"I'm Still a Boy"

This is when we decorated Easter Eggs, Carter mostly just decorated himself, and I'm not sure why the other too are so solemn looking. . .

Here's a close up of the silly Sharkey, he's always keeping us laughing!

These are some funny spongebob sunglasses he picked out with his tickets at the arcade

(He usually wears them upside down though)

So the other day Eva and Carter were playing Robin Hood in Eva's room. I was in the kitchen listening while feeding Ellie. It was pretty cute to overhear their make believe. At first Eva was being Robin Hood as a beggar- she was walking around with a fake cane wearing a baggy old cape type thing and carrying a cup saying "alms for the poor" in a funny old-person voice. Carter was alternating between being Prince John and sucking his thumb and holding his ear and being Skippy the boy bunny with a bow and arrow. They played that way for a while and then they switched roles and Carter was the blind robin hood but instead of saying "alms for the poor" he walked all around he house saying "I'm Still a boy". It was pretty funny! I was dying inside but he was so serious I couldn't laugh out loud and hurt his feelings:) But in case there was any questions. . . .he's still a boy lol. I love these silly kids.

Growing up tooo fast!

"Catching butterflies" in her bouncer (there are toy butterflies on it so that's what the kids call it) and Chillin with her baby. She loves this little mommy doll. Eva loved it too, but Elena uses the poor thing for a binky.

Pretty Easter Dress from Mommers

"Look how strong I am!"- she loves being more mobile I'm pretty sure she's dying to run around with the other kids.

VERY FIRST BITE! Hilarious, Mary's feeding her so I could take pics but I was laughing really hard so they're not gret pics:)

Our sweet Baby Ellie is growing so fast! in these pics she's six months and pushing up on her tummy, eating her first bite of baby cereal (and absolutley hating it!), rolling over and babbling to dollies. She was on the 75-90th for head (hooray she's growing into it!) and her weight and off the charts for her height. She's gonna be tall like her Daddy.

Eva's 6th!

When we asked her what she wanted most she said "dangly" earrings- now I was never allowed to wear "dangly" earrings and I wasn't so sure this was a good idea but . . .I absolutely love them now and so I bought them for her, and she loves them! :) Funny the things we do huh?

She also wanted stuff from the "American Girls Magazine" accessoried to go with her American Girl Doll "Lori" she got for Christmas.

The vanity chair came with fake scissors, hair dryer, styling cape and a brush so fun:)

Hooray for new littlest pet shops!

So Eva turned six April 16th and I am really behind --but here are some of the highlights:) We are so blessed to have this sweet little princess in our family. She is always the first to say I'm sorry, give hugs, write little encouraging love notes and draw pretty pictures/cards for everyone. She is a great peace maker and has a big loving heart. I'm so grateful that I am blessed to be her mommy! For her birthday she wanted to take pumpkin chocolate chip cake to school with pink, purple and blue cream cheese frosting. It was a hit! I didn't get a picture because of the morning craziness with a newborn, baking and getting two kids off to school, but it was cute and everyone in her class loved it and had seconds! Her teachers all asked for the recipe and she was completely thrilled:) That was Friday and her birthday wasn't actually until Saturday so we opened presents and had her "real" cake and family party the next day. She got a bucnh of accessories for her Lori doll ( thank you Wal-mart/Target:) and she asked for a littlest pet shop cake which turned out pretty cute too. I LOVE THIS LITTLE GIRLY GIRL!

Scouts and School projects

Okay this isn't a great pic -I got him just as he was looking down- but it was the only one I took- his end of the year science project was on the STYRACKOSAURUS and he did awesome! Got an A+ and he felt pretty special too:)

For the Scout banquet all the scouts were assigned to make a cake. Jax wanted to make one of a scout shirt. It turned out really cute and he won an award at the banquet! This is just as we were going to the scout Blue and Gold Banquet. ( This cake was the first thing we cooked in our new kitchen Hooray! Look at the pretty counter tops! I just love them) I also love that my dad found an extra small scout shirt for Carter so he wears it to all the scouting events- so cute!

