Easter

Easter. I never quite know how to handle it. I don't do well with Christmas either. It's the whole Easter Bunny, Santa Claus thing. Don't get me wrong I love playing Santa, but I have a really hard time lying to my kids. Particularly when I feel like I need to keep my kids focusing on the Savior. So, I try to compromise. Santa brings gifts to help celebrate Jesus' birth and the Easter Bunny wants us to look our best when we celebrate Jesus coming back from death. (Just try and get a 2 or 3 year old to say resurrection-it's a hoot!)

I actually took this picture the night before, just after the Easter bunny left.

And first thing in the morning when they found them. Next year, I will remember to take a picture of Chase when he finds his basket. I also spoke with the Easter Bunny and it's been decided that Chase's basket will be hard to find. Really hard. Now, I'm getting excited for next year.

Okay, I know that Mia is dressed in this picture, but that's because she was so tuckered out from all the fun the day before that I let her sleep in her clothes. If I had remembered that I would be taking pictures in the morning I would have made her change. I like to keep up the pretense that I'm on top of things and my kids are always perfect angels and the house runs like clockwork. And I can pretend, unless there is physical evidence. Sigh, at least she's happy.

And sweet little Karli cakes. I think she liked her first Easter. Yes, she has candy in her basket, and yes I'll let her eat it too. After it's been processed. C'mon, moms need some candy too!

We didn't take any pictures of all of us, or even the kids in their new outfits, but we will. Soon. Until then...

Annual Easter breakfast

It's that time again. Time for our ward's Easter breakfast. I love this tradition. It gets us up and going, and the kids get to do an Easter egg hunt where there's always plenty of eggs and no one gets trampled. Bonus! This year was no exception. As the Elder's Quorum President, Denver had to go early to help cook up some sausage and pancakes. That left me with all four children, and we brought Chase's friend, Hunter, along as well. I thought we were heading out the door with plenty of time to spare and was feeling great. I couldn't believe I'd done it. Five kids loaded into the truck and ready to go and we'd even be on time. I hopped in the front seat and reached for the keys. No keys. "Chase, did you grab the keys?" The look on his face said it all. I don't really remember if I screamed out loud, but I know in my head it was a good one. Then, I sighed and checked the front door just in case. Locked. So I began checking all the windows, while I tried to figure out just what I was going to do. I could always run to the neighbors to use their phone, only who would I call? Denver didn't have the cell phone and I didn't have anyone's number memorized-they're all in the phone. Luckily, our bedroom window was open and I was able to climb through while all the kids sat in the truck and watched. I think the best part was when I got back into the truck, keys in hand, and Chase and his friend were so impressed that I'd made it through the window. I told myself it was because I made it look so easy and not because they thought I was too big to fit-which was the real reason. Even with the keys mishap, we made it on time to the church. That was my Easter miracle, and here are the pictures from the event.



This year I decided to make these little chicks. They were a big hit-thank you Pinterest! I didn't take any pictures of us eating breakfast because things were a little too hectic. Corbin and Mia seem to jump into hyper mode the instant we enter the church. Thankfully, Denver has the greatest counselors in the world, who are not only fantastic men themselves, but they were smart enough to pick some wonderful women as their wives. My kids adore Kim and Alysha. I adore all the help they give me without my even asking for it. Thanks to them, I was able to actually sit down and eat a warm breakfast and completely enjoy myself. I even ate the burned pancakes that my husband and his counselors cooked. None of them will own up to who really cooked the pancakes, but I'm willing to give them another chance any time they want to come and cook me breakfast. After we'd eaten, it was time for the egg hunt...


This is the only picture I got of Corbin hunting for the eggs. He was off so fast I couldn't keep up. So I didn't even try. I did, however, laugh my head off when he re-enacted the entire hunt for Denver later. "I found a green egg here, and a blue one here" as he ran around the lawn pointing.



Poor kids aren't used to sunshine so they had a hard time looking at me with their eyes open.




But it is possible if you take enough pictures and ask them to tell you how many eggs they found.



The kids don't exactly enjoy this part of the Annual Easter breakfast, but I think that they're learning that they don't get their baskets until Mom gets her picture...



Ah, success at last. I look at this and can't believe that these are my babies! Oh, how I love them.

That afternoon, we also decorated eggs. I love taking it all outside and doing it on the lawn because then I'm not concerned with spills.



If you look in the right corner, you can see the window I had to climb through to get the keys.




This year I offered to let Denver sit it out so that he could do homework, but as you can see, coloring eggs is just too much fun, no matter the age.

