Our House - April 26, 2011

Tuesday - April 26th

I went outside and took some pictures of our house and yard today.  My plan is to pull the photos up on my Coral Paint Shop Pro program and decorate the pictures with different flowers, bushes, and trees as a way to see how the yard would look, so I can get a plan on how I want to start decorating our yard.  I have no gardening skills of any kind, but I'm determined to make our yard look beautiful and to become an excellent gardener.

Happy Easter - April 24, 2011

Sunday - April 24th

We had a fun Easter.  The kids loved all of the fun things they got in their Easter baskets.  It pretty much kept them entertained all day.  They got a lot of fun craft type activities.

Decorating Easter Eggs - April 23, 2011

Saturday - April 23rd

We decorated Easter Eggs today.  We had a lot of fun.  Last year, after Easter, I bought a bunch of fun decorating kits for really cheap.  So, we had a lot of different decorating options this year.  It was fun to be able to be so creative with our egg decorating.  We loved it.

 After we decorated our eggs, we went over to the school to play and burn up some of our energy before bedtime.

A Fun Hail Storm - April 21, 2011

Thursday - April 21st

We love weather watching.  We especially love to run outside and see it when the weather gets exciting.  So, of course, we ran outside when it started hailing today.  It was fun.  for a little bit, it looked like everything was completely covered with snow.  It didn't take long for all the hail to disappear after it stopped falling.

Crystal Hot Springs - April 18, 2011

Monday - April 18th

We finally made it to Crystal Hot Springs.  We didn't let anything distract us from going there this time.  We didn't do anything crazy or spur of the moment.  I think we've been doing enough of that lately.  Missy, Becca, and Jonny came and met us there this time.  Becca is going to be leaving soon.  She is going to go to school in West Virginia.  She's really excited about it.

When we got to Crystal Hot Springs, there was a sign on the door explaining that KSL would be coming to do a news story tonight at 6:00pm featuring Crystal Hot Springs.  It seemed to be a lot more crowded than we are used to, but that sign explained it all.  We thought that sounded fun, so we decided to stay longer than planned, so we could see the news people come.  We bought water slide passes this time also.  Alissa loves the water slides.  She was really happy to get  go on them this time.

 I noticed an older guy walking around the pool that looked like Elvis Presley.  I had to get a picture of him, so I had one of the kids stand in front of where he was so I could get a picture.

 The helicopter bringing a reporter and camera crew from KSL finally came.  I put my camera away as the helicopter was landing.  I wanted to be in the water and kind of out of their view when they came.  I didn't really want to be in their video and on the news.  It was fun to watch everybody get so excited and to see them interviewing different people that were swimming.

Brinley is Still Scared of Molly - April 16, 2011

Saturday - April 16th

Brinley is still scared of Molly.  We have to keep gates up to keep them separated from each other.  We block off whatever room Brinley wants to play in.  I'm worried that Brinley won't get over her fear and we'll have to give Molly away.  She is terrified.  We keep trying to get her to be comfortable with Molly, but nothing we do seems to work.

Anyway, here are some of the picture I took today.

 I'm not positive where this park is, but I'm pretty sure that it is somewhere in Logan.  We needed to go buy a crate or a large cage for Molly.  When we left her alone the other day, she destroyed my scriptures that I had left sitting on the piano.  So, we realized that we need a place to keep her safe and out of trouble when we have to leave her every once in a while.  Luckily, we don't have to leave her very often, but it will be nice to know that she is safe and out of trouble while we are gone.

Meet Molly - April 12, 2011

Tuesday - April 12th

We did another spur of the moment thing.  Since we didn't go to Crystal Hot Springs like we had planned on the other day, we told the kids to get ready and we would go.  We decided that it might be fun to get a dog, so I checked on KSL classified a few times today to see if we could find anything.  While the kids were getting ready to go to Crystal Hot Springs, I decided to show Roger some of the dogs I had seen posted on there that I was interested in.  When the classified page loaded up, there was a no dog in the listing.  It had just been posted.  It was for a golden retriever.  Roger and I both loved that dog as soon as we saw her.  We wrote down the number and decided that we would call the owners on our way to Crystal.  We called as soon as we got on the road.  The people live in Salt Lake.  They were going to be moving and needed to get rid of the dog.  When Roger talked to them, they said we could come and see her and pick her up tonight if we wanted.  We talked to the kids and everybody agreed that we wouldn't mind going to Crystal Hot Springs on another day, so we could go get a new dog. 

