Monkey on the Table!!!

This is Clarke's very favorite new trick--climbing on the table. He does it alllll day, every day! Daddy has special nick-names for the older two kids, but it's taken a while to decide on one fitting for Clarke. Ty finally decided on "Roo". So we have "Moose", "Champ", and "Roo".

Marissa's First Piano Festival

I honestly can't remember how many months we've been working on "Mr. Cat" and "Calliope", but it's been quite a few....
Well, the work has paid off. We finally had her festival and she walked away with a perfect score of 50!! YAY!! The judge especially complimented her on her timing, and nice steady beat, and expression. This is a picture of Marissa with her piano teacher, Mayna McGill, who is wonderful, and with our dear friends, the Rasmussen's, who also were playing at festival.

April 6th, 2011--Welcome Home Dione!!

My adopted brother, Dione, got home from his mission on April 6th! It was so fun to go meet him at the Poky airport and see him for the first time in 2 years!! He looks great! The kids were so excited for the entire week. They made him a welcome home banner. Dione has really matured, but he's still the same good ol' Dione! We are so proud of him for serving honorably. We announced we were having Clarke at his farewell dinner, so this was the first time Clarke and Dione have met! Clarke was quite apprehensive at first, but warmed up after not too long.

April Fool's!!

The morning started off with the kids trying to drink frozen milk. I froze their cups of milk the night before and then topped them off with 1/2 inch of fresh milk. The look on their faces was priceless when their milk got "stuck"!! Then Chandler and I made these mini "Shamburgers" for dinner (made of cookies, tinted coconut, and taffy for the tomato) and I made "fauxberry chocolate pie" for dessert--it was a pie shell with meatloaf (brown like chocolate) in the bottom and a fluffy pink mashed potato topping (looked like a berry flavored meringue). It was a lot of fun. Our neighbor boy ended up being here for dinner, and he got quite a kick out of our pranks. Chandler wore a sling to school for a "broken arm". I guess a girl in his class did the same thing. He goes to afternoon kindergarten, and he said that a few minutes after he got there, his teacher announced that there would be no more tricks from the day, because she was all tricked out! Can you just imagine all those kindergarteners? There's a spider on the ceiling--April fool's! I don't feel well--April fool's! hahaha!!

T-Texas

T-texas has been Ty's nick-name for a long time, and over spring break, he went to Texas. We missed him terribly!! He was gone for nearly a week. He brought home some pretty sweet souvenirs. He knows us well!!! He got me a really pretty hand-painted necklace (don't you love the picture Chandler took?), Marissa some earrings (her latest obsession--they are in the little velvet cowboy hat case), matching Texas hats for he and Chandler (Chandler LOVES matching daddy or Clarke, and LOVES wearing hats), and a cute teddy bear for Clarke that he's been hugging on! We loved that he thought of us while he was away. The kids thought of him a lot, and spent hours making a really sweet welcome home banner for him.

Marissa and her pet "Pirate Dog"

Marissa and Chandler generally get along really well. We definitely have our days, but they do like each other and play well together. Marissa is usually the boss, and Chandler will pretty much go along with anything. They came up the other day like this. I had to ask what they were playing. "Chandler is my pet pirate dog", she told me. (probably the dog part was her idea and the pirate part was his idea!!) I thought it was cute. Cute little playmates, friends, and siblings.

My fun little project...

I was cleaning out a box of fabric and I found this delicious pink scrap that I had from making flower girls dresses for a friend in Florida. I pulled it out and thought, "Hmmm...what could I make out of this springy, shiny fabric?" I immediately thought of my girly-girl, Marissa, and then I found the white netting for ruffles, and 2 hours later--Wha-lah!! a fun frock for my sweet-pea!

Me and My Bud

Chandler has been my buddy this year. He is still home for half the day, and we like to do projects together. He honestly compliments me more than anyone else. He is such a sweet boy and a good helper.

Baking Day with My Mama

My mom and I had a baking day during spring break mainly to get ready for my brother, Dione's homecoming. He will be speaking in church this week, and we'll have lotsa mouths to feed. Here's the rundown of what we made in one day: -4 loaves of bread -a pan of chick rolls (for the kids) -a pan of cinnamon roll bunnies (for the kids also) -8 dozen pumpkin cream cheese muffins -3--9x13 apple cakes -1 dozen apple cupcakes -5 large cheesecakes and 2 little gluten free cheesecakes -several dozen frosted sugar cookies. WHEW!! It sure smelled good in there!! It was fun, and we were able to accomplish so much because Kirsten, my 12 year old sis, played with my kids. I think that's the most baking I've ever done in one day!! Hopefully it will take care of breakfast and dessert for all the guests this weekend.

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day was full of green food and food coloring this year. We started off the day with green buttermilk pancakes and green buttermilk syrup, and ended the day with green mashed potatoes, green beans, green jello salad, green cauliflower, and green milk to drink, with green chocolate chip mint ice cream for dessert. Chandler even made us each special green placemats. Such a fun day for kids. They just love things like that. Marissa was convinced, however that the milk tasted different when it was dyed green. HAHA!

Call me Mo...

Chandler and I had fun a few weeks ago doing a Mohawk on Clarke. I think he looks stinkin' cute no matter what. Babies are just adorable--period!! One of these days we're going to need to cut that cute curl off, but till then, I'm gonna enjoy playing with it.