How many egg hunts does a kid need?

...As many as we can get them to, I say! First, the kids headed out to "This is the Place" National Monument for the Make-A-Wish Foundation's annual Egg Hunt a week before Easter.

Jace got spoiled by the clown. He asked for a spider. The clown said "Okay, but just this once." It is the shape that takes the most time and balloons!

I think these are Mickey Mouse ears on Lance. The clown took just one look at Lance and began making these. Half of the wishes made in the Make A Wish foundation are to go to Walt Disney World.

They had games, egg coloring, face painting, hot chocolate, donuts, and beautiful music playing. When "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" played (the one from "50 First Dates"), I had an Evan moment and shed a tear, maybe two.

Lance and Jace having a blast at the Chevron Egg Hunt on Easter weekend.

(Left) Chevron Easter Egg Hunt (Jared's dad retired there and we've gone pretty much every year) It was here that we met another little boy named Kyle with exactly the same age and birthday as ours! What are the odds?!

(Right) One week after Easter, the final hunt here at the U. Jace is proudly displaying that he found the egg that won him the grand prize of a $30 gift certificate to Build-A-Bear!

Finished!!

Jace finished book #7 of Harry Potter today! Hurray for reading!

Can't put my foot on it

There must be something backwards here, but I can't quite put my foot on it...

Is it Really Too Late?

So I got an opportunity, with Jace's permission, to read his journal he writes in class at school. There were a few entries, some shorter than others. As much as he likes to read (He is currently reading the 7th Harry Potter book), Jace DOES NOT like writing. So I'm glad he makes the effort to write the little that he does so that I can glimpse a little of life through Jace's eyes.

3-5-08
"yesterday I got on the bus and did math. When I got off the bus I went home and did more math. when I went to bed I wanted to do more math but it was to late."

Isn't that incredible? And, just so you know, I AM a nice mom sometimes (when he's in bed early enough) and Jace has the clipboard and paper in his bed to prove it. He loves working with numbers and learning different things you can do with them. But after reading that, I couldn't help but think, would it be so bad to let my child stay up late if he's just doing math to his heart's content??

A Happy Birthday for me :)

Sunday, we had a family party at Jimmy and Verusca's house (my brother). It was lovely. I love birthdays, even if, this time, it means I am 30. I was spoiled with gifts I have been wanting a lot, like clothes (since I greatly dislike shopping for clothes w/ or w/o my kids). And I finally got to open that vinyl lettering that I picked out!

Here are the results:

I caught Jared putting this one up for me. Actually, he posed several great faces for the camera. I don't think it's a question anymore where Lance gets it...

I was pampered throughout this day. Jace got me some scrunchies for my hair, Lance, of course, gave me some pretty pink sandals (pink is his favorite color, and I am okay with that.). And Kyle got me a brush, since he lost my other one :) Jared did all the housework on top of his medical school stuff, and even made time to cook the family a delicious dinner of Halibut, before having to take off for a Family Medicine Clinic. It was so nice to enjoy cards and visits from friends. I was also given a great party, and the day turned out to be a wonderful, Happy Birthday. Many thanks to all of these wonderful people!

Happy Easter!

From us!

Today we celebrated my favorite holiday. I am grateful for the knowledge that our Savior, Jesus Christ, atoned for our sins, was resurrected and lives! I remember 3 Easters ago when we were talking about the resurrection with Jace and Evan. This is one of my favorite photos: Evan and his Dad looking at the 2nd Coming photo and talking about Jesus on Easter, 2005.

Jace and Evan in our backyard with the neighbor's duckling around Easter time, 2005.

Shop "Til You Drop

While Gramma Kimmy was busy spoiling Jace and Lance, Kyle and I got to do some shopping at Layton Hills Mall...

First, a trip to Kiddie Kandids. 18 months pictures!

Kyle thought I should try this swimsuit on, but I decided it was time to go check out my older brother, Jimmy's store, "Tricked Out Accessories" (for cell phones). This is my little brother, Johnny, who I've heard is one of Jimmy's top salesmen. (Jimmy was always good at selling since when we were kids. He could talk me into almost anything, and always won the arguments. It's no wonder he owns two stores and about 10 kiosks. He knows how to get what he wants, and sell it, too :)).

This is one of Jimmy's other kiosks, "Sticker Shop". He's making my birthday present: vinyl lettering for my home and also a cute stick-figure family for the van (after my birthday, I will post their cuteness). It is so nice to have a brother in this business. He's awesome! (They also have a "U" for the Utes, if you noticed the "Y" behind him. My fav: He has a blue "BYU" sign with the "U" being a red "Utes" logo. Thanks, Jimmy!

Good Friday 2008

Another Good Friday come and gone...

Flashback (Good) Friday

A friend of mine has a Flashback Friday every week on her blog. While I'm not organized enough to do this every week, I couldn't help but do it today:
It doesn't seem that long ago that we were enjoying another Good Friday at Mom's house coloring Easter Eggs. This is in April 2005.

