Spring Break

So the kids have two weeks for spring break.  It is crazy, I don't think that I had a spring break at all as a kid.  Possibly a long weekend for Easter but not really a spring break.  Anyway, since their break is so long we thought we would drive to Las Vegas to visit Brandon's folks.  We managed to miss snow right after we left, and the weather was great in Vegas.  I was a little baffled one day when I went for a run, I was feeling like my capris and tshirt could have been lighter but there was a lady there in full length pants, jacket with hood up, hat under the hood, and gloves on.  But we had a lot of fun. 

Brandon convinced his friend Jason to drive his family to Las Vegas to hang out with us.

 We went to the museum.

 They built pyramids.  I had to drag Caitlyn into the Egyptian exhibit.

 Grant loved the dinosaurs that he could climb on.  He loves to give a big old cheese when the camera comes out.

 We walked around the temple grounds and the kids enjoyed the grass.

 We stopped by M&M world and found an Easter M&M.  Caitlyn refused to be near it and Britton was giving it big hugs.

The next pictures are a little out of order, but I'm too lazy to try and fix it.  Brandon decided that we needed to see the Grand Canyon.  Neither of us had ever been.  So we headed there and then took the southern route home.  And since we were going that way, why not stop at Four Corners?

 We found Fillmore.  Some small town in Arizona, we stopped because Bradley had to go to the bathroom.  But there were signs all over saying that it was the start of Route 66.  We were directed to a Route 66 sign low enough to get a good picture with the kids and they had a bunch of cars decorated in the parking lot.

 Yep, we were on Route 66 for a little bit.

 Kids at the Grand Canyon.

 Doesn't it look Grand?

 The kids were a little tired of driving and such at this point.

 Brandon said we had to take a selfie.

 On the way to Four Corners, somewhere in the Navajo Nation, there was a lot of blowing dust.

 Here we are in different states.  Bradley got shy when he noticed someone he didn't know was taking the picture.  I must tell you that the camera was in Colorado the whole time.

 Britton and Caitlyn touching four states at once.

 We found the plaque about Colorado.

 There were horses roaming around.  We saw them as we drove up and then had to find them to get a picture.

 It was so windy.  I don't know if you can tell but William's jacket is really puffy from the wind.

Grant was trying to hide from the wind.

We had a great time and drove through parts of Colorado we had never been to before.  Brandon said he had a new respect for the reporters he sends to Alamosa.  Now we have a week to recover before going back to school.

February and March

I have fallen behind again, and I had the best intentions. So this may get a little long.  

So February. I had a birthday.  The kids were pretty excited.  We did talk one of Brandon's reporters into babysitting the kids and we were able to go on a date.  We have trained our kids to expect cake and ice cream the weekend after a birthday, one of the ways we deal with Brandon's schedule and the older kids being in school, but we couldn't do that for my birthday.  Brandon was supposed to move into a new building for the station, the first time they were supposed to move was in September, then October, then January, and they finally settled on the Saturday after my birthday and Brandon got to work some long hours for the move so we had cake and ice cream before my birthday.  The kids were excited because it was the Super Bowl, no we don't watch football but there were a lot of ads running because the Broncos were playing.

 We made killer nachos with blue corn chips.

 Britton and Bradley saw a picture on Our Best Bites and insisted that we make their game day popcorn.  And then they didn't like it.  I thought it was okay, it made a lot of popcorn.

 The cake was delicious.  Chocolate with peanut butter frosting.  We had some friends over for cake and ice cream and the kids had a lot of fun playing.  We didn't watch any of the game.

 Brandon made me pumpkin waffles for breakfast.  And it was so cold, wind chill below 30, that the kids got to spend the day with us.

31, and still blond enough that the silver isn't showing to much.  I tell Brandon that it is "new blond."  We did manage to have cake and ice cream because William had to make a cake for the Blue and Gold banquet the night before and we had leftovers.

The kids had a four day weekend and Brandon managed to have Valentines Day off, so we headed up to the Cripple Creek ice festival.  We watched some of the ice carvers, they really do use chain saws amongst other tools.  The kids had fun and we managed to get Alyssa to join us for a bit.

 The Grant man.  I had to make him a hat because we didn't have one to fit his noggin.

 Through the ice maze.

 Sorcerer Mickey.

