Monday, April 21, 2014

Easter 2014

This picture is classic.  Sophia is the only one excited for the Easter Bunny and the other kids have to be pulled from their beds to participate in the hunt!   The Easter Bunny Strikes again with the yarn wrapped all around the house and yard with the basket at the end.   
Ethan's in the BBQ!

Sophia's in the guest bedroom, again!
 Bostons was the longest hunt of all.  Ending up in Dad's truck!





 Aubrie's behind the Fire Pit!


 The kids with all their loot!  All with chocolate bunny's, Robins Eggs, and their favorite candy.  The boys got a t-shirt, Sophia smelly gel pens and My Little Pony stuffed animal, and Aubrie got make up and nail stuff....that she helped me pick out. LOL
 The closest thing we have to family pictures in over a year!



























Saturday, April 19, 2014

Sophia 7th and FROZEN!

What?? How can this be true?   Seven years old doesn't even sound right to me.  My family is growing up too fast.   I seriously had a breakdown last week as I was cleaning the picture frames that held pictures of the kids when they were little.   It's fun watching the older two grow up, but I don't like the younger to growing up at all!   I don't like it I say!  Sophia is growing up and losing her little girl cuteness.   She has been insisting that she is a big girl when I say things like "be nice to your baby sister".  Her little baby face is slimming and the way she talks and act is not so little anymore.  "Grandkids, Grandkids, Grandkids"  is what I keep telling myself.   I don't know how any Grandmother wouldn't want to take any minute they can get with their Grandkids....I can't wait.  I hope to get one just like each one of my children.  They all have such wonderful and unique personalities.   Since this post is about Sophia, I will write what I love about her.  She is so kind hearted, even thought that creates a very overly sensitive little girl.  But I'll take it to get her kind heartedness.  She is full of life and energy, excited about every little things.  She wears her emotion on her sleeves, so you are never left guessing as to how she feels.  She loves to make others happy, and loves everyone with such a sincerity that she can't help but have so many friends.   They feel loved by her, and love to be around her.  She has a love for knowledge, and loves reading.   She does expect too much out of herself right now, and starts to cry and get frustrated when she can't do something right the first time....a little perfectionist on the horizon that I'm trying to teach "balance and just doing your best" to right now.  She still has a strong desire to do what is right, making sure her scriptures are read, and getting after us about anything on the radio that offends her.   I hope she keeps that up!:)   We are lucky to have her in the family, and thought the older kids complain sometimes that she is spoiled and the favorite, I do admit that the spoiled part is right.  It's hard not to giver her a lot when she is so grateful for every little thing she receives.  And it's fun to be around her because she is so loving and thoughtful!
For her party she wanted a FROZEN theme....Shocker.  It's the most popular thing around around now.  Soon the theme parties will be a thing of my past, so I'm making the most out of them.   Aubrie was great at helping with the invitations, and helping with the party itself.  She is really creative, and great with kids.  I was so grateful for her help.   It helped the party of 19 girls go so much smoother.

I spent all week preparing for the party, and all Friday setting up.   We were getting a little nervous when the wind and light rain hit around 3:00, but Sophia and I said a prayer that the weather would be clear for her party, and the faith of a little girl worked.  The sun started to come and we were able to enjoy no wind or rain.  We started the party off with a half an hour of swimming, and then the girls ate while Sophia opened presents.  We then sang happy birthday to her, and then they watched the Frozen movie on the big screen outside.  We thought that would keep them occupied, but they just wanted to play outside, and then come watch the movie when they songs were on.   They still all had a great time, and besides cleaning up the constant spills, and trying to keep the girls away from the dessert till the end, it was pretty easy.   Sophia got a lot of great gifts, which she was overly grateful for everyone, and she had a fun time swimming, watching frozen, and playing with all of her friends. Happy 7th my sweet little girl!  Yep, you are still little!:)

 Party Favors...took me a while to figure out what to do.  Thank Heavens for these beauties!






 Present Time





 Time to make a wish!  I'm over cake....Cupcakes are the way to go!  Already ready to serve.   Ice cream was in the punch....low maintenance!

 Movie Time!

 Dessert came at the end!  They were all literally Frozen.  The girls kept asking and asking when they could have them....the most exhausting thing about the party.  I should have just kept them in the house.   But they just looked so cute here, don't you think?!




Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Ethan's Last Pinewood Derby

Ethan anxiously has been waiting for his last Pinewood Derby.  He had been wanting to work on it since the end of Febraury.  Ben finally got working on it with him  the weekend before the Derby.  When they test drove the car it was a whole car length faster than one of Boston's old cars that took second, so we thought it would do well.  It didn't do as well as they thought it would.  He ended up taking fourth.  Ethan was dissapointed for not placing in the top three, but he got over it much quicker than I thought.  His biggest dissapointement was that he was only a hundredth of a second off from third.    He was really hoping to come in first at least one of the years, like Boston.      I have to say that I'm GLAD the pinewood derby days are over!  It's more of a showing for the Dads more than anything.  And everyone says their son did it on their own, but you can clearly tell which one of those are telling the truth!  Haha