March and April Pictures

Here is what's been happening at our house lately:

Thomas gave the FHE lesson on Prophets the week before General Conference. Kylie helped him prepare it. Lessons are a love of hers and she is really good at them.

Spencer putting down new pine straw.

Cleaning the house to put it on the market.

Any article of clothing goes over Kaitlyn's head and around her neck. Even if it's an old shirt that is now a rag. She had a blast with rags all over the house.

Madalyn proud of the Magic Eraser she used to shreds.

Kylie thought some sort of posture/balancing lessons would help the kids learn to not touch the walls I was touching up with paint.

Eating lunch outside while the carpets were being cleaned.

Thomas and Kaitlyn with fevers at the end of March.

Dinner and Family Home Evening at the duck pond.

Kaitlyn has discovered the brownies.

Kaitlyn making her birthday cake.

I can't believe she's one!! We just adore this precious little girl.

We went on our spring Mommy dates on April 14. I didn't bring my camera (which is on its last life anyway), but here are the outfits the girls picked out.

House Situation and February Pictures

I want to post more often, I really do, I just don't have much to say. I loaded pictures onto the computer just now and still didn't find much. Maybe I'm purposely taking less pictures so that I have less scrapbooking to do and won't feel so far behind. :) The biggest news is that we're going to sell our house. Or attempt to. Maybe. Last month we found this house in the country that we absolutely love. Correction: we love the 21 acres it's on, not the house. The house itself is only 1500 sq. feet, which is smaller than our current house of 1680 sq ft. Moving to a smaller house when our family is always growing has never been a plan of mine. But I think of that gorgeous yard complete with expansive lawns, beautiful shrubs, a variety of trees, a playground, a tire swing, acres of woods, a pond, and even a huge barn and I think there must be a way to make the house work for us. I've drawn out several possibilities for additions and am meeting with the contractor again this week to determine costs and feasibility of making this house work for us. Meanwhile, we're busy repairing, cleaning, and staging our house to put it on the market. Sometimes I think I'm crazy, but I'm sure having fun reorganizing, de-junking, and making our house look nice (new doors, shower curtains, rugs, light fixtures, mailbox, etc.) At least my boring winter has come to an end and spring is providing me with lots of fun projects I never would have done, but I feel justified spending money on because we might sell our house. I'll keep you posted on the house situation. Here are the fun pictures since I last posted:

Valentines Day dinner Pink heart shaped pancakes. Does everyone do that? FHE activity and treats Riding the train as orphans. Kylie loves to fix trays with food on it. Thomas playing, "Which hand is it in?" "This one!" Building the Salt Lake Temple after watching "Mountain of the Lord"

The kids chisel away old bricks. Kylie is spinning wool using a ball of twine. (Notice the semi I'm trying to move away from.)

I don't remember taking this picture. Just a cozy one.

The most exciting thing was having our good friends come visit us from New Hampshire. They stayed the weekend and it was best weekend I've had in a really long time. They have 5 kids and we all get along great. They brought such a sweet spirit to our home. We wish they could visit more often. The kids chowing down on spaghetti and homemade mac n cheese.

The kids minus the two babies--ages 15 months and 10 months.

Scripture reading

I loved having our couches full of loved ones.

Kaitlyn joining in the song on the floor.

Playing in the water filled ditches.

Thomas threw up just as were loading into the vans to go out for pizza. Then he konked out on the floor as we waited for frozen pizza to cook as we changed plans.

The babies play tackle.

FHE with two large families. It was the best! We were so sad to see them go, but felt grateful that we were able to have a blast together and cherish every minute they were here.

And Finally Something!

After feeling like nothing was happening in January, a few things did happen.

Spencer pulled his first tooth out. At 7 years old and after seeing all of his primary classmates pull theirs out (literally, as one pulled hers out during primary) for the past 2 years, he finally got to pull his out. Nathan and the older girls were at the church and the younger 3 kids were in bed, so it was just he and I, but I got it on video and he was excited to surprise everyone.

Our Groundhog's Day breakfast.
Yeah for spring! It was 77 degrees that day.

The next day was freezing, though. I don't usually like to put cemetery pictures on here, but I thought the kids were really cute with all their hoods on.

We had a picnic and went to a park to enjoy some quiet, family time.

Forget the playground equipment, we spent most of the time walking on the beams.

Playing house in a tunnel.

The next day was Madalyn's 9th birthday. She and Kylie made a candyland cake. They had a blast decorating it.

I think Madalyn's birthday is the favorite around here because it's the first holiday after Christmas and New Years. The kids always look forward to it.

Nothin' Much

I keep thinking I need to update my blog but then I think nothing's really happened since Christmas. We pretty much stay home everyday and do school and play. Occasionally have a friend over. Nathan is enjoying his job and has a lot more time with us which includes weekends. Life is going pretty smooth right now.
So I loaded the pictures from the camera onto the computer and was surprised to see them going back to Dec. 26. And they did show that we had a few exciting happenin's. Nothing really exciting, but our life isn't totally dull.

The day after Christmas we got dumped on, enough to cancel church that day. These pictures were taken before it stopped snowing.

Spencer and Daddy made a snowman on Monday.

Our neighbors made an igloo.

On Dec. 30 we made graham cracker and gingerbread houses.

They all took many pictures of their houses, but I'll spare you by posting only one.

Nathan was home for New Year's Eve for the first time ever (besides times we had it with family back in med school). It was a great night, just us. Especially since Nathan had to work 2 weeks over Christmas.

I think Kylie took these pictures of the party food.

Watching a movie.

Ready to celebrate the new year (even though it's only 8:40pm)

Kaitlyn learned how to crawl up stairs and stools. Here she helps me assemble enchilladas. She reminds me of how Kylie always hung out with me in the kitchen. Those were good times.

Kaitlyn loves to help unload the dishwasher too.

And draw on the cupboards.

And drawing on the floor.

She was only 8 months old when these pictures were taken. We've had very few instances when our children drew on things, but definitely not this young! We'd better keep an eye on her. As I was looking through the pictures taken the past 2 months, a lot of them show her with a writing implement in her hand. She can find one anywhere.

Playing a candy bar game for FHE. If you roll doubles then you have to put on hat, scarf, gloves, etc and then try to dig into the candy bar with a knife and fork.

I put Kaitlyn down for her nap in the middle of our history lesson. I didn't hear Thomas for awhile and when I went to find him I found him in her crib, happily playing cars with her. (She doesn't share his enthusiasm and love of cars.)

Kids goofing off and yelling, "Take a picture!"

Kylie having everyone close their eyes while she leads them to the dining room where she has made a fancy FHE treat. She's really been into cooking a lot lately and we've enjoyed her tasty breads, pretzels, and desserts.