A Lot of Catching Up!!!

It has been a crazy couple of months!!!

In March, we headed to my parents to welcome my sister Karen home from her mission. That weekend, my mom, my sisters and I drove to Portland and attended the WICKED play. It was SO good and we had so much fun. I am going to make Justin go with me one of these days (which he is already dreading but I know he'll end up liking it). Then we brought my sister home with us, to put her to work at the store for a crazy Spring Break. Karen still lives with us (possibly until school this fall) and is working at the store and in 2 weeks when we head off to Orlando for our Platos Closet Conference, she will be a little nanny for our kiddos.

We had a fun St. Patricks Day and thought we'd share some cute pictures.

Green Eggs and Ham (and Tyson pouting in the background- a typical thing in our house)

This kid loves pirates... HAPPY 3RD B-DAY TYSON (was April 10th)!!!

This pirate cake was really fun to make!!

Ready to blow out the candle!!

(He wanted an umbrella so bad- thanks Bernard Family)
Justin came up with this really cute scavenger hunt. Each time they found a clue, there was a treasure with it (sword, necklace, eye patch, etc.) and then the final clue led to the treasure chest filled with candy. Justin hid the chest up on the high ledge and once the kids figured it out, he let Tyson go up to get it. He was so excited!!!

They found the loot!!

Ok so I am embarrassed to say this but Tyson had a binky until the day he turned 3. He mostly had it at nap and bedtime and times when he got hurt or just need the "comfort" of it. Ok so I needed him to have it sometimes. But we had been telling him a for 3 motnhs before his birthday that when he was 3 he wouldn't need a binky cause he was a big boy. So being into pirates, Justin got the idea to let Tyson sink his binkies like pirates sink things. He found an anchor thing and tied Tyson's binkies to it then before his party, Justin took the kids to the canal and Tyson sunk his binkies. He had a few crying episodes over that next week but did surprisingly well for having had a binky for 3 years. Now that he is potty trained, binky-free and in preschool (he is in a great preschool program through the elementary school where he also gets speech help), my baby is not a baby anymore. However, that does not mean that I am ready for another/final baby quite yet.

Easter Morning

A qiuck family photo

Pretty cute kiddos huh?!?!

In their pj's from the Easter Bunny

Well I am sure you've seen enough pictures to kill a camel. With the craziness of moving, cleaning and unpacking, I am a bit exhausted so in a few more days I'll post cakes contest and field trip pictures, etc. All the fun stuff had to be put on the back burner so I am excited now that life is settling down a bit, to be able to hop on everyones blogs and see what you all are up to.

Wow it's been awhile. Well, we were out our computer for almost 2 weeks while away getting fixed, then we were in Spokane, got sick while we were gone and for the first few days after we got home, then had all the catch up to do from being away, sick kids, and all the other crazy things we are constanly doing, and so that's my excuse!! So I'm fore-warning, there are a lot of pictures from our little trip and this was posted at 2:30am so sorry for any typo's- I am tired!!

We went to this museum in Yakima, WA with my mom and sister Sarah and it had this fun kids play room. There was a train car, old school room, little store/kitchen, etc. My sister and I had as much fun playing as Katelyn and Tyson did (Logan was geocaching with Justin).

That evening, my dad, who is a currently a bus driver, took Logan and Tyson to see his bus. Tyson had so much fun pulling the airhorn and was excited to get on a bus (since Logan get to ride the bus to school and he doesn't).

My sister Karoline leaving for the school dance...

So we were at my parents for 2 days then headed to Spokane. A few things we did while in Spokane: had a playdate with some of my wonderful friends and their kiddos and then went by the YMCA (where I used to work) and said hi to some friends. We had dinner with Justin's bestfriend Matt and his wife Megan who were so wonderful to let us stay with them for 2 nights, again. Katelyn and Logan had a sleepover with their cousins Taylor and Gavin and then we had a birthday dinner with Justin's family and got to see our new twin niece and nephew, who are so cute. Finally, we headed out to Cheney, where I grew up, and had dinner with my brothers family and my grandparents and then stayed the last night there before heading home. Unfortunately I was sick for 4 of the 5 1/2 days we were gone, so besides feeling miserable, we had a good time and loved seeing everyone!!

Our little ninjas. Katelyn with Heathers twins (Ava & Connor).

The kids with their Grandma & Grandpa Great (my poor grandma had just had knee surgery that week.

