Let the games begin!

After a LOONG winter of being trapped indoors, Kaden was ready to run!  His first soccer game of the spring started tonight.

He's into balancing lately...

This is "jamboree" style.  I hate it.

He's #12....oh wait, they all are.  He's the TALL one in the middle.  ;)

The girls practiced while Kaden did.  Lexi can't wait to play!

He's in the middle.

SCORE!!

 Kaden scored three times (hat trick!) and after his first goal (30 seconds into playing) he was thrilled!  He pumped his fist into the air and looked right at me to make sure I saw.  He kept his fist up and ran towards his coach for the night and got a much deserved high-five.  He did awesome.

Cutie pie!

Snuggling with Daddy.

The kids are each supposed to play two quarters, so they sit out half the game.  One of the kids on Kaden's team didn't really feel like playing today, though, so Kaden got to play 3/4 of the game.  He had a blast and when we got home, drank lots of water and said, "Can I go to bed?  I'm really tired."  WOO HOO!  Yay for summer!

Coloring Easter Eggs!

The kids have been begging for days to dye the eggs for Easter.  I was planning on Thursday, but moved some plans around so that we could color them early.  Then I bribed them with it to get them to eat all of their dinner.  mwahahahahaha

We had to do a silly picture, of course.

 None of the kids would let Shane or I help this year.  *sniff* They're growing up.  It resulted in some plain eggs (from Ari), and some adorable little pictures from Kaden and Lexi.  They're not fancy this year, but they're so sweet.

Ari just wanted to stir the egg in the dye the whole time.

 

Kaden and Lexi worked hard to draw on their eggs.

All done!

It's hard to see the squiggles, but it's so cute.

I wrote on one of Ari's eggs before she dunked it and made a huge mess, but other than that, they did the eggs all by themselves.  :)  Now they're watching Hop!

Primary's Easter Party

This past Saturday, the 23rd, our ward's primary did an Easter party.

They started off by teaching a short lesson about the resurrection and my kids were so eager to be helpers.

Still best friends.  Not sure how long that will last.

It was nap time for both of my babies.

 

Kaden helping...

Lexi helping...

Making Bunny Baskets!

 

Ari's has the yellow nose, Kaden's has the demon orange eyes, and Lexi's has the green eyes.

Decorating cookies!

He was so proud of his hard work.

After the kids all finished decorating (and eating) their cookies, they went on an Easter egg candy hunt to fill their new Bunny Baskets!  My kids had a blast and it got them so excited for Easter!  I keep bringing up the real meaning of Easter, though, so hopefully some of that gets through the sugar-induced craziness.

Let It Snow!

March 21st, it snowed!  What the?  Oh yeah, we live in Utah.

Oh well, the kids loved playing in it and it was melted by dinnertime, which is the perfect kind of snow.  :)

Catching snowflakes on his tongue.

HI!!

They came in and had hot chocolate, popcorn, and watched a movie.  Happy kids!

A Very Merry Un-birthday To YOU!

My cute grandpa made a little bundt cake for Lexi (she never got one from him for her December birthday since we were in Cali).  The next day (the 18th), the kids decided we should have a birthday party since we had cake!  I thought that was a great idea.  While Kaden was at school, I went to Wal-Mart with the girls and got some super cheap toys from the clearance section (what's a party without presents), so that the kids would each have one new toy.

After school and lunch, we had a mini-party!

They each got a candle.

Blow!

The girls each got a cute little Hello Kitty purse and Kaden got a little Power Rangers action figure.  Fun times!!

Happy 8th Anniversary!

March 15th was mine and Shane's 8th wedding anniversary.  I could go on and on about a whole load of mushy things, but Shane will never read them and I don't want to bore you.  Let's leave it at: I still love him and think he's a hottie and a good dad.  The end.

It was a Friday and Shane had the day off, so we took the kids to Jensen Nature Pond in Syracuse to take some pictures with their cousins for a Mother's Day idea I had.  It was gorgeous weather, but Kaden acted like a vampire anytime the sun got in his eyes.  Shane said, "Too many hours of video games."  Uh, yeah.  I'm going to ban all video games every summer from now on.  Get out in the sun, kid!

Kaden closing his eyes against the evil sun.

We went in the shade and that helped!

 Suzanna has a nicer (i.e. faster) camera than mine, so I'll have to post the pics she got.  By the time she got there with the rest of the cousins, Kaden's poor eyes had adjusted and he did much better.

After playing and running for an hour or so, we headed to "our spot" for lunch.  Yep, Red Robin.  We've been there every year for our anniversary.

Silly face

Kaden started it....

...and Lexi copied him...

