mom2four

Nate and I have been going for walks along the walking trail here in Eagle River.  The other day while the girls were at Young Women's Nate and I took the little kids for a bike ride.  It was a little chilly and wet but it was nice to get out.  There was a rainbow in the sky and it was really pretty.  You cant see it very well in these pictures because they were taken with my phone but it is in between the two white signs.  I am beginning to suspect that everyone telling me it is so green and pretty here is false.  All I have seen is white snow and brown dead weeds.  I really need to see some green.  Anytime now would be nice.

Instead of saving all of the kids school work I started taking pictures of them with it.  These first two pictures are of Ella with her flower and easter egg master pieces.  She did a great job but cried because she said it didn't turn out how she wanted it to.

While he was sculpting the idems in his diarama out of the clay the girls all made things out of clay as well.  Natalie made a deformed spounge.  Ella made a bird house in a tree.  Nichole made a Celtic drawing.  I bought the clay for Tyler to use but, the girls used the majority of it.  Hours of fun for only $3.22.  What a great deal.

Easter is always a fun time at our house.  The FHE before Easter we usually make resurrection biscuits and talk about The Atonement and Christ's resurrection.  The Saturday before Easter we decorate Easter Eggs and the mood in the house is full of joy.  I always like to take a little time for myself and think about Christ's sacrifice that he made for me and if I am doing the best that I can to make it worth His while. 

This year I tried to choose an egg dying kit that was for boys and for girls and I found the perfect one.  It was called princess' and pirates.  The colors ranged from very girly pink to very boy gray.  Right before we dyed the Easter eggs I went to get them out of the fridge and when I opened the door I dropped them onto the ground and cracked all but one of them.  It made it so the dye didn't just get on the eggshell but on the egg itself. 

Before Tyler went to bed he asked me what time he could wake me up in the morning to start the egg hunt.  I told him eight o'clock and he was so sweet he let me sleep in until 8:20.  Nate worked the graveyard shift (10:45-6:45) and just did not have the energy in the morning to get out of bed to watch the egg hunt or go to church (he forgot that Natalie was speaking in sacrament meeting).  So he missed out on it.  The Easter Bunny hid all of the kids baskets also so they had to find their baskets before they could even start looking for eggs.  The kids didn't get a huge stash (the bunny likes to give them about as much candy as they can eat in one or two days and that is it).  They each got a little carton of gum, a cadbury egg, peeps, and a baby bottle pop sucker.  They also got to find 12 eggs. The eggs are clearly marked with their initial, (what a cleaver Easter Bunny), so they can only find the ones that have their initials on them.  That way everyone gets the same amount and there is no whining or crying.  It works out just perfect.

Last week Nichole had a Choir concert.  It was one for all of the middle schools in the Anchorage school district.  There were 11 schools there and each school performed 2 songs.  The concert took almost 2 hours and the place was a mad house with all of the parents there to support their kids.  Nichole's school performed 10th out of  the 11.  She did a great job.  Then the next week she performed at her school.  They sang several more songs then at the other concert.  It was nice to just see her school perform.  On the way to the concert Nichole took my camera and took some self portraits.

Ella was feeling a little left out with her nails so I let her style her own nails.  They turned out soooo pretty!

Tyler had  his first sleepover since we got here.  He was so excited about having someone spend the night.  He choose his friend Carter from the ward.  They played Rock Band and watched movies.  They stayed up pretty late too but that is what you are supposed to do at a sleepover.

The girls like to play a game called Ninja Destruction.  You stand in a circle and put your hands in the middle.  You take turns trying to slap each others hand.  Once your hand is slapped your hand is out.  Once they are both slapped then you are completely out.  The game gets really competitive.  I played it once and full on slapped Nichole in the face.  Oops!

Tyler wanted a way to earn some money so we put him to work on washing the car.  With all of the winter break up here your car gets really dirty really fast.  He enjoyed doing in and earning himself 5 bucks.  Good thing that Dad offered to pay him and I didn't have too.  Man the price of a kid car wash has gone way up since I was younger.