If you look closely and use some super sleuth skills, I'll bet you can figure out what Corbin's favorite color is.

"My orange egg!"

Chase is still not too cool to hang out and decorate eggs with us. In fact, I think he gets more into it than the little ones. I know I love to see what he'll create every year.

"Yo, here's a green egg. And this is the last picture, dude. Peace out. Oh, and Happy Easter homies!"

Wildlife Safari

Now that I'm home with the kids full-time, I actually WANT to take them places. We, meaning I, was suffering from cabin fever. I knew that I'd be on my own since Denver is so busy with school and work so I didn't want to do anything too adventurous and there's a great place here in Oregon called Wildlife Safari. Basically, it's a zoo that you drive through in your own vehicle. Ding, ding, we have a winner! I gathered some snacks, grabbed the kids and we set off for an adventure and adventure we got! Here's the first wild animals we saw-and look, there's Chase and a hippo too! Following the hippo we saw some zebra and a giraffe, I only got pictures of their hind ends so I thought I'd spare you that view...

...and show you a picture of some African animal that I don't know the name of. But Mia and Chase are pretty cute.

We sat around and debated about who had more hair-the buffalo or Daddy. Since Daddy wasn't there to compare, we let the buffalo win by forfeit.

Mia loved the bears. I think she would've climbed out the window if I'd've let her. Chase, on the other hand, was too afraid to even open his eyes.

And here's the elk that Daddy's always wanted to get...Some day Babe, some day.

After the elk, we came to the elephants. We lucked out and got there at lunch time, so Karli ate her lunch at the same time as the elephant. (I didn't take a picture of Karli eating, cuz well, you figure it out.)

I let Chase get out of the car for a minute and let Corbin sit in the front. Can you believe what hormones can do to a kid? Not only is hair sprouting all over his body, but he's even growing what looks like horns!

Those camels were HUGE!

This emu, I believe it was an emu anyway, kept running across the road so we couldn't get past. It was pretty fun and we were laughing. We also saw lions, cheetahs, and a plethora of other animals that I didn't get pictures of. I did, however, get a few of the petting zoo...

As I was trying to get this picture, one of the goats kept stickinig its head out and trying to eat Karli's blanket. Corbin freaked out and kept trying to save Karli, "No don't eat Karri!!".What a sweet big brother he is.

Mia is fearless when it comes to animals. Well, and a lot of other things too. She was all over the goats, and I wish I'd have gotten a picture of her sticking her head in the hole made for the pony to stick it's head out, but she was too fast and I was laughing too hard.

Corbin is not fearless, but after a little coaxing we got him to feed the goats and even enjoy it. After feeding the goats we stopped to look at some really strange little lambs...They looked a little deformed, but in a good way.

And finally...

This is the only picture I got of all the kids together. We did try to spend some time on the playground they had, but there were way too many other, bigger, rowdier kids. Still, it was one of my favorite days ever and the only thing I would have changed is the speeding ticket I got on the way there! Oh, and I suppose it would have been nice if Denver were there also...

Staying home = Cookies

Nothing says stay-at-home mom like freshly baked cookies. Okay, so there is a whole lot more to it than that, but through all the past years when I was only daydreaming of staying home with my kids, sugar cookies were always involved. Since Karli's birth, I've been too tired, busy, or overwhelmed to get to it, until today. I made the dough the day before and even made some for Denver for work. (Totally did them with an I-heart shape-U, bonus wife points!) Now, to be honest, I wasn't going to let the kids help. I knew the mess it would make. Chase, however, did not and convinced me to let the kids roll out the dough and make their own shapes by saying he would clean up. Ahhh, ignorance is bliss.

And here they are. Did I say ignorance was bliss? Cuz, let me just say that watching my kids have this much fun and knowing that I don't have to clean it up is pretty darn blissful.

I think this is the real reason Chase wanted to do the cookies-he knew he'd get access to plenty of delicious cookie dough.

Corbin was content to supervise and tell Chase how to do the cookies. He doesn't like to get his hands dirty...

...but Mia sure does! And not just her hands, but her face, her shirt, the chairs, the entire surface of the table...


She was being silly and making faces, I was just trying to get a picture that showed just how much flour she'd managed to get all over her face!

I also wanted to show that she really was having a great time. Any time she gets to be as messy as possible is a good time.

Corbin was feeling a little left out with all the close-ups Mia was getting...I think that says enough.

See ya later! We're going to go eat cookies and be wild and crazy while Chase cleans up the mess! Happy Day!