Easter

I'm beginning to LOVE this holiday more and more every year.  Along with the "fun" stuff there is to do I started pulling activities from a book I bought a couple of years ago, A Christ Centered Easter  and have had so much fun with the family learning so many new things about Christ and his life the week before Easter hits.  I'm so grateful for my Savior, for the Atonement, and for the many blessing I have been given

Our neighborhood did an egg hunt the weekend before Easter, which I actually LOVED because it got all the "fun" hype out of the way

Sophie was up first 

She wanted to start the race as soon as she saw all the eggs on the grass.  We have been having our own egg hunts in the back yard and we have no rules at that one, so she didn't think she had to wait around for some bell to tell her to go

As soon as the bell rang there was no stopping her, she was off filling her basket up with eggs.  

The funny thing is she just loved the eggs

Then, she discovered the chocolate inside and took a new liking to her eggs and wanted "cady" from every single one

She was content sitting and eating her chocolate while Allie hunted away

Next up was Allie's age group

Allie was more than ready; when the bell rang she sprinted off the line

Each kid was able to collect a dozen eggs which ended up being plenty

During the week we got together with some of my work friends to dye eggs and decorate sugar cookies. It's always a hit with all the kids, although we had 4 extra kids this time and it was a little crazy trying to help 12 kids dye eggs; don't know what we were thinking

Sophie was ready to be strapped up to the table to start eating some lunch

Kendall, Sophie, and Tenley; Sophie's little buddies  Kendall and Sophie share the same birthday and Tenley beats them both by just a few weeks.  

So fun having such good little buddies to hang out with

Allie ended up decorating every kind of sugar cookie shape that was possible

Another excitement during our weak was Allie having "egg-tails" again this year.  She requested them and I wasn't quite sure if she was going to have enough hair to get eggs in.  To both of our surprise, she got one egg in each piggy.  She was excited to wear them to her pre-school Easter party

Easter morning hit and during the night the bunny arrived as well as Max our cat.  The bunny leaves a trail of string to the baskets and Max discovered the string during the night and Allie quickly found her basket before I even had a chance to get out of bed; that was a first.

Sophie was most excited about her chocolate bunny.  She figured a way to get the bunny out of the package and ran around all morning with the ears in her mouth.  She almost downed the whole bunny that morning before I had to intervene and give her some real food

    Grandma Barb got the girls matching Easter dresses; we are so grateful she always thinks of the girls.  She received a new dress from her grandma every Easter growing up and says everyone should have a new dress for Easter Sunday.  The bunny brought dad a new hot pink tie which he willingly wore for Allie:)

Trying to snap some shots of my cute Easter girls.  I was so excited that Sophie's hair was long enough for me to take the curling iron to it and I gave her ringlets

We ended up with a beautiful sunny day.  Happy Easter!!!

Blake's Broken Leg

We were enjoying Blake's first outdoor soccer game of the spring season when I noticed him hopping over to the sidelines.  I was busy attending to the kids and chatting with the other wives that I missed the actual play.  Blake got over to the side and said, "My leg is broke!"  At first I wasn't sure if he was serious.  He stated he had planted all his weight on his left leg and went to kick the ball with his right foot when some guy came and kicked him in the left leg.  He said he heard his bone snap and fell to the ground; once he stood up he could not bear any weight on it.  I was shocked that a kick to the leg would break it.  

We headed home and decided since it was Friday night we would just watch the leg over the weekend; since the ER wouldn't be able to put him in a cast if his leg was actually broke.  We got home got some ibuprofen in him, elevated his leg and started to ice it.  Not even an hour in, Blake started to experience spasms in his leg and at that point I knew he had broken it.  We ended up getting some muscle relaxers to help with the spasms, but with the pain and swelling increasing, we decided to head to the ER.  

Getting x-rays in the ER

Elevating, icing, and waiting and waiting.  The ER ended up giving Blake some pain medicine to help work along with the muscle relaxers

Blake earned himself a nice boot that went up to his knee.  According to the x-rays, Blake did in fact break the Tibia, the large inner bone to the lower part of the leg.  Blake was to wear the boot for the weekend and the ER Dr. was so nice and called our Orthopedic Dr.at 11 pm on a Friday just to give him a heads up we would be coming in Monday morning

Monday morning we headed into the Orthopedic office and Dr. Lawler said the ER visit was probably our best money spent . The break Blake had was a clean break down the middle of the bone and that because of it's placement it could have shifted and required him to need surgery if he had not placed it it the boot and sat on the couch ALL weekend; orders given by the ER Dr.  Dr. Lawler also said he has rarely seen someone break the tibia without breaking the filbula as well which also requires surgery, so we were feeling really lucky at this point. 

