visitors

Corbin wanted to go to the Zoo a few days ago, but just yesterday we had some visitors come to our back yard. Our neighbors have a big lot in the back with a garden and lots of trees and bushes. perfect for the deer in the neighborhood. They hung out there all afternoon though the evening. Alyssa and I even walked up to the edge of the grass and they just kept eating not worried about us. Coolest thing ever to have animals like this randomly pop up.

Alyssa is saying "what mom, I just want to feed them and pet them. She doesn't get the "wild animal" factor.

Garrett & Cody's B-day

Happy Birthday Cody and Garrett. We celebrated with Garrett while we were up there Friday night. Cody had a campout so we couldn't celebrate with him this time. I made them a "turtle" cake. The kids helped put the m&m's on the legs. Cakes are fun to make into different things.....what should we do for Brad next week?

Garrett blowing out the candles.

Brad got the boys "Gremlins". He figured it was a must have in the house. It was a childhood favorite of his so he passed it on to his nephews.

Creekside Family Fun Run

This past weekend we drove up to Layton and participated in a family fun run for Julie's school. The kids had a blast. Corbin was the only one who ended up running with Brad and I. The girls stayed with Julie to finish up some things for the carnival afterwards. Cobin is an awesome runner and is fast. He jumped in and out of the jogger stroller for breaks during the 3 miles. The carnival was fun too. The kids got to play on the bounce houses and we ate dinner their too. The weather was too cold to stay too long though. Thanks Julie for the invite it was a lot of fun!

SLC 5K

A couple of weekends ago Brad and I ran the 5K in Salt Lake City. It was a fun run we did together. We haven't ran since our race last summer, so we figured if we signed up for one we would start running again. ...it worked. The course ran through downtown, we passed the temple you can see in the bottom picture.

Mackenzie's Baby Blessing

My family came for the weekend for my brother's baby blessing. We had a lot of fun playing and hanging out. Kenzie is so cute everyone was fighting to hold her especially Alyssa. The weather was perfect and everyone had a good time.

Spring Snow

Last week we got some more snow. We have been loving it! This whole winter we have not been able to make a snowman, I know that is very sad news. Anyways This snow was perfect to make snowmen. All morning we made a family of snow people and made snow angels. It was a perfect way to end winter. This was our first time making a snowman ever, now we can check that off our list.

Easter Egg Hunt

This year was a fun egg hunt. Alyssa and Corbin were so fast, I could hardly get pictures of them! We had to keep telling them to slow down so Ava could get some eggs too. Ava screamed when she saw an egg and was so excited. She would put it in her basket so fast, she didn't want them to get away. She really loved the Jelly Beans inside!!

This was our Easter Dinner. We had yummy ham, rolls, potatoes to die for (good job Ellen), salad, & corn. We were all stuffed afterwards. Before dessert we went for a walk to the park and let our food settle and make room for dessert. We couldn't decide if we wanted a fruit dessert or chocolate so what do we do? We made both. Ellen made a great Strawberry Pie and Julie made delicious brownies! We told the story of Jesus and talked about the passover and the last supper with the kids all week long. Each night leading up to Easter Sunday we read a story or watch a video clip of the story of Jesus and his Ressurection and the Atonement. The kids really caught on especially talking about it every night for a week.

Easter Basket Hunting

Step 1 of our Paper Mache Eggs

The kids and I have wanted to do Paper Mache project for a few weeks now. I was looking online for projects and how perfect can Easter Eggs get with this project. Yes it was messy, but a lot of fun.

Step 2 of our Paper Mache Eggs

Painting Easter Eggs!

The kids had a blast with a "double Aunt" weekend! My sister Ellen came for the weekend and Brad's sister Julie came down too. We had a great time and did lots of fun activities for Easter.

Visit from cousin Kenzie

Kelli drove up to Utah this past week for a visit and to bless their baby. We have only seen pictures of this cute little girl until now. She is so cute and the kids adored her. We can't wait to see her again in a couple of days.

Julie's Birthday

I forgot to post our fun day with Julie on her Birthday! A couple of weekends ago we drove up to Layton and had a great time. We enjoyed yummy food, cake, ice cream. Fun presents: camera, picture frame, service for hanging home decor (brad), and Shoes! Lots of cute Shoes! We went to her classroom and played on the playground, yes people did go on her roof to hang out too. random I know. Happy Birthday Julie, glad to be here to celebrate with you. Love you.

Lost Tooth

Alyssa lost her 3rd tooth about a week and a half ago. She went crazy (brad too) trying to wiggle it and pull on it and just do anything she could to get it out. She was very excited about the tooth fairy coming this time (unlike last visit). Grandma Marshall made a pillow with a pocket to hold her tooth in for the tooth fairy. Now she wiggles the other big tooth and thinks its loose too....here we go again!

Conference Weekend

So this conference weekend went really well with the kids. We still had loud noises, and crying babies and the occasional brother sister banter, but we can honestly say we all got something from each speaker. My sister in law did this idea last session so I thought I would try it out. On the wall are pictures and commonly used topics that people talk about. Alyssa helped me color them and we put them in a page protector. Then I printed out the apostles pictures and laminated them and made cards for each of them. So when they heard that apostle talk they put it on the topic picture they thought it was. I also made "ears" for the other speakers (ears for listen or what we heard them say) so we got to see what everyone talked about. It was great to see the kids picking out words and phrases from the talks and it made Brad and I pay attention a lot better too. I have all the stuff to make this activity on word doc. if anyone is interested for next session or if just want to make apostle cards with their info on the back. I can email it to you. We all can't wait for October! Thanks Aunt Liz and Aunt Julie for the fun activity pages.