A close up of the scout shirt on the cake (the left side is supposed to say rank- for advancing toward rank- but I smeared it)

This is the Scoiut cake. How fun and it turned out darling! We are all loving cake decorating as a hobby these days.

Jaxson at the banquet with all his awards

Tater tot Casserole

So the other night I made a tater tot casserole for dinner. We've eaten this simple dish for years it's easy and quick to make, cheap and of course- yummy. Well the other night it was just another tater tot casserole but not just another night! I finished setting the table and called the kids in from the yard for supper (same as always) and then when we were sitting down to eat- Jax freaked!

It was crazy, he was so upset- apparently he loathes tater tot casserole now and he absolutely refused to eat it. So that obviously wasn't the funny part- he was clearly sent to his room without supper for getting so angry and disrepectful. He spent his time in 'time out' and eventually got hungry enough to come up and eat the oh-so-horrific-"stinky-ugly"casserole.

So, later that night, I was down in Jax's room putting away laundry and I noticed he'd written on the headboard of his bed- in black marker- "your tatertot casserole smells like poop even tastes like poop!" I know I should have been furious! But I laughed and I laughed hard- I still laugh just thinking about it! I showed Dave and he actually laughed too, it was so funny in his little-kid-chicken-scratch handwriting. I, of course, put on my serious-mommy-face and called him down for a chat after which he apologized and cleaned it up (it was a dry erase marker so thankfully it cleaned right off- I do wish I'd taken a pic first though) What a funny kid. I never would have thought of doing something like that- not now or when I was kid! Not that I'm condoning it or whatever- but Dave and I have been striving in our companion study to take advantage of the little moments and enjoy the journey and I really think that helped me not to be angry.

I really feel that the spirit helped me to appreciate the small joy in that moment. I am so greatful for that. I typically would have been upset in the initial moment and looked back and laughed later. To me this was a tender mercy. We all need to take ourselves less seriously and laugh more. My kids are the BEST! I love that they teach me humility, paitience and joy- I especially love JOY. Maybe someday Jax will read this and laugh- in the meantime hopefully he learned something. . . we'll see!

I'm grateful to be blessed to be the mom of such a sweet, passionate, determined and spirited little boy. We talk all the time about his many talents. I think those characteristics are all some pretty special talents, and with a little refining, I also think those very talents will help him be a huge influence for good in the Lord's hands and I am so thankful he's mine!

Kitchen Demolition/Renovation!

We tore out our entire kitchen in March. It was supposed to be a weekend job but it was way more involved than we had anticipated. The actual tearing out only took a few hours but getting it back together was interesting- (the house is 100 years old this year, so nothing is square, and everything has been done before-poorly of course) We tore out the cabinets on a Thursday evening after the kids were in bed ( yes, it was very loud but thankfully they stayed asleep). My brother-in law Nick and Dave were going to lay the sub floor and do the prep work for the tile Friday, then lay and grout the tile Friday night/Saturday, with cabinets coming in Monday. That was the anticipated timeline. The kids and I were to stay at my parents for the weekend. As it were, the floor was terrible and they had to rip it out to the floor joices and it was crazy unlevel and took muliple hours blood sweat and tears to put together. The kids and I ended up spending 10 full days at my parents house which was fun and crazy too. It was Spring Break so kids wer out of school which would have been super fun but, we all got the stomach flu, Elena got RSV, Carter had Bronchiolitus and they almost hospitalized them. Also it was Dave's 31st birthday, and because he and Nick were slaving away every spare minute on the house we only saw him like twice the whole time. It made for a wild memory! I didn't think it was so great at the time but I kept giggling while posting this just remembering how WILD it really was! Jax, Daddy and Ellie-girl playing before the big demolition that night.

Sick Kiddos ( they actually look kind of happy in this pic but that's because I bribbed them to smile becaue they looked so miserable in the other pic- Eva obviously still looks miserable. Poor Babies!

This was the first day at Mommers and Papa's house. We were all still healthy and Spring Brak had just started, this was a great day!

