Visit from our cute cousins

So much fun to have some little ones around to make everyone happy!!

My brother and sister-in-law graduated from Law School and in the process of moving from Washington to Las Vegas stopped for a visit. It was so fun to see them! Me and the kids had a great time playing with little Brody and Ryder!! Ryder is such a sweet baby.

Heather, Ryder, and Brody stayed for a week while my Mom, Dad, and Tyson drove the moving van to Las Vegas. It turned out to be a very long drive from Idaho to Las Vegas. At one point my Dad tried to speed things along by going ahead while my Mom and Tyson finished their lunch (they had two cars one was a very slow moving moving van and the other was Tyson's car) well it turned out my Dad had the keys to the other car in his pocket, so Tyson and my Mom were stranded at the gas station while my Dad after making great time had to retrace his steps back to the gas station only adding another 1hr and a half to an already long journey. They also got a flat tire too, but I'll let them tell you about that. I just thought the key story was funny especially if you know my Dad and his need for speed(:

Brody and Kelton!

Kelton and Ryder!

Kara and Ryder!

Brody playing with the train.
This little guy has the cutest little face ever, but don't let that fool you, he can do UFC take downs better than the UFC fighters!

This little guy has lots of energy! It was so fun to have him. He is like a little puppy he gets sooo excited when he sees you and it just makes you feel so good! Who could help but be happy with little Brody around. He is only 2, but is the same height as Halle. It kind of through Halle off for a little bit, but she loved having someone follow her and play all the games she thought of with out complaining.

Heather and little Ryder! I feel so lucky to have such a great sister-in-law. Heather made me a birthday cake and was lots of fun to have around. I was hoping she would get to relax a little after all the packing and moving, but she was always so helpful I don't know if she really got to relax at all!!

Ballet Recital

The girls had their end of the year recital! Like usual I took a ton of pictures of my cute girls. Kara and her good friend. They look the same size except in pictures. They are exactly the same age!
Halle Kara and their two little dance and play friends. Halle was so excited to be on stage. She talked about it for weeks. Every day she would wake up and ask "is this the day we go on stage?"

Halle with her ballet teacher.

Everyone gets flowers after the recital. I learned my lesson after the first few times of being the only one that did not bring flowers. I don't know I thought it was silly to bring flowers, but the girls were so disappointed when they did not get any last time that I finally convinced myself that the flowers were kind of like end of the year trophies.

I have to say they loved their flowers!

The girls practiced and practiced their dance until they were totally worn out, but they finally got it down.

Sweet sisters!

Halle just loves Kara! She wants to do everything like Kara. Sometimes Kara gets annoyed being copied by her little sister, but she is slowly working on seeing her mimicking little sister as a compliment rather than an annoyance.

The guys. Hayden and Kelton skipped the performance this year. Aunt Natalie watched them for us. Usually I make them go, but I decided I really wanted to enjoy the performance rather than listen to two little boys continually ask "How much longer?"

My big girl!

My baby girl.

Daddy and his girls.

It was an all day event. We had the rehearsal that morning complete with a fire drill in the middle of the rehearsal. Then lots of running around and coordinating. Brent worked that day so by the end of the day I definitely needed another shower. I really did not want to get in the picture, but hey If I only got in a picture when I thought I looked cute I don't think I would be in any pictures at all!

Camera is Fixed, but not with out a price!

My camera is finally fixed! Holy Cow I could have bought a new camera for what it cost to fix it, well maybe not the same camera I had, but I could have bought a pretty nice camera! I thought I better do a little update as it seems my kids just keep growing so fast that I can hardly keep up. I'm trying not to feel bad about all the things I'm not doing, and just be happy about what I am able to do. Hopefully my kids will forgive me for my imperfections! A few mornings ago Halle woke and told me "Mom I had a nightmare last night, Daddy had only one big green eye and he was really scary!" Brent as a cyclops is probably pretty scary.

The kids sent me on a treasure hunt to find all of the gifts they made me for Mother's Day! Brent caught my every move on camera. I only incorporated a few of them, and I only put them in because I thought it was funny how many pictures Brent took of me. I don't really like pictures of myself. Pictures of the kids are cute, but of me not so cute!!!

