A Very Hoppy Easter!!

Welcome sunshine! I'm talking to you and mother nature! We are so happy it's nice and warm now, finally. We are such nature freaks, tree huggers, or simply outdoorsy. Whatever you call it - yippee for the sun! Easter was very nice this year and the weather cooperated for the most part. It may be exhausting getting up so early to hide the eggs but it's all good (can you say 4am so the little darlings don't suspect?)...

Here we are at the crack of dawn! So excited for the hunt...

Tulip girl Allison Pearl

We had a great time hunting for flowers at the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point this year. We didn't have to look far as there were tons of great bulbs of all kinds! It's a tradition the kids love and so do we.

Hi there - I'm having so much fun finding eggs and other treats!

It's been a fun spring so far. The kids had spring break from school last week and we did lots of fun stuff with friends and cousins. Swimming and picnics and movies were the highlights. Now they're back at school and mom can rest a little -NOT...

Finally Spring

We are so glad the weather has gotten nicer so we can go outside more on our bikes. Here are
the kids below at the Bridalveil Falls where we got married 10 years ago. It's still a little dead looking but still beautiful. Can't wait for the gorgeous meadows to bloom soon!

Our cute little lovies all dressed up in their Easter clothes. Getting along and being mellow for a change!

Isabel's birthday celebration. All 13 grand kids together - yae. That's quite the trick since my sister lives far away, boohoo.

Granny goose reading to the kiddies from our favorite Easter book. Love you granny!!

Our lovely eggs! Happy Easter everyone!!

Gift Game

So this is how it works....I saw this on my friend's blog so I thought I'd try it! Sounds fun..I love giveaways..

The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. BUT, in order for you to leave a comment on my blog, you have to post this on your blog first. (That means that sometime during this year you will send a gift to 3 people as well.) Get it? So, the first 3 people to comment on this post will be the lucky ones.

Have fun & enjoy...

Aquarium Fun

We all went to a cool aquarium the other day and here's cute Allison peeking out at us. She had a ball and is easy to please.

Cute seahorse garden.

Trippy jellyfish picture. Looks like Allison is trapped in with them which wouldn't be good.

We found Nemo!!

Here we are posing away underwater haha. Can't believe February is almost over. It just flew by. We're all well and good. I got to see Celine Dion in concert with my mom. It was fantastic. She has such an awesome voice and puts on a great show! I really had a good time and I like her so much more now. That was my excitement for the month. Yae

We had a busy past couple weeks with school activities and other fun stuff. Here's Jorma at school practicing his RAD kids obstacles. This is a program our elementary school does started by Ed Smart, the father of kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart. She was lucky enough to get away and he wants all children to be prepared if they are attacked so the school gives them some basic skills including screaming, kicking, fighting etc. Below I posted the video of Jorma practicing his escape from our local police seargent. I'm very grateful to our teacher Kim for doing this because it just reinforces what I teach them - be aware of your surroundings.

The family goes out to a nice mountain trail to relieve our cabin fever. It wasn't snowing when we got there so we were stoked! But prematurely so as it started coming down hard. It was beautiful in that setting but a little hard to bike ride so we had to pack it in and head for the Mexican restaurant which the kids didn't mind at all.

Jorma is getting his scouting awards and moving up a level to "Bears". It was a fun event that I as a scout leader even enjoyed. The theme was All American and we had hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, popcorn, salads, chili, and ice cream. Then we played baseball inside the gym - that was a big hit!

My little scout - Jorma Ray flashing the scout sign (and peace sign coincidentally)..

Jorma Kicks Butt!!

CAN YOU SAY BURRRIED..

Here's our freezing house buried under all the snow, burrr. We just got pounded this year! And yes that is a swimming pool wrapped around our swamp cooler. Tacky, I know but it served its purpose in a bind and then we never found the cover and by then it was too icy to climb up and change it. Someday we'll laugh.

Poor Jorma has to earn his keep. Builds character I say.. He actually love diggin in the snow so this seemed like a good idea - dig but move it out of the way. He loves the snow and has been loving going snowboarding and sledding. I get a kick out of it until he keeps smackin his head on the ice. Can you say concussion??

Our beautiful Christmas tree keeps on giving joy in the form of a tree-sickle. We stuck it out back & it's still pretty in a way. As you can see it's snowed a bit since then.

Allison got this Strawberry Shortcake tea set for Christmas. She loves it!

Here she is enjoying a cuppa with mom. She's so funny and very girly. She's loving preschool still and we just adore her teacher. She is so lucky as is Jorma with a great teacher too. Jorma was so excited about the inauguration of a new president and was so impressed with the huge amount of people there. He was really in awe. He learned so much but was really thrilled to find out that there was lots of security with guns and snipers around for protection. My little buddy is very into guns at the moment. We just laugh cuz he's been choosing friends based on the amount of toy guns they have. Joy. It's interesting for us because we are so anti-gun, violence, etc. But I say teach them to use it safely and respectfully for less accidents. Oh the lessons we learn...

Christmas 2009

What a fun Christmas we had with my sister and her fam in Colorado this year. The kids were wild and so excited as expected. It was a busy house with the 6 little sillies! They had such a good time together as did the adults. My parents were there too so it was a nice gathering. It's so cool to see the kids joy and realize they get to have some of the same family traditions I grew up with and create some new ones as well. None of us got a lot of sleep but that's ok, it was worth it! I think the kids only slept about 4 hours on Christmas eve due to the excitement of Santa coming. They are all so cute!
There were many games played by the time we left and we love it. We are a family of gamers that's for sure! The drive was neat especially through Vail as we saw lots of wild life like buffalo and big horn sheep. Jorma loved seeing the snow borders doing the half pipe, it was truly breathtaking. All that snow!! Oh my!!
What a good time!