Easter

Easter was a little crazy this year. The Easter Bunny had planned ahead and got all of the Easter stuff well ahead of time. However, on Saturday - late afternoon - mom and dad realized that they hadn't bought the eggs that we needed to color. So, off to the store and back home to boil eggs. We had a lot of fun dying eggs together though. Emma and Grayce enjoyed their first tastes of jelly beans. Needless to say they enjoyed those. Abby, Bryant, and Tyler spent a good portion of the day sifting through their books, toys, candy left by the Big Bunny! It was fun had by all.
(the addition at our table is Abby's friend, Marta)

Baby Ethan

Steve and DIana had their baby on Thursday night - April 23 - at 11:55p.m. Diana was induced and delivered after 12 hours. Ethan was born very healthy at 10 pounds 13 ounces, 21 3/4 inches - thank heaven for epidurals. Everyone is doing really well and all are home and ready to start the real life. He is a cutie and we are all so happy he is here safe and healthy. Welcome to the world Baby Ethan.

Time Flies...

I don't know why, but the other day I was taking some pictures of the girls and we ended up taking this one. I didn't think about it at the time, but when the pictures were downloading, I remembered taking similar pictures when they were much younger. After a little searching, I found them. How fun it is to see how much they have grown and changed. They look so grown up now. I didn't realize how much like little girls and not like babies that they looked - my babies are growing up. (in the early pictures, Emma is on the right and Grayce is on the left - in the more recent pictures, they are switched).

Grandparents' Day

Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children. ~Alex Haleyalt



Nick's parents came down for Grandparents' Day at the kids' school on Friday. Abby and Bryant had so much fun. There were all sorts of activities throughout the school for the kids to do with their grandparents. Anything from their pictures being taken to doing their handprints together. It was great! Plus, they got to go to lunch with Gram and Papa afterward. Tyler even got to go to lunch with them. There is no doubt that for that time on that day, my kids knew they were important. What wonderful grandparents they have - we are so lucky to have them.

Conference Marshmallow Roast

We had such a fun, relaxing weekend.
The kids were so cute on Sunday. They got so excited to listen to President Monson. It is fun.
After conference they came in - soldier-like - asking if they could roast hotdogs over the grill for dinner. So, we had a hotdog roast and then we roasted marshmallows over the grill (Nick and I are up for parents of the year and so we are trying to earn some extra points).
Anyway, they were so cute and had so much fun- it was just picture-worthy. One of those moments that makes you want to freeze time - so we decided to do that, with pictures.

Lucky for us we happened to have a bag of marshmallows in the pantry.

Then, we fired up the good old grill side burner.

To perfection we browned our marshmallows.
And then - eat, eat, eat!!

Homebound

We have been homebound for sooooo long.
Grayce is bored...

Tyler is bored...

But, I have to say for the most part we are dealing with it pretty well.
To fix her boredom, Grayce tickles Tyler.

Then she makes up for it by giving him kisses.

And Emma sits in the background crying because she wanted to give Ty kisses!! :)

Oh - we can't wait for spring!!

We Have an Annoucement...

We have 5 new additions to our "7 Family." On Friday, March 20th (the first day of Spring), our cat Kallie had baby kittens. There are five of them - 2 black ones, 1 cream one, 1 orange/brown one, and 1 gray one. They are absolutely beautiful animals. I wish we could keep every one of them. Kallie has been such a good mom. She is very protective of her babies. She is okay with Nick and I being in near her. But, if the kids come in she scoops them all in and puts herself over them so that they are safe. It is fun to watch.
We were shocked when we went out to feed animals before bed and her little baby meows. We had to search for a while to find her, but she had given birth in an old carseat we had in the garage. Needless to say we will be throwing that carseat away. We didn't even really know she was pregnant. I had mentioned to Nick a couple of times that I thought she looked big and was suspecting she might be pregnant. I guess I should have investigated further.
Anyway, here is our newest...



...not what you thought was it??? ;)

The Crew

Some days I just look at my kids and ... well, just look. They are such amazing little people. I just hope I don't mess them up too badly. I have been blessed with the kind of children I am sure some must dream of having. Wow!! Don't get me wrong, there are those days. But, I guess I am just grateful for the people that they are and how hard they try to be good. LUCKY ME!!

Bryant's Staples

As requested, here is a shot of Bryant's staples. It was hard to get a good picture, so...

Our doctor was great with Bryant. He took them out and then went and got a tongue depressor and taped them to that so that Bry could keep them and show his friends. Bryant said it didn't really hurt coming out. I can't imagine that, but that is what he said. FUN, FUN!!

Swimming

I finally got to spend a few minutes with the older kids. So, we all went swimming. We had a great time - as you can see. I have decided that my kids are waterbugs - they love to be in the water (I guess I have known that for a while).