easter

honey feeling doodle's ear

counting swee's eggs

on the hunt for some eggs

me and the kids

jason and the kids

the kids

swee

doodle

priss

i found my basket first

peter cottontail left me books about baptism

my basket was hidden in the laundry room....crazy bunny

this year peter cottontail hid the easter baskets and left one clue for each person to help them find their baskets. it was a home run! the kids loved getting to search the house for the exact spot that their had been left. priss left a note about what she would like in her basket. swee simply wanted some candy and doodle could have cared less about what was in the eggs. he just cared that he could open them. following church we had easter dinner at my aunt lana's and then came home for a quick clothes change before heading off to honey's for an egg hunt and another dinner. the kids had a great easter and each year I am amazed that they just want to hunt for eggs but don't care what is in them. happy belated easter everyone!

1st place GOLD and 5th OVERALL

in all my years of life..not that very many i'll have you know but enough...i did something for the first time today. i attended priss's very first competition for tap. she was all smiles and nerves as we got ready to leave yesterday afternoon. jason and i had talked that since we had to be there at 7:15 a.m. and it was over an hour away, and she didn't dance until 8:45 a.m. we would just go down the night before so that everyone would get some more sleep. when she and i arrived at the site there were only about 5 cars in the parking lot. we went in and immediately found her instructor and her dance partner. all of us made our way to the dressing area, which was a large gym with tarps all over the floors. we still hadn't done her hair, make-up or painted her fingernails yet so we got down to business. by 10 till 8 her hair, make-up and nails were done, and she had her tights, costume and feather decorated shoes on. she was ready to go but it wasn't time yet. jason, the boys and my mom got there about 15 minutes before she took the stage. she did AMAZING! she smiled, hit her taps and kept her arms straight which was all we really wanted them to focus on. her partner and her were so excited when they finished that they were all smiles. now we just had to wait for the other numbers for finish before the awards were given out. her routine Rockin Robin got a gold first place award and they placed 5th overall. we were so excited! i think a tear or two might have been present when their group was called. at the mornings start she said she wasn't sure if she wanted to do this "competition thing" again but by the time we left i think her mind had changed. we'll just wait and see how she feels after the next competition at the end of this month! but for now she is floating around the house somewhere wearing her gold medal around her neck!

we couldn't video tape so still pics is as good as it gets!

farm days at the fairgrounds

swee's preschool had a field trip to farms days so the babies(twins and little)and i tagged along. he had so much fun getting to see a sheep get sheared, pump water from an old time pump, pet a baby bunny, sit on a big tractor (this was the highlight of his trip) and to milk a cow. it wasn't very crowded. which was wonderful since i was wheeling a double stroller and toting a 25 lb child in the backpack carrier. i was so glad that we went because he had so much fun. he literally seemed to run from one exhibit to another.

where to begin? hmmmm!

let's start with the quick trip to see jason's parents over the end of priss's spring break and the start of jason's. we literally seemed to make a flying trip to the western corner of nc late one friday night to get some furniture they wanted us to have in the new house...bed for priss that had been her great-grandpa don's, her grandpa ed's and her dad's, a new king mattress set for jason and me, a chest freezer since they had three and didn't need one of them, and a few other misc. items. while there we ate at a hole-in-the-wall pizza place that was awesome. and we took a hike through the smokey mountains. the kids were really bummed that the great smokey mountain parkway was closed so we couldn't do the hike that grandpa ed had planned but we did inprovise and find a trail that was just right in terrain for them. we took a lot of pictures and really enjoyed getting to be outside in the gorgeous scenery.

over jason's spring break we...painted the basement tv room, relaid the carpet in the basement from the flood, put up priss's new bed, decorated her walls, put up our new bed, painted swee's room, put up beadboard in his room, painted the living room, removed wallpaper from the living room, and managed to keep track of 5 kids and two mothers. without our mothers' help we couldn't have gotten so much done. oh, we also went to ivanhoes for dinner and dessert one night. it was crazy but the house is looking sooooo good...like it is ours!

we even were able to return to our old ward and attend a baptism of one of priss's good friends. they had been in the same church class since they were 18 months old. it was so great to see her friend making the same choice that she wants to make in a couple of months.

both of the older kids have starting baseball and softball respectively for the first time this spring. they are so excited to get the games played and they feel that practice is pretty neat. swee is working on running the bases in the correct order and priss volunteered to pitch or play second base. at least i convinced her she didn't want to be a catcher! whew!!!

what did you do over your spring break?