Goodbye School - Hello Summer!

We are well into summer around here, I can't believe we're already half way through June!  Before any more time flies by, here's a look at our end of school wrap up...

Pierce had his Spring piano recital themed "Night at the Movies",  it was so fun - all the kids played songs from a movie and Kathryn served popcorn, red vines and soda.  It was so cute, casual and fun, not to mention very easy to keep the little ones happy with a red vine!  Kathryn had them do a second performance at a care center and this was a great opportunity for them.  Here's Pierce playing the theme song from "Star Wars"!  

He LOVED playing this for his recital (imagine that) and had it memorized so quickly.  He did a great job, I was very proud of him!  I am so grateful he has the opportunity to be taking lessons from Kathryn, just one of the many perks of having her at the end of the street.  Thank you Kathryn! 

Pierce received an award at the end of the year assembly for scoring a 99% on his end of level test in Language Arts.  He was so excited to get an award and was even more excited when he found out I was there watching him!  Way to go bud, we are so proud of you!  

Here he is with his great teacher, Mrs. Winger.  He has loved her this year, she has been a great teacher for him!  

And spring wouldn't be complete with out baseball...

Pierce finished up another season and had a great time!  Way to go Angels! 

My little Madi girl, isn't so little anymore...

She was excited about her big "Kindergarten Graduation" program.  

Her she is with her wonderful teacher Mrs. Barrett.  We love Mrs. Barrett and I have been grateful to have her teach both of my children, she is a gem! 

Madi was especially thrilled about her big dance recital!  She loves her recitals and is always so excited for Daddy and brother to come watch her perform on the big stage.  Here she is with her best friend Annie...

I love having them in dance together.  They danced to "Broadway Baby" and had a great time!  They were both so excited to receive flowers from their Daddies and have them come carry them off the stage (she was done smiling at me by the time we took pics with the flowers, I wont complain, I was lucky to get these great smile from her!) She had also lost her 4th tooth the night before and was thrilled about that, probably the real reason I got this great smile.  

Well that wraps up our end of the school year!  The kids were so excited for summer and honestly I was dreading it.  Looking forward to the break from homework, yes.  But looking forward to the fighting, bugging and arguing, NO.  The first two weeks I was about to lose it - constant bugging from a big brother, screaming and fits from a little sister, complaining of being "bored", always wanting to play with a friend,  you get the picture.  I was not loving it.  Not to mention it was impossible for me to get a thing done around the house! My summer to do list of cleaning and organizing was looking like a distant dream.  And them came our trip to park city for Ryan's UOA Conference AKA our  Summer trip  for the kids...

Although the first night was a total nightmare (as I suspected since Jens is a huge fan of sleeping in his crib and no where else.  I'm talking awake from 11:30 p.m. - 2:30 a.m.  AAHHH!) once we got through that, some magic happened and Pierce and Madi were having a grand ol' time together!  3 days of hanging out in the hotel room watching movies and going swimming was a ball for them!

Our room had a balcony with a nice hot tub so even when we were just hanging out in the room or Jens was napping, they were able to get in and have some fun...

The pool was great, it was fun for them to go swimming each day...

Jens was a good boy and didn't mind kickin' it by the pool with Mom, watching brother and sister play...

And of course I can never get enough of those blue eyes...

We were especially excited to have Aunt Kate, Bennett and Tay come join us in Park City for a day.  The kids had so much fun swimming and playing with Bennett and Tay! Jens and I did join them in the pool that afternoon, he wasn't so sure at first but once he got used to the water, he enjoyed some pool time.  Unfortunately no pics since mom was in the water with him.

Pierce, Bennett & Madi, fun in the hot tub!

The highlight of the trip and probably of their entire summer was the Alpine Slide.  Ryan and I were excited to take them, I had been once as a kid and just remembered that it seemed really big and really fast.  They were so excited to go, and it was even more fun than we anticipated - we did the Alpine Slide and also the Kids Flying Eagle zip line and the Alpine Coaster....

 Excited for fun!

Not so excited anymore!  Madi was terrified to go on the "Flying Eagle" but she did it, crying all the way.  By the end of the day she had decided it was fun.

 Madi and Dad had fun on the Alpine Slide together, and notice our little Woodland friend who popped in to be in our photo.  Pierce trying to make it go as fast as possible!

The Alpine Coaster - Which I have to say was so fun!  The kids had a ball, scary rides and all.  We were so glad we got to have that short afternoon to do something fun with Daddy.  (Ryan's schedule was so crammed he had to skip a class just for an afternoon to actually do something as a family!  Not much of a vacation for us!) The kids had so much fun, so I'm calling the trip as success, even though we were frustrated with how the conference went and it didn't give us much family time. I was especially glad that Pierce and Madi seemed to make a turn and start enjoy playing together.  How I have missed the days that they played endlessly together!  Things have been much smoother at home since we got back.  If fact for the entire first week after the trip, the kids didn't ask to play with friends once! They are doing much better at playing together, we might make it though the summer after all!

Watermelon

Who loves watermelon?!

Jensen does!  

