Thursday, April 29, 2010

Inspiration from Swaziland!

About 2 weeks ago my kids recieved some letters in the mail from Grandpa & Grandma in Swaziland. They sent each of the kids a postcard of an animal with a scripture and a mission story that pertained to that animal. I told the kids to put them somewhere that they wouldn't get lost and where they could see them. Well, the next day I found a couple lying around on the floor and so picked them up and was going to put them away so they wouldn't get destroyed. Well, that night I had an idea...I think it was brilliant but that's to my standards!:) Now they'll be able to see them and be reminded of the messages Grandpa & Grandma sent them. Here they are!








I've got a pretty fun idea on how to hang the boys in their room as well. I'll post a picture of that when I get it finished too! I think they turned out quite well!:)

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Rhett blowing out birthday candles!

Or is it Tony...:)
If you watch these next few videos you might want to scroll down to the bottom of the blog and pause the music so it doesn't interfere with the sound on the videos! Enjoy!
Here's Rhett opening a few more presents. The bat, balls, and helmet were from Grandpa & Grandma Wilson...HE LOVES THEM!! I think the kids a little obsessed with baseball...his Dad loves it!!:)

Rhett's Birthday!

Here's one of Rhett's video's from his birthday! I love his reaction to his baseball shirt...priceless!!:)

Monday, April 26, 2010

Spring Break....REALLY????

I forgot to post these pictures I took during spring break. We arrived in Utah on Sunday night and Monday was pretty cold and windy and it started snowing that afternoon and by Tuesday morning there was probably close to 4 inches on the ground!! We were SO mad...good thing we were headed to Vegas!:)

Anyway, Eli made this little snowman Tuesday and it was still standing Wednesday and he wanted me to take a picture before we left for Vegas so that he could knock it down.
That guy has some violent tendencies!! He didn't just knock it down...he took a baseball bat to it!:) It was pretty funny to watch!:)

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Rhett's Birthday!

Rhett's birthday was Saturday the 10th of April and so Friday night we decided to go to Sport's Authority to look at some stuff to buy him for his birthday because that is his FAVORITE store! It's like a candy store for him. I've never seen anything like it before...it just cracks me up!! The first thing he always runs for is the baseball helmets and bats. And the cute thing is he has to match them. If his helmet is orange his bat needs to be orange etc.! Anyway, he was so much fun to watch. I didn't get very many pictures because I was taking video and I'm still trying to figure out how to get the video on here from our new camera because I need to post the videos because they just crack me up!! Anyway, here's the pictures I did take!:)



Vegas Vacation...and Utah:)

So it was our spring break last week and so we decided to go on a mini vacation (thanks to Nancy!!!!!!) and headed to Utah to help my little sis. re-do my Mom's front room before they get home (in about 6 more weeks....YEAH) and then to Vegas for a few days. Staci and I had fun picking out a color to paint Mom's walls and I'm not going to put up the pictures because I don't want to ruin the surprise for Mom and I'm not even going to tell you what color or some of the fun things we tried until after the reveal! But I'm excited about it and hope that Mom likes it!

Anyway, after painting and cleaning for 2 days we headed out to Vegas. Thanks to Nancy we had 2 free nights at the Rio. She came and checked us in and gave us our keys and sent us up to our rooms and guess what we found when we opened our door and started checking out our room?? I really shouldn't have been surprised because Nancy is about the most thoughtful person I know, but she had left and box full of snacks, drinks, chips and salsa, and a game for the kids! It was a lifesaver over the next 2 days!! What a wonderful lady!!

Our first night in Vegas we decided to go and catch the 51s play a game. They are Vegas's triple A baseball team. We got really good seats and Rhett was so excited to see the game and did pretty good most of the way through it. The rest of the kids were ready to go back to the hotel by the 3rd inning!:) And by the way...it was PERFECT weather for baseball. Not too hot, not too cold (although most everyone there was wearing a light jacket, but I'm assuming they are native vegasans) and no wind...we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather!Eli...don't think he caught more than 5 minutes of the game, but he didn't complain and enjoyed whatever it was he was doing!:)
After we decided to go to the game I asked Rhett if he wanted to go watch some baseball and he said "No, I want to play baseball game!" And he had to make sure he wore his baseball shirt he got for his birthday!

The guys enjoying some baseball and sunflower seeds!

The next day we decided to go down to the strip and see a few things. We first went to the MGM grand to see the lions which was pretty cool, but pretty packed. When we got there they were feeding them and they would come right up to the glass where we were and eat the meat right off of the glass. One time the trainer put the meat right on the glass and the lion came in so fast that he ran right into the glass...the boys thought that was pretty funny! After that we went to the M&M factory which was a disappointment to us. The show they usually have going was closed because they were remodeling or something like that so it was just a big M&M store with tons of mechandise that costs an arm and a leg!!
Here's the kids outside the MGM Grand

And here's Tony and the kids in front of the Statue of Liberty at New York, New York

And here's Caleb & Eli with Yoda who was just parked on a corner as we were walking down to see the Bellagio. Whenver they would say hi to Yoda he would lift his foot and wave back...they thought that was pretty cool!:)


Here's the kids at the Bellagio...we waited around for the fountains to start for about a half an hour and then found out that the fountains didn't start until 3:00 and it was about 12:30 at the time!!

