happy friday.

whoops. i came across a few more pictures from our easter that i wanted to share.

i can't stand it.

so...it may have been a few easters ago.

but i was trying to find a specific picture and i came across these.

they were four.

and so.much.fun.

they have grown up so much.

and yet not. if you know what i mean.

this is still totally them.

i love 'em.

every game begins with *love*

Carson decided to try playing on his middle school tennis team this year.

We were a little surprised when he was moved up to the varsity team.

Apparently they didn't have any 8th grade boys try out for the team.

So they have a couple of 7th graders and mostly 6th graders getting, well..., experience.

So far he has played all doubles with his friend Jaden.

They have played much older and more experienced boys.

They won their first match and were pretty excited, but the rest of them have been much much tougher.

It is definitely inspiring them to want to improve and I think they are really enjoying tennis.

So it's pretty cool.

Since they have never really played before, they are trying to learn as they go.

As I drive to different middle schools to watch them, I'm trying to learn along with them.

I'm picking up a few things here and there.

I think I finally know what deuce means.

Both sides are tied up at 40 each.

But why in the world we don't just say it for what it is...3 points each??????

It's way too confusing.

But I do like the term LOVE.

So much nicer than saying, "you have a big fat nothing."

And I heard Carson declare at the start of his serve the other day "Love All."

Amen son.

All we need is love, love. Love is all we need.

Eventually I might actually know what constitutes a set vs. a match vs a game.

Maybe.

Either way, it's fun to watch him try something new.

 easter weekend 2012

the older kids invited a few friends over for a glow in the dark egg hunt. at first i was afraid they weren't glowing very well, but once outside (in the actual darkness...go figure!) they glowed so well that they had to work really hard to get them hidden. we used the glow stick bracelets inside the eggs. it was super fun, but if you ever want to try this, make sure you get large plastic eggs. or you'll be sending your husband on a mad dash to walgreens. after they loaded up on sweets, played games, and were all hunted out, they dumped all the eggs on the trampoline and started jumping. it actually looked very cool. i guess that's a new twist on the old crack the egg game. 

our favorite tradition of easter is definitely the egg hunt that we do about the final days of Jesus's life and his resurrection. we have done this every year since carson and carlie were very small. and it has brought great feelings and discussions into our home every year. i love celebrating easter with my family. we don't add too much fluff to this holiday. but we try really hard to really focus on the amazing gift that we have in the atonement, crucifixion and resurrection. 

austin got to go to our neighborhood celebration and egg hunt. it was a very packed weekend at the soccer fields, so he was ready for his game afterwards. he had a really fun time. he won a few prizes in his eggs, but the line to claim them was so long and we needed to get going, so he gave them away to a friend who was already waiting in line.

sunday morning was beautiful. the easter bunny hid some fun baskets at our house and the kids looked great for church. after church, we invited our friends the stevensons and also the goellners and higbees for easter dinner. the older kids hid tons of eggs for the little ones. but then they decided they weren't too old to hunt for a few themselves. chris g. wore himself out trying to challenge them. 

and i cuddled the cutest bunny :)

 

six

1.  Seems I'm teetering on the fence dividing the land of blogging and non-blogging. I don't seem to have any words anymore. And yet, I don't want to be done with my little record yet. I thought about switching to just my picture-a-day book, which at least keeps track of small bits of our life.  The main problem with that is...I haven't been doing my picture-a-day this year. It has been more like a picture-a-week. Maybe if I can get back on track with that, I will be done blogging. But that's iffy at the moment.


2.  Here's a few from my effort to get back on track this week.

Soccer is in full swing. Everyone is loving it. This girl has stepped it up in a whole new way. Playing against girls who are twice her size is bringing out a spunky little Carlie. Here is practicing before her practice in the backyard. 

It must be the time of year for school projects. I wanted to snap a quick picture when I saw my two boys working hard on their reports together. Austin was writing his insect report. We learned all there is to know about walkingsticks. And Carson was author and illustrator of his own children's book. 

Austin loves to ride his bike everywhere. He's even started riding to school over the last week. But Chris and I have noticed it's looking a little small for him. And he has to peddle so hard to keep up with the rest of us on our bike rides. So I pulled Carson's old (bigger) bike down from the ceiling of the garage this weekend so he could try it out. It was  a little hard for him to reach the ground at first but he was super excited. And his awesome big sister was there to give him tips and make sure he didn't wreck too bad.

3.  It's interesting to me how much defensiveness we all show in this world. I've found it very interesting listening to the battle raging back and forth nationally about comments made over stay at home moms.  I figure, we each make a personal choice based on what is best for us (circumstances, personality, life experiences, etc, etc).  And if we feel that our choice is right, then it should not matter what any particular person thinks. About staying at home or any other thing we find ourselves battling. We may disagree with their opinion, but it is just that. It doesn't have to rock our world and make us so defensive. Unless we are unsure about how we really feel about our own choices. Ahem, just my two cents. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry...I won't link it ;)

4.  As a side note...I am grateful for my job.  It is necessary to us. Period.  And incredibly stressful most days. I treasure every day that I don't have to go to work, but can be in my home living my life with my family. It seems like I have experienced some really great teaching moments with my children lately. I love when I don't miss those chances.

