Sleepover!

One night last week the kids were very excited to have their cousin come over to spend the night!  They were especially excited when they saw her arrive looking like this:

They had a great time that evening and then the next morning Dallin and Mandy had to head off to school.

So Bre hung out with Layton all day.  I was so impressed with how patient she was and that she didn’t mind that all he wanted to play with was Cars!

After school, they all went for an adventure in the woods.  Dallin thought he was super cool walking around with his BB gun.

They even drug out the pop up house to use as a tent.

They found the skeleton of a dead animal out there and thought they had made an amazing find.

They also went “fishing” in the little pond and even caught a few minnows.

After dinner, we put the kids to work picking up trash along the roadway in our neighborhood for our post-Earth Day family home evening.

The kids were very sad to see her go back to Nana’s.  Hopefully she and her sisters can come over for a sleepover some time this summer!

Randomness

I photograph my kids a lot.  Ok, so I admit a lot might be an understatement.  But, many times they ASK me to photograph them.  They love to do goofy things and have me photograph them so that they can instantly see it on the back of the camera.  They think it is hilarious.  To be honest, I think it is pretty funny too :)

Another Great Season as Catcher

Dallin is playing the catcher position again this season.



As usual, he is doing an awesome job!



And taking it very very seriously.  A little too seriously for my taste.  But at least he is really applying himself.



I just wish he would put as much effort into to school work as he does into baseball!!!



He sure loves it.  Even if it does hurt every now and then.  He came home last night from practice with blood all over his shirt and a swollen nose.  Apparently he accidently used his nose to try to catch a pop fly.  But that didn’t deter him.  Nathan said that after it stopped bleeding he got right back out there and started playing again!  He’s got a game tonight.  Wish him luck!

Girls Camp Hike

To get ready for girl’s camp this year, all of the girls had to go on a 3 mile hike.  They all met up at Jennings State Forest for a little trek through the woods.

Layton and Mandy came with me to take a few photos before we headed out to Dallin’s Baseball game.  They were super excited about the feathers they found!

Before getting started, the girls each received a glove for picking up trash.  This was the day before Earth Day, so in addition to hiking, they would also be helping with the big clean up effort at the park.

Layton and Mandy showed them the way to go.

Not really, but they thought they were :)  After snapping a few photos of the girls heading out on the trail we left because Dallin was playing baseball that morning.

I’m thinking that was a very good idea on our part.  Everyone that I talked to after the hike said the number of ticks was insane!!!  It’s like they were swarming the area.  Some people were covered with them!  Crazy!  I sure hope it’s not going to be like that at the camp we are going to this summer! Ick!

Something that makes me happy…

You know how sometimes you just stumble across something that makes your really really happy?  Well the music from The Piano Guys does it for me.   It can make me smile even on the worst days.  They have lots of songs that I like, but here are a few favorites:

When that one plays in the car, even the kids get excited.  I love that they love it.

Another favorite is this one:

It just blows my mind!

And watching this guy play the Harry Potter theme is amazing!

That was filmed in real time.  His fingers just move that fast!!!!

For a nice light hearted laugh – enjoy this one:

Anyway, hope your day has been brightened, I know mine has!

Learn Spanish from Layton

Lately Layton has gotten into this thing where he likes to name things in “Spanish”.  He does know a couple of real Spanish words, but for the most part he just makes them up.  Here are a few examples:

Water – hunto

Shirt – dabber

No – quanto

Shoes – topper

Car – doppy

Food – copper

Mommy – tumpy

Book – choppy

Paper – chopper

Desk – compy

It totally cracks me up because he is completely serious when he tells what the “Spanish” word is for something.  That boy is a mess!

Dallin is really good at…

Negativity  in our house is major problem.  The kids constantly fight one another and complain about each other.  It drives me CRAZY!

So yesterday to try to combat some of the negativity, I pulled out the old saying, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all”, given in my best Thumper voice.  I even decided to help them out by giving some examples and saying some nice things about each of them like:

“Dallin is really great at doing math and playing catcher in baseball”

“Mandy is really great at reading and giving awesome hugs.”

“Layton is really great at being cute and giving the longest kisses ever.”

For a minute I thought that they were really catching on to the idea when Mandy pipes up with, “Mom, I know what Dallin is really good at.”  And so me being the unsuspecting parent that I am, innocently asked, “What?”.  And boy was I in store for an answer.  She said, “Dallin is really good at making me and Layton mad.”

I’m thinking maybe she didn’t quite get the concept after all.  Oh kids.

Baskets and Eggs

Saturday morning brought us a visit from the Easter Bunny!!!  That rascal always likes to hide their baskets from them.  Crazy bunny!

They loved all their gifts and then were ready for an egg hunt.

This one was EGGxtra special because some of the eggs had money in them.  Layton was really in to that :)

After a few hours at a baseball game, we decided to decorate eggs.  But not just any eggs – rice krispie eggs – Yum – Yum!! 

And then we closed the evening with my favorite video of the Savior’s last days, The Lamb of God.  There are several other videos now about the end of Christ’s life, but this one still draws me in.  I think part of it is the musical score.  It is awesome!  One of my favorite scenes in the movie is the exchange between Christ and Pilate.  It is at the 3 minute mark in the clip below.  (The clip below is only the first of three parts of the movie, you can see the other two here and here.)

Pilate asks, “Art thou a king then?”  And Christ answers, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world.”  John 18:37

That exchange just holds something for me and makes me think of my own purpose in coming into this world.  Am I fulfilling it?  I don’t fully know the answer to that question, but hope I am.  Believing in Christ and having faith in His teaching certainly makes me feel like I am on the right path.