What a Good Son-In-Law

Last Saturday, my Dad asked Dave if he would come and help take the shingles off of one of his rentals. Being the good son-in-law that he is, Dave said yes. I think an hour into it Dave regretted saying he'd help :) The rental was an older house, so I guess the shingles were really hard to get off, not to mention they were 4 layers thick. But Dave was a trooper, he even kept working after falling through the roof of the garage. :) I wish I could have seen that. lol. By the time he got home (which was way after it had gotten dark) He was completely black and could barely walk. I know this really made Dave glad that he has a desk job. :)

This picture doesn't do justice to how dirty Dave was.

But I guess I didn't have much sympathy for him (even though I should have) cuz I made him get up on the roof a couple days later to take down our Christmas lights. WHAT A MEAN WIFE!

Happy Birthday Mckell

My little tax baby (she was born on April 15) just turned 4! Time goes by sooo fast. It seems like just yesterday she was a baby :( We absolutely LOVE having Mckell in our family. She has such a fun personality, she is always smiling, and she is not afraid of anything or anyone. She will talk to people at the grocery store, at Dave's work, and she is never afraid to go downstairs to her room alone (Hunter won't though). She is my little helper. She likes to feed Lexi for me, unload the dishwasher, sweep the floors, and fold the laundry. And she gives the BEST hugs and kisses. We love her to death!

The past few months Mckell has been asking if she could have a birthday party with her friends, and me being a softy, I told her she could. She decided to have a princess party. We made princess wands out of big pixie sticks, made castles out of sugar wafers, played a balloon relay, ate pizza while watching a princess cartoon, and played find Cinderella's lost slipper. The kids had a lot of fun. Some came dressed up as princesses, and we had costumes for those that didn't. It was a very fun party, if I do say so myself :)

Mckell has the cutest friends! We had 3 friends missing, so we'll have to have them over to make wands another time :)

So this was not the only party Mckell had, we had another one for family. I figured since we'd had pizza the night before that I would go all out and grill marinated pork, make cheesy potatoes, have rolls, corn, and fruit. It was delicious. My mom made rice krispy treat ice cream cones. The were really cool looking. I should have taken a picture (I guess I wasn't thinking)

This is Mckell's cake. It is a rice krispy treat princess crown (if you couldn't tell).

EaStEr WeEkEnD!!!!

We had a great Easter weekend! There was soooo much going on and my kids loved it. Hunter and Mckell both had an Easter Egg hunt in their classes, we had one with the Ropelatos, one with the Wangsgards, and then we went to a local grocery store, Lee's, and went along the bunny trail collecting treats and even met the Easter Bunny. Needless to say, we have oodles of candy at our house. I don't think that is going to be good for Dave and my diet :) I asked the kids if they had a good Easter and Hunter replied, "No, I had a GREAT Easter" That is just what I wanted to hear :) This is Hunter's class after the Easter Egg Hunt. They are all so cute! I would've got one of Mckell's class, but the batteries died. Whoops! I knew I should have checked them before we'd left :)

I couldn't not post the one of them making funny faces :) Aren't they cute!

The kids had fun decorating their eggs. But I forgot how messy decorating eggs could be, well maybe it's just my kids who are messy. lol

When the Easter Bunny comes to our house, he hides the kids Easter Baskets and leaves them clues around the house to help them find it. The kids love this! this year Hunter read his own clues (he's growing up so fast :( )

Even Lexi love seeing what the Easter Bunny brought her.

Don't I have the cutest kids in the whole world :) HAPPY EASTER!

Picture Tag

I was tagged with a picture tag, and was told to go to my 7th folder and look at the 7th picture. Of course I was a little nervous about what I would find and have to post :) Just kidding, most of the pictures we have are of our kids, so I had no worries.
Mckell loves princesses! This is her dressed up as Aurora, dancing to "Once upon a dream". You can't see it in the picture, but she has one of her baby dolls that she is dancing with.

My kids love dancing around to music, but you'll never get Hunter to admit it :) One night we were all sitting around listening to music on ITunes, finding music to put on Dave's Ipod, and we all ended up dancing around. It was so much fun and we were all laughing our heads off. Since then, my kids like to dance around the house. Isn't it funny how the littlest things can bring your family closer together. I love it!

Now I'm going to tag: Stacey, Angela, Laney, Shay, Jill, Heidi, and Angie.

Welcome Home Christian!

