to go. Look close and you might see a baby in the carseat. She gets irritated when I take everything out but her brother and tries to convince me that he really does need it all.


And several times a day she tells us that she is the best big sister...and she is.

Adoption 5K

After running my first 5K on Thanksgiving Day in 10 degree weather, I decided that the next one I ran would be in the spring when the weather was nice and warm. So last week my sister and I ran an Adoption 5K in Salt Lake. The original plan was that Luke was going push Claire in a jogging stroller and Crue would say with my mom and Rilynn at Wheeler Farm and cheer us on. The lovely weather changed that plan in a hurry.




Good news is that I beat my previous time by three minutes and Steph beat her time too.