St Patricks Day

St Patricks Day!!

Our leprechaun brought chocolate coins, real money(quarters), and a fun shamrock craft for the kids this year.  I guess our leprechaun didn't get the memo that he is supposed to play pranks on the kids.  Is this new?  All day long even into the night Taylor searched and searched for things that were moved wrong and blamed the leprechaun for messing them up.  She also searched many times in the bathroom for green pee.  Seriously?  I thought our leprechaun had done so well, I guess he has to step up with pranks too for next year :)

Jason made ever so lovely green eggs and ham for breakfast.  Doesn't that just look awful?!  I didn't even remember to get pictures of the kids in their green clothes or take a picture of their finished crafts.  I was a bit spastic this Sunday because Jason and I had to speak in sacrament meeting.  Which I must say, I am never doing again!  I do not need the stress!  I seriously think they need to have a heart defibrillator located in the pulpit somewhere.  Right before my turn it felt like my heart was going to actually jump out of my chest.  I am surprised we don't have more heart attacks in church!

For all of you who couldn't be there for our wonderful talks I'll give you a snip it :)  We have been in the ward since it began so I thought it would be funny to introduce our family a little differently.  I decided to tell random unknown facts bout each of us. 

Here is what I said, "Ryan is 9 months old and just had her 9 month check up with the doctor.  Her head is measuring in the 95+% for 9 month olds.  We love her in spite of her huge head.
Hayden is 3 and loves Dora the Explorer.  She can't speak very well for a 3 year old and I blame Dora.  If she would stop telling her what to do in Spanish, maybe Hayden could figure out English.
Taylor is 4 and she is the meanest girl I know.  She told me the other day that she is going to be a police officer when she grows up so she can arrest me when I am speeding.  If she would just get ready I wouldn't be late everywhere and have to speed!
Tyson is 7 and loves broccoli.  He will sit and eat a huge bowl of broccoli.  Jason told him when he was small that he was a giant and that broccoli are trees.  Tyson loved pretending to eat trees and has been an excellent eater ever since.
Jason's nickname at work is Gabby because he is such a huge talker, even at work!
A little known fact about me was that in high school I played the trumpet in a mariachi band in Arizona.  I was the first and the last non-hispanic allowed in the band.  I just couldn't get the Ai-Yi-Yi's down."

It's always funny to see what gets laughs at the pulpit. Some things you think are hilarious only get a chuckle while random things get the laughs.  My talk was on the Doctrines of Christ and Jason spoke on preparing for a mission.  One old lady had a confused look on her face my entire talk.  Every time I looked over at her I would lose my place.  So as I said, Never Again!  My poor ticker can't take it :) 

Bass Pro Shop

We try to go to the Bass Pro Shop's Easter Activities as often as we can.  They do a really great job and have a bunch of fun things for the kids.

 The key is get there EARLY!  We were the 4th in line to get pictures with the Easter bunny.  By the time we were done the line wrapped around 3 aisles.  Hayden and Ryan were not fans of the old Easter Bunny, Taylor and Tyson are old pros now at posing with characters.

 After the picture we got to work on hunting!  This year it was tricky, you had to have 5 different colored eggs from 5 different departments.  They gave you a little print out so you knew which color to find where.

 Hayden was so excited to find eggs but then couldn't understand when we would only let her grab one. 

 After we turned in our eggs for candy and got our craft to make at home we went exploring.

 Jason dreaming :)

 The kids we very interested in these stuffed animals and kept asking what the animals were stuffed with.  The funniest part was when Taylor saw the mannequins sitting on the rocks and asked, "Mom, what are those people stuffed with?"  We had quite a few chuckles with her after that :)

 The kids loved watching the fish being fed.

 Even Ryan was fascinated.

Just to really go for parents of the year we took the kids to yogurt land after all this Easter excitement.  Our kids are obsessed right now with filling those yogurt cups to the top with every kind of flavor.  It makes me gag but they love it.  Super fun day, can't wait for our next 3 Easter egg hunts! Yeah for Easter!!

Baseball

It's that time of year again!  Baseball season!!  Woohoo!!

 

Taylor is playing t-ball and is on the Phillies and Tyson is in coach pitch on the Red Sox team. 

 This is opening ceremonies.  They have the kids line up and walk in a parade with their team.

Taylor started her first game as the pitcher.  They had drawn this huge circle with chalk and she would not move out of it.  It was hilarious!  The coach of the other team started rolling her balls in between hitters so she would move. 

I think my favorite part about t-ball is when the ball gets hit and rolls between their legs while they are trying to stop it.  So funny!

Taylor is getting better and better with her hitting, she's not trying to kill the T anymore :)

I love that this kid is sitting playing in the dirt while Taylor is running by.  This kid was really into the dirt, t-ball not so much.

Tyson is totally serious this year.  He has hit more this season than the last two seasons combined!  Which also means I am paying out a lot of money!!  It is well worth it, I can't tell you how happy he is when he hits off of the coach.

