Easter fun

Easter happened to come the Sunday before our spring break. My kids were fortunate to get to do two egg hunts -- one at home and one with Grandma & Grandpa. However, the G&G hunt for the older kids got snowed out. Yes, look at what happened on Friday, the night we were going to do the Easter egg hunt:

Snow storm on Friday

And, just because you have to see the pictures together to appreciate Utah weather, here is two days later when my kids hunted for eggs:

Egg hunt two days later on Sunday!

Can you believe the difference? So crazy!

Anyway, the older kids' hunt was moved to the church. (I guess it comes in handy for my dad to have keys to his building. :) The kids had fun playing with cousins and finding some treats:

 

Then our family had our own egg hunt in the backyard. We found mini eggs at the store -- PERFECT! We can fill them up with candy and still not worry about them getting too much sugar. And boy are my kids cute to watch. :)

 

 

 

 

But the cutest by far was the egg hunt for the little guys. We did them separately so they weren't run over by the big kids. There was just a lot of cuteness in the backyard that night!

Lookin' good with his sunglasses ...

 

Yes, he was literally running from egg to egg!

The big kids helped point out the eggs to the little guys

James: Yes! I'm going to get one, even though I'm the littlest guy!

Austin: Hey, an egg! Thanks for pointing that out, James.

Snatched! Poor James ... he'll catch up with the others soon!

The three cute little guys!

Yes, they were all happy with the hunt!

God's creations

You know what? Technology amazes me. I mean seriously truly repeatedly amazes me. When I met my husband he had a watch with phone numbers in it. This was 13 years ago, so he was totally ahead of his time. :) When he told me he updated it by making updates in his computer and then holding his watch in front of the monitor I completely thought he was pulling my leg. He wasn't. Wow.

And that's not even the technology that's considered advanced. We have smart phones (well, not me -- my cell phone is just a cell phone -- no camera or anything ... but compared to growing up it is sure advanced :). We have surgeries to remove or heal parts of our bodies that aren't working. I am amazed by the Internet and how so much information is available at the tip of my finger.

However, even with all of these advances and technologies, none of them compare with God's "technology." Look at our bodies and how well they work -- man has yet to develop a computer that can mimic our walk in a realistic way or even look human for that matter. Nobody has a camera that can constantly focus on its own like our eyes can.

I started thinking of this when I saw a most beautiful sunset a couple of weeks ago at my house. How beautiful! I took a bunch of pictures, and as I did thought to myself, "The pictures will never convey how pretty this really is." I mean, how many times have you taken pictures of something absolutely gorgeous, only to later wonder why you took so many pictures? I guess even my nice, expensive camera isn't even close to the free eyeballs Heavenly Father created for me. And talk about advanced, His creations are more beautiful than any artwork that I have ever seen.

But because it was really pretty and I think you'll be able to see that, I'll share pictures anyway:

Some technology that could be improved is my photo editing software -- it adds these random rings to pictures (as in the sky above). Oh well. I have a better one, but I'm too lazy to use it. :)

New blog

My friend Autumn has FINALLY started a blog. I've been bugging her for years to get one going since I love her stuff (scrapbooking) and copy her often. Oh, and to learn to make a few of her treats? I'm game. She gives tips and tricks for sewing, scrapbooking, photography, cooking and making things. There really isn't anything she can't do (except maybe get fat, because I know she eats a lot of chocolate and I haven't seen her fat yet ;).

Check it out on my sidebar. For some reason it's called "Home" on there, so give it a look. Or go to www.itsalwaysautumn.com.

Kinder Derby

Against the wishes of probably every parent, Shayla's kindergarten had a kinder derby. They are to create a car in which they'll parade around the school. There was a short program at the beginning and then after the parents leave the kids go around and learn about American History and landmarks. Shayla was supposed to have a license plate from Texas. But Shayla wanted a train, and trains don't have license plates. However, everything is bigger in Texas, so her train was HUGE! (Okay, her Daddy didn't know about the Texas part -- he just had in his mind how to create the train and made it.)

I was really concerned that it would be way too heavy for her to parade around the school. But she LOVED it. I mean REALLY LOVED it. She was giddy. She sang and danced about her pink "Princess Power" train. (Yes, she did come up with the name of it by herself.) We used Grandma's cricut to cut out letters and flowers, and by the way Shayla went on and on about it, you would think it was Christmas. :)

She did great on her part in the program, and she LOVED walking around the halls with her train. In fact, the other kids came in the halls to watch, and Tyler's class was by me. His classmates thought hers was so cool, so Tyler had a bit of "brother pride" about his sister's train. It was cute.

