Easter

Drat! I put all these pictures on to update my blog over a week ago and here I am (April 20) just getting it finished. Here is one of the projects I worked on, now that I have so much more "free" time - no internet and tv, remember. I removed the stained white curtains in my kitchen and put up these. I sewed them myself with fabric I bought on ebay forever ago! It's brought a lot of color and pop to my kitchen. I also added some color with some new bowls I got through my AtHome America party. Just have to say that I got almost $300 of free product! Hooray!

We did doughnuts one Saturday morning because Kannon didn't get to do the "doughnuts for dad" thing at the elementary school. Joshua wanted some too!
Easter! We did our egg decorating earlier in the week - maybe Thursday evening. On Saturday we enjoyed being together as a family. Kannon and I took turns going to General Conference. When Kannon was gone that afternoon, I hid the plastic eggs for the kids - more than once! They loved looking for them.

We went out to my parents house and had our Easter dinner with them and my sister, Susan, hubby Stephen, and their niece, Serenity. We hid the eggs again that night for my kids, for me and Grammy, for the kids and Serenity. Good time, good times.

This little guy keeps getting more teeth! He's now 9 months old and has 8 teeth. He could walk if he'd get over his fear. He holds my finger to walk now - that's it, just a finger. He drops as soon as I let go, even though he could stand up. He's a chicken, and that's okay with me. After all, he is still a baby! He's so good these days. Loves just playing around the house. Adores his brother and Daddy. Sarah's just okay right now. I think she still picks on him too much. He's sleeping better. Sometimes I can just give him his milk and leave him to go back to sleep. He's done nursing. I'm glad he's doing okay with the formula, I was worried because he just wouldn't drink from a bottle for forever. But, anyway he's healthy and happy and I love him. I love my family. I think I've come a long way in the last year to be able to say that. I've had a lot of ups and downs emotionally. Probably some depression. I think staying busy helps me.

Sacramento

We took a few days trip down to Sacramento to visit my sister and the boys, Tyler and Colby. Ben was on spring break and we haven't been to visit them in a few years - ack! We left Kannon at home so he could work and spent a total of 2 days and 2 nights with them. We went to the park for a picnic after Tyler's preschool. The kids really like the scooters.

We also spent some time making an obstacle course that they did over and over again.

We went to the Sacramento Temple and walked the temple grounds a few times. (Until these HUGE flying bugs started landing in my hair and the kids got out of my control!) The baby was teething - again - and had a fever. He wasn't so happy.

I loved how this bush matched Sarah's shirt perfectly -one of my new favorite pictures.

We also went to the Sacramento Zoo. I think the kids really enjoyed it. We hadn't been since just before Sarah was born, but you'd think I'd remember that it wasn't that fun. They didn't have as many animals as I think of when I think "zoo." No elephants, bears, tigers. The few larger animals were sleeping - the lion, leopard. We saw some monkeys, giraffes - they have tons of birds. And Sarah is still talking about the snakes.

They did have a fun children's play place that we stopped at toward the end. Nancy and I were really ready to be done, I think.

We really had a good time, a busy time. I'm so glad I live close enough to have been able to visit them. The kids loved being with Tyler and Colby - we don't get to see them as often as I'd like. It's different than it was for us as kids, living so close to our cousins.

Anyway, it was good as you can tell from this closing video. Happy times, happy memories!

Family Fun Day

We've been trying a new reward system at our house. If a family rule is broken their clip gets moved down to warning/ time out/ and then chore. If they are caught doing good things they get to move their clip up and earn tickets. When they have enough tickets they can spend them at our family store. Ben's been saving his tickets and Sarah just does what Ben does, so they finally had enough to turn them in for the Fun Center in Fernley.
We went over on Saturday afternoon. They started out in the playland. They were the only kids there, which was kind of fun, although I know Ben would have loved playing with other kids, too. They have foam balls all over and quite a few machines that shoot them around. I enjoyed helping Ben gather balls and load them. Sarah didn't like the noise of the machines, but finally got brave enough to explore the whole area.

Then we decided to take a turn at bowling. It was fun. We all did things our own way. Sarah used the bumpers and the roller-helper thing. (Sorry, I don't know the technical term!) Ben used the bumpers, but mostly rolled his own balls. I won - woo-hoo!

We also went out to eat at Wendy's and grabbed some ice cream to finish off our day. Kannon and Ben earned that by planting the grass seeds. I really enjoy our family time, the things we all do together, when no one is fighting. Then we have Sundays. Haven't figured out how to make those work better.