Spring Break

We had a great Spring Break this year, no one got sick! We didn't do anything big, and I didn't take many pictures, but the kids really loved having a simple week to be home and play.

Things were really blooming around here and the weather was beautiful!


We enjoyed lots of sleeping in (ok that was just me)
We had a lot of fun playing at the park, we made it to 3 different parks and had fun park days with our Hall cousins, and friends Brooks, Schofields, Stapleys, Woodburys and Wadsworths.
My sweet friend, Heather, made these darling St. Patrick's Day cupcakes for the kids. Obviously Pierce really enjoyed his!

Here's Madi with cute friends Annie and Addilyn, having fun at the park!

Thanks to all that playing at the park, I got a major sunburn and my arms were in serious pain for the next few days. Luckily the kids don't seem to have my awful skin. The pregnancy is definitely making it worse and this was one of the worst burns I've ever had! And speaking of pregnancy, Spring Break also brought on the swelling of my feet and ankles, lots and lots of contracting, (lots more I should say, Braxton Hicks and I have been good friends for awhile now) and lots of pain. Gotta love the tiny person growing inside you, and the ripping apart of your muscles and ligaments.
Other things we enjoyed were- a 3 night Monopoly game, we have the Disney version and it's really fun for the kids. Pierce got really into it, but after the 3rd night we declared Daddy winner. (We've since started a new game)
We also enjoyed a movie day, we were thrilled to see "Tangled" again and took Brooke and Matthew and joined friends for a fun time at the movies!
Our last day of Spring Break, we got to celebrate Grandpa. We went to Grandma's house to celebrate Grandpa's birthday, which was the following day, (March 22). We sang Happy Birthday to Grandpa and the kids blew out the candles, and we celebrated in true Grandpa taste with Angel Food cake with orange frosting and homemade vanilla ice cream.


We love you Grandpa!

Basketball

Pierce has been loving "shooting hoops" with his buddy Joey the last few months and he decided he wanted to play basketball this year. We gave it a shot and he loved it. The season was short, but we saw him improve a lot over a few weeks. He had a great time.

Here he is with buddies Joey and Boyce

The last week of the season they had "playoffs". His team won their first game by 10 points and they were so excited to get to play again. Then they won their second game and were so, SO excited to get to play for the "championship"! They did a great job playing three games in a row, they didn't win the championship game, but it was pretty awesome for them to win 2nd place! Way to go Bulls!
Here are the happy 2nd place winners with their great coach!

A very excited little boy! Way to go Pierce, you did a great job!

Our Lovely Love Day

At the end of the day my kitchen looked like this...

And Madi's sweet little lip looked like this....


Even so, it was a good day.

Pierce and Madi were both so excited for Valentine's Day this year. They loved getting their Valentines ready to give out to their friends and could not wait for their class parties. Madi was thrilled when I picked her up from pre-school and loved coming home to show me all of her Valentines and treats- her first class party, so fun! Just before lunch she had a bad fall on the wood floor and cut and majorly bruised her lip. After some snuggling and lots of ice, she was ready for more fun and enjoyed spending the afternoon with friends at Chandler's house. She had fun decorating and eating FOUR sugar cookies (no doubt who's daughter she is!) and jumping on the tramp with Chandler, Jona and Annie, her neighborhood buddies. Thanks to Stace for keeping her while I could run to Pierson's school and do his class party. It felt like blasphemy, having the kids decorate store bought-too thin-and-too hard-sugar cookies, with frosting from a can! The kids loved it but, ick! I was looking forward to coming home to my sugar cookie dough waiting for me to roll out. The afternoon flew by and managed to get my sugar cookies baked. Then Ryan was home and we made a quick trip to the cemetery with Valentine balloons for Grandpa and Todd.



We come home and had a delicious Chicken Alfredo dinner (thank you Costco), then quickly frosted a few sugar cookies to run to a few friends. After giving the kids a Valentine gift (new books, which they loved!) and getting them in bed, I was completely exhausted, my feet were killing me and my kitchen was absolutely atrocious! Being pregnant really made sugar cookie making much harder than it should be. And I realized I hadn't taken a single picture of the kids decorating cookies! So, not me. This pregnancy is really throwing me off. I guess I was too busy frosting them, or maybe I was too busy eating them. Dang!

