Life

These pictures are actually backwards, but you would never know since we are dyeing Easter eggs a week late. We got back late Saturday night from our little trip and did not have time to dye eggs. I kept telling the kids we'll do it on Monday and then Monday would become Tuesday and Tuesday would become Wednesday. Kara finally looked at me and said, "are we ever going to dye those Easter eggs?" Seriously I was beginning to doubt it myself.
Last night we finally dyed eggs. The kids loved it. I'm glad I didn't let life continue to get in the way of this fun little tradition.

Actually the project was uneventful. No one drank the dye or spilled the dye all over like in years past.

We made a short stop and saw Brent's good friend Matt and wife Ann. Brent went to high school with Matt. My parents also know the Marquis as my Dad actually baptized Matt's mom Cheryl. It is such a small world.

Matt and Brent! Matt is really good about keeping in touch, and we had a great time with them. I hope we get to see them again soon.

They also have 4 kids. There kids were really nice and fun kids. They all seemed to get along great.

Lots of car time. Me and Brent drove separate cars for half of the trip. He had to drop his car off in Utah for a tune up.

This was actually on the way home. The kids were really pooped out!

Couldn't help getting a picture of this sweet little sleeper.

I finally pulled my camera out for the trip. My camera is still broken, so the pictures are not very good.

Is she the cutest thing? We stopped and saw my brother Brady and sister in law Brandi. We had so much fun with them. There little Cozette is so cute.

Brandi had ordered butterflies, and the kids had a ball with them as you can tell.

Kara was doing her excited clap in the background of all the pictures.

Kara cried most of the way home about not getting to spend more time with Teja!

Can you believe this is the best picture I have of Halle and Roxie. They really did have fun together even though this picture does not show it!

This is the dog's toy in the garage. The kids thought it was a rope swing! AWESOME!

Brandi did the girls hair too. Kara thought I should learn how to do hair really fast like Brandi!

Kara was star student and made a poster for her class. She loved being the star student. She told me she had been waiting all year for this moment!

Kelton made this little bunny hat at school. As soon as he came in the door he said, "Mom get the camera, you've got to get a picture of this!"

We had to get a picture of the back pack bunny too.

We had a great little trip with the kids. I really did not want to come back to reality, but we had to. I guess that means it was a great trip or reality is really bad (:

Almost Easter

Halle's little preschool class had an Easter Egg hunt at the park next to our house! The kids were all super excited to search for eggs.


I have decided that I don't really need a camera anymore. I'll just carry my SD card around and then borrow other peoples cameras. Hey that is a good idea. I'll just look around for someone that looks like they have a nice camera, and then ask them if they can take a quick picture for me with my SD card!

Halle more than excited about her loot! She asked me if I had seen the bunny hiding the eggs.

Halle with her preschool teacher and class!

A trip across the street to grandmas! The other day this little girl and her brother went out in our front drive way right before the big kids got out of school. I thought to myself "they really shouldn't be out there with out me. I could hear Halle's loud voice echoing from the drive way into the house, and at that moment I knew no one would ever kidnap her. They would take one look and think that kid is way to much trouble! They'd be right too. They would probably bring her right back! I do love this girl, even though she's trouble!

Halle is old enough now to ride her bike down grandma's little hill on the the path up to her door. A favorite hill among little children in the hood.

Trouble #2 (: had a singing program at the school! He did a good job singing even though he has decided he does not want to sing in public anymore. There were so many kids it was hard to see him, but he sang all his songs for us when he got home from school.

See the little bald spot on Hayden's head? No I did not do that to him. Yes I did cut his hair. Yes he is 10 years old and yes he did do that to himself!

He was showering in my shower and decide to use Brent's razor on his head. I don't know why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Afterwards he thought he should do another one on the other side so that it would match. He also thought a Mohawk would be nice, but Kara told him he should not do that because all the kids would be afraid of him (the little boy across the street shaved his head into a Mohawk and Kara's little friend is scared of him now).

Nanny came for the performance! Kelton tried to arrange a play date, but unfortunately he had to suffer and come along.

Grandma and Halle at the performance!

Dad came too.

Halle also has a new uncle named uncle Crank! She was naming all her aunts uncles and cousins and she said "oh yeah uncle Crank too, uh that's not right, what is the name again?" Uncle Frank and Uncle Creg makes uncle Crank! Every night she asks me to sleep by her and if I agree she proceeds to whisper shh shh at me (I'm never talking). Then she'll proceed to tell me she forgot to read her scriptures, so of course I can't object to that, and then she will proceed to read me the scriptures from her mini dictionary that she keeps by her bed. It is actually really cute listening to her make up what her scriptures say. On this particular evening every family and extended family member happened to be in her scriptures. She would say "oh yes what is that sisters name again" when ever she forgot one of the girl cousins or aunts names. I wish I had recorded her, see why I keep her around, she's a Turkey, but unbelievably loveable!

