Prom--April 10, 2010

Ethan went to Prom with Samantha Farr.  He asked her by dumping a bag of Hersey Kisses on her floor & posting a sign that said "Now that I have kissed the ground you walk on, will you go to Prom with me?"

She answered back with a creative poster that had words to find & decipher.

A group of about 8 couples got together earlier in the day & went target shooting & 4-wheeling.

Then they changed into their clothes (& the girls did their hair/make-up)

And they all met at the church for a nice dinner.

Ethan was in charge of bringing the baked potatoes for everyone.

Since I was at a Stake Baptism all morning, he scrubbed & wrapped all the potatoes & put them in our roaster.

By eating a meal at the church, it not only saved about 2 hours of driving time, but it was a lot easier on the wallet! ☺

A couple of the other moms decorated the tables & set everthing up. (thanks--it was wonderful!)

This is Ethan & Samantha arriving at the church.

Getting ready to eat (I'm not the only mom taking pictures--that is Sam's mom in the background)

Yes, Ethan--you HAVE to get a zillion pictures taken!!!

Samantha looked so beautiful!!!

And Ethan cleaned up pretty good too.

We found his tie at Ross--and it matches perfectly!  We only had a close-up picture of the dress on my cell-phone to try & match his tie to.

I really like this picture because you can see how gorgeous Samantha's hair is.

A yummy-looking chocolate fountain at Prom.

I love how their eye's "sparkle" (okay--it's really just the flash in a darkened gym)

All the girls were beautiful, the guys handsome & the decorations were amazing.  I love how they can transform the gym!

Ethan had a great time.

Springtime

It  finally got warm enough to play outside a couple of weeks ago.

Ben & Emmalee had fun riding the bike.

And they like to say hello to our neighbor's goats.

I think Emmalee was trying to be a bunny rabbit.

Emmalee likes to pet the goats.

I hope everyone is enjoying spring!!

Easter Weekend--Part 2

After we watched "He is Risen", the kids looked for the hidden eggs.

High & Low

And then they all looked through their Easter baskets to see what they received.

Benjamin really L♥ved the chocolate!!

Callum's new game!

Emmalee on Easter morning.

We had a fun Easter egg hunt between General Conference sessions. 

We hid about 100 eggs outside (yes--we got about 3-4 inches of new snow)

Some of the eggs had candy in them.

Other eggs had stickers.  The kids could trade the eggs with stickers for a quarter ☺

Emmalee & her cousin Emmy

 And Benjamin loved the snow--but didn't care for it as much when he fell down & couldn't get up

Easter Weekend--Part 1

Saturday afternoon we dyed & decorated 3 dozen eggs.

We tried lots of different colors.

I think we had 8 or 10 colors.

And then Rusty dyed eggs in multiple colors--some 1/2 and 1/2, and others in lots of different colors.

Zane also dyed a cool egg in lots of different colors.

Ethan is resting & recovering from broncial pneumonia :(  He is on an antibiotic, taking cough medicine, & on breathing treatments.

Easter egg dying fun!!

I should have taken a picture of the finished eggs.

Callum believes he saw the Easter bunny hiding eggs in the middle of the night.  The kids also discovered some bunny tracks in the back hall!!

Benjamin's basket (he got a big yellow duck)

Emmalee's--cute pink bunny & an adorable pink dress.

Callum's basket--he got a new game called Connect 4 X 4.  We played it & found it to be more challenging than we thought.

Zane got a new lego set.  There was lots of candy, plus some "healthy" jerky & goldfish crackers.

Brienna received the movie she has been "dying" to watch again--"New Moon"

Ethan got an iTunes card.

The family received this Easter book, a John Bytheway DVD, & Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.

This is what I got in my basket--it is wonderful!!!  I love the information about the songs & the beautiful artwork.

Callum--Setting the Example

Gotta love him!! 

I always knew he was my special spirit sent to our family. 

But he just proved once again how spiritual he is.