Tyson also started his 1st game off as pitcher.  He was a little more active than Taylor :)  Tyson is on the same team as he was for the fall, I was hoping for a new coach because I didn't feel that our coach really noticed Tyson.  Not that I blame the coach, it would be frustrating to put all this time and energy into a kid who never hit one ball last season.  I was wrong and we are so grateful to have Coach Wade.  I have friends on all different teams and have heard some awful stories this season.

This year we let the kids put $40 into the raffle baskets and we won one!  Last year we won 3 baskets so the kids just thought that if you put your ticket in then you win.  We waited all day for a call and never got one, so we had many discussions on being a good sport and how you don't always win.  Then the next day we got a text message saying we won!  All my lectures for nothing!

The basket was full of gift cards equalling $120!  It also had 2 card games and an electronic card shuffler.  Awesome!  Gotta love baseball season!!!

March 12X12

March 12x12!

 Our Stake Presidency has challenged our stake to read 2 chapters of the Book of Mormon every day starting March 4th.  I hate to say it but it is a huge challenge.  Luckily we have this lovely chart to keep track.  I try to read while the kids are eating breakfast.  Do you ever worry about reading the"whore of all the earth" and "everlasting chains of hell" and then sending your kids off to school?  I'm just waiting for the phone call from the school saying I have to pick my kid up for his language :)

 Adorable Ryan hates BofM time and will scream and yell if she doesn't have something constantly in her mouth.

 We spent more time in the car than the house this day.  School carpool, preschool carpool, Darrell's doctor appointment, El Pollo Loco, Home, Preschool pick up, school pick up, music carpool and then finally home for good!

 This is how poor Ryan got her nap for the day :(

 Hayden was so happy to get out of the car for lunch!

 I get El Pollo Loco every 3 months or so and I always love it.  Good thing for my diet that it is not closer!

 Before picking Tyson and the carpool kids up the girls used up some energy riding bikes.  Lucky for us the guy across the street is always gone and doesn't see that my kids are always on his driveway :)

 While they played I cleaned out the car.  I actually found 8 coats in there!

 When I picked Ty up from school I didn't get even a hello I got, "I don't want to go to music class!"  Mrs. Kim did a puppet show where the knight kissed the princess and he can't stand it.  Gotta love boys :)

 

I ran to the grocery store to get away from kids  to get a few things and came home to my baby on the trampoline!  Isn't she the cutest?!  She loved it!

 Last time we were at Costco Jason bought some jalapeno and mango sausages.  They were good just not spicy enough for me :)

After dinner we conquered the laundry pile that was getting a little out of hand.  I hate folding, it's just the worst.  Another busy Tuesday!

Dentist

Woohoo! Dentist time again!

 This year Hayden actually sat for a cleaning without me!  She's so big!

 Hayden still has a cross bite, I don't know much about these things but I was hoping it would magically fix itself when she got older. Not so much, we will be frequenting the orthodontist when she is bigger.

 Taylor is an old pro now with the dentist.  Her and Hayden both have 10 teeth and no cavities :) Tyson also had no cavities.  Our friend who lives around the corner has 8 cavities in his baby teeth.  When my kids heard about it during carpool they asked him, "Was your Mom so mad at you? Our Mom would have killed us!" I laughed and laughed after I dropped them off at school.

 Ryan was with me in the lobby showing everyone how to open your mouth wide for the dentist.

 She can't wait for her turn in the chair but first she has to actually get some teeth.  She just turned 9 months and no teeth are in sight :)

Gotta love slow teeth!  Tyson is now 7 and he still has all of his baby teeth.  When he was little he used to fall and land straight on his front tooth and now it is going to come in sideways (according to the x-rays) so we want him to keep those baby ones for as long as possible :)

Great Harvest

Taylor's preschool went on a field trip to Great Harvest.

 By the way those kids are staring you would think the guy is telling them about amazing things right? No, he is telling them the different parts to a wheat kernel.  Even Spider man is fascinated :)

 I honestly think each one of them are just staring at the guy wondering when they are going to get their huge cookie, well that's what I was doing anyway :)

 They show the kids how they put slices through the machine and it cuts them.

 But Taylor's favorite part is when he gives them all a piece of dough to play with.  I was just glad Taylor didn't eat it this year!

 Hayden got that bag and immediately sat nicely down to eat her cookie, she's no dummy :)

 Whenever we go out with others Taylor constantly tries to pretend she doesn't know us.  Yes, she's a special girl.

 She did know me long enough for me to get her a slice of pumpkin bread with butter on it.

I don't know how I am so lucky but this is the 4th year in a row I have been on this field trip.  By the time Ryan goes to Mrs. Aubrey's class I will have been 4 more times. I really better start listening to the lecture on wheat, maybe when Ryan goes to school I could get a job as the field trip guide :)