I did manage to get a pic of Madi's cute Valentine hair do, which she absolutely loves!



We frosted more cookies the next night and I managed to get this cute shot of Madi, actually looking at me and smiling (WOW!) wounded lip and all!
I love sugar cookies. Love my kids. Love Ryan. Lots to love!

Brooke & Todd's Birthday

It was hard to believe this day was really here, January 29th, Brooke and Todd's 9th Birthday. Crystal, once again, amazed me with her strength! We started the morning with a family gathering at the cemetery.

Birthday girl Brooke, with 9 red balloons for Todd.

It's hard to feel sad with her bright smile!

We sang Happy Birthday to Brooke with delicious muffins that Crystal made...

Then we sang Happy Birthday to Todd, Crystal had candles for all the kids to blow out for Todd


Pierce and Madi decorated hearts for Todd that morning - here is Pierson's, a picture he drew of Todd and Grandpa together, with a red balloon :)

Happy Birthday Toddy, we love and miss you buddy!

That afternoon it was time to party for Brooke! She had a swimming party at the Rec Center and Pierce and Madi were so excited for that! Ryan was great to take them swimming, I said- January, pregnant and swimsuit are three things that should not be in the same sentence for me. After a fun time swimming we met back at Jeff & Crystal's for Brooke's present and cake time....

Crystal's fabulous cake decorating skills!

Brooke was all smiles and absolutely darling, she loved her birthday! I think her sweetness and bright smile made it an easier day for everyone. No one could have dreamed we would be celebrating the twins 9th birthday with out Todd. How thankful I am to know we have eternal families. May we all hold our little ones a little closer and love them a little more each day!

Mark & Lisa's Wedding Day!

We were thrilled, ecstatic, I'd even say, exuberant for this day! Ryan's brother, Mark, married beautiful Lisa Lewis, on December 30th in the Draper Temple. For one thing, we all had to admit we were worried about Mark finding his other half, so we were sure happy he did. And also, after our 'year of the funerals' it was truly wonderful for the whole family to end 2010 on a happy note of celebration!

Here are a few of my favorite pics from the big day....
The happy couple!


Seriously, they were stunning! I was just loving watching them and I'm so loving these pics I got, I'm really thinking I have got to actually learn something about photography and what my camera can do!

The 30th was not only the best day of Mark's life, but also his 30th birthday! Talk about the best birthday gift ever! They will always have lots to celebrate!

The Nieces and Nephews...We wanted to get a pic of Uncle Mark and Aunt Lisa with the whole crew of nieces and nephews. There are only 27!
This picture makes me laugh...don't be overwhelmed Lisa, it will be ok. You can handle it, I promise!

I think she was ok after a deep breath there!

Cute Cousins- Madi and Brooke

Ok, here it is, the 1st belly shot of the pregnancy! I'm pretty sure I've doubled in size in the last 2 weeks, it's not so small anymore!

Beautiful cake, delicious food, and Jeff enjoying it all!

Cake Time!

Robison Brothers - Gregg, Ryan, Mark, J.D. and Steve

Mom & all her kids! Carolyn, Crystal, DeAnna, JoAnn, Lisa & Mark, Gregg, Ryan, Steve, J.D. What an amazing family!

Dancing Cousins - Harrison & Graci, Danielle & Matthew

Brother & Sister dancing away!

It was a completely wonderful day! The spirit of the temple was so sweet and strong. We sorely missed Cal's smile and laughter, but we knew he was there. It was a beautiful sealing and we were so happy to be there to share with Mark and Lisa. Seriously, we love her, she is a gem. We could not have picked a better sis in law! Congratulations you guys, we are so happy for you! Thank you for a beautiful day of celebration to end the year! Now get busy would you, this baby's going to need a cousin to play with!