They had a slide made out of ice that you could go down, not really long but fun.

 There was one corner that the kids bounced back and forth on.  After this run one of our friends sat by the corner while the kids went down.

I went down once, it was cold.

William and Caitlyn had art projects chosen to be displayed in an art show.  So we headed to the center they were being displayed in.  It was just down the street from Brandon's new building so we had a quick tour of that.

 We found a ribbon on Caitlyn's picture.  3rd place for the first graders.

 William's picture had a best in show ribbon.  The kids both did really well and it was fun to walk through all the pictures from the school.

 William with his pinewood derby car.  He was very excited about his design, working on it with Brandon.  Brandon managed to slice his finger and got to have five stitches.  William said that it went really well because he won one race this year and last year he didn't win any.  I've decided that it is okay that he doesn't stress about this.  Some of the boys were really competitive, I did see some tears when a car didn't win, but William doesn't care how his car does.  He is more into the design.

For St. Patrick's day I made some treats and the kids woke up to a treasure hunt from the Leprechaun.

 They were pretty excited.  I made homemade mint chocolate chip oreos.  They were pretty delicious.  So much so that I had to share some because I was eating too many.

My new "Pal"

Last year I decided that I needed to make some healthier choices.  So I tried to be better about exercising.  I personally don't enjoy running, but having the treadmill makes it the easiest option.  Once the kids are in bed,  I can put on a movie and put in my time.  So I was getting in the exercise habit and I thought I would try to whittle away at the weight I've gained over the years.  I've struggled to lose weight after each pregnancy.  I never lost all the weight after having William, later I was told I have an under active thyroid so that probably contributed.  I have been able to lose what I gained with my other pregnancies, but never that leftover.  So I started looking for something to help me track calories and exercise so I could give this my best shot.  So I found MyFitnessPal.  It is a website and a free app.  It gives me a daily allowance of calories based on the info I plugged and I can find most foods on its database.  So I just have to measure everything and watch my portions.  And I have to say that it is working.  In the last year I've managed to lose over 30 pounds.  Two pants sizes.  I am finally starting to lose what I couldn't after I had William, five kids worth of post pregnancy weight.  I'm hoping to get down to my goal weight this year, another fifteen pounds or so.

2013 Birthdays

Okay, I am just going to throw all the birthdays from last year into one post.  All except my birthday, because my birthday is kind of all by its lonesome.  The kids tend to forget about my birthday, Britton told me she wanted to be a boy so her birthday would come first because the boys' birthdays do come before both the girls' birthdays.  I told her that my birthday technically was first.  She didn't believe me.  Anyway, on to the rest of the birthdays.

First up is Bradley.  On the morning of his birthday he informed me that he is so big because he is three and can talk know.  He is a silly kid, but oh so cute.  He has a great smile, two dimples, and he knows when to use it.  He is starting to open up around people but only people that he has been around a lot.  He gets along with Britton when they play outside but not inside.  He really wants to be big enough to do everything the older kids do.

 For his cake I tried marshmallow fondant for the first time.  Unfortunately it cracked but he was pretty happy with his superman cake.  For breakfast on his birthday he wanted monkey bread.  The best part of his birthday was the fact that we scored a great bunkbed on craigslist and set it up.

So Brandon had a birthday.  I'm sure I made a cake but I have no pictures.  He had to work on his birthday.  The trade off was that he didn't work the day before which just happened to be our 10th anniversary.  He pretended like he had planned that.  He somehow convince Brent and Cami to watch the kids and we spent a night in Denver and went to the temple the next morning.  We actually celebrated his birthday the day after because he was working.

William turned nine this year and we let him have a party.  He absolutely loves to read and one of his goals for the year was to finish the Harry Potter series.  He managed that before school got out for the summer and he loved the books, so we planned a Harry Potter party.

 We found some pop rocks for our "potions" class.  Food coloring on the bottom of the cups, let it dry and then cover with ice.  Add some pop rocks and 7up, instant potion.

 Homemade wands and a sorting hat.

 The golden snitch cake.  The marshmallow fondant worked so much better this time.  William was really excited about how it looked and that makes it a success.

Our little Grant man turned one.  He was so lucky, he got shots on his birthday and Brandon was out of town for work.  So we didn't really celebrate on his birthday.  In fact, he got his cake early.