My little brother, Christian, just returned home from the England, Birmingham Mission. Now many of you are probably thinking "Didn't he just leave?" And the answer is Yes he did. He's only been out for about 2 months, but last week he had a seizure in his sleep, so they sent him home to have tests done so they can figure out why he had the seizure. He is being very positive about the whole thing, even though I know he'd rather still be in England. They have given him a year window to get the OK from a doctor that everything is OK and he will go back out on his mission. He did get to have his 1st baptism the day before he left, so that is pretty awesome!

Christian was supposed to be home Monday evening at 8:30, but his flight got delayed in New Jersey, so he was expected to arrive in Utah at 2:05 a.m. Of course the whole family went down to pick him up :) yes, even my kids. But he didn't actually get there until after 3:00 a.m. We didn't make it home until after 5:00 a.m. and my kids were up the entire time! And then being the mean mother I am :) I still made them go to school that morning on 3 hrs. of sleep.

It was really good to see Christian, even though we'd rather not have for 2 more years, but I know the Lord sees the big picture so we just need to put our trust in him.

The airport was completely empty, except for the security guards, so my kids had fun running around playing in the wheelchairs. My brother Richard even taught them to go up the escalator the wrong direction. I'm not sure I was to thrilled about that :)

We had Welcome Home posters and balloons, we wanted to make his homecoming memorable.

Doesn't Dave look thrilled to be up in the middle of the night :) And yes my kids are in their p.j.'s.

I'm not sure my kids really understood what was going on because on the way home Hunter said, "Mom, that 2 years went by really fast!" When Christian had left Hunter said that he didn't want to go on a mission because 2 years is a long time, but I think now he does because 2 years was fast :)

Disneyland

Dave's sweet Mom and Dad flew the whole family over to Disneyland for a family trip. It was a lot of fun, and many firsts for my kids. First plane ride (which they all did really well on), first time to Disneyland, and first trip with Lexi.

A little over a month ago, the kids and I made countdown to Disneyland calendars. The kids were so excited to take off that last link!

On the airplane

We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, which was a lot of fun because the characters were walking all around. The kids loved getting off of the elevator and seeing Goofy, Pluto, Alice in Wonderland, etc. We bought them autograph books so they could get all of the Characters signatures. The first evening, we all went to the Princess Dinner. All of the little girls loved this. They got to visit and get pictures with Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, Snow White, and Princess Aurora. But I think Dave's brother Marc like the Princess dinner best of all :)

We also ate breakfast with Minnie and friends and in Goofy's kitchen, and we ate dinner at the Pirate's of the Carribean. We got a ton of pictures with all of the characters, and the kids loved meeting them.

Mckell's favorite ride was the teacups and Hunter loved Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, and Tower of Terror.

Even Lexi went on most of the rides. She didn't cry on a single one :) I think it is because she was mesmorized by all the lights and music.

But I think one of the all time favorites of this trip was the Jedi training. Both Hunter and Mckell were selected to participate in the training. Hunter got to fight Darth Maul, and Mckell fought Darth Vadar and Darth Maul (I don't know how she got to fight them both, because all the other kids just fought one of them. I can only guess that Mckell just went and got in both lines :)

It is a good thing Mckell did her Jedi training before she went in the Haunted Mansion. She said that she used the force to keep the ghosts away.

I had my 30th birthday the last day we were in Disneyland. When I woke up that morning, I felt old :( Every bone in my body ached and I could barely walk (but that was probably from all the walking we'd done the previous days)
We had a blast in Disneyland!!!! Thanks Jerry and Darinda for a great family trip.

It's a Good Thing I Trust Him, But Should I????

So on Saturday, Dave's brother Marc called and said they all should go 4 wheeling up at their Mom & Dads. Dave was all for it, so he and Hunter headed up. Now Dave has taken Hunter a zillion times to go riding 4 wheelers, and they have a blast, and Dave promises me that he is careful with my baby on the back :), but while I was on facebook today I noticed Marc had posted some pictures of them riding 4 wheelers. This is what I saw: Cute!

This is Dave and Hunter driving across a part of Pineview Dam, ON A 4 WHEELER!!!!

Notice where the front tires are. Not on the ground! With my baby on the back!!!
Again, front tires not on the ground! No wonder Hunter hasn't wanted to ride with me lately. He tells me I go too slow and I'm not fun to ride with, now I understand why.

So I'm sure that the next time Dave and Hunter want to go for a ride, I will be a little hesitant. But I guess this is what boys do, at least that is Dave's defense :)