This is me making a really cute face (not), but hey I'm happy! A card from my sweet little Hayden with lots of coupons! I love a homemade gift!

Me with my coaster made by lovely Kara! Kelton also made me a gift that I love! It was a great day.

Kara made me this cute little card and basket at Activity Days! The kids were all really excited to share their gifts with me. Kelton also learned a piano song, "Mother I love you" that he played for me. He had been practicing it at home, but I had not heard it since he had asked me to plug my ears every time he practiced the piano! The kids woke up early and cleaned up the upstairs, made there beds, got all dressed for church, and with Bent's help made me my favorite breakfast pumpkin waffles with lots of blueberries. My other gift was to be early enough to sit on the soft seats at church (yeah). Grandpa made a great dinner and we all got to hang out with Nanny, Grandma Benge and my mom. After dinner we played ultimate Frisbee! Natalie and I were unbelievably good and I am sure next time we play the kids will be fighting over who gets to be on our team. Halle opted to watch and had a little tea party with Nanny. The weather was beautiful, the kids tried not to fight, and Brent made me a nice card and kept the kitchen clean! Who could ask for more!!

Hayden's team won a limo ride! They all filled out their leadership forms and so they won this limo ride! They were soooo excited.

The other day I was wearing a shirt that well it is a little rude. I bought it because I liked the colors and I really did not read what it said, so when the kids were asking what it said, and I was trying to explain that it is a little rude. Kara chimed in trying to make me feel better about myself for wearing it by saying "it's o.k. mom you didn't know it was rude, it's not your fault." Then Hayden chimed in with "actually it is your fault because you are choosing to wear it!" Hey what can I say he keeps me in line!!!

Kelton's class was learning about different careers at school so he drew a picture of himself in the career he wants to be when he grows up. I looked at the picture and said, "You want to work at Inn and Out Burger when you grow up(it was clearly a picture of him working at Inn N Out Burger?" He said, "No but I just could not make up my mind what to draw because I also want to be a fireman, a truck driver, a lawyer, a policeman, a house builder, a banker, a farmer, an engineer, a teacher, (so he named about every other job there is and then he said).................... wow I think I'm gonna be really tired after I get done doing all those jobs!"

Oh and this one last picture was of this amazing full rainbow that appeared in our backyard after a huge crazy hail storm. This is the moment I decided to fix my camera, because I just could not get a good picture no matter how I tried! It was a sign for me to spend the money and fix my camera. I hope I read the sign the right way.

Misc.

If you remember from my last post I mentioned that one of my pictures had been altered by one of the children. I said they had cropped Halle out of the picture and only Brent's head was left in the picture.... well guess who the little Turkey was???? That's right BRENT!!! My biggest kid! Kara and Kelton are loving that we have had some Popsicle weather. I love the warm weather, but not the sticky floors!
Hayden's playing football and still loves Krispy Kreme donuts!

Halle playing at her favorite place Grandma and Grandpa's house!

All dressed up and looking oh so beautiful! On our little walk to preschool Halle asks me, "Do you think Jada (little girl at preschool) is going to look beautiful today?" I said, "oh yes I bet she is" Halle said "Oh I think so too! I think she'll have her hair down and it will be beautiful!"

Halle with some of our tulips. I love that tulips grow in Idaho so beautifully! I think I'll plant even more next year. I planted the tulips so I had something to look forward to as the winter seemed so long. I was so excited when they started popping up all over my yard.

Halle learned about mister yuck at school! So she found all my cleaning supplies and labeled them with Mr. Yuck! I think she did a good job learning about things that should have Mr. Yuck on them. She wanted more stickers because we have lots of Mr. Yuck supplies it seems.

Unfortunately my camera would not take a picture in focus, but Kara is on the front row. The second one from the end. She did a great job singing and the program was really cute. The kids stayed all together and all the songs were really cute songs from the past! She 'll have to sing them for you sometime.

Halle had her Ballet pictures taken! She can't wait for the "STAGE!"

