March Madness

Someone had a birthday on March 1st & is now a full fledged 2 year old! He woke up at 5:45 on his special day (you can see how dark it is out the window).  I guess he was really excited to see his balloons or somethin'!

Banana pancakes for breakfast

Presents!

We spent most of his day outside playing, at the beach & the park.

 

Dallen has always just shared with all of us when we go out for ice cream.  His birthday was the first day he got his very own cone.  Anyone who knows Dallen can guess how awesome that was for him.

 

I feel this away about everyone in my family but I really can't imagine our home without this kid.  He brings so much spunk & personality with him.  He loves to follow Hyrum & Hunter around the house casting spells, he loves to just chase & run & wrestle with Justy & he loves to play puppy & kitty with Emma.  He is everyone's little friend.  He loves to talk constantly & to ingest as much sugar as we possibly let him.  He loves to play outside, color, play games, do puzzles, & listen to music & dance.  He is always making us laugh.  I don't know what it is but with him I feel like I have an unending amount of patience.  I wish I could say I was like that with all my other kids but I can't.  It's nice that no matter what he does he hasn't learned to push my buttons...... yet :)

We love you Dallen Bear!!!

The community put on a Daddy/daughter dance & I convinced Jeremy to take Emma.  I think they had a great time.  I don't know what I would do if they had a Mother/son dance I guess I'd have 4 dates!

 

While Jeremy & Em were dancing the night away I did chores & the boys read books together (for about 10 minutes) before pursuing louder & more rambunctious activities.

One night on the way to bed I came across this paper on the floor.  It's so fun that Hunter can read & write now!  It made my long day completely worth it :)

The kids don't seem to mind the rain - at least for a while

But really, most days around here we play outside in the sun. 

Dallen was sad his pb & j was all gone :(

Hyrum & Em hanging out in Hyrum's fort

Chalk creations

March 11th 2014 will go down in history as the day we took H & H's training wheels off for good!  We had raised Hyrum's so high they weren't really doing anything for him for the last year or two but still it is now official & they're doing great.

Climbing trees!

 

Hyrum wants to learn how to whittle.  How cool it would be if my Papa was still alive & could show him the ropes.  He was an amazing wood carver!

Stylish sunglasses

Dallen & his best bud Jaron.

Attack of the twins-ahhh!

Our heater stopped working for a couple of days.  Before it was fixed it was really cold inside our house! Like 52 degrees.  That doesn't seem cold when you're outside playing with a coat on but inside it was just freezing.  We closed the door & hung a sheet in the other entrance of our living room & had a fire going all afternoon, evening & morning.  We drug our beds into the living room & had a big sleep over.  The living room got up to about 65 degrees!  It was pretty toasty in there.  As fun as it was it was nice to get our heater working again.

Always fun to have help with the dishes :)

It's been a huge blessing in our lives to have sister missionaries in our ward at church.  Ever since I got back from my mission in December of 2001 I have been hoping to be in a ward with sisters so I could get more involved with the missionaries & their work.  No such luck until we moved to this ward.  We have two sets of sisters!  It's so awesome to be able to go out & have discussions with them in other people's homes & in our home.  The only sad thing is getting attached to them & of course they have to move on.  Almost every Sunday evening we have a lesson with the missionaries & Len & Kayla (who are learning about our church).  Seeing the gospel through someone's eyes who is learning about it for the first time helps me to remember what a blessing it is in my life & helps me be more grateful.

Didn't take many pictures for Saint Patty's this year but I must say the rainbow cake was much better tasting than the other green food we had.

Jeremy took the entire week off for spring break!  We didn't go anywhere far or do anything really exciting but we just had fun together.  We went to one of our favorite spots - Indian Beach.

We went to Klootchy State Park & we almost left without getting out of the car because it looked like there wasn't much to it.  I'm glad we did get out & did some exploring - we found a great trail for kids.

 

 

 

During the break Jeremy had his 37th birthday.  I think this birthday was harder on me than on him.  In fact I don't think it's been hard for him at all but I don't know what changed between 36 & 37 but it just seems so much closer to 40 to me.  How could I ever be married to a 40 year old?  How could I ever be 40 myself! Gulp.  Just a few more years.  We had two different friends who watched our kids for us at different times so we went on two dates to celebrate.  We also took the kids to the beach of course.  Because that's what you do around here- go to the beach :)

Another couple of days in our spring break we went to Hillsboro to score some great deals at Goodwill (such as a bike for Justy & a bookshelf) & more importantly go to the temple & visit with Brigg, Hava, Luke & Vincent.  This is the only picture I took. Sometimes I'm really bad at pulling out the camera.  Brigg & Hava have recently bought a house & it's loads of fun.

Pa came for the last few days of spring break to play.  My Mom had stuff to do at home so he came by himself & I love that he does stuff like that.  He stayed a whole week by himself after the twins were born.  Again somehow this is the only picture I took.  The weather wasn't very cooperative but that's okay!

My kids play one thing extremely well together.  Harry Potter.  They all have this passionate love for all things HP.  I must say I'm rather happy & proud about the whole thing!  Here they are playing a game of Quidditch in the living room.  They don't have a quaffle but they have bludgers & a snitch & ride on broomsticks (swords) & have their capes from Halloween.  It's pretty awesome around here when they get going.  When they play really well together I let them stay up later at night & I let them skip their chores etc.  I don't think they've figured out that little secret yet.  I do it love it when they're having fun.