So, we headed to Salt Lake.  We loved Mollie and decided to take her.  All of this was very spur of the moment.  We decided in the morning that we wanted a dog.  I never dreamed that we would have one before we went to bed that night.

Here is our newest family member.  Her name is Molly.

Brinley is scared of Mollie.  She wanted us to get a small dog.  Hopefully it won't take long for her to overcome her fear.

Our New Van - April 10, 2011

Sunday - April 10th

We did a crazy spur of the moment thing.  We told the kids to get ready, so we could take them to Crystal Hotsprings.  As everyone was getting ready to go, Roger decided to open the mail.  He got a letter from the car dealership offering a deal if we traded in our Ford Explorer for something else.  Roger knows how bad I've been wanting a van.  So, he suggested we trade it in.  I liked that idea.  So, we decided to change our plans and instead of going to Crystal Hotsprings, we would go to Salt Lake and get a mini van.  The kids weren't thrilled with the change of plans, but they were excited about getting a van.  We really didn't put a lot of thought into this decision.  I've kind of been having second thoughts, but I do love all of the fun features of the van.  It's fun to do something crazy and spur of the moment every once in a while.  I really love that the radio has a system that you can save your music on.  It is really nice.

The Color Guard - April 7, 2011

Thursday - April 7th

The color guard does a show each spring where they have the senior girls do a routine to say good-bye and they introduce the new girls that will be in the color guard the following year.  They also invite littler kids to come and perform a little dance.  Alissa can't get enough of color guard.  she loves going to these.

Parker's Pictures - April 3, 2011

Sunday - April 3rd

Parker got a hold of the camera again today.  These are the pictures he took.

April Fools! - April 1, 2011

Friday - April 1st

I stayed up last night to prepare a few April Fool's pranks on the kids.  They were just normal ones, like coloring the milk and other small things around the house.  The kids loves seeing what I did when they woke up in the morning.  It was fun.  Then Parker and Alissa went to school.

While they were at school, I had a brilliant idea for an April Fool's joke.  Since they are little enough, they don't understand time and days of the month and stuff like that.  So, I decided to fool them and make them think it was their birthday.  Parker is in kindergarten, so he only goes to school for a few hours.  Since it wouldn't be long before he got home, I had to work fast.  I made and decorated a cake as quickly as I could.  I also decorated the house with streamers and lots of balloons (like I do on their birthdays).  So, my idea was, that when they came home from school, we would jump out and yell, "Happy Birthday!" and I would hold out the cake for them that says

April Fools on the top of it.

I babysat Conner today.  He loved playing with all of the balloons.

I finished getting it all ready, just in time for Parker to get here.  When he opened the door and we yelled "Happy Birthday!", he got a big smile and looked so happy, then slowly the expression on his face changed from happy excitement to confusion.  He asked, "Is it really my birthday?"  Then I showed him the cake and read what it said on the top to him.  He thought it was funny.  We all had a good laugh and talked about how excited we were for Alissa to come home, so we could fool her also.

Parker, Brinley, and Conner had a lot of fun playing with all the birthday stuff while we waited for Alissa to come home.

She did the same thing Parker did.  Her face lit up and she looked so excited and happy, then her face slowly changed from happy to confused.  She didn't ask if it was really her birthday.  She realized it wasn't and said, "It's not my birthday."  Then she read what the cake said.  She loved the joke and wanted to invite Erin over so we could surprise her also.  Erin smiled, but she wasn't fooled.  The kids all had so much fun with it.  That was my favorite prank ever.  It made our day lots of fun.

Here's Conner playing with the balloons.

 Our April Fool's cake

 Brinley enjoying the birthday fun

 After Parker came home, he insisted on taking some pictures also.  These are the pictures he took.  I was starting to feel really tired at this point, since I had worked so hard all morning.

 colored milk

 Getting ready to surprise Alissa

 After Conner's mom picked him up, we all walked over to the school playground for me to relax and for the kids to play for a while.  I brought a book to read.  Brinley insisted on bringing some books along also.  She brought some of our picture books.  We had fun playing and relaxing.