Little Miss Sunshine

Emily got this cute little dress from Grandma for her birthday. After getting her dressed for church one Sunday morning, I thought she looked so cute that I decided to take some pictures so Grandma could  see. The lighting wasn't great, but I love her in the darling yellow dress.

 Of course, when Caleb saw me taking pictures, he immediately started begging to take a picture too. That kid loves cameras- and I'm always finding all sorts of random pictures on our two cameras and phones. I finally let him take one picture after he solemnly promised he would be good during the church meeting, then I put the camera away and we headed off to church. After church, I saw the photo- headless mom. Classic.

Happy Birthday Jeff

It was another birthday, and another year older for Jeff. He turned 35 this year, getting closer to that big 4-0, and still as handsome as ever. Sometimes it doesn't seem fair that men just get better looking the older they get- but I guess that's why it's good to be married to someone almost 8 years older right?! We had a low key, but fun birthday party with the family this year. 

Emily's favorite trick at dinner is to sit on daddy's lap and eat with him. I think he's pretty smitten by that perfect little pouty face and sweet voice. When I asked for a smile, this is what she gave.

 I had a hard time deciding what to do for Jeff's birthday dessert, so I decided to just do both strawberry short cake and cinnamon rolls- a couple of Jeff's favorites. I didn't have quite 35 candles, so we improvised with what we had. My favorite part of the picture is Emily's little hands just waiting to grab a strawberry.

 Jeff is such a sweet, wonderful father. I love watching him with the kids and seeing them so excited about his birthday. They all took turns blowing out the candles and making funny faces for the camera.

I think this one was my favorite!

 Jeff's birthday fell on a Thursday this year, so we did our little family party on his birthday, and then went out to celebrate on Friday night. We went out to eat at a nice restaurant that came highly recommended and it didn't disappoint, the food was delicious.
Afterwards, we went to do a little shopping. Jeff needed some new running/gym shoes and jeans, and I wanted to get him a BBQ, but there was no way I was going to pick that out myself. (I didn't want to take the blame if it ended up being dumb :) Jeff found shoes he liked, but didn't buy any because he wanted to order them online for cheaper, and we ran out of time for grills- we'll probably end up getting one online too. The jeans shopping ended up being one of my favorite parts- it was late and we practically had the place to ourselves so we hung out in the men's dressing room, playing with phones & pictures while Jeff modeled jeans for me. It was pretty funny and we had some good inside jokes. I love spending time with Jeff and laughing together, we have a blast.

Happy Easter

 It was a beautiful Easter weekend. We got an early surprise from our home teachers- they had a edible arrangement delivered on Friday. The kids were pretty excited and I never knew that chocolate covered pineapple bunnies were so good!

 We made hard-boiled eggs and dyed them colors. This wasn't the greatest picture, but we finished right before Jeff and I left on our date night, so this is what I got. Everyone had a good time and the dye stayed in the cups and on the eggs.

 Saturday morning we got a visit from the Easter bunny. He must have thought the kids were pretty good and hid candy all around the living room. I love watching the kids, they're so entertaining. It brings back so many memories of my brothers and sisters and I.

 I need to remember to get pictures before church. By the time we get home, no one was excited about smiling for the camera. Matthew had already taken off his tie, Caleb was missing shoes and socks, and there were definitely some sarcastic smiles. This is what we ended up with. That was fine with me, at least we got a couple!

 I wonder how long it will be before Jacob passes me up in height. He just turned 8 three months ago!

 Jeff was actually the one who picked out Emily's Easter dress. He found this one and brought it home a couple days before. Emily gave it a whirl to see how well it would work as a 'princess dress' and was happy. She loves her dresses and shoes. I love having a little girl to dress up.

Hunger Games- Couples Night

Laurie, Karalee, Rachael, Me, Kristie, Sharon (missing Val & Amber)

The first Friday night in April we were finally able to do a couples date night to Hunger Games. I put together a schedule for the evening and we had 8 couples for all or part of the evening. We met up for dinner at Qdoba, then headed to The Hunger Games movie, and met up at the Black's home for dessert and socializing afterwards.
The whole night was great- we loved visiting with everyone over dinner, and after the movie (and maybe a little during the movie too). There's never a dull moment when you get everyone together- especially when you include husbands. I only got a picture at the end of the evening, and we missed a few people (the husbands weren't really up for having their photo taken if you can imagine) but it was really a fun night out. We love having so many great friends to do things with.

Conference Weekend

 We had a beautiful conference weekend this year. General Conference is always such an uplifting, enjoyable experience. I love having the excuse to spend the entire weekend together as a family with no distractions and nothing to do, but listen to conference and enjoy the time together. This year was no different, and I was so grateful for the many beautiful messages that were shared. There was a man in our ward who was killed in a plane accident just days before conference. He left behind a wife and five children. It was such a shock and a very sobering time. Watching conference seemed to bring about a whole new level of meaning and comfort in the words of the leaders of the church. As always, it is a very testimony strengthening experience and also brings about a great desire for self-improvement.

We've made some new conference traditions- just a little something extra to make the kids more excited for conference.  The first tradition is cinnamon rolls! Not only are they delicious, but one batch of cinnamon rolls provides more than enough for everyone to enjoy over the two days of conference. (No, our family of 6 did not eat the entire batch- Jeff took almost half to families that he home teaches.) It's amazing how happy a batch of cinnamon rolls can make everyone.