To this day, Jared and I still give Jace a "hard time" for this cute clip: He's quoting, or trying to quote, from the movie, "The Incredibles".
Evan, of course, is being very thorough on his egg coloring and being sure to count to exactly the right number to get just the right color...

Two Firsts

Lance's First Soccer Game - He is beaming!



Jace (#6) Scores the First Goal of the Season to kick off a 6-0 win!

Houdini Jr.

This poor little toddler has such a boring kitchen to work with. With childproof drawers, childproof locked pantry, custom-made Kyle-proofed oven door, what's left to do, but to find a way around those darned locks? He hasn't quite figured out how to unlatch it yet, but when he does, Jared will have to come up with yet another brilliant solution.

"Take a Picture of Me!!"

That's how this photo happened. Then Lance took some pictures of me, which I will not post. Believe you me, this one's much cuter :)

Who's a Kid?

We just got back from, yet, another relaxing and glorious stay at the cabin. On the drive to the cabin, we took a vote on our predictions of the snow height compared to last week:

Jared said: about the same

Jenny said: a little less

Jace: kept changing from "about the same" to "a little less". Jared gave him a hard time for being so wishy-washy.

The winner? None of us! There was just a little bit more snow there, and it was snowing when we arrived. Jace had to recarve the tunnels he made for a little toy boat to glide down. He also made a ton more of them with his dad, and we brought the sled up this time and enjoyed some sledding. Actually, only Jared and I went down the sled. Jace wasn't into the sledding as much as wanting to work on his tunnels, and Lance said he didn't want to. What is that?? I guess Jared and I were the only real kids there!

We only got one picture this trip, wanna see it?

On our drive to the cabin, Jace asked why we've been going to the cabin so often. I told him that it's Jared's spring break (He gets a 3 week break). "Well, I like it!" he said.

Jared and Jace have different spring breaks (darn!) so we've been trying to make good use of our weekends during Jared's break. It's so nice to have a cabin just 45 min. away!

First Soccer Practice

"What?? You mean I'm s'posed to listen to the coach first?" Today, at Lance's first soccer practice, when coach called everyone to gather, Lance took off running and ready to just PLAY SOCCER! He learned a few valuable things today:

1. Be coachable

2. Take Turns

3. Share - pass the ball to your teammates

4. No hands!

4. Just give it all you've got! (Towards the goal, of course)

I think the outlook is good for this little soccer dude! He's so excited that he's finally BIG and STRONG enough to play soccer like his brother! He keeps reminding me of this - oh, and he's also SO TALL, as he often points out. (To be quite honest, in a team of 3,4, and 5 year olds, Lance fits right in. He's the youngest player, but you couldn't tell that by height! He takes after his Dad.)

Fend for yourself

Look at this proud toddler. I think he had an epiphany this morning: "If you want something done, you've got to do it yourself."

The Thomas S. Monsen Train

Yesterday, at naptime, I asked Lance what book he wanted to read,

"The Thomas S. Monsen Train one." He replied.
Do you mean, "Thomas the Train Engine?"
"Ya." Well, that answers that.

Cabin Quake!!!!

Where did this week go? I can't believe it's already Monday. Let me go back 2 weekends ago.

We arrived at our cabin all covered in snow and I quickly turned on the heater and tried to keep the kids warm, Jace turned on the record player to the original Star Wars music, and Jared unloaded the van and snowblowed the walkway. The cabin slowly began to warm up.

We had just finished a relaxing dinner of French Dip sandwiches and were beginning to watch a show when all of the sudden we heard something and felt the cabin begin to shake. Louder and louder the rumbling sound roared. Jared jumped up from his chair toward the center of the cabin. I was already there shouting to Jared, "What's happening????" (This was just after we'd heard about the quake in Nevada that reached SLC) I was seriously thinking, "Earthquake!" Then Jared started laughing and went to look out the window. Sure enough, it was the snow that began to melt and slid down off the roof of the cabin creating a pile of snow as high as the roof.

The rest of our cabin enjoyment was less scary and more relaxing, as we had anticipated...

"Look mom! The snow is as tall as me!" (If he could say it, he would, I'm sure)

Do you think he likes it out here?

Happiest King of the Mountain (Lance)

Is Jace trying to touch his nose with his toe or pretend he's an avalanche?

Love through a window

Look how gorgeous it is!

Boys and Puddles

Jace and I got to visit the river. I didn't even need the key to unlock the gate. We just stepped over it. Instead of rocks in the summer, Jace threw snowballs...

Busy project in the works...

Tadah!

This was the most snow that Jared has seen at the cabin in a long time (and more than I have ever seen), and I'm glad we were able to make good use of it :) Grandma and Grampa Schauerhamer would be so happy to see that we had a fabulous time at the cabin!

What if...

If Jared and I had girls, they might look something like this:

If Kyle was about 20 years older, he might look something like this:

Aren't they cute?

Thank goodness we're just us right now. We had a great time at the ward luau tonight. We enjoyed Hawaiian Haystacks, great music that Kyle really got into, and Lance, Jace, and Mom were limbo stars.