MY PLAYLIST

I'm not sure why I'm so sentimental lately, but, here we go again...I remember hearing this song a few years back on an Oprah show (for mother's- to- be) and started to cry. It's a great song and I have put the words to it in McKenna's baby book...

And, in celebration of McKenna, here are a couple of her favorite songs...she loves to dance, sing and groove along whenever she can...be warned, they are tweenie...

MCKENNA TURNS 6!!

McKenna turned 6 today!! I cannot believe how quickly my little girl is growing up - I could just cry!! This morning, she came running into our room, hopped up on the bed and said, "Mom, look how big my hands are now that I'm six!!"


She opted out of a friend party this year, and we decided to go on a family vacation instead. All she asked for her birthday this year was "glue nails", a hula hoop and getting her ears pierced - wow!! I think we can handle that!

One of my favorite pics of her when she was 6 months old

Since it was a family party, I decided to bake the cake this year..this is the first cake I have made for a birthday since her 1st birthday - not too shabby huh?!? And notice the fake nails! We had cake and ice cream twice - once with cousins (Collin, Cosette and Christopher) and then with grandma/grandpa Bean that night!

McKenna has been such a GREAT daughter and we love having her in our family! She is energetic and always willing to go on an adventure with her dad (she is a daddy's girl). She loves riding bikes, just learned to roller blade and hula hoop, and really likes swimming! She is a great help with Tyler and is a great wrestling partner for Harrison...although I don't know how much longer that will last...we just love her and hope she knows how special she is to us!!

MALE BONDING TIME

Adam, brothers and dad went to the cabin last week to get in their last snowmobiling trip of the season. They had a great time! It has been so fun since Adam's parents got the cabin last summer - now they can go in the summertime or wintertime and enjoy the beautiful scenery at Bear Lake! It's the middle of April and still a wonderful winter wonderland!

UP...

AND OVER....

AND DOWN!

I guess injuries are "cool" when you're with the guys?!?

Adam and Mitch - the original daredevil brothers (oh the stories I've heard...)

KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM

McKenna's class just had their music program for kindergarten. She was very excited for us to come and hear her sing!

If you're happy to be singing, give a smile...hmmm...looks like Kenna is the only one?!?

fyi - our future son-in-law is in the blue shirt

Here's a little sampling of their singing...shame I only had my camera, so I couldn't provide the whole program for you - sorry?!? Kenna did a great job! And I can't believe how fast the year has gone!

MY LITTLE CUTIES

- It's the thought that counts -
Harrison came home from preschool last week and told Adam he had saved something for him. He continued to tell him that he had received a treat at school and really wanted to share it with his dad. He pulled out 1/2 of a tootsie roll (the original sized, small) unwrapped, bitten in half, and covered in jean lint... so proudly offering it to Adam...Adam told me, how could you not eat that little bite! So cute that it was that important to him to share with his dad!

- What it means to you -
Yesterday at church the kids were learning a song about mothers for Mother's Day. The music director asked the children, "What do you think it means when your mom kisses you?" McKenna raised her hand and replied, "When my mom kisses me, I think it means that she'll be there for me no matter what." Is that not cute?!? Her answer made the chorister tear up...

- Pointy, pointy -
Tyler is not talking yet, but whenever he wants Adam or me, he'll stick his arm straight out, point with his fingers, and make the sound, "uh..uh..uh" until he's given to one of us...that's so cute to me!


MY PLAYLIST - I heard this song when Kenna was in her first year of dance. I would seriously almost cry at every one of her weekly dance lessons when they would practice. I'm usually not a big fan of sentimental musi or country music for that matter, but this one got to me.

MY PLAYLIST

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!! My husband came home the other day to let me know that...not just 1, but 2 great "musicians" were going to be in concert TOGETHER in the next couple months!! If you hadn't guessed by the music yet, it's MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice - could we be ANY luckier here in our town!! Let me know if you want me to snag you some tickets...before they all sell out?!? LOL

On a side note: Even though the rappers are a "has been"...I kind of wish the Hammer pants weren't - they use to cover up the hips much better than pants do now?!? :{ Wouldn't you agree??

EGGS-ELLENT EASTER WEEKEND

We started the Easter weekend off with a great neighborhood Easter egg hunt...McKenna and Harrison had a great time! Not only did they have candy, but there were also little prizes like jump ropes and bubbles - it was a lot of fun!

Next, we headed over to my parents home and had another great egg hunt with the cousins! Our kids were so excited for this one - it's an annual event - thanks grams and gramps Bean!

On your mark,

Get set,

GO!!

This year, since there is a bit of a difference in all their ages, every time they found an egg, they had to go back to the patio and do 5 jumping jacks (I've thought about adopting this myself: everytime I eat a piece of candy, I should do 5 jumping jacks...NAH!)

Everyone was successful in finding plenty of eggs!

