Start Your Engines

I'm not sure where I was, but I heard little to nothing of the upcoming Pinewood Derby. I think I had my friends mention the date once, but I almost immediately forgot. I didn't even know who had the cars or anything like that.

Thankfully my friend, Yvonne had my back. She texted me one night telling me she'd pick up the boys (Lex and her son) from band practice the next day and that she'd take them to her dad's shop to get the cars made. She also told me who to contact to get a car. Seriously, I don't know what would've happened had she not been on top of things.

So the next night she picks up the boys and after a couple of hours she sent me this picture:

I absolutely loved seeing my kid working hard on his car and doing the work himself. 

A few days later it was time for the Derby. I was thankful they started at 10 on Saturday morning instead of something like 9. It made it easier to actually get there. I had Eric take Lex around 9 to weigh in and the rest of us were able to make it by 10.

{Waiting 'patiently' for the show to start...}

{Watching the races...}

And how did Lex do? Here's a look. Each kid raced 1 time in each lane for a total of 3 races. His car is black with a red stripe down the middle. He called it The Black Widow.

He had some trouble with one of his wheels, so it didn't travel like it should've. But it did better than his cars in previous years have done.

Thankfully this is a kid who just enjoys participating and while he'd like to win, he doesn't get crushed if he doesn't. I'm thankful for that part of his personality.

It was then time for awards and he requested a picture taken with his friends - who also happen to be Yvonne's boys. 

What Happens Next...

Assembling For #7

Nathaniel turned 7 this year. Yes, 7. He is growing up way too fast.

Knowing that Eric's mom was going to be heading out of town for a few weeks shortly after Nate's birthday, we celebrated ON his actual birthday.

We started out with these invites:

Eric's mom took Nate to a movie on Saturday night and then let him sleep over. They joined us again Sunday afternoon. Nate was super excited to see all the fun decorations we had for him and was even excited by his cake. His cake was a Big Hero 6 cake, but I took those toys off and printed off cute Avenger faces. I was really worried about his reaction, and I was frustrated the store didn't have anything for Avengers, but he did care and he seemed to like the fact he got Big Hero 6 toys AND an Avengers cake.

The cookies were harder than I anticipated, but they turned out okay. They still tasted great and I guess that's all that really matters.

He was super excited and mostly excited by all of his gifts - except for the gift we got him. You can see the reaction below. I was sad.

{From Mom & Dad...}

{...A Pokemon Card Game Play Mat}

{From Grandma & Grandpa M...}

{...An Avengers Headquarters Playset}

{From the Cousins W...}

{...Sidewalk Chalk Paint and a book}

{Gift 2 from Mom & Dad...}

{...A manual of some sort}

{What is it for?}

{It really is a nice bike...}

It was then time for cake and ice cream and singing. 

After the goodies were devoured, all the kids and the cousins went outside to try a couple of Nate's new toys out.

It really was a good birthday, overall. And maybe one day we'll get Nate to actually ride his bike. Maybe.

What Happens Next...

Hope of America

Every year the 5th graders in the area all gather together to do a program all about America. It turns out to be a really big thing and within 2 days there are a bunch of elementary schools in the area that participate. There are so many schools and stuff that the parents pretty much fill up the Marriot Center at BYU. That's a lot of people.

Shaylyn opted not to do it when she was in 5th grade, but both Tanis and Lex showed a real excitement for it when it was their turn. So it had been 4 years since we had participated and because of Lex's enthusiasm, I was kind of excited.

While we got there before the show actually started, it was already so crowded. Thankfully we were able to find a seat that gave us a good view of Lex and because I had my camera with me, I was able to get pretty good shots of Lex.

This year the program seemed to run a bit smoother than I remember it going with Tanis. There were a few other performers that performed in between the kids singing. All in all it was a nice night.

{My kid's in red, on the right hand side about the 5th row up, can you spot him?}

{One of the performers was an Osmond, he got relatively close to Lex. Lex is 5 rows up}

And if you have some time to kill (15ish minutes), here's the video of the songs from the night.

What Happens Next...

Easter Best

Somehow Ailey's dress becomes the inspiration point for the rest of the family for Easter clothes. Eric's mom found Ailey's dress first and we went from there. Shaylyn's dress was found next and while it didn't match Ailey's exactly, there was similar shades in it - so our color scheme was shades of green.

