We had NOTHING to do on Saturday, so we went on an adventure! We had originally planned to go to the coast, but the road there got dumped with a lot of snow, so we made new plans. We headed south towards Salem and thought we would go to the Tulip Festival. Uh oh, someone forgot to tell the tulips that it was time for them to show their colorful faces, because there were only a few yellow tulips poking out! We'll have to postpone the festival until there are more flowers! Then, we followed Aaron's GPS on a wild goose chase. He had downloaded some fun "attractions" in the area that others had enjoyed when they were there. Uh oh...none of the things were even there anymore. Oh well, we had fun driving around on a dreary day wasting precious gas money :) We did stumble on a cute little cemetery.

Notice how the little chapel is up on rocks...pretty interesting.
Arwen and Noah appreciated the short time out of the car!! After this, we went to the Woodburn outlet stores and let the kids play at the tree house. They had some "kid festival" going on there and had face painting and balloons...both of which we missed out in because we thought we would come back when the line died down. The kids did get to plant flowers though. AND...they got to roll their own pretzels at Auntie Ann's Pretzels and then got a FREE pretzel! Don't you just love free stuff?? Overall, it was a great day spent together.

Larkin sure is getting big! This little blue-eyed beauty has started giggling!! It takes a lot to get her to do it, but it's so worth it!!

We have had such COLD weather this spring break! Over the weekend, it hailed at least 4 times! It was really fun! The hail pieces weren't little round balls like we seem to remember them being. They were in the shape of a diamond...you know, like the diamond in a wedding ring. Pretty cool!
The kids had fun playing in the hail....although Noah almost died, it was so cold outside!! They had fun catching it in their mouths!

One more "Scripture" story...Yesterday, after their bath, Arwen and Noah took blankets and wrapped them over their heads and around their bodies...you know, so they looked like Mary and Joseph in robes. Anyways, they were riding donkeys...really they were sitting on the puppy dog and pig Easter baskets and traveling to Bethlehem. Josh wandered in and I suggested he could be the baby Jesus. Arwen glanced at Josh in amazement and then turned to "Joseph" and said, "Look Joseph, we laid a baby."

Just a few quick stories about the kids...Yesterday, Aaron took Joshua for a little walk and I stayed home and tended the other rugrats. I was reading a book and paused to listen to the antics of Arwen and Noah. This is what I saw and heard...First, Arwen ran from the kitchen into the family room and looked at the couch. She said, "Oh, no. Where is your body? I see you folded your sheets up. Jesus, Jesus, where are you Jesus?" Then, from the other side of the room, Noah said, "I'm here Mary." Arwen yelled, "Jesus, my boy. Where were you." As Arwen wrapped him in a big hug, Noah said, "I resurrected." Pretty good huh? Second, today, as I was reading yet again, Arwen picked Larkin up and put her in her little pink chair. Then, they gave Larkin Noah's little set of scriptures. Arwen said, "Laban, we need the brass plates." Noah, who informed me that he was Nephi, swiped the scriptures and ran. We haven't gotten to the part where Nephi cuts off Laban's head...that's tomorrow. I can't wait to see how they will act that one out!! Poor Larkin has to be big fat, nasty Laban!! At least Joshua got a break from being the bad guy...he had to be Miss Hannigan from Annie the other day :)

The Christian Church next door to ours holds a community Easter Egg Hunt every year! It is so awesome. The kids come away with loads of candy and we all get a free hot dog/chip lunch! Some years, they have flown the Easter Bunny in on a helicopter. No Easter Bunny this year, though. Instead, the fire department sent over a truck and a bunch of firemen...way better than the Easter Bunny!

Look at the determined contemplation on this girls face. "How am I going to collect more eggs than anyone else??"
Off she goes. She's a girl on a mission!! "Out of my way, kids!"
Good old Josh picked up all the candy that WASN"T in eggs. Yummy!
Little Noe was quite content with his stash. He was very clear in his Easter Egg gathering...I had to hold his basket, while he gathered the eggs.
Looks like all of her scheming paid off! She got the mother load of trashy candy!Little Josha has a mind of his own lately! He takes off running and NEVER looks back. Twice he wandered away from us and we had to search high and low to find him. He was located on the playground both times!
Noah would take a lick or bite of every piece of candy, decide it wasn't what he wanted, and then try and pawn it off on me.
I then gave it all to Joshua! Lucky boy!!
I don't know what he's doing, but he makes this silly face all the time!!
Good old Ar sure enjoyed her hot dog and Cheeto's! Shed had an orange mouth until the next morning when I finally wiped it off! "Yup. I did good and had fun. I'll just be taking my basket of candy and my water and be leaving now."

