Easter 2013

Easter morning, we woke up to....

no eggs, no Easter baskets...but the kids did get a little note from the Easter Bunny explaining to them about how Easter wasn't all about him...(the bunny) and that he promised them that if they hurriedly got ready for church, and were reverent in Primary, that he'd come back to our house while they were gone...and leave their Easter treasures for them for after. 

I loved that we weren't crazy rushing because we were trying to cram everything in before 9AM...we had a regular Sunday morning (which are rushed as it is!)

Then, immediately when we came home...the party began!

 This was Scarlet's 2nd Easter, even though she is still only 363/365ths old!  She's totally digging these new little toys we call Easter Eggs!

 Our other tradition (carried on from the Ellsworths, is cracking our eggs on each other's heads: I only got a picture of Ivy's (mwa-hahahahaha!...ouch!)

 Happy Easter!

Happy Keaster!

An Easter tradition for us...take a picture of our baby's bum with it painted like an Easter Egg...

We've got one of each of our kids...I love it!

Happy Easter, Everyone!!!

Scarlet!

I can't believe that Scarlet will be 11 months old in two days...!

crap...

It's almost time to flip her car seat around, but I still feel like she's such a teeny tiny thing!  Time has flown with this little chica...and I have NOT been a photo-taking freak this time around...I think I need a couple more pairs of arms.  Sad!

anyways, we were outside enjoying a little Vitamin D today, and I grabbed my camera...shocker

here she is!

 Totally awesome at scooting herself backwards in her little glider thingy outside...

She finally has feet big enough to wear some shoes...i love that!  She's got 4 teeth, to goofy-spaced top teeth, and two tiny ones on the bottom.  She says momma and Dadda...Max ("Mah") and I swear she said Ivy today...Both Ivy and I heard it...but we'll see if she can do a repeat performance...She signs more and all done, and waves to everyone that passes by. 

 We call her Madame Blueberry because she eats blueberries every morning...loves them!

She also answers to the following: Beeboo (that's what Ivy calls her...hmmm) Scar, Miss O'hara, Little Red, Scarletto, the Bird (the Angry bird when she's mad which doesn't happen very often) and Scar-Scar.

 And...we picked up Max today on our limo bike with the Manvilles on their limo bike...fun times!

Ice Blocking with the Manville's

We've had such a fun Winter Break!

We went to Arizona for a few days after Christmas, came home and had a fun New Years with our friends, Max got to go to the HBHB and HVLL baseball camp for 4 days, and Jillonnie and I busted out a fun activity one morning as a sort of last hurrah  before school starts again.

We went ice blocking, like we did way back in the day!

It was a surprise for the kids, it was so fun to watch them as we explained that since we couldn't go sledding where we lived, that we could do this instead!

so fun!!!

Here's the crew:

Jillonnie and I showed them how it was done first...hee hee

Ivy

 Max

 River and Shelby

 The big kids were a big help pushing the blocks back up the hill

 Crew even went a few times...Scarlet just sat in the grass, in her pajamas (because I thought they were warmer than the clothes I'd put on her instead)

 We tried Tandem-style...super fun

 River and Max tandem-style

Christmas Eve at home

I love to spend Christmas Eve at home!  

We carried on our tradition of doing a Christmas program this year, in which each person either performs a talent, or recites a poem, or story.  Max sang Silent Night in Hawaiian, as he learned in Primary this year, and sang it so amazing!  Ivy recited a poem called 3 Little Christmas trees that she likes.  After our program, and singing Christmas Carols, we acted out the Nativity.  Max was Joseph, Ivy was Mary, and Scarlet was the Angel...

 The Angel was not bringing good tidings of great joy...she hated having that random hat on her head! ha.  this is her crawling away as fast as she could, crying.  sad.

 and of course...the kiddos got jammies for Christmas...

Christmas Sunday Photo Shoot

I always love to take pics of the kids all dressed up for Christmas....

This year, I needed to post a picture on my blog, so I took the Christmas banner off of the window as we walked out the door to doll it up a bit...

It took lots of shots to get this one: (which is still a little goofy)

 but I liked these two, too...If Jeff hadn't been in the second pic, that would have been my fav!

HB4 Christmas Party 2012

Our ward Christmas party this year was themed: Christmas in the Islands.

I was lucky enough to be on a committee with a pair of amazing leaders, and a bunch of great team members that all worked together to pull our night together!

