2 Wheels!!

Wow, it's been a while since my last post. Hopefully I can keep on top of things a bit better. Anyway, Asia got a bike for Christmas and it has been relatively nice outside lately, so we decided to try it out. We didn't put her training wheels on yet. (Mostly because we're lazy!) We just told Asia that she'd have to learn to ride like her big brother. She was very scared at first and was adamant that we know that we were not allowed to let go of the bike at any time. Mike rode alongside her for a couple of passes down the cul-de-sac, and then he just let her go on her own, still making it look like he was still holding on. She just got it! Now she's a little biker pro!

General Conference

We usually make our kids at least be in the same room as us while we're watching conference. It's just too hard to make them sit there and listen to all of the speakers. I even have a hard time sitting still! This is what kept Ethan busy the whole time... We were being ambushed!! Maybe that wasn't an appropriate activity for a church day, but it kept him busy. I knew he was listening, too, because at random moments he would blurt out what the speaker had just said that was interesting to him. Such as, "faith" and "the Prophet Joseph Smith" and "Our Heavenly Father", etc. It was pretty funny!

Grandma and Grandpa meet Jacob

This was the first time Grandma and Grandpa Simington had met Jacob. It was pretty special. He was so good and didn't even fuss when they were holding him. He loves his Grandma and Grandpa! He also loves his tongue!!

Spring Reunion Pics

All of the cousins having a snack


Line up for one of many pics!! Oliver and Olivia are missing here. It goes Madalyn, Ethan, Taytum, Alice, Asia, Avalon, Asher (Rosie), and Jacob (Christina)

Spring Break to Lethbridge

We were able to drive to Lethbridge to spend a whole week with my family. It was so nice just to get away and have a holiday. We stayed at Auntie Cynthia's and Uncle James'. They were so nice to let us stay there the whole week. We got to go swimming at the Ramada Inn (it has 2 waterslides, that Asia HATED!, a wave pool, and a fun little kiddie spray pool), hung out outside in the balmy weather (40's!!), got our van fixed, visited Grandpa George at work, and had a little reunion with my cousins and second cousins. It was quite the eventful holiday. Grandma and Grandpa Simington got to finally meet baby Jacob and so did all the aunts, uncles and cousins. It was great to see all of them again. The kids had so much fun. Auntie Janet and Auntie Rita went through so much trouble organizing projects and dress-ups and food. They are amazing! Now were back and trying to catch up on laundry again! Can't wait to go back again!

Even More Easter 2008

Sorry, I don't quite know how to put pictures where they should go yet. I need to take a crash course in Blogging! Duuh! Anyway, after the Easter egg hunt, Ethan really wanted to dye some eggs. So we did. They turned out pretty cool. Easter Sunday we had to get to church early since the choir was singing and Mike is the choir director. I, of course, strolled in late to sing only one verse of prelude and called it good! We did sing later on in the program and it went quite well. Anyway, after church we were invited over to Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's for Easter dinner with all of Mike's brothers' families and his sister's family. We had a yummy ham with funeral potatoes. I love funeral potatoes! After dinner, the men went outside and hid the Eater eggs for all of the gandkids. My mother-in-law is a retired 1st grade teacher, so it was all very well organized. Each grandchild had their own color to collect and there were 10 of each color. The grownups even got their own color! It was pretty fun. Ethan's color was yellow and Asia's was purple. Jacob slept through the whole thing!! Oh well, he had enough chocolate the day before!

More Easter 2008

We had to hurry that morning to be able to get to an Easter egg hunt. There were a few happening around town, but we decided to go to the one closest to our house at EITC. (the technical college). We made it just in time. Ethan and Asia were so excited to go get all of the eggs at first. Then, when they blew the big bull horn, Ethan ran out to get his stash, but Asia started crying. She said she was too scared and didn't want to do it. She wanted me to hold her hand, but the parents were instructed to not go with their children so it would be fair. I finally had to hold her hand a bit and she grabbed 3 eggs that were right by her. Then she was done. Ethan, on the other hand, stayed searching for eggs until he was the last one out there! He had to inspect every little piece of trash, leaf, and dirt clod to make sure it wasn't some fancy egg for his basket! He did, however, find some FLARP which is his most favorite thing in the world. Anything that makes the sound of a gross bodily function is right up his alley! He also got a special note in one of his eggs that let him pick a special prize inside EITC. This was the sneaky part of the whole Easter egg hunt. The people putting it on were also having a rummage sale inside the building. In order to claim your "special" prize, you had to go into the building and see all of the junk that they were selling! It was a great idea, I must say. We didn't buy anything though. Ethan did, however, win this cool egg that hatched a dinosaur after 2 days. He was pretty excited about that!