5. Or the chance to give them a really hard time. My older kids had to watch another growth and development video at school last week.  They were not happy with me for signing the release to allow them to watch. Too squirmy. So Chris and I took every opportunity to remind them that it was coming up - you know to get them excited and stuff. (Really, it's to keep a good open dialogue, but whatever.) The first time they had to watch one of these was in elementary school a few years ago and I went to preview it and the jingle in the video was awful! "Just around the corner..." they would sing over and over.  Ugh.  My kids and I both remembered it forever...you couldn't get it out of your head.  So Chris and I had fun with it this time around. We've been slipping the phrase in whenever we could.  The kids just moan and let us know what they really think of it. I even marked on the calender the day before the video..."guess what's coming just around the corner."  They've basically hated us. It was great.
Until the day of the video came and Austin was in class listening to a story from his teacher. Can you believe the phrase came up in the story....the so and so had to run to the store that was just around the corner??? Oh man.  Austin told Chris and I that night that he started laughing his head off and telling his whole class why it was so funny. Oops. I've been waiting for a call from his teacher ever since.

6.  Back to my job...I had to work all of spring break (a few weeks ago). So we stayed put. That would have been a better deal if the weather would have thrown in a few sunny days. But it rained every single day.  Chris and the punkitos made the most of it.  They had a very full week. They watched a bazillion movies and consumed record amounts of popcorn. They spent loads and loads of time with friends. Everyone did lots of reading and exercising. Chris was such a good sport and took them on lots of fun outings. And the one day that I was off, we jammed full of activities together.  Whenever the sun did poke it's head out, they were sure to run out and enjoy it. They all loved their relaxing break and were very sad to see it end.

3.17.12

St. Patrick's Day was, of course, last weekend.

In preparation, Austin made a leprechaun trap to set up in his classroom.

I have been working lots of extra hours the past few weeks, so he and dad built it together.

Here he is explaining to me how it works.

He said that leprechauns don't follow rules so the sign on the arrow says "Don't steal the gold!" 

That way the disobedient little guy would fall into the abyss filled with gold and be trapped for good.

 It was a great idea, but destined to fail as all leprechaun traps do, I can only assume.

Sneaky buggers.

In other preparations,

the older kids gave us a wee bit o' jig instructions...

We need to do some more genealogical research.

Must be some Irish in there somewhere, I'd say.

Oh man alive, some serious laughter-invoking dancing.

And those sneaky leprechauns were up to a few of their old antics around our house once again.

They are too lazy to mess up the house like they seem to do at most places.

Here they like to leave a few green treats and turn some things green.  

Like the milk and toilet water.

 Joe and his oldest kids were in town, so we started the day by joining them for some swimming in their hotel.

 Seems like it's been a long time since we've been swimming and it was super fun.

Geronimo!

Carson got to join the Zweifels for one more great day on the ski slopes. 

And Carlie spent the afternoon at a birthday party making pottery.

But Austin got to keep playing with his cousins all day.

It was Ben's birthday, so he chose lunch at Tucanos and playing at Pojos.

Then we all met up at our house for the evening.

Kari and her family joined us so they could meet Adam.

The Chris's enjoyed some corned beef and Irish tunes.

And we celebrated the birthday boy with cupcakes and presents.

And, to stay in the spirit of the day, Carlie served everyone leprechaun floats.

Whether they wanted them or not.

Joe's family said, "Hey we just had these! They are Yoda Sodas!"

Ha.

Which, naturally, led to a whole discussion about why sherbet is pronounced sherbert.

And while we're at it...how do you pronounce the word coupon?

These are serious topics for discussion.

Joe and the kids decided it was too late to drive back home (Washington) so they stayed the night with us and left early Sunday morning.

We were so glad to have them.

It was great to hang out with family two weekends in a row.

We missed Emily and the the two little girls.

Hope everyone is feeling better!

thank goodness for spring

It was an easy winter, but when the sunshine rears it's head, I am warmed clear through.

To my soul. Sorry if that's cheesy.

And nothing compares to spending the day outdoors with my family in the spring sunshine.

A few of my siblings and my parents were in town a few weekends ago to meet Kari's new baby.

We were lucky enough to have some of that early spring sunshine.

So we met up at the park for the day.

It was heaven.

I was shooting a bunch of pictures here because they all looked so cute peering down at the fish.

And I thought my brothers were so cute pointing out all the fish to the kids.

And then I realized they were not doing that at all.

They were teaching them a new trick.

And not nearly so cute.

Nice, guys.

I love absolutely everything about this picture.

Can you tell which two were forced to come back from their exploration to join in the group shot?

And all the littles are so, so full of sweetness and personality.

And look how Carson is holding poor Max.

As Max is kicking Seth in the face.

Love it.