Pregnancy

Well, I figured I'd better write down a few things about this pregnancy and also fill in a few of you who might be wondering - what the heck, I thought you were done?! Oh believe me, I did! It has been a long emotional journey for me to get here, and I still wake up a lot of days and think "I can not believe I am doing this again!"

October could have pretty much been summed up with one word- misery. I was sick and miserable all month and pretty much laid in bed all day, only getting up or getting ready when absolutely necessary.

After some medication in November I started feeling a bit better, good enough that I started laying on the couch, reading all day instead of just feeling sorry for myself and wanting to sleep in bed all day. Quite an improvement! I read A LOT and enjoyed quite a few new books which I would definitely recommend...The Host which I enjoyed for the second time, and well, since I was reading so much I had to through in another round of Breaking Dawn, you know, because I hadn't read that one as many times as the others, and then of course I had to read Twilight again. Don't worry I stopped there. I got into the new stuff - The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, then Austenland, and The Declaration. All good reads!

By the week of Christmas (week 17) I was finally feeling well! I am now 21 weeks along, feeling good, and happy that food tastes good again. Except for when I get on the scale, then I maybe wish a little bit that the food wasn't tasting so good again. But then I figure, hey I'm getting fat anyway, pregnancy is miserable enough, if it sounds good, I'm eating it! So, aside from having to try extremely hard not to pee my pants every time I sneeze, and not always succeeding, I'm doing well. Oh, and it's a BOY!

Our Merry Christmas

Of course the kids were ecstatic for Christmas to come this year, eagerly turning on the tree lights and opening a door on the Advent Calendar each day, counting down the days! I don't think any of us could believe it was Christmas Eve when the day finally came! We had a wonderful Christmas starting with fun at Grandma's house on Christmas Eve. We enjoyed a delicious dinner and the kids put on the Nativity with the cousins, we surely missed Grandpa this night and his reading of the Christmas Story from the scriptures. We enjoyed our cousin time and then we were off to watch the "dancing Christmas lights"! (Thank you Stapley Family for this great tradition our kids love!) Then it was home to get ready for bed and have our traditional Christmas Eve stories read by the fire.
After our stories, and of course a few tears, the kids set out milk and cookies and notes for Santa. I wish they were always this excited to go to bed.

Christmas morning was a delight for Ryan and me to watch their excitement! Here are a few highlights-

How To Train Your Dragon in Pierce's stocking, WOW! He was surprised!

The Star Wars ships he had been wishing for for months! Santa got it just right!

Madi changed her mind on Christmas wishes a lot this year, so I'm sure it was a gamble for Santa- she was thrilled with the doll house he brought for her!

Super Excited! Tangled Chapstick in Madi's stocking, and Pierce's puzzles from Madi

Pet Shops! Madi was so excited about her gift from Mom and Dad! I think she has plenty now. Yes, pretty sure we don't need any more Pet Shops. Her favorite thing now is playing with her Pet Shops in the new doll house.

Super Cool Transformers game from Sister!

Thrilled with his gift from Mom and Dad! Episode 5 along with Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker! (I have to say I am a little sad that he now says Darth Vader and Light Saber correctly.)

After a fun morning as a family we headed over to Jeff & Crystal's to play in the snow! Yes, they were the only ones in town with snow in their yard. Uncle Jeff likes to drive up to the mountains and bring home a truck load of snow for his kids on Christmas morning. I was so sad I didn't have my camera, I think we had the funnest snowball fight ever!

That evening we were able to have some special time with Jeff, Crystal and their kids. They came to our house for Christmas dinner (I cooked for the first time in 3 months! Yay!) And we were able to spend some tender moments with them when we gave them a special gift. It will have to have it's own post, to come soon.

Brooke, Pierson,
Madi, Harrison & Matthew

This was definitely an emotional and tender Christmas after loosing Grandpa and Todd this year, one we will always remember. Though it was such a difficult year, we have been greatly blessed and have much to be thankful for. I was very thankful this Christmas Season for my beautiful, sweet children, my loving husband and our wonderful family, and for the knowledge of our Savior's great love for us!