We were reading our ward newletter Sunday at church.  He leaned over & whispered to me, "Mom--I don't want to attend the Easter Egg hunt this year."

I asked why & he replied, "Because I want to watch & listen to General Conference instead." (if you don't know what General Conference is, click here)

Our town's egg hunt is Saturday, April 3rd at 10 am.  That is when General Conference begins.

I--being the "spiritual" person that I am--thought that we would just have to be really quick at the hunt, and miss the first 1/2 hour of conference.

But when Callum told me that, I knew that was what we needed to do.

So our family will be holding our own Easter egg hunt between sessions on Saturday.  Brienna & Ethan are going to help me get the eggs ready & hide them.  We plan on doing about 100 plastic eggs.

At the town egg hunt, the eggs that have stickers are worth 50 cents, so we will put stickers on some & names on others.  And candy in the rest.

I am grateful to have children to teach me and remind me what should be the priority in my life.

So--thanks again, Callum.

I L♥VE YOU!!

Quickest "Cure" for Sick Momma's:

I've been sick today.

I laid around all day, could hardly do more than fix a little food for the 3 "sick" kids I had home today.

(By sick, I mean that Callum stayed home from school with his horrible cough/hacking.  But by lunch, he was better & didn't cough again until night.  And Emmalee & Benjamin both have pink eye--Emma worse than Ben.  But it is the 2nd time for Ben.)

The 3 youngest had a blast all afternoon--sword fighing, climbing all over me, hiding (throwing for Ben) Easter eggs, and being really loud.

And guess which ones took a nap today?? 

NONE of them!! (Including me)

When the older kids got home from school, they helped out around the house. Zane brought in wood & helped with dishes.  Brienna loaded the dishes, & Ethan vacuumed the floor.

Why did the floor need vacuumed?

Mostly (95%) because Benjamin L♥VES to get into EVERYTHING!!'

Today his crumbled up his toast (oh, and by the way--we have carpet in most of the house.  yep--even the dining area), spilled his crackers & dry cereal.

And then he dumped out yet another box of crackers.  Not his snack ones, but of course MY favorite crackers--Multi-grain Wheat Thins.  And not the small box, but the family size one.

He dumped the whole box out, on top of all of the toast, cereal, and ground in crackers from earlier. 

Oh--did I mention that I just opened the box yesterday?

And then before Callum could get them picked up, he danced in the crackers.

I do have to give him credit for helping Callum pick them up.  And he did come & give me a hug afterwards. (Good thing he is so darn cute!)

Now--none of these things are the "cures" for sick Momma's.

THIS is the "Cure" for sick Momma's:

After everyone is home, helping out, & dinner (corn dogs & tator tots) is in the oven,  go in your bedroom & lay down for a nap.

Get really comfy on your bed, listen to the family eating dinner, settle into a "deep" sleep, and then hear your husband say the following words enthusiastically:

"Your shirt's on fire!!!"

He said it so loudly, I immediately thought one of the boys was building the fire & caught his shirt on fire.

I jumped out of bed & dashed into the living room (I now hold the world's record for how quickly one can get into the other room).  

Although it only took me 1.1 seconds (or maybe 10), I kept waiting to hear a screaming child & was grabbing for towels and getting ready to grab a pitcher of water.

As I rounded the corner, I yelled, "What happened?"

"NOTHING--why did you get up?"

"Rusty--you said someone was on fire."

He said--"oopps!!  I said 'Liar, liar, your shirt is on fire.'"

This is the shirt that Zane was wearing today.

So after my heart settled back down into my chest, I wasn't a bit tired so I sat down with the family to eat dinner.

Okay--maybe I'm not "cured" from my sickness, but my motherly instinct to protect my youngin's is 100%.

Just 3 words:

MORE SICK KIDS!!!

(I hope I get a chance to post more pictures--a lot has happened in the last week!!)

Benjamin

I just wanted to post these adorable pictures of Benjamin--he is 15-16 months old in these pictures.

I can't believe that he will be going to nursery in 6 weeks