Spring Break Fun

The kids have been out of school all week and the beginning of the week was beautiful weather! We went up Provo Canyon one day to play.

The kids brought bikes and scooters to ride around the park. Brad went up and down the hills over and over on his scooter.

The kids loved playing in the river. Usually it is raging this time of year, but it wasn't today.

Ellie is the brave one in this family of men! She walked across the river which came up to her bumb and none of her brothers would even try to cross. She is awesome!!

The kids had so much fun in the sun this week. We have had no less than 2 water fights a day and sprinklers on the trampoline. They were in heaven. It was boy central at our house with all the neighbor boys over to have water gun wars. I love days like these, despite the mess it creates, I love watching all the kids have fun in the sun!

Brax, Burke, Max and Jason. They had so much fun together! Brax and Burke were thrilled to have Max over, as we don't see him very often anymore!

EASTER

I love Easter! This is one of my favorite times of the year. The candy is yummier I swear because the colors are so pretty!

I didn't get a picture of my kids in their church clothes this year, things are to crazy before church for that! This was after the kids found all of their eggs in the backyard, love the morning hair and faces!

I made resurrection rolls for breakfast this year. We read the story of Easter in the bible and then we ate our rolls. You put marshmallows in the dough that have been dipped in brown sugar and cinnamon and then as the cook it melts and rolls are empty when you open them, like the tomb. It was a great object lesson, and they were so, so yummy!

We went to the Orem City egg hunt on Saturday morning. There were so many people there, but the kids had fun rushing out to get their eggs. It was freezing cold, but we made it!!

Major Catch Up!!

So I'm finally catching up for the last couple of months that have seemed so busy!

Burke had a big project called a wax museum. He had to choose a famous person from history and write a report and make a poster about that person. He chose Davy Crockett and he had a whole spiel to say when people stopped by his station. Let me just say that I loathe school projects! This one was okay, but honestly what is the point? I know I''m a bad mom, but facts are facts!!

The boys had their space derby in March. They made rockets instead of pinewood derby cars and it was really fun. The leaders had a whole thing rigged up to fly the rockets on. The boys loved it!!

Brad loved his St. Paddy's day party. He was all smiles when he came out of class. Such a cutie!!

MOLLY'S FAMILY CAME TO VISIT!!
My sister Molly and her family came from Missouri for their spring break. It was so fun to have them stay for a week!

All the cousin's had so much fun on the trampoline. It's a miracle no one got hurt with all he kids that were on there. This is Josie,

Lily,

and Marlee. We loved getting to know Marlee better and loved having her spunky personality!

These are both Zach and Brad. They just happened to got together. These boys crack me up. Add Molly's Cooper who is only 1 month younger than Zach and it was a constant party! So FUN!

PIPE MISHAP!
In the throws of one of our busiest days, we had all of my sisters and their kids, and my uncle and grandma over, we discovered we had a broken pipe in the basement ceiling. There was water down the whole wall in the little boys room.

Luckily Ricky is the bomb and is very handy. As you can see, he had to cut out the wall and the ceiling to find the source of the leak which was above the heater vent in about the worst place possible. He was able to cut out the pipe that was broken and put a new one in! Oh this was such a mess!

One day we took the kids down to the dinosaur museum at BYU. We had to cross the street to go and see the statue of the cougar. The kids thought it was pretty cool, which it really is!

I hate when pictures load out of order! This was our last horrah with Molly here. All four of us, husbands, kids and grandma Murl went to Chuck-A-Rama for lunch. We always go there when grandma is in town. As you can imagine, it was pandimonium! We let all the little's sit at this table and they had the time of their lives eating on their own!

This is a random shot of Cooper, Marlee and Brad. They had so much fun while the older kids were at school. Cooper had Brad had a grand old time doing "boy" stuff!

Two beautiful boys! We also loved getting to know Cooper this trip. We only see Molly once or twice a year so we don't know her little two as well and Marlee and Cooper are so much fun! I'm so glad they came to visit!!

Snowmobile Trip
We spent the last two days at our friends cabin snowmobiling. It was a blast!!
This is the view from the parking lot where we leave from.Packing up! We have to snowmobile about 4 miles in to their cabin, it is the only way to get there in the winter. We had to take all our food and sleeping gear and whatever else we need. They have these awesome sleds to pull everything on.

This is Brax and Burke with Jeff. They had a lot of fun together all weekend.

This is the back side of Timp. The weather was amazing the whole time we were there! Sunny and blue skies. We couldn't have ordered better weather.

This was Brad waiting in the van to head up the mountain. I put my hat on him to keep him warm. I think this is one of my favorite pics from the weekend. Could he be any cuter!

I can not express Ashton's anticipation for this weekend. He has been asking constantly when are we leaving and how many more days till we go. He could not contain his excitement! He finally got to go and ride with Pres. Bratt all the way up the mountain.

This is the sign of a fabulous weekend!

Brax & Burke getting ready to jump off the deck. There wasn't near as much snow as last year, but still enough to jump off the deck.

Ellie contemplating the jump. She of course has no fear and had a ball jumping.

We go over to Silver Lake Reservoir to snowmobile on the frozen lake. It is big, and we spent all afternoon there. We took turns sledding and then riding the snowmobile's.

I love this picture! It is my current favorite!

Me and Brad. He was such a crackup. He would bounce around singing his heart out over the sound of the engine. I loved it!

I took Ash, Ellie and Brad back to the cabin early because they were cold. We transport everyone around on these sleds. It is so much fun!

This is Ellie and Sis. Bratt. Ellie helped with dinner and she was so proud of herself! Dinner was delicious!

Brad was so tired that he fell asleep while he was on a ride. He was totally out. I picked him up and put him on a different snowmobile and he stayed asleep. It was so funny!

The only heat at the cabin is the stove. The older boys would haul up the wood in buckets and Brad so wanted to help. He was so proud of himself that he had carried up this log from the wood house.

I love this shot of Ricky and Ellie.

I'm so bugged that my pictures loaded out of order. This was right before we left the cabin. These are happy kids that had a blast all weekend!

Round 2- Ear Surgery
Well, Ashton had his major reconstructive ear surgery yesterday. It turned out to be a really long day and super long surgery. This is Ash waiting to get changed and go to surgery.
He looked so cute in his hospital jammies! He got to pick a stuffed animal and a toy. When we first got to the hospital there was a Christmas tree with stuffed animals all over it. Ash got to choose one and when we read the tag I got choked up. If said, "Good luck, the Windsor 1st ward YW." I was so grateful to those young women who at some point put this tree together to comfort children. They will never know how much they helped Ash be comfortable. He held it the whole time he was in he hospital and since he has been home. This is one more reason I love the church!

This is after he was done and he was trying to come out of the anisthetic. It is really hard to wake up and so I was trying to calm him down as he was not a happy campler! His surgery was 5 hours long which was two hours longer than we thought it would be. He had to have his ear drum reconstructed and they had to clean out a ton of skin that had grown and developed in his ear and clear back into his skull. Not fun!!

Ash did much better waking up this time than 3 weeks ago when he had his tonsils out. As you can see he is sleeping soundly here. He did so great and I was so proud of him! He has been such a trooper and so good to listen to the doctor's and nurses. He is such a good boy and I couldn't love him any more!

This morning we took of Ashton's bandages and this is what we saw. He has about 10 staples holding his ear on. They had to cut off his ear to get deeper into his ear. He was a little freaked out when he saw the picture, but then he wanted to show it to everyone he could. He definitely has bragging rights. How many 5 year old's do you know that have had their ear cut off and stapled back on?