 Orange Train cake.

 He doesn't really like to get his hands dirty.  Well, he doesn't really like getting his hands dirty with food.  So there wasn't a lot of smashing with the cake. 

 His toy was a hit, with all of the kids.  I guess the problem with being number 5 is that everyone wants to "show" you how to play with your new toy.

 Caitlyn turned seven.  She is loving first grade and is turning into quite the reader.  She has a flair for drama and is currently in love with My Little Pony.  So for her cake she wanted a Rainbow Dash cake.  I didn't want to even attempt  a cake shaped like a pony so I used marshmallow fondant that was the same color as Rainbow Dash and had a rainbow inside.

 Inside the rainbow cake.  Caitlyn also had a small party with some friends.  Cupcake decorating and a pinata, she had a lot of fun.

So rounding out our year is Britton.

 I can't believe that she is five.  She can't wait to go to school.  She has so much energy.  She mastered her bike without training wheels and learned to write her name just so she could get her own library card.

I found a different technique to decorate her cake.  It was the fastest decorating I've ever done.  Just big swirls.  Britton loved the green.

The time has come

I have been going back and forth over keeping this blog public or making it private.  Part of the reason I have debated keeping it public is that I have found friends' and family blogs through other blogs and that wouldn't have happened without the blogs being public.  But looking at the traffic sources and audience lately I think that the time has come to make it private.  So, if you would like to continue reading our blog send me your email.  I will monitor comments so you can leave it in the comments but it won't be published or you can email me directly.

Catch up, maybe

Alright, this is going to be a lot of pictures and possibly some information.  So this is a little of what we have been up to since December, and during December really.

 We cleaned the floor.  Okay we did this more than once, but we took pictures this time.  The kids really like when I scrub the floor with the scrub brush because they put rags on their feet to mop up the dirty water.

 The zoo does a light festival in December, it is a little chilly at night.

 There was barely enough snow to sled around Christmas.

 Grant at the zoo at night, and taking a binky which he no longer does.

 Bradley has some of the best faces.

 Our little thumb sucker.  Grant loves his thumb and his monkey blanket.  And chewing on his monkey blanket.

 Caitlyn lost her first tooth, and a couple of weeks later lost her second tooth.

 Grant practiced sitting up.  He is doing pretty well, until he leans.

 Most of the snow is gone and the children were playing so well in the back yard and this was why.  I think Bradley had a snack.

 Britton didn't eat any but they both were covered with mud.

 We went to an Air Force basketball game with the scouts.

 I had a birthday, made delicious cupcakes, and shared them with friends from the ward and some of Brandon's coworkers.  And that is why I make cupcakes, if I can share them then I don't eat as many.  Brandon told me that I am now old, I guess 30 is old.  He does think it is funny when I point out the gray hairs I can find, but I figure I am lucky that there isn't more.  I don't know about the rest of my family, especially on the Luke side, but I'm feeling lucky that I'm not pretty gray by now.

 We had enough snow to sled in the yard once.

 So cute, even when dribbling spit up like a vampire.

 We had special cupcakes for St. Patrick's day.

 We had some happy times.

 The Easter Bunny came.

 We flew kites.

 The elephants at the zoo got to spend some time outside.

 Silly kids on Easter Sunday.

 New skirts and ties for Easter.  Brandon picked the material for the ties and then I ordered the fabric from Rufflefabric.com.

 Lunch for April Fool's, the kids were excited when I told them they were having cupcakes for lunch.  Until they figured out that the cupcakes were meatloaf with mashed potatoes on top. The cupcakes on the right are real cupcakes. They're supposed to look like spaghetti and meatballs. They're really icing, a Ferrero Rocher chocolate and raspberry jam.

 William had a picture chosen to represent his school in the district art show.

We were pretty excited to see it in the library.

Other things that have happened, Grant has been rolling all over.  He likes to roll to the basket we keep hair brushes in or the lego bucket and empty them.  William and Caitlyn had a two week spring break, two weeks is a lot of time.  We have a couple of nice days, really nice with temps up to the 70s, and then it snows again.  On the nice days we walk to the park, on the cold days Britton and Bradley claim that it is nice enough to go outside.  That was a lot thrown out all at once.  I will honestly try not to do that again.  But I'm not making any promises.