So we went back to our Hotel and decided to take the kids swimming at the pool at the Rio. Tony wanted to relax for a minute, but the kids were dying to go swimming so I told him I'd just take them and he told me to just wait 10 minutes and he'd come and I told him we'd just head down and he could join us when he was ready and he said..."Can you handle all 4 kids by yourself?" I just looked at him like he was crazy..."Of course I can!!" So we headed off! I forgot to take my camera so I didn't get any pictures but we found where we wanted to swim and I had the kids take off their shoes and shirts and while I was getting Rhett and myself ready the boys took off around the corner where I couldn't see them. Then Rhett took off and I had to go after him and then I heard a whistle blow and saw the lifegaurd running. My stomach dropped!! I hurried and grabbed Rhett and took off. You guessed it! My boys had to be rescued! Apparently the ran to the deep side (it was 4 1/2 feet deep) and didn't realize it was that deep and just decided to JUMP IN!! Caleb was able to get to the side and yell for help and the lifegaurd came over and was able to grab Eli's hand and pull him to the side. They were fine, just a little scared and then Caleb's head started hurting to where he was in tears about 20 minutes later and so Tony ended up leaving back up to the hotel with Caleb and so the rest of the kids and I stayed and swam for another hour or so. When Tony arrived about 5 minutes after the "incident" I told him what had happened when I was so sure I had it covered!:)

After swimming we decided to head back to the strip because I really wanted to the kids to see the Bellagio! We went to the Mirage first to try to go and see the dophins and the white tiger but it was closed for some kind of party or something so we weren't able to do that, but we did catch the volcano...which Rhett DID NOT enjoy, but Eli later told us it was his favorite thing we did!
Here we are waiting for the eruption!!
Here's part of the eruption...not a very good picture...sorry!
Waiting for the Bellagio!
Eli enjoying the dancing fountains!
Rhett hanging on for dear life!!:)


This is how Rhett and Tony entertained themselves while waiting for the next fountain show to begin! What a crack-up!!



This is how Rhett handled the water fountains! What a brave boy!!!:)



We had such a good time...but like Tony said..."Next time we need to go without the kids!":)

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Easter & Conference

Here are the conference clipboards I promised to take pictures of so all could see. The kids really liked them and were eager to use them!




We also dyed Easter Eggs...the kids love to do this every year. Rhett especially got into it. I think he cracked every egg that he dyed though. He wanted to put each egg in every single color and would drop them repeatedly throughout the process!:)
Makyla with one of her eggs.
Caleb with one of his eggs.
Rhett with his cracked egg.
Eli with his egg...the face only a mother could love!!!:) And boy do I!!!

The kids also went to the park on Saturday morning for an Easter Egg hunt. After the hunt the kids could get their picture taken with the Easter bunny. At first Rhett was all excited about it but when we got up close he just wasn't having it so we didn't get that picture, but here's some of the kids and their loot!


The kids spent about an hour Saturday night writing notes to the Easter Bunny. They did such a good job I had to take pictures of them.



There was a candy that Eli had gotten from his Easter Egg hunt inside this paper roll!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

3 cheers for Conference!!:)

I LOVE conference weekend!!! Not only do I get a break from preparing things for my church callings:), but I get to spend quality time with my family enjoying the spirit and time spent together!

I love to bake and try new recipes (and some staples) during conference so the family can eat while we watch and play our conference games. I have quite a few new and tried and true recipes from the weekend that I will be posting on my recipes blog if you would like to check out what we ate this weekend!:) Just go HERE!

I also found a really cute idea for clipboards for the kids to use while they are tallying their words (one of our favorite conference games) and taking notes. I'll take pictures tomorrow and post them so you can see. By the way, for those of you who care...Makyla won both sessions today! 272 and 212 points (or somewhere close to around there!)

Hope everyone enjoyed the Saturday sessions as much as me! The one thing that really struck me was how important it is to teach our kids in the HOME!! We've had some experiences in the last few weeks that I was just appalled about (things kids know and say at school:)) and this confirms my testimony that the home needs to be a refuge and a place that we can constantly teach our children and prepare them to be wonderful missionaries, members of the church, moms and dads, etc. It's a little overwhelming and I know that I need to do better at seeing the teaching opportunities in everyday situations and to bear my testimony to my children spontaneously! I'm so thankful to know that we have a prophet on the earth today who leads and guides our Heavenly Father's church, and that he loves us and wants us to know of the love our Heavenly Father has for us too. What a wonderful day it has been. I can't help thinking how blessed I am!!