Here are my girls!! Can you guess who's who? I think Easter must have been a lot later in the year when Arwen was a baby because she looks quite a bit older...that and she was born with an immense amount of hair!! Anyways, Happy Easter! I'll do a post later on about our Easter Egg Hunt yesterday!

So it begins...I just overheard the funniest conversation ever. Arwen has a friend here today and they are talking about things they can and cannot do and who's older and things like that. Well, Arwen being the smarty pants that she is, realized quickly on that her friend can do more than her. So, she says, "My Dad is better than you." And then they argue about who's Dad is better. Finally, Arwen ended it as this: "My Dad can ANYTHING....except, there is only one thing he can't do...whistle!" Her friend looked at her like she was crazy, and then proceeded to whistle.

Arwen shocked and amazed us yesterday!! The kids were out in the back yard playing (yea for nice weather!!) and Arwen sat on a swing. We have been teaching her for years (literally) how to pump her legs so she can swing herself. Well, Arwen kicked off yesterday and things just clicked and she knows how to swing now!

Arwen was as surprised as we were at her new-found talent! She is pretty darn proud of herself!

This "Little Miss Trouble" sure is a sweet little princess!

Book Tagged


Grab the book nearest you. Go to page 123. Go to the 5th sentence on the page. Type in the following 3 sentences.


The book I grabbed was "Anna Karenina," by Leo Tolstoy. (Sounds impressive, does it not? It just so happens I have been reading this same book for the last 3 years!! Ha!)


'He told Stiva so.'

'Well, what of it?

I don't understand...'


Hmmm...I tag Jen K, Memory B, and Meghan N

I would like to introduce you to a new friend I made today after I got out of the shower. His name is "Mr. Man." He's pretty much the most stylin' person I've ever met! Check out his ensemble...the pinks and greens look awesome on him!

This is his runway pose!!
"Mr. Man" is a travelin' man as well. He needs lots of beautiful bags to carry all of his necessities!! (Poor Mr. Man...has to put up with a silly older sister...at least until Larkin is big enough to cooperate!)

Okay...so I pretty much win the negligent mother of the day award today. I was on the phone with my brother this morning when in walked Noah...
Noah said to me, "Mom, am I a cool pirate?"
I hesitated and said, "You're naughty..." and his face fell, as I continued with, "You're the naughtiest, cool pirate." He liked that! I have to give props to the new "washable" Crayola markers. They really do wash off quite easily! All 3 kids scored themselves a free bath this morning thanks to Noah!!

For our activity part of Family Home Evening the kids had a "pull-up" contest. Aaron put all three of the kids up on the pull-up bar and let them hang for as long as they could!

Look at those kids...dressed like they think it's summer! Nice white bellies!
Weak little Noah was the first to go down.
Joshua was the big winner. That crazy little kid can hang forever if he feels like it!!

We had a super day today! After Ar's tap lesson, we went and helped to clean the church building. (It's nice only having two wards in the building, but it means you get to clean it more!) The kids were a big help. Good old dare devil "Shosh" jumped off the stage. My kids are such monkeys! After that the real fun began. We went on a little drive through our neighborhood to try our hand at geocaching. We began at our house and followed the directions given to us by Aaron's new GPS. This particular geocache was called, "Ring Around the Rosa." (We live off of Rosa street.) We walked through a park on a path and found where the "treasure" was hidden. We had to be real sneaky because there were lots of other people walking on the path. There are two rules to geocaching, I guess. First, don't let the "muggles" see you. Those are people who don't have a GPS, that could potentially steal the treasure! Second, make sure if you take a treasure, you leave one to replace it. After lots of hunting, Aaron spied it! It was hidden in a black canister that had ivy on it and fake leaves glued to it. We wrote in the little log book and chose our treasure. There was lots of lame little things in there...like a play-dough cookie cutter, and junky toys. We took this cute little kitty made out of beads...pretty much the coolest thing there! We left a new matchbox car. (Thanks to Amy and Keith, we have a life time supply of these!!) Then we played at a park, found earthworms, (Noah's treasure) and went and had Costco hot dogs for lunch. We stopped by REI and then went and sat by the water fountain outside to let the kids get their hands wet. Noah was crawling on the edge just like we told him not to and Josh came up behind him and shoved him in the water. Surprisingly enough, Noah didn't scream, though he was soaked! He was just standing in waist-high water looking rather sheepish! We then came home to get Noe dry clothes! Too bad we didn't have the camera. So fun!!