Happy ST. PATRICKS DAY!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from my Camera phone! It is killing me that my camera is not working. Halle off to school!
After school! She was trying to make a funny face, but you get what you get when your dealing with a phone as a camera! I'm sure the camera phone will be as good as my expensive camera soon. It's just a matter of time, right?

So happy about St. Patrick's DAY!

The morning spray down! Hayden said, "I love St Patrick's DAY!!" I guess I loved any kind of celebration when I was a kid too!

I love these guys!

We went to the park to work on our baseball skills. Halle was really excited about the pink mitt! She put her mitt on and I through the ball into her mitt about 2 times, and then she took off her mitt! I proceeded to ask, "are you done playing?" She turned to me and said, "Well I just really need some lipstick!" Am I really this Glamor girls mom(:?

Kelton came home today from school and has been searching non stop for Leprechauns! He really really wants to catch one! He has enlisted Halle to search while he recites knock knock jokes to her. Do you know how confusing it is to have someone that doesn't really know how to do knock knock jokes teach you how to do a knock knock jokes????

Kara's BAPTISM!

The big day finally arrived and my camera died! Thanks mom and dad for the pictures! Uncle Frank also took some pictures for us, but I did not get them downloaded before they left so hopefully they will send me some to add to the occasion! My little Kara was so excited to get baptized. She has been counting down the days. She really wanted to follow Jesus and be baptized. I always feel like I do a bad job at teaching my kids about the gospel and about Jesus' life, but my little children surprise me by how much they know. Sometimes I think how are you learning all these things. I wish I was more like my little children. I love that Kara has chosen to follow Jesus and be baptized. I am so proud of her for all of the good choices she makes. She is always trying to be a good kind person. A little friend of hers mother gave me a little project that her daughter had completed at school. They were asked who do you think should be president? Her daughter had drawn a picture of Kara and then written "I think Kara should be President because she cares for others." We are so blessed to have Kara's wonderful spirit bless our home. We love you Kara.
Me Kara and Brent. I can't believe she is 8! It really seems like just yesterday I was bringing her home from the hospital.

Everyone that came to the baptism. We were so grateful to everyone that came it really made it special for Kara. As you can see I am closing my eyes, but the other picture was only good of me and everyone else was blurry. Sometimes you have to take one for the group(:

Kara and her great Grandmas! They are both amazing woman that Kara has as an example! We love them both so much and felt so blessed that they could be there on Kara's special day!

The family! As you can see we did not get much sleep, as we were so excited about cousins being at our home and Kara getting baptized. I think Halle felt it the most! She fell asleep during the baptism talks, but we woke her for the big event.

We can't leave out 2 of our biggest supporters. Cousins Reggie and George! These guys always show up for everything and I think Kara considers them as her 2 other brothers. I almost said 2 big brothers, but Reggie is actually 18 months younger, but he is like a big brother he takes care of Kara! I think she is so lucky to have them look out for her.

Kara with her Grandpa and Grandma and her Manny (Grandma). Kara is named after 2 wonderful woman! Karalee my mom and Kara Lynn Brent's mom. We name Kara, Kara Lynnlee after her 2 grandma's. I think she is so lucky to have such wonderful woman as her name sake. They have blessed our life's in so many ways. I hope she grows up to have all of their wonderful talents and character traits.

This is us with Brent's family. His whole family was their except Jenny and her family, they live in Tennessee. Kara's little cousin has the same birthday as her and so will be being baptized this next weekend. We also were missing Cregs family, but Creg made the trip all the way from San Francisco area. Thanks for coming to support Kara. We loved seeing everyone.

Kara with Grandpa, Brent, Uncle Creg, and Uncle Frank who confirmed her. We had a barb-cue after and had a great time with everyone. The weather was great too!

PJ Party for Kara!

Kara turned 8 and we celebrated and celebrated and celebrated! I hope she felt very loved! We invited 7 little girls over for a late night! They all wore their P.J.s and had lots of fun!

We started the night with the game find a penny. One of the little girls thought of this and they all just loved hiding the penny and then trying to find it. Then we had pizza!

Then we did a lot of dancing! We also had a been bag toss and played musical chairs! The girls earned tickets playing the games so they could buy treats for the movie we were going to show!

The party was 3 hours, but we only got to see about 15 minutes of the movie, because we did so much playing. I don't think they really wanted to watch a movie anyway.

We also had cake!

All the girls! Kara has such nice little friends!

Then we had a little family party!

Grandma and Grandpa took Kara out for her Birthday! They took her to Red Robin and to Build a Bear where she got these little puppies. She was soooo excited to go. She felt really special!

Nanny got Kara this little bag for her new puppies!

Aunt Nat and George and Reggie came too!

Then Hayden made a treasure hunt to find the big gift a new bike! Halle was excited too because she got Kara's old pink bike!

We blew out candles one more time with the left over cake from her party!