14!!!

Happy 14th Birthday Michael!

It's hard to believe you've gone from this...

to this...

to this...

to this in 14 short years!

Have a great birthday!

March Madness

We love a good ballgame around here & have had a lot of fun with the NCAA tournament this year.




We loved cheering on our BYU Cougars to victory over the Florida Gator's, but unfortunately they couldn't topple K-State. But we still have my beloved Vols in the Elite Eight!!!

GO VOLS!!!!

Watermelon Eating Contest

After spending the day at the rodeo, we went to a chili cook-off at church. As part of the fun, there was a watermelon eating contest. Trevor lined up with the men to compete.



Then they had a watermelon eating contest for the kids and Jake got in on the action. He polished off his, then his friend Lizzie gave him the rest of hers to work on. After he finished, he came back to our table and saw Trevor's unfinished piece and took care of that too. I guess the boy loves his watermelon!

Rockin' at the Rodeo

We had a blast at the rodeo last week during spring break!

We went with Don's parents and were able to do most of our favorite things, plus adding a few new things. The first ride of the day is the good ole' Metro park & ride, always a crowd favorite!

Then it was on to the Farm where the kids planted & harvested vegetables, milked a fake cow, and cashed in our earnings all in at the end for a treat.

This year we took in a magic show & both Trevor & Don were picked to help with the magic tricks.

Luke took advantage of the show and caught a few winks.

After that we headed inside to see the animals & tractors.

Who can resist getting a chocolate milk after visiting Borden's Bessie the Cow?

And of course, we had to stop at the largest fake green hill in Houston for the traditional roll.

All that walking left us needing some good tasting vittles to eat, so we headed outside to get some of our favorite rodeo food. Nothing says rodeo like sausage on a stick!




Then it was off to the carnival rides. Jake wanted to ride the teacups & the guy let me ride for free. Who could turn down that? I should have...we were spinning so fast & I couldn't even keep my head up & barely kept my lunch down. And I thought I had the easy job, sticking with the younger kids & grandparents while Don took the oldest 3 on the bigger rides. After that I stuck to the ground and just took pictures.

We all met up at the end for the kids to go through the bubble house together.







And what better way to soothe those upside down stomaches than hitting the fried food for dessert. This year we just stuck to the fried cookie dough & deep fried oreos, and even Luke tried to get into the action. The wind was crazy and we were all covered with powdered sugar by the end.





We barely missed getting into seeing the pig races, so settled for another trip around the farm & a brief stint in the petting zoo before heading home.

Enjoying the ride home in style.

Thanks for such a "sweet" time Grammy & Grandaddy!

Eating Your Greens

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
The one day a year some kids actually eat green in our house!

In addition to going to bed on March 16th wearing green, just in case someone decided to start pinching in the wee hours of the morn', the gang also had green pancakes for breakfast & lots of shamrock sugar cookies through the day.

Lucky Luke!

House of Laughs & Pi

In celebration of National Day of Pi, we made a chocolate cream pie on Sunday. All in the name of education...we do what we can :)

More importantly than the 3.14 slices of pie I didn't get to eat all of, were the fabulous smiles and laughing kids. I love it!

Kite Day

Last week Trevor & Hayley made kites for Kite Day at school as part of learning about the Japan culture. Trevor continued the tradition of getting sent to the nurses office every year with a "kite string" injury, this time on his finger. All injuries aside, it was a great, blustery spring day to go fly a kite! Hayley even brought her kite with her to fly at the park later that evening.

Full House

About 6 weeks ago, I started babysitting my friend's kids 4 days a week, going from 2 to 4 kids during the day & from my 4 kids to 9 kids afterschool. I don't have a picture of all 9 together but the breakdown is Luke (11 mo), Ian (2), Emmy (4), Jake (5), Hayley (7), Kennedy (8), Trevor & Morgan (9), & Michael (13). It is a full house! But the kids are all great friends and get along really well. Plus it is a great motivator to practice piano before school & get homework done really fast so everyone can play afterschool.

Thank goodness for great spring weather to play outside!

Jake & Emmy getting their Wii time before the big kids get home.