9 Years Old

Nine years ago yesterday was a beautiful Spring day in Orem, Utah, when Bryant decided to join the family. It was an ugly labor but I remember praying for "our boys" that night and it felt so good.

For Bryant's birthday activity, he wanted to go see the dogs at the new humane society.  His favorite was "Sam" who never did hold still enough for a good picture.  Bryant was in heaven.

Bryant and "Sam" at the humane society.

After the babies were in bed, Aunt Brielle stayed home while I took the kids to the park so Bryant could try out is new bat and mitt. We had so much fun, and I was reminded that kids aren't work all the time. I honestly think I'd forgotten.

  Most the time, it still looks like this. I'm grateful so many are still so willing to help.

 

Easter 2012

To finish off our "Spring Break Activity" agenda, we took Rex and Lyle to have their "baby" pictures taken on Friday afternoon. We put them in the hiking backpacks afterwards and let the kids browse through Toys 'R Us. That's a real treat. Hyrum bought a dart gun with his birthday money from Gp. and Gm. Hales. It's the first one he's been able to cock on his own.

I don't remember a sweeter Easter. Somehow, I felt the reality of Christ's triumph over sin and death very much related to His triumph over the bitterness of my life. The good seems all the better when the bad has been all the worse.

I made the very first dress I've ever made for Sariah. (It only took 6 years.)
She and I both had an Easter dress to wear. (Thanks Lizza.) It felt special.

This was the best photo we could get. Hyrum's expression is classic.

I do love this one:

We enjoyed the rest of a beautiful day out at Gp. and Gm.'s with good food and great company.

B.T. (before twins) we went to the library on Wednesday nearly as religiously as we went to church on Sundays. Today I took Hyrum, Rex, and Lyle for our Wednesday visit to the library. Afterwards we came home, ate lunch, and then walked up to the school to pick up Sariah. I used to walk up pushing a stroller at least once a day during the school year, often twice. It's been a year now since I've done that. It felt like a B.T. Wednesday.

Pedicure and Pizza

Not a big surprise that Sariah's "Spring Break Activity" choice was getting a pedicure. I was slightly surprised by her choice of color---"kermit the frog"---a kelly green with sparkles. She was in heaven, and only laughed once.
She was so worried about laughing too much because it tickles.

Then we came home and made pizzas and headed out to the big screen (Grandpa's house). Talmage's choice of "Spring Break Activity"---pizza and a movie.
We watched, "The Adventures of Tin Tin" and we all enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, the original plan was a sleepover, but Talmage had an ingrown toenail that had to be taken care of the next morning.

McDonald's and Wii

After a day of "packing up" the kids' rooms... (We only accomplished a few boxes of books) Hyrum's "Spring Break Activity" choice was McDonald's and a Wii party. Guess who the Wii table tennis champion is...(you should have heard all the excuses when Mom came out on top.)

Lyle enjoying his first french fries.

Rex enjoying his first french fries.

April Fool's and Spring Break

When James started complaining about not feeling well while making breakfast on the morning of April Fool's and then turned around looking like this:

The kids all had their own reactions:

Hyrum started crying because he didn't want us to leave him if we went to the hospital.

Bryant excused himself out the back door to pray.

Talmage asked is he had been immunized for measles.

Sariah was on to us, and surprisingly kept quiet and let the joke play out.

Then we enjoyed General Conference:

We tried to make conference a special occasion with Conference Bingo and Peanut M & Ms. After we got over the competition idea, it went pretty well.

I've long-wanted to implement my sister-in-law's tradition of homemade cinnamon rolls for General Conference and I finally pulled it together. I think cracking walnuts will work into that tradition too, a great conference activity that goes hand in hand with cinnamon rolls.

Since we weren't headed anywhere this Spring Break, we decided to let the kids each choose an activity to do. Just being together as a family made it one of the best Spring Breaks ever. (I'm writing this on 4/11.)

Monday was supposed to be the nicest weather of the week so we set off on Bryant's choice of activity---hiking Badger Mountain. It couldn't have been nicer.

The start (Would Hyrum make it?)

The Best Seat in the House (Lyle)

The second best Seat in the House (Rex).

We all made it. (Thanks to an amazing Dad who carried Hyrum a good amount of the way.) Granola bars and water and everybody's happy.

Talmage blowing bubbles at the top.

Since we let the kids get out of their chores if they listened to conference last Saturday, we had some catching up on housework to do today. One of the things on James's "to do list" was to get the Lincoln out and drive it to the end of the block and back. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the excursion.

We had the missionaries over for dinner and so the evening was what was left for our Tuesday "Spring Break Activity". It was my turn to choose. A couple of weeks ago, Sariah, Hyrum, and I had some spontaneous fun on a walk. My choice was for the whole family to have a chance to ride in the wagon down "hospital hill." (Nicknamed for obvious reasons---the number of kids it sends to the hospital).

Not very discernable but the blur between the pick-up and the stop sign
is a loaded wagon headed down the hill.

Lyle and Rex cheer us on at the bottom.

Loads of fun!