I thought I'd better post all about our Easter happenings before it gets to be too much in the past and I can't even remember what happened! I swear I'm getting Alzheimers. Anyway, the Easter bunny came to our house Friday night, so Saturday morning, Ethan was the first to wake up and sneek downstairs. He usually comes to our room first thing in the morning, but not this day. He was so excited to see what the Easter bunny had left for him. After his quick peek, he came running upstairs to tell Mike and I what he had gotten. Asia and Jacob soon woke up because of all the commotion. Then we all went downstairs to see the loot...
Even little Jacob got an Easter basket. He just loved shaking the eggs and chewing on them...

Here are some more pics of the crazy hair.

Spirit Week!

Well, I finally found some time to write a bit about the goings on around here. This is mainly because I have sick kids and they are all lounging aound or napping and I'm not babysitting anyone today. Poor babies. Last night each of them woke up 2-3 times. It was like I had a newborn again! Ugggghhh! Needless to say, they are all pretty tired today except Ethan. He wanted to go to school today because it was the last day of "Spirit Week." Oh, let me tell ya what a great week it was!! Monday was, of course, wear green day because of St. Patrick's Day. Tuesday was hat day so he wore his spiky toque. Wednesday was "show your pride" day so he wore his school shirt. Thursday was donuts with dad and pajama day. We forgot about the donuts thing and slept in. Wooops! He goes to afternoon kindergarten so we didn't wake up in time. Oh well. He had forgotten all about it. Next year I guess! He did, however, get to wear his ninja turtle pj's to school. He thought he was so cool. Today is the best day of all. It's crazy hair day. I purposely grew Ethan's hair out just for this day! (Actually, I just haven't had time to cut it yet!) Anyway, we bought red and blue hair spray dye and gelled the crap out of his hair. This is what it looked like... Pretty cool, eh! He thought so. I hope it washes out ok! We'll see tonight. Anyway, now it's time to feed the kid. See ya!

Hey everyone! So, this is all new to me. I don't really know how to do this, so we'll see how this turns out. My family will appreciate this since we don't get to see them very often. So, here goes. Today has been a pretty busy day so far. I babysit everyday. Today I started with Macee at 8am and Mara and Aayla shortly thereafter. Oh, I should start out that baby Jacob woke me up at about 7am and he had turned a full 180 degress around in his crib! Don't ask me how he performed that little acrobatic feat! He was starving since he hadn't eaten since 6pm the night before. I was surprised he slept that long without waking up to eat again. He's a very good sleeper. Anyway, so I nursed him in my bed until about 7:30 when I figured I should get up and get on with the day. It's been a pretty uneventful day here. Jacob has had diarrhea the last week or so, and today I thought I should do some of his laundry since all of his onesies have crap all over them. Why can't they manufacture a diaper that can hold crap!? What good are the things anyway? I hate laundry, especially baby poop-stained laundry! It's so hard to get out. Any suggestions? My knuckles are raw from trying to get the dang stains out!

Well, we had a preschool lesson today, just before lunch and just after I put the 2 babies to sleep. We learned all about the letter "C" today. The kids really love to have school. I wish I could do it more often for them, but I just can't find the time. I try to do a lesson 2 days a week so they get some learning, not that they don't learn through play everyday! This is just more structured for them and they can get used to sitting and listening to a lesson. Now I'm counting down the minutes until I'm done. I've changed 4 poopy diapers today, taught about letter "C", had the babies take 2 naps each, did 2 loads of laundry, and need to do a lot more before the day is done! It never ends! Oh well. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to change 5 poopies!!