Finding the boys shirts were easy enough as was Jacen's outfit. But when it came time for me, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I really don't like shopping for clothes and I just get more depressed than anything else when I do.

Then one day an ad for Downeast Basics came in the mail and the whole mailer was outfits in shades of green. So I took a little trip, by myself, to Downeast and looked for the items I had seen in the mailer. I found them quickly enough and tried them on. Thankfully they had the things I really liked in my size.

After trying them on, I couldn't decide which looked better, so I bought both picks. (That's what happens when there's no one with you to give you a second opinion) We did our pictures the week after Easter because Easter was on General Conference and we really didn't feel the need to dress up that day. I also decided that I'd go with the dress rather than the maxi skirt for pictures because the dress was slightly dressier.

And because we always have a ton of pictures, I decided to just slideshow them for you all.

Enjoy!

What Happens Next...

Just Feelin' The Music

Jace is a kid of many likes and talents. One such thing he really likes to do is to dance in the car. He did it so often that Nate and his friend, Isaac called it 'The Jacen'. It was pretty funny and I always wanted to get a video of it, but I was always driving.

Finally I got smart and had the kids make use of their tablets. The first video came on a morning I had to take Shaylyn to school cause she missed the bus. The next video was during Spring Break when I took the kids on a little trip.

So the videos aren't great, but it shows his classic move with his fingers up disco style. Oh how I love this cute little boy.

What Happens Next...

Old Thing New

During Spring Break I took the kids to the Curiosity museum and met up with an old friend there. Because it was so crowded, my friend and I stayed in one place and visited while the older kids stayed with the little kids and checked in every so often (we were in a central place near the exit, so our kids weren't going to escape without us knowing). They had a great day and as we were leaving I noticed an photo booth. 

It didn't take long for the kids to notice as well and before too long 4 of them were getting ready to pose for the camera. I tried to get Lex to get in as well, but seeing how crowded it already was - he declined. I don't blame the kid.

I misplaced the print offs that we got, but I was able to buy the video of them in the photo booth and it's almost better than the pictures.

What Happens Next...

Teach 'em Young

There are jobs in the world that no one really wants to do and so it doesn't get done for awhile. Pooper scoopin' would be one of those jobs.

Enter Spring Break with a bored child who wanted to be outside. And perhaps a father mentioning that the kids needed to do the pooper scooping. Maybe Shaylyn just got sick of it, I don't know - but she started doing it and because Jace loves being outside he was out there as well.

Before too long I saw this sight out the window:

Jace thought he would be a big kid and help clean up the yard. He's such a helpful little guy. Let's hope he stays that way. 

What Happens Next...

Easter Morning

This year I had a nice talk with the Easter Bunny. I had decided it was time to have a more Christ centered Easter as my kids are older now. I gave the Easter Bunny some leeway on Ailey and Jace as neither of them can read yet, but the other 4 were going to have a more Christ centered Easter. 

I scoured Pinterest and found some great ideas that I then passed on to the Easter Bunny. He made good of our discussion and had printed out paper eggs with scriptures written on them. This also meant my kiddos had less junk food (although it wouldn't be Easter without some) and some more tangible items.

Eric was working late the night before Easter morning and the Easter Bunny had to get on with business, so I was left alone putting the baskets together and hiding them. After so many years, you kind of run out of places to hide baskets, so I had to get creative.

Shaylyn ended up finding everyone's basket in the morning, except for hers. It took her a couple hours to find hers, which made everyone laugh. Thankfully, she thought it was fun as well. And much to my chagrin, the kids were all up at 7 wanting to find their baskets. At least I was able to go back to bed afterwards.

{He's not pretending to be a cat, his basket was hidden behind the curtain, behind the couch}

{I may or may not have stuck her basket in the rice cooker, on the top shelf of the pantry and hid it behind other items. Eric may or may not have moved said items when he found Shaylyn's basket to make it a bit easier on the girl.}

{In case anyone's worried, those were clean clothes}

{Love that this kid pretty much was asking for permission to dig in}

{All this kid wanted was the dang Peeps. I have no idea whose kid he is.}

The kids had fun getting into their baskets while I went back to sleep. Just before 10, I woke up and we sat down and watched conference. During conference I glanced over at Shaylyn a couple times and saw the little girl we don't see much of anymore, so I grabbed a couple shots. There was also a time Domino was just resting against Shaylyn in such a cute way that it was a moment I wanted to remember.

What Happens Next...