Could there be anything cuter?  I don't think so. This baby boy melts me, I love him so.  

p.s. - for those who have wondered, I have never photoshopped or edited his eyes, those are his all natural baby blues, they are stunning.   

Jensen's 1st Birthday

My Baby Boy is a year old!  It's hard to believe he is already this big, the year has just completely flown by.  I wasn't ready for the day, but it came anyway.  The kids were so excited to celebrate his birthday and have a big party for him...   

Of course we had to start his first birthday with his first birthday muffin...

...wondering what all the fuss is about.  Ohhh, there it is!  Still a little sleepy, but he did enjoy that muffin! 

We had a very busy day that day that involved 2 trips to the school, (well 3 counting including our regular Kindergarten pick up)  Jensen was great all day and happy even with my dragging him around half the day.  Our first trip at 9:00 was for me to do my final "Reading Store", I've been in charge of our PTA's reading store this year, where the kids get prizes for their reading minutes.  The 3rd and last trip was for the end of the year awards assembly.  Pierson received an award for "Outstanding Academic Achievement" for scoring a 99% on his end of level Language Arts test!  He was so excited to get an award and I was very proud of him!  In between those events I made frosting and frosted cupcakes like crazy, then after school it was time to set up and get ready for the big party!  

We had our cousins, Grandma and a few friends over for a front yard BBQ.  (Backyard doesn't really work for us what with all the dirt and all, but thankfully our front yard has great shade in the evening) Ryan grilled and everyone enjoyed delicious food while the kids played.  The friends we invited were all of my close friends with babies,  AKA Jensen's girlfriends.  Seriously, can you believe he is the only boy out of 5 of us having babies in the same year?! 

The babies of 2011 - Jana & Kapree, Kathryn & Heidi, Julianne & Sarah, Me &  Jensen, Staci & Alli 

I love these girls so much, I am so very blessed with such wonderful close friends! I know this picture will be a treasure in 20 years.

He got lots of fun gifts and had plenty of help opening them!  

We were all excited to make Jensen a giant cupcake for his birthday and it did not disappoint!  I loved how it turned out, so fun! 

And now, what the party was really all about!  Here's our sweet, sweet boy enjoying his birthday cupcake...

As you can tell he's already got a sprinkle on his lip, he had dipped into the frosting the moment I set it in front of him! 

He thoroughly enjoyed it!  

We love our Jensen boy so much! 

Madi is 6!

My little Madi girl is 6!  I am usually a bit sad for my kids' birthdays, it's so fun and exciting for them and I love that, but it always makes me a bit sad that they are yet another year older and growing way too fast!  This birthday however, was an exception.  I have been looking forward to Madi turning 6 for months!  She has been a hard 5 year old to say the least.  Of course you all know how sweet and adorable she is, and some of you have the choice experience of seeing how not sweet she can be.  And believe me it's just as not sweet as the sweet!  She has been a real challenge for me this past year and I have been fervently hoping that being 6 will help her grow out of her tantrums and fits.  

And due to her fits and losses of privileges we kept her birthday very simple.  I tried for the last couple months to use her birthday as leverage, telling her that she'd lose her friend party if she didn't shape up.  But did that work?  oh no!  She simply replied, "well I've never had just a family party before."  What a stinker.  So the friend party was not happening this year and I"ll admit I enjoyed keeping it so simple, it was so easy!  

We started the morning with our traditional birthday muffin, my kids love this and I love that what they want is so easy, thanks to Costco!  I love her excitement here...

She was so excited to wear her "birthday girl" shirt to school, (so glad I found this gem last year and bought it a size big) and to take treats to her class.  

After school I let her spend the day with her best friend, Annie.  They had fun playing all afternoon and I  they were thrilled to go get a Happy Meal for lunch.  Pierce had a baseball game that evening and Madi did not want to do her birthday dinner with out Brother so we headed to Pizza Factory for an very early dinner at 4:30.  It was actually so nice, we practically had the place to our selves!  It has been really fun tradition to add to our family, the kids love getting their special birthday pizza.  Here she is with her #6...

She was such a good sport to endure Brother's baseball game thinking of how excited she was to get home and open her presents.  Excited and eager birthday girl...

She loved the LaLa Loopsie dolls that we got her and was so excited!  Love this face...

Since we had the conflict of the baseball game we decided to do her "cousin party" the following night (I couldn't let her go totally party-less and she was thrilled to have a simple cake and ice cream party with her cousins).  So we saved her cake for the next night and sang to her and enjoyed some of my cinnamon rolls (thanks to my freezer stash!)

She loved it!  

The next night we had all our local cousins over along with our close friends the Woodburys and the Brooks.  The kids were so funny, since we kept referring to the party as "the cousin party", they were thoroughly confused as to why I had invited "Annie's family" and "Joey's family".  Pierce asked me at one point in our conversation about it, "so Mom, Joey is  our family?!"  He loved the though of that!  I had to explain to them that even though it was a "cousin party" I was inviting them because they are our very close and special friends.  We sang to Madi, served cake and ice cream, opened gifts and then sent everyone on their way with a simple goody bag!  Honestly, I loved it!  So easy, and she was just as thrilled and excited as if I'd spent hours on a pinata, planning games and cutsie goody bags.  