I was sort of in charge of the decorations and layout.  We were able to borrow a mural that covered an entire all of the cultural hall as well as ridiculously awesome decorations including archways, thatch huts, tiki torches, palm trees, etc.  I worked on a couple of small projects, including the pineapple palm tree for the fruit platters and the pineapple centerpieces.  They turned out pretty cute.  

 We had a local Polynesian branch, as well as one of the girls from our own ward perform dances from different islands: Tonga, Hawaii, New Zealand, Tahiti, etc...the entertainment was AMAZING.  My kids were enthralled the entire time!  and then the Primary kids had coincidentally learned "Silent Night" in Hawaiian thanks to their cute singing time teacher.  

 A special visitor came cruisin' in on a beach cruiser to suit the theme...This was Scarlet's first visit with Santa..

Such a fun night! {glad I don't have to think about it anymore!}

Great-Grandma E

Scarlet and I made a trip to Utah last weekend to attend my Grandma's funeral.  I hated to go for the reason I was going; my Grandma was such an amazing and happy person.  I'll miss her!

But, although I was there under unfortunate circumstances, I did have the opportunity to hang out with my cousins, aunts, uncles, mom and dad, and sisters and brother (all of which are very rare!)  And, hang out with my other Grandma: Grandma E!

Max met her when he was a little guy...Ivy has never met her, so Scarlet was a lucky girl to go and meet Great Grandma E!  Her house was full of the cutest gingerbread Christmas decorations, and it was just fun to be in her home, to sit and talk with her.  She's such a sweet lady! 

Scarlet and Great Grandma Ellsworth

Sultan Trip November 2012

I was a very lucky girl this past weekend because I got to go back home for a few days to visit my family!  Jeff stayed home with Max and Ivy, and Scarlet and I took off for a long weekend in the woods.  I desperately wanted my Grandma to meet Scarlet, and I needed to visit with her again...and lucky me, 2 of my siblings live close to my parents, now...and the other one flew in for the week at the same time.  It was a perfect weekend!

Scarlet got some time with Mar Mar (my cute mom)

 and some cute cousins (Clara, Adee and Scarlet)

 and some more cute cousins (Clara, Sydney,Scarlet, Carson, Carter and Samantha)

and even more cute cousins: (Carter/Batman, Carson, Sydney, Adee, Scarlet, Clara, Baker, Kimball and Samantha)  We were only missing Max and Ivy...sad!  and they were missed by all!

 We spent some time with Boo Boo (my amazing Grandma)

 and took a few important pictures:

 and of course, no trip to my parents house would be complete without doing Chores with Paw Paw.

All the kids LOVE to do Chores!  No one can wait until Paw Paw gets home from work to take all the Grandkids out to feed the animals...3 Llamas, 2 Cows, 1 Dog, 1 Cat, 4 Chickens.  Scarlet got alone time with Paw Paw on Sunday after everyone had left to do chores on her own...no other kids has been this lucky!  I bundled her up, and she got to watch the llamas eat

Pet OllieBurger the cow

and talk to Chones the llama

 lucky girl!

I'm so grateful I got to go and spend time with some of my most favorite people in the world!  I only wished the rest of my kiddos and Jeff could have come, too!

I love my family!  I'm a pretty lucky girl.

Official Milestone alert: Cucumbers

If you know my kids...you know they love cucumbers!

Scarlet was inducted into the Mousser Cucumber Eater Hall of Fame last week...

 and she loved it!  

Just thought we'd share with the world this official milestone!

Park Hoppers 11/12

A couple of weekends ago, we had a long weekend...

For Jillonnie and I, Saturdays are sort of a dreaded day.  Neither of us have a husband on Saturdays, you definitely DON'T go to the beach on Saturdays {everyone else and their dog goes on Satuday} and we pretty much have all the kids home all day = not-our-favorite-day-of-the-week!

So, Saturday, we Park Hopped!

So fun!

We drew a map: {so they knew what our next stop was...and so they could guess on the way there}

 When we arrived, we set the timer for 20 minutes.  We jumped out of the car, and played like crazy at the park for 20 minutes.  When the timer went off, we all jumped in the car as fast as we could...some of us are slower than others...and sped off to the next park on our map.  

GENIUS!

We Played...

 ...and played...

 ...and played...

 ...and played...

 ...and played...

 ...and played...

 ...until well past the normal dinner time!  

I loved this Saturday!

ps...there are a jillion parks to choose from around our house, so, it only took a few minutes in between each park.  Next time, we'll hit different parks!

We saw friends from school along the way, and picked up some more hoppers at a few parks that wanted to play with us longer!