Another fun tradition/game that I found was this cute idea on pinterest. Our bowls didn't look as cute as these buckets from the 'brown-paper packages' blog, but it was the same idea. You have key words, ours were, Jesus Christ, temple, faith, scripture/Book of Mormon, prayer, and one other that I just can't  remember. Every time the kids heard a word, they could get one piece of candy from that bowl. You could only get one per talk, so they really didn't get all that much candy, but it sure kept their attention! If you weren't paying attention, or if you weren't in the room, you didn't get a piece and I was amazed how well it worked. All the kids watched all four sessions of conference and I never heard a single complaint. They were excited and attentive the entire time. (Matthew & Emily did miss the very last 30 minutes of the last session, but they're 4 & 2) This was such a great idea and it will definitely be a tradition we'll keep up!

We lucked out with an absolutely gorgeous, warm weekend and sure didn't want to let it go to waste. I was able to get in a 13-mile run on Saturday morning before conference started, and we went for a walk together as a family on Sunday afternoon between the sessions. Both my run, and our walk were down along the river. They have a nice paved bike/running path, and there are also some trails. It's not quite Wissahickon park in Philadelphia, but it is still beautiful and a lot of fun, and we had a good time together. Matthew was in heaven with all the stick 'swords' and couldn't understand why I wouldn't let him bring about 15 sticks back with him in the car! Silly kid.

 While throwing rocks into the water, the kids even spotted a turtle in the river and had fun watching it for a while.

It was a perfect weekend with our little family. We did miss our families who were all together for the weekend, but we were able to visit with them and we're looking forward to seeing them this summer.

Long Lost Pictures

While playing with our camera, I discovered that there were some pictures that had somehow made it onto the internal memory of the camera rather than the memory card. I was so glad to find them! There were a couple in particular that I specifically remembered taking, but could not find them anywhere and figured they must have been accidentally deleted from the camera. I was so glad they finally turned up!

It was also fun to see pictures with Emily so small again- I can't believe how much she's changed in just a year.

Her face in this picture totally cracks me up!

Pinewood Derby

Anyone who has ever been involved in scouting knows that one of the highlights of the year is the Pinewood Derby. I don't know who it's more exciting for: the boys, the families/siblings, or the fathers! The combined wards did a great job putting on a wonderful derby this year. I couldn't believe the turnout- there were 16 scouts competing, but there were many others who came just for the fun of it all. I loved seeing all the kids lined up along the racetrack- they were so excited they could hardly stand it.

The Saturday before the derby, Jeff and Jacob spent time cutting the car, sanding the wheels and axles, painting, etc. They got most of the work done, but for some reason we were still up late the night before finishing the last details. To add more weight to the car, Jeff drilled a hole in the back, then used his blowtorch to melt lead (fishing weights) and poured it into the drilled hole while I held the car-only slightly panicking. :)

The biggest issue we encountered was our spray paint. For some reason, the metallic silver spray paint that Jacob had chosen would NOT dry! It was originally painted on Saturday, but it was still sticky on Monday night. Despite my vote to sand it, and repaint, Jeff wanted to give it more time. Fast forward to Tuesday afternoon- just a few hours before the derby. I was in panic mode knowing this car was NOT going to dry! Jacob was at school, so I had to sand off all that sticky, wet paint and hurry and repaint the car. I then used my blowdryer to finish the drying process, added a clear glossy coat, and added some stripes using my craft vinyl. It wasn't quite the silver bullet Jacob had imagined, but it turned out looking nice and Jacob liked it.

When Jeff got home from work, he helped Jacob put the wheels on, I finished my cake for the auction and we were off! Next year, I'm going to make sure that car is done days ahead!
Luckily we were there about 25 minutes early, because there ended up being a slight problem with our wheels- apparently they were a little too far apart. So to add more stress to the night- Jeff had to quickly run home and reset the wheels. He made it back just in the nick of time, but it still ended up being a great evening.

The blue one is Jacob's car, the one in 2nd place ended up taking 3rd overall.

We were just hoping that Jacob's car wouldn't come in last place, but it quickly became apparent that Jacob's car was fast... really fast! It won every single race it ran, and not just barely- it was way ahead. In fact, in its first race, it shot completely off the end of the track.

They had a pretty good setup with the computers and everything, so we were able to see that in every race, Jacob's car ran a 3.06, 3.07 or 3.08 time.

Finally it came down to the 'championship' run with the top three cars. On the final run, Jacob's car came down in a 3.07, but there had been some mistake with another car so they removed the times and said they would re-run the final race. Unfortunately, something happened on that re-run of the last race. Jacob's car looked like it stuck for a second at the top, then came down in second place with a 3.14. The scoring was done was by averaging all the times of each car, and that 3.14 really hurt Jacob's overall time, giving him an average time of 3.0910 even though every race was a 3.06-3.08 until that last race of the 3.14.

Jacob didn't know any different- he was completely thrilled to have ended up in 2nd place out of a group of 16 boys! It was Jeff that was a little bummed about the whole thing, only because it appeared something had gone wrong on the last race and they wouldn't do anything about it. It was only a moment though, and he certainly didn't say anything to Jacob. We were also excited for Rowan (& Ewan of course) Black who ended up with a very well earned 1st place finish!

I was just thrilled we had a car to race! Especially with the stress I had trying to get that silly car painted just hours before the derby! I thought the whole night was perfect, and that 2nd place trophy was just the icing on the cake.

Speaking of cakes- the cake auction was a success too. We came home with Kristie Black's delicious chocolate cake with white buttercream marshmallow frosting. Many of the cakes went for upwards of $50, and the grand prize for highest bid cake went to Val Jensen for her 6-layer chocolate sunflower cake- that baby went for $150!

Jeff & Jacob, Ewan & Rowan, Dustin & Kyler

(Good work fathers...um boys!)

These three will have the chance later on in April to compete in the big area Pinewood Derby competition.

I definitely did my share of work and wanted in on the goods too!

(and remind me never to stand face-on to the camera in a striped shirt...wow)

Rowan and Jacob