My Mom Is...

...COOL!

You heard it first here folks!

Today I had the opportunity to attend a Mother's Day celebration in Case's Kindergarten class. Talk about a great Mother's Day gift to me. My heart was heavy watching Case sing and my eyes were full of tears. He looked so cute and grown up. I just wonder where the time is going. It is hard to believe that he is already 6 and so grown up. He is such a sweet and thoughtful kid. He is so smart but would rather be running and playing. How can I blame him. He is 6. He is a boy. He is rough and wild. I love all of this about him. I especially loved watching him sing, "Toe, Knee, Chest, Nut Knows I Love You." I love you too Case! Thanks for making me feel like the luckiest mom alive!

I love this kid. He makes me feel so lucky to be a mom.

Lucy, Case and Matix. Can you see Jefferson peeking his head between the boys from the back row? Love it Jefferson!

Along with this darling paper flower, Case made me a recipe card holder. Lucky me!

See...I told you I was cool!

Painful!

Today was painful. Actually, the whole day wasn't painful, just the last half of the day. It all started when I agreed to meet my sister and sister-in-law at the temple to get some pictures of our kids for my Mom for Mother's Day. I didn't want to do it. I absolutely hate hate hate doing pictures. You all know this about me. I've blogged about my dislike of this task several times before. My gut instinct told me that it was a bad idea to do this. Silly right? It's not like I'm making a life or death decision, but I had a bad feeling about it all day long. Weird right? So I packed up a large Nordstrom bag full of clean clothes, clean socks, clean shoes, hair gel, hair spray, snacks, and drinks. I wanted to be prepared. I threw Ledger and Miss B. in the car and met Brody and Case at the bus stop so I could rush to the temple and make it back to our side of town for Case's baseball game. So Brody and Case get in the car and I tell them that we are heading over to the temple to get pictures taken with the cousins. And it starts...crying, screaming, temper tantrums, full on fits. You name it, it was happening in my car. They were all mad and I couldn't say I blamed them. I didn't want to do this either but as my sister reminded me, "We can't really take pictures of the cousins if your kids aren't there." She was right. So we get to the temple and all he** breaks loose. For starters, Ledger had fallen asleep in the car on the way over and I had to wake him when the others arrived. In case you don't know this bit of information, it is never good to wake a sleeping 3 year old from a nap!!! He went into a complete fit of rage. He screamed, he cried, he took off running through the temple grounds. (as you can see from his absence in the above picture) It was horrible. Then there was Miss b. She is too little and waaaaay too busy to sit pretty for the camera. She was all over. So needless to say, we didn't get A picture of all the cousins together for my mom for Mother's Day. It was so bad that I threw my kids in the car and left. We drove to the baseball game and I made Ledger sit in the car for the whole game. When Jeremy inquired about his whereabouts I told him he was in the car and not to even think of letting him out. It literally took me 3 hours to calm down. When I did finally calm down, I realized that this whole situation was MY fault. I didn't listen to my instinct. I set myself and my kids up for failure. Brody and Case had a major Easter hangover and then had to go to school for 6 plus hours. I pick them up and drag them to yet another situation where they have to behave and be perfect. It wasn't fair. Poor Ledger and Miss B. They too were rockin' the Easter hangover and I pull Miss B. out of her comfy bed and throw her and Ledger in the car and expect them to behave. Shame on me. I knew better and I didn't listen. Lucky for me, I have tomorrow to make it up to them. You better believe I will try my best and hope for a happier ending.

Easter 2011

What a fun filled week it has been. Easter morning we woke up and headed right to Sugar's house for breakfast. Of course the kids had their egg hunt which they looooved. But the real fun began when the 6 of us adults headed out back for a knock down drag out hunt of our own. It's sad that we are all so money hungry that we stop at no expense to get as many eggs as possible. I made out pretty well as did Jeremy. After Sugar's house we headed home to see if the Easter bunny stopped by our house. The boys loved their Easter baskets along with trying to find all the eggs they had dyed as Sugar's house the day before. After our own little Easter celebration, we headed out to church for 3 hours of spiritual nourishment. It was nice to be reminded of the true meaning of Easter after celebrating for the past week. Immediately after church we rushed over to my grandma and grandpa's house for dinner and another money filled egg hunt. Case was the big winner tonight. I have to say though, the rest of us were pretty excited with our findings too. By time the day was over, we were all exhausted. It was such a fun day spending time with family and remembering our Savior Jesus Christ. I am truly grateful and blessed. Happy Easter to you all!

Look at all the stuff Brody!

Miss B. is on an, "eat as you go" hunt.

Case was stealing candy from the little kids baskets. Naughty little case, you sure are cute!

Ledger's Easter bucket was bigger then him!

Look at all the yummy stuff Case got (or stole).

Kunkle, Nicole, Presley and Cave.

All the cute Grand kids. Happy Easter!

Look at what the Easter Bunny left this year.

These boys couldn't wait to jump into their Easter baskets (piles).

Even Miss B. got some Easter goodies.

Brody loves The Magic Treehouse books.

Ledger got a water gun!

Miss B. went straight for the candy!

Case was the big winner at GG and G-pa's egg hunt.

Ledger did pretty good himself!

By this time in the day, nobody was happy. My kids were especially not enjoying getting pictures taken. Ledger's face says it all!

Egg Dying

One of my favorite things about Easter is dying Easter eggs. I remember as a child getting together with cousins to create the most colorful and interesting eggs. Call me crazy, but I love the smell of vinegar. It smells clean, it tastes delicious on my salad, and it attracts the fruit flies attacking my kitchen. The smell of vinegar screams Easter to me. This year we headed over to Sugar's house for swimming and Easter egg decorating. The kids were not so interested in coloring their eggs this year but more excited to get in Sugar's heated pool. They really are fish. All they want to do is swim. They swam and swam and ate a little pizza and salad. They played with their cousins and had a blast. Since we had 2 baseball games that morning and a quick lesson for Brody on how to play tennis (from Chandler) and soccer (from Hayley), you can imagine how wiped out we all were. What a fun way to celebrate this holiday.

Brody loves anything art, so dying Easter Eggs is waaaaay fun for him.

Case loves making his eggs as colorful and goopy as possible.

Ledger is finally understanding how dying eggs works so he had a great time this year.

Oh Miss B. You are the messiest egg dying girl I have ever known.

But boy do you look good doing it!

Brody, Ella, and Hunter dying eggs.

Jeremy loved holding Cave while H and Nicole helped Presley.

H and Presley

Case and Ella fighting over egg dye.

Hayley was so sweet to help Ledger dye eggs. We love when her and Chandler are visiting.

I love this picture of Ledger flying through the air. I didn't realize how high he was really going.

Check out Case. He is waaaay up there!

Miss B. had everyone freaking out cause she is not one bit afraid of the water. She jumps right off the side of Sugar's jacuzzi and swims back around, reached up and gets out. It is unbelievable that she is only 19 months old.

And here they are. All of Sugar and Jim's grand kids.

16 and many more to come!

Somebunny Loves You Mom...

It's Ledger!

Ledger water colored this egg for us for Easter. I love it!

Oh my are you a cutie pie!

Jack Stradling and Ledger are the best of friends at school. We love that he lives so close to us but wish we could get together to play more.