 

...and Ari copied Lexi.  ;)

The best pic I could get of Shane without his hand blocking the lens.

Shane and I celebrated the next day just the two of us.  My mom watched the kids and Shane and I went to Desert Star Playhouse.  Neither of us had been there before, so we figured it would be fun for me because it was a play, and fun for Shane because the name of it was "Kicking the Hobbit."  Anything Lord of the Rings themed and Shane's in!

Us!

 I learned that I suck at taking pictures of Shane and I.  Probably because I never do.  This was the best one where Shane's face wasn't 3/4ths of the way cut off.  Yeah.  I'm awesome.

Jammed in tight like cattle.

I had to sneak a picture of Shane if I wanted one at all.

The play was...okay.  I guess.  Shane didn't really love it because he thought it would basically be "The Hobbit" with a few jokes thrown in.  (There were hardly any jokes about The Hobbit, it was just the same characters on a quest.)  I would have liked it more if there hadn't been any jokes.  I would have rather seen just a regular play.  (Although a lot of that could just be due to the fact that this play was Lord of the Rings themed at all. Ugh.  The things we do for love.)

BUT it was fun to get out just Shane and I and celebrate our love.  Awwwww....   ;)

P.S. I'm so not letting Shane plan our anniversary next year.  Lesson learned.

Bullets 'N Barbecue

A friend of mine has in-laws who own a lot of different murder mystery dinner party kits.  She choose a western themed one and it was SO much fun!  (I may or may not have had to bribe Shane to do it.)  We got our characters and suggested costumes the week before, which ended up being stressful for being because I had to find a 1860s Victorian-style dress!  My character was Sally Forth and she was from London, which meant I also had to brush up on my English accent.  And here I thought we were going western!

Shane was Doc Mallard, the town's drunken doctor, so we needed a ragged three-piece suit and a bow tie.  One trip to Savers was all it took for him.  :)  I ended up finding a dress at a costume shop in Murray that was perfect.

March 9th, we got all dressed up, ditched the kids (thanks Mom!), and headed back in time.

Jess made this.  Adorable!

Jess (Bibi Gunn - the town's "entertainer" and prostitute), and Sam (Juan Bandito - Mexican bandit).  It was their house and idea.  :)

Doc Mallard - town's drunken doc, and Sally Forth - the sheriff's mail-order bride from England.

Kim (Miss Patience - school marm), and Kevin (Rowdy Azell - smooth-talking gambler)

 

I "won" for best costume and Kevin "won" for best hair.  You guys should see how his hair looks normally.  It was awesome.  He spent half an hour gelling every strand back (to help him look more sleazy) and his hair was a freaking helmet by the time he got to Jess's house.  It was hilarious.

Jess thought of so many details!

Tin plates, "beer", and mason jars.  So perfect for the wild west!

It was  really fun night!  We ate and then got to the murder mystery.  The sheriff had been killed and we were all, of course, suspects.  No one knew going into it who the killer was and as we read our parts, we had to put the clues together.  In the middle-ish of the little script, all of a sudden there was a part in mine that said, "DO NOT READ OUT LOUD!  YOU ARE THE KILLER!" and then explained why I killed the sheriff.

Awesome, right?!  I was the killer at my family reunion this past year, too!  What do you think that means?

I had everyone fooled except Kevin, but he'd gotten a large hint about me in his script.  Lame.

We laughed and laughed the whole time.  The first ten minutes no one could breathe because we were laughing so hard at everyone's fake accents.  (I also "won" for the best accent.  Thanks to my role in Pride and Prejudice in high school, I can do a fairly decent English accent.  I had a great tutor at the time.)   It was a great date night and we're going to do a 1950s themed one next!  Bring on the poodle skirts!

Parent Day

On March 6th, Kaden's school had another parent day!

Lexi and Ari ate the cereal (Ms. B brought extra for that exact reason) while Kaden made his craft.

He's so detail-oriented.

Pot of gold!

The Ms. B had the class sing and show us what they've been learning since the last parent day.

Showing off

Kaden barely participated.  I was getting steamed because we pay a lot of money every month and if he's not going to participate, why bother?  Luckily, after class was over, Ms. B came up to me and said, "Mister Kaden was just being Joe Cool today, wasn't he?"  I apologized and asked if that's how he always is.

She laughed, "Oh heavens no!  He's always the first one to volunteer for everything and the loudest singer!  He just saw his mom today and turned into a 'too cool' teenager."

We both laughed and I was so relieved!  I can't formally request a teacher for Lexi next year, but I'm praying she gets in to Ms. Brinkerhoff's class.  What a great teacher.