Here she is with her "Lala Loopsy" cake, this was the kind of cake she wanted this year, so it worked great to give her the new Loopsies and then just use them to decorate her cake.  She loved it and it was so cute! 

It took some serious effort to blow those candles out...

But one by one she got them! 

She got plenty spoiled with fun gifts! 

My wonderful and talented friend, Julianne, made her this darling apron!  Isn't it the cutest?  I love it!  she loves it too and is so excited to help me in the kitchen so she can wear it. 

This is not a great pic but I had to include it, to show off her other cute handmade gift.  My amazing friend, Kathryn, made her this darling little crayon/notebook carrier for church.  It holds a notebook on one side and crayons on the other and is personalized with her name on the front.  She loves taking it to church!  I am so lucky to have such talented friends to make my children such wonderful and special handmade gifts!  

What a great two day celebration we had!  Madi was such a happy birthday girl and it was so fun to celebrate her, we love our Madi girl! 

Easter

I was thinking I should probably have titled the post "Jensen's 1st Easter" since he was the subject of 90% of my pictures this year.  But just for the record, even though he is my favorite to photograph these days, (and definitely the most cooperative!) the reason for neglect of photos of Pierce and Madi is not just because of my favoritism.  This weekend Pierce was much to cool, quick and busy for me to even watch him at all, let alone take pics.  And Madi was, well Madi.  On with the pictures!  

We had a great weekend and had a lot of fun spending time with our cousins.  We were excited to have Taylee with us for Friday and Saturday, the kids love playing with her and she is such a good sport to play with the younger kids.  Pierce was in Heaven having some one to play ball with all day long.  We had a fun day off of school on Friday and enjoyed time at the park with the Hall and Eves cousins and then had fun at the movies watching "The Lorax" in 3D.  The kids all loved it and even Jensen did great!  He sat still on my lap watching it for about 45 minutes.  Then when he got restless I gave him his first sucker and he was content as can be!   Although now, when he sees a sucker, he really wants it!  That night Ryan and I enjoyed a date night with his siblings and his Mom (yeah!  we love getting to spend time with the adults minus 19 kids!)  

Saturday we had our traditional Robison Easter Egg Hunt.  Jeff and Crystal are so gracious to host us in their beautiful yard.  We enjoyed a yummy breakfast and all the kids had a grand time!  We had the teenage cousins hide the eggs and after all our hunting we counted up and were still missing about a dozen!  Guess they hid them a little too well!  Pierce was too quick for me to catch much of his action this year, but I did manage to follow Madi around with Jensen in tow, then she loved helping find eggs for Jens.  

Madi and cute cousin Lily - Lily is such a fun cousin for Madi and extra special, these two are just a day apart, born 12 hours apart from each other! 

Sweet baby boy, loved his Easter Eggs! 

Tay, Pierce and Madi

Saturday night we had Audra, Jared and Savyon come and stay the night with us.  The kids loved playing with Savyon and it was so great to have Audge here and catch up with her, I definitely don't get to see her enough.  

Attempt at a family picture with the tri-pod.  Have to admit, it's better than I thought we'd get! 

We attended Jeff & Crystal's ward for Ammon's Baby blessing then enjoyed more fun with the cousins and good food at their house.  What a great Easter day! 

Here is my boy in his cute "1st Easter" attire.  I could not pick 1 or 2 favorites, or even 5 or 6 favorites, so here is a look at his many cute faces...

Nothing like a little leaf to chomp on.  Love this baby boy so much.  He really is such a joy to us.

I made my traditional Easter cupcakes for the kids and used this recipe again.  They were yumm-o!  And now that I've become a true Our Best Bites fan, I've had my eye on this recipe for Cadbury Mini Egg Cookies for months and was just waiting for Easter for the excuse to make them.  They were so delicious, I think a new Easter time tradition for sure!  After we delivered cupcakes to a few friends we got together with the Woodburys to let the kids make these fun Easter nests.  They are so cute and easy and the kids love them.  Heck, I love them.  Rice Krispie treats and Robin Eggs, what's not to love?!

After fun with friends we finally got around to giving this little boy his Easter basket.  Our attempts to have the Easter bunny hide the kids' baskets so it would be saved for after church did not go so well.  Pierce found them and dug in while I was getting ready!  I knew he was just excited but I got after him a bit because I was sad I missed it, stinker.  So Pierce and Madi had done their own thing and since it was such a busy day, Jensen got his just before bed.  He was so tired, but sure perked up when we set this in front of him!  

For just a crawler, this little guy is quick!  I turned my back for a few seconds and when I turned back around I found he'd quickly made his way to Mom's basket, helped himself to a Cadbury Carmel Egg and was going to town, the foil wrapper didn't slow him down one bit!  Of course I had to laugh and snap a few pics before I took it away...

Isn't he the cutest?!  Seriously so in love with him.  

What a wonderful Easter weekend we had! I am so truly thankful for dear friends, wonderful family, cute (even when slightly naughty) kids, amazing husband, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  How blessed we are to have his teachings and to celebrate his life, example, atonement and resurrection.