Easter

We had a really wonderful Easter weekend. We were so lucky to have Eric's parents come and spend it with us. We were very sad that they had to leave after church to head back to Utah. Olivia cried on Anita's lap during church and then fell asleep in her arms. She did not want grandma Needers to leave.

Olivia is never very excited for me to do her hair, but she endured.

Carter showed off his new sunglasses from the Easter Bunny! He is just about the cutest thing in the world right now. I just hug and squeeze and kiss him constantly. Anything he says is cute to me. I don't want him to grow up! He didn't sleep very much while grandma and grandpa were here. He had 2 monster tantrums that were the worst he has ever had, and we all said it is a good thing he is cute.

Olivia got a pink football from the Easter bunny and a rake. She showed me the rake she wanted at Target. I told her I would tell the Easter bunny. She told me I should just buy it then and give it to the Easter Bunny and he would pay me back. I agreed and thought that made life a lot easier if I didn't have to go back to Target later. I just adore Olivia...most of the time. Sometimes I think she is going to put me over the edge. The constant unanswerable questions and nonstop random noise and talking and screaming at times make me crazy! Then other times I remind myself what a great sweet girl she is. I really am lucky to have a little girl. Eric is out of town, and she has been missing him a lot. She told me the other day that we really needed to get a gift for daddy. I asked if she wanted to get one for his birthday, and she said that she just wanted to get him one so he would know how special she thinks he is. She is such a sweetheart. She said maybe we should get him some more copy paper to put in his office. Now that is a very practical gift. Not quite sure why she wants to get him that. I guess maybe her and Carter go thru a lot of it for drawing.

Jackson had an adventure finding his basket!
It was down in a window well with a lot of tumble weeds that blew over from the vacant lot across the street. It is a good reminder that we need to get them cleaned out! Jackson has grown up so much in the past few months. He just makes me so happy! He is the sweetest nicest boy now. It is not that he wasn't nice before, but he has just changed. He is so responsible and hard working. He tries so hard to be the best person he can be, and I'm so proud of him! We are so thankful to have him as a son.

Hayden also had to climb in the window, but he didn't have to battle the tumble weeds. He is just a fun kid! He must be going thru the stage Jackson just got out of, because I have to get after him about stuff more than I used to, but he is still great. He is constantly going and busy with sports and loves every bit of it.

Rainy Egg Hunt

Ofcourse we had a few days of yucky weather right around Easter. It was raining on Easter afternoon, but we the kids still wanted to have an egg hunt up at my mom's house before dinner. Most of the eggs were filled with money this year, so the kids loved counting up all their change. It was also a good lesson to figure out how much tithing everyone needed to pay. Even with the rain it was a really good day. Deanne made primerib and we had lots of other delicious food! Kimmy and Jenny did a great Easter lesson for us after dinner.

Shock Game

Last Saturday we took Eric's parents to a Shock game. Olivia was once again much more excited about the dancers than the game. She got every one of them to sign her Shock towel.

The boys were so cute watching the game together. We kept on having to pull Carter back down so he didn't jump onto the field during the game. The boys did a lot of dancing for the camera, and the announcer even commented on the crazy boys on the front row and put them on the jumbotron.

We had lots of soccer games that morning, too. The weather was rainy and cold so we only got a few pictures of Jackson.

Rivefront Park

When Eric's parents were here over Easter weekend, we went to Riverfront Park with Carter and Olivia to feed the ducks, play, and ride the carousel. It was a beautiful day, and we had such a great time! The geese were pretty aggressive when they wanted food. There were some really big ones that were a little weird looking that freaked out Olivia. She ran up to grandma. I was laughing and telling Eric about Olivia, and then one came right up to my leg and scared me to death. I screamed and felt a little silly! Carter loved it. He couldn't get enough of feeding the geese. The boys were feeling a little left out that we had a day of fun without them while they were at school. We took them to a movie later that night.

Road Trip!

For Spring Break this year we did the unthinkable.....we went on a huge road trip. Considering we never drive longer than a day's drive, ever, this was a change for us. We left after school last Tuesday (the kids were on half days for conferences) and headed to Utah. We stayed at Eric's Aunt Robyn's house. Eric had a meeting at noon in Salt Lake. We would have done something outdoors and springy, but it was snowing. We weren't ready to head out of Utah until 3:30, so we got to Arizona after midnight. We stayed at Eric's cousin Ryan's house in Gilbert. Corey and Brenda's family, Lindsey, Hillary and Jeff, and Eric's parents came too. All the girls and kids crashed the boys' NCAA basketball boy's weekend. We had fun with the kids, and the boys had fun going to the games on Thursday and Saturday and golfing and tennis in between. We were just so happy to be in warm weather, since up north we are having global cooling! The kids had the best time playing with their cousins. Ryan and Nichole's kids, Tyler and Kate, are just like 1st cousins to my kids even though they are 2nd cousins.

Tyler, Rhys, Malik and Olivia

Hayden, Jackson and Malik went to Tyler's scout day camp while they were there. The younger boys got to make tool boxes--which they were very excited about!

Jeff and Hillary snuggled with Kate during one of the rare moments that she was sitting still.

Lindsey squirted the kids off before bath time.

Liv went with Ron and Anita to visit GG Mary. She gave Liv a lion that she carries around with her non-stop now.

Liv with BBR(Big Bad Ron) aka grandpa.

Hilly and Jeff

Carter and Kate

Little miss poser

CHEEEEEEEESE!

Carter's favorite thing to say is "wook at me! wook at me! wheee!"

Grandma told Liv she was a monkey. Liv told her that she was only 1/2 monkey because she didn't like bananas.

Kate, Jorie, Carter and Olivia

The kids even got Grandma to go down the slide with them.

On Friday we took the kids to a park to have water ball races. It doesn't look like it would be that fun from the pictures, but the kids loved it. After an hour and a half we had to make them leave.

Olivia adores Grandma Enloe-- it might have something to do with the fact that Anita will do anything Olivia wants. Whenever they are around I put Liv's carseat in their car, and she is their kid for a few days. She cries hysterically whenever it is time for them to leave.

Olivia used her wet water ball to draw a picture of herself on the concrete.

And they are off..... who's ball will make it there first? Riveting, I know!

We had such a relaxing, fun time in Arizona! We were really excited to go see Corey and Brenda's new house in Aspen and hang out with them, but not excited to leave the beautiful weather. On Monday we drove to Colorado and arrived in the below freezing snowy weather. I didn't bring enough cold weather clothes for the trip. Yesterday I wore flip-flops, and my feet were really cold. I should have just worn my running shoes and sacrificed style! I guess it has been snowing back home and in Utah, so what is with this cruddy spring break weather? It is a good thing Brenda and I are home playing games and relaxing while it snows outside-- Eric, Corey, Jackson, Hayden and Malik are snowboarding. It feels like Christmas break??????