Oh, to add to the fun, we gave her a whistle that sounds like a train horn. She walked around with her tiara while blowing the horn -- that is definitely Princess Power. What a cutie!

April Fool's ... Gotcha!!!

My April Fool's trick this year had to be simple. I just wasn't feeling in the mood to do something difficult. I felt like it was my best chance to get everyone since April Fool's landed on a Sunday. That's the only day I ever make my family breakfast, so it wouldn't seem suspicious for me to make something. (If I let them go off to school before tricking them, then they're sure to be reminded about what day it is and less likely to fall for one of my food tricks ...)

Anyway, this was the simple trick -- Jell-o in a cup that looks like juice:

And did they fall for it? Sure enough! It helps that yesterday they drank too much juice and I got on their cases about it. So this morning I told them I poured the juice so they didn't get too much. I even got Becca, who has been harder to fool in the past. Phew! This is her last year living at home, and I got her. I can't say how happy I am about that.

Shayla came in first, and this was her reaction:

This is so hard to drink!

Mom! :)

Who cares as long as it's a yummy trick!

  Austin joined her shortly after, and I think he's still confused:

Next came the boys. I love the sequence of these photos:

Trying to drink this dumb juice!

Wait -- what day is it?

Oh, I get it!

"Zach -- It's April Fool's!"

Then Zachary -- Nothing is going to stop me from getting this Jell-o!

Lastly we got Becca:

Notice the reaction? Or rather the absolute lack of a reaction? She just tried to suck, then said, "Oh." And put it down. Classic teenager response/non-response.

Later I came in and found that Austin was loving the prank:

 

Later we took one to Grandma. She fell for it, much to the kids' surprise. Yes! A successful April Fool's Day!

Past April Fool's Day foods:
2011: http://brownpr.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-fools.html
2010: http://brownpr.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-fools.html
2009: http://brownpr.blogspot.com/2009/04/april-fools-food.html
2008: http://brownpr.blogspot.com/2008/04/april-fools.html

Happy Birthday, Baby!

The last two years have flown by with our sweet, sweet baby Austin! He is such a joy to our family. A little tease, yes, but definitely the most laid-back, easy-going baby one could ever imagine. We sure love our little Aussie and had a fun day celebrating his birthday.

With it being Sunday we had church first thing in the morning, and then he naps right after church. I had a couple of meetings after church (one for each calling), so I was a little worried about finishing the cake. (Yes, a prepared mom would have done it on Saturday. I felt accomplished having it baked on Saturday night.) Then we had some frosting problems, but needless to say, I was happy with the results anyway. And, as you can see, so was Austin. This was his first time to see the cake:

Little side note: When Paul went to get him out of the crib he had taken off his socks and put them on his hands. He thought it was so hilarious he wouldn't take them off:

Yes! He loves his Mickey Mouse:

At first (before food in the tummy) he wasn't too happy about opening gifts. But once he got some food/milk in this tum-tum, he was soooo happy:

Austin, meet Mickey ...

Elephant, poofy dog and frog

To much cuteness!

Yup, having my own Mickey is a-okay!

Beanie babies are fun!

Then came blowing out candles. He wasn't so hip on it until we lit them for the third time. Then he got into the blowing:

Happy, happy birthday Austin! We sure do love you!!!

Gearing up for Disneyland!

So, after this post you might think I'm crazy (assuming you're not already thinking that). My boys are sooooo excited about Jedi training and want to be able to do it twice. So, I decided the best way for them to be chosen is to be wearing shirts that can easily identify them. (They can't say, "The kid in the blue shirt" or they'll have 20 kids show up. But I've seen them say, "The kid with the Darth Vader shirt.") So we made shirts.

I asked the kids what sayings they wanted, and I came up with a few of my own. Needless to say, if they don't get chosen on a couple of days I might have to kick a storm trooper or something ... ;)

Here they are:

Tyler is hoping to fight Darth Maul with this shirt :)

What's your midi-chlorian count?

A line by Princess Leia, but we can't go and put her name on a boys' shirt

Of course, once all the fun began Shayla wanted a shirt, too, but definitely not a Star Wars shirt. I finally talked her out of her initial choice ("I love Mom"), and we ended up with this:

Oh, and I made them their own autograph books. Here are the covers:

Is it right for a parent to be as excited (or more so) than her kids to go to Disneyland? :)