We'd like to thank this years officiators:

and all the willing participants:

That night, we decided to color Easter eggs (this is the first year) Kenna and Harrison really liked coloring the eggs...except for the boiled egg smell throughout the house! In fact, Harrison sang a song to the eggs: "Stinky, stinky, stinky smell, I don't like it very well!" Reminded me of one of my favorite childhood books - Bread and Jam for Francis

Next morning, the Easter bunny had visited us and left us plenty of candy and the kids a kite with their first set of spring/summer pajamas. We went to church in our Sunday/Easter best:

(note to self for next time- take pictures BEFORE church)

TYLER'S 1ST BIRTHDAY

We had a great time on Tyler's birthday. We had my family over for cake and ice cream.
Tyler loved the balloons (should have just passed that off as our gift to him)!!

And he was very patient with all the siblings and cousins wanting to "help" him open his presents. He received ocean finger puppets, bubbles, a singing cookie jar, a singing tool bag, a book and a riding toy...thanks everyone for the gifts!

Steve and Mindy had birthday's two days before Tyler, so we thought we'd celebrate all 3 birthdays!

You can't have a party without pizza?!?

I have to admit that Tyler's cake was not his first taste of cake, or sugar for that matter (he was exposed to sugar from the VERY beginning - I only crave and eat sugar during my pregnancies) however, he still really enjoyed the cake, tried to share a little, and then tried the newest craze in facials - cake masks!

Now that Tyler is officially 1 year old, here's a few things about him at 12 months.

Tyler:

- can crawl up and down the stairs

- still only has 7 teeth, but is working on 4 molars!

- knows where his tongue is

- "brushes" his hair

- dances whenever he gets to take a bath

- is babbling like crazy and can say, "yeah" when asked a question

- gave up his binky a few days before his birthday..and then changed his mind...

- graduated to a bigger car seat

MARCH MADNESS

March flew by and we had so much going on! Here are a few of the things we did:

At the beginning of the month, we celebrated Michael and Maddie's birthdays with all the cousins. We also celebrated Josh's birthday by writing a message or drawing a picture on balloons and sending them off into the sky.

We had a lot of family birthdays in March, so next we celebrated Cosette's birthday at her home with all the cousins. The kids love to play with all their cousins, so it was a great time! We are really lucky to be living by so many of them!

We had a couple other opportunities for the kids to get together with their cousins:

and when the cousins get together on Adam's side, there's ALWAYS swimming at grandpa/grandma's pool!

We went out of town for spring break and took Kenna, Harrison and Tyler to the kids museum (they could spend forever there!):

we went to see the new Monsters vs. Aliens movie in IMAX 3D...that was a lot of fun and the 2 older kids loved it...Tyler, not so much...

And then the crowning moment of our trip - we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's for dinner. Harrison has wanted to go for a long time and so we decided that would be fun - and it was for McKenna, Harrison and even Tyler - not so much for Adam and I. It only made my germaphobic tendencies stronger (EEWWW!)

The perfect ending to our SPRING break - we came home to a beautiful spring day :(

Other mentionables (but no pictures to show for them)

- 1 new niece born, Aizlee

- 5 cousins, 4 aunt/uncle, and 1 son birthdays celebrated

- 1 cousin baptism

KID FUNNIES

Just a few funnies from the kids...

-To dream the impossible Dream -
Adam took my car in to have the oil changed and took Harrison with him - they call it "boy time". As they were waiting, Harrison noticed the pit underneath the car and asked Adam what it was. Adam told him the guys worked down there to change the oil and fix cars. Harrison's reply.."I totally want to do that - I want that for my job when I grow-up! That's awesome!!" Reach for the stars, Harrison!

- Caught in the Act...almost-
I have always been amazed at how well Harrison's sense of smell is. He is the one you don't want to be around when you "slip" out an unmentionable in public (there's a whole bunch of stories to tell from that alone!!) and he's the first to track out smells in stores etc. Today we had to venture out to the store. Usually I bring along a snack for the kids to eat but hadn't today because it was getting too close to dinner. However, I had brought along a snack (a few Reese's pb cups) for myself, hoping to eat it without being caught. I should have known better with Harrison in the car...before long I hear Harrison sniffing at the air...

Harrison: "What is that smell? It smells good in here!"

Me: "What do you mean? What does it smell like?"

Harrison: "It smells like Peanut Butter?!?"

I could not believe it! I had to turn up the radio and quietly tuck the wrapper under my leg so I wouldn't get caught by my own kids!!


- Personal Trainer -
Adam and I are trying to get ourselves back in shape. Adam usually gets up and does a little bit of weight lifting and then some eliptical. The other morning he had told the kids he was going downstairs to exercise and Kenna said, "I'll be the one at the top of the exerciser saying, 'You do not stop!! You keep going!'..mom watches that show all the time!" (I'm assuming she was referring to Biggest Loser)

- Deep Thoughts -
(This one is cute...but also sad at the same time)
I find it interesting how much kids want to talk while driving in the car...sometimes I enjoy it and others I do not. However, yesterday I decided to be 100% committed to the conversation on our drive to dance class. McKenna decided to ask a few questions about - daylight savings time change?!? Her question was very thoughtful..."Mom, how come the people just ask to have the daylight be longer and Heavenly Father does it, but we ask for Josh back and He can't just bring him back?" Gosh, I thought it was going to be hard to explain the whole daylight savings time thing... we all miss Josh very much and only wish it were possible to have him back with us here!