Dave and Brandon ripping out the kitchen Thursday night.

Dave tearing out the awful triangle shaped bar that took up the whole kitchen so awkwardly. ( I was really glad to see that go :)

I look kind of crazed, I know, but I had just drop kicked the ugly old counter top- (which felt amazing by the way!)

All the lovely layers of formica! I actually think the original grey marble was the best, they kind of just digressed from there

Brandon and his sweet wife Mary came and helped us tear out all the old cabinets/tile. THANKS guys!

After it was all out, this was the disgusting mess we were left with (and we'd actually cleaned it up a ton by the time I got the camera out)

All the yucky layers of flooring. THERE WERE SO MANY! Tile, cork board, red brick linoleum, orange foam carpet, ply-wood, yellow linoleum, pine or maple hardwood floor, cedar decking and who knows what else!

up close look at the Pretty Pinwheel tile design by Dave's brother Nick. He did an amazing job! We love you Nick, THANKS SO MUCH!

(plywood and tile subfloor)

Quick level- because it was so very un-level
(notice the yucky wall where cabinets were -gross!)

Finished tile! Soooo very gorgeous.

The Kitchen in Eva's room, yikes what a disaster!

new cabinets getting installed, so exciting!

Knotty Alder with brushed nickel hardware!

Look at the pretty not-ply-wood-like-countertops and the huge pantry!

Jax and Brandon trying to hook up the sink/dishwasher, Hooray almost done! Look how open it is! I love it so much.

The kids hanging out while we try to put the kitchen back together- so patient! What a mess it was, you can even see all the dust on the carpets. It's so beautiful! Well worth the wait. We were thinking we'd sell the house this spring after getting the kitchen remodeled to get something bigger because our little family has grown so much since buying this house, but I dont want to now. It'd be so sad to leave now it's so wonderful. We are so blessed and so very grateful to eveyone who helped us get it done. ( we still have to get the backsplash finished and put up trim but to us it's such an improvement we're willing wait to save up for the travertine we want on the backsplash)

Pine wood Derby

Daddy Dave slaving over the perfect design :)

The trophies/ set up (my brother Brandon is in the plaid shirt- he's the Webelos leader in one of the other wards)

Jax getting ready for the big event:) So his uniform was a blue Tshirt and the bandelo because he's just barely become a scout and I forgot to buy a uniform-oops! he survived though and we made sure to go right out and get one before blue and gold banquet!)Jax with the 'Slithering Style' car (that was the award he won- it had a snake decal on it) Also notice our kitchen in the back ground- i.e. dark cabinets, ugly ply-wood looking formica, dark grout tile etc. . . new pictures coming soon:)

I made tons and tons of Twinkie cars for refreshments, they were super cute! I was pretty sick of looking at twinkies by the time I was done though:)

March was a crazy busy month for scouting we had the pinewood derby and the blue and gold banquet two weeks later. Jaxson had his very first scouting Pine wood derby in March. It was fun but I am also the Cub Master- and very in charge so it was my first pinewood derby too! I sweat bullets over it but in the end it went really great! He took fifth overall and second in the wolf pack in our ward ( it was 3 wards combined) so he didn't get to go to regionals but he was pretty happy nonetheless.

Forever!

It was like -50 degrees that day so we had to just hurry and get a pic all togeter and this was the best one though not perfect as I have a branch/ shadow across my face and I don't look very happy, Dave doesnt love this one of him either but we are all together and that's better than what we had before (which was nothing)

Big 8 yr old so handsome

Pretty Princess

Sweet Baby

Sweet Sharkey

I've been absolutley terrible about updating our blog since the baby was born and I kept telling myself that it was because life's crazy with a newborn. . . so she's 7 months old now and I'm pretty sure life is just crazy, newborn or not. These are some pictures to help update and then I need to devote like two weeks to catching up. My sweet sister in law Rachael is an aspiring photographer and she took these family pictures for us in January. I absolutley love them and if you know her tell her she did such a great job!