Our new orders given were Dr. Lawler put Blake in a cast for 3-4 weeks and told him he was non-weight bearing and to use crutches the entire time.  We were to go back weekly for x-rays to see how everything was heeling, if anything was changing, or if there was a need for surgery.

Although Blake has broken 15+ bones in his life and had numerous casts, he has never once broken a leg bone or ended up with a cast to his leg.  

Skiing with Papa

One of our other "good weather" days during spring break we headed up to the slopes with Papa Jim.  Allie had gone up with Papa earlier in the year and really did "awesome" according to Papa.  We just had to see it ourselves, so Blake, Sophie, and I joined Papa and Allie to watch for ourselves. 

Allie geared up ready to go

It was lightly snowing when we first got up there, but not bad enough to keep Sophie and I inside the lodge

Sophie and I stayed outside for over an hour, yelling for everyone as they would make their way down the hill.  Sophie yelled for "Ayie" most of the time:)

We loved watching as Papa, Allie, and Dad would pass by on the chair lift above us

Sophie decided to try the snow and enjoyed it when it would make it into her mouth 

I took a few snap shots of Sophie and I and actually managed a good one with both of our faces looking at the camera

Sophie soaking in the snow as it falls; she absolutely LOVED it and we spent most of our day outside in the snow

Cute Allie girl at the end of her day; she made it down the chair 18 times and wanted to keep going.  If it wasn't for Bogus shutting down, she would have kept going.

Sophie couldn't end up shorthanded.  Papa hiked up the hill with her and gave her a few lessons herself

Everyone was laughing as they watched this little baby come skiing down with Papa.  She loved it and kept saying MORE after every short run they would do.  Papa might have another little one to start giving lessons to next year. 

Field Day

We didn't have that many sunny days during our Spring Break so on one of those days, the awesome moms in our ward put together a field day out in our neighborhood for the kids.

Love how I as a mom was caught by a 9 year old spelling the word "course" wrong.  I had to go correct myself on all of the courses:)

Just a glimpse of what my camera could capture; we had over 50 kids show up



Not sure what it is, but Sophie HATES a crowd.  It doesn't go well since Blake and I love to be with people, but she is always whinning and clinging to me when we are out.

Here is Allie making her way through some of the courses

Jumping through hoops

Walking the tightrope

Three legged races

Walking with tin cans



Sack races

To top it off we had a handful of the older kids in our ward volunteer to paint the little ones faces; seriously such great kids and a fun morning outside burning off energy.

Gymnastics

We decided to beat the winter months by enrolling in gymnastics.  Allie enjoyed expounding her energy every week by bouncing, jumping, running, and twirling.  At the end of the term they had a small meet for her class where they performed a floor routine as well as a routine on the beam.

Each individual getting ready to solute

Allie being goofy; I think her nerves were causing some silly behavior

The start of Allie's floor routine

Allie does not like the attention that is put on her while she is alone in front of a crowd, I guess she takes after her mom. I can tell she was nervous because she likes to bite her lip.  So proud of you for getting up all by yourself Allie!

Onto the beam routine

Getting a little bit of help from Miss Shayna doing her candlestick on the beam

At the end of the meet, each child got a ribbon and a certificate.  Allie enjoyed her winter break taking gymnastics but was so excited to get back to playing soccer which starts in the spring.

St. Patty's Day

Allie had been looking forward to her St. Patty's Day party at school this year.  There was going to be a contest to see who could wear the most green.  Allie was very excited about the competition.  

She wore a green shirt, green skirt, green tights, and a green necklace

She came up with the idea to dye her hair GREEN too....this was her reaction when I told her that her hair was green, but she hadn't seen it yet

Allie unfortunately didn't win the competition.  Another girl with 20 green necklaces won.  I told Allie she needed to have her teacher count all the green hairs on her head and then she might have won.

We also got a visit from the Leprechaun this year...he led us on a scavenger hunt that ended with everyone's pot of gold in the fridge.  Happy St. Patty's Day!!!