Halle with her two adorable, lovable, sweet little friends. They all play so good together and are so kind to one another.

Shriner's Hospital Visit!

We took Halle to Shriner's Hospital in Salt Lake City to visit a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. I did not get a very good picture of Shriner's. Halle was refusing and the one picture I did get with her on Brent's shoulders some how was destroyed. I went to upload it and found that some little child of mine decided to crop the picture down so that only Brent's face is showing. I can only guess which child decided to do that!
We left town on Sunday afternoon and returned home Monday after her appointment, but first we made a stop at Liberty park. Halle really wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel, but it was not running!

Halle thought this slide was a little scary at first so Brent had to go down with her.

The apt. went really well. Halle's legs actually looked great. The doctor said she had other patients with rickets and none of them looked as good as Halle. Her right tibia is the bone showing the most problem. This is the reason her right foot turns in and causes her to trip when she runs. If it does not correct itself by the time she is 6 then they would go in and break the bone and straighten it with a plate. The doctor believed there is a good chance it will straighten on it's own. It was probably one of the best doctor appointments we have had, so I am glad we made the trip.

Grandma and Grandpa watched the other 3 kids for us, which made the trip a lot easier. Halle was a little bit of a pill on the trip, she had gotten sick right before we left.

I had to give her a steroid and give her albuterol treatments every 3 hours to keep her from wheezing.

So the trip probably would have been a little more fun if we didn't have a child that asked for vanilla ice cream with sprinkles and than cried because she wanted strawberry ice cream and then when given strawberry ice cream decided she didn't even like ice cream. Then decided she wanted to watch 12 Dancing Princess, and then when 12 Dancing Princess was put in she cried because she did not want to watch that movie. Who fights with themselves over a movie? Halle on steroids! Thank goodness she's back to her sassy nice self. I'm not a big fan of the rollercoaster of emotions that a sickness and some drugs seem to bring on!

Undercover Boyfriend (:

Normally I don't take my camera on dates, but this was a special date and the camera just happened to be in the glove compartment! My sister Natalie has been dating this mystery man for over a year, but no one has been allowed to meet him! Our fam is a little weird so I understand (:

Brent and I with our cute caps! I don't know why we took this with our caps on. It was fun racing around the track, but after I have to admit I felt rather sick from going in circles while breathing in gas fumes.

Natalie and Dan the mystery man! Can't believe I was finally allowed to meet him. I'm posting these for all the family who was wondering what Dan the mystery man looks like!!

Tooth Fairy Strikes again!

Kelton lost his first tooth and he was soo excited! He misplaced his tooth after he lost it, but he made sure to leave a note pleading with the tooth fairy to please leave him a little money even though he could not find his tooth. Luckily the tooth fairy was sympathetic to his plight.

Kelton still loves to dress up, but his dress ups are getting a little small!

Halle did not loose any teeth, but still wanted to show off her teeth like Kelton!

Just being a little Sassy for the camera!

Kelton started playing baseball! If you know Kelton you know why I put an explanation point. Well he was doing pretty good until the coach pitched a ball that hit him in the chest (this actually is not a suprise because something always seems to happen to Kelton). The coach is a good friend, and felt horrible. It really did not hurt Kelton, but now Kelton is positive that the ball hit him in the face! I did try to correct him by saying you mean you got hit in the chest. He said, "No mom I was hit in the face!!" That little face looks pretty good for being pelted by a baseball don't you think(:

Hayden wins Paramount Read-a-thon!

Hayden read 4290 minutes during the read-a-thon at his school. The funny thing is I did not even record every time he read. He love love loves to read. We actually take his books as punishment. I feel kind of bad doing it, but it really is the only thing that works. As top reader of his school he received 15 free books of his choice! Knowing how he loves to read we had been talking about different books he could pick, so I was more than surprised when he brought home 10 books for Kara and 5 books for Kelton. I was really proud of him for reading, but I was even more proud of him for being so thoughtful. These moments are the ones that make you so happy to be a parent! It may seem funny, but I almost cried when I saw that he had gotten all the books for his siblings (of course they were happy tears (: )!!