Katelyn with her cousins Kiersten and John, being computer nerds!!!

Computer Problems

I never really knew how much I relied on the computer until the last 2 weeks of ours not working well. I'll be in the middle of something and it freezes on me and that is just the minor of its problems. Luckily our warrantly doesn't expire for a couple weeks so we're sending it in to get fixed. It will be a long 2 weeks without it but I promise to have a decent post when we're back up and running.

Other than computer problems and a non-stop schedule, we are doing great. The store is doing amazing, which is such a blessing in our current economy. January is typically a slower month for Plato's Closets but we were still up almost 20% from last January. Every year there is a Platos Closet convention and this May it will be in Orlando. We are looking forward to getting away and my sister Karen will be home from her mission in March, so she will be our nanny for the 6 days we are gone.

Next week the kids have a 4 day weekend so we are going to leave to my parents after school on Thursday and then go on to Spokane on Saturday, where we will get to see more family and friends. We are so excited to see our new twin niece and nephew who were born in October. They were born 2 months early (but are doing really well) so they still should be tiny. The kids will only have to miss one day of school and will be well worth it. We are praying that the weather will cooperate so we can make it (since we didn't get to for Christmas).

I hope you all are well and I can't wait to hop on everyones blogs when our computer is back and functioning right.

Dec. Activities/Christmas Pictures

It has been another crazy month of December and knowing my record, I am actually impressed that this is posted only 5 days after Christmas. It has been a fun-filled month but also included stress, snow, and celebrating the birth of our Savior. For the last 3 or 4 months we'd been planning on going to Spokane for the 5 days before Christmas and then leave from there on Christmas Eve to go to Zillah, WA (where my parents live). Although it was a hard decision, we canceled our plans because of all the snow that had come to Spokane and all the cities we have to travel though to get there. It was a good choice because Spokane was basically closed down. Hospitals canceled all non-life threatening surgeries, half the roads were closed, and tons of businesses where closed. The got 3 feet of snow in 2 days and yesterday my mother-in-law called and told us that they broke a record for the record known to Spokane. 5 feet of snow in less than 2 weeks! Roofs on stores, garages and homes are collapsing and they are running out of room to pile the snow. And more snow is coming on and off all week. Did I mention we made a good choice not to go and after the last 2 winters Spokane has had, we moved away at the right time (even though we miss all our family and friends)!!

So here are a TON of pictures of some of our activities from the month.

This was at our ward Christmas Party: Katelyn was a cow (yes a cow-kinda mean if you ask me lol) but was cute, Logan was one of the shepherds, and the cute donkey was our little friend Paxton. I was sad there was not a visit from Santa this year but we still had a good time.

Our friends, the Bernards, came with us.

Tyson and friends Rilynn and Paxton

Logan with his bud Ethan

This was Katelyn at her school winter program. The kids all had parts from the 12 days of Christmas.

Our school has an award that is given by each teacher each month for a certain character trait. The teacher picks 1 boy and 1 girl from their class that they think shows that trait and then they get to go to the school on the last Friday of the month and have breakfast and get their award. Well it happened that Katelyn and Logan both got chosen for the month of Dec. The trait was compassion and kindness, so of course I was so proud of them but it would be wonderful to see it more from them here at home (lol). Oh famiilies were invited for breakfast so we were up and at school at 8:20am.

Then that afternoon we headed back to school for Katelyn's classroom party since parents and little siblings were invited. It was pajama day so all the kids were in their pjs. We had fun making little gingerbread houses with her class.

The results of our gingerbread house (a great buy from Costco that we put together for FHE)...

Christmas Eve

Since moving to Boise, the kids have taken a liking to the orange and blue pride of BSU, so we got them each a shirt.
Katelyn and Logan got Heeley's (the shoe's with the wheels). We got katelyn's for just $9.00 at the Mervyn's going out of business sale. Regularly $65.00. Just can't beat that!!!

We decorated/ate sugar cookies as part of the evening festivities and then left out a few cookies and some milk for Santa (we didn't forget about the reindeer, we left carrots for them).

This below is crown bread and it is a tradition in my family. My mom made this for Christmas morning(and still does-which we would of had with them if we had been able to go) for as long as I can remember. So the last 2 yrs. I have made it for us and I think it turned out great!! Oh this is what we found from Santa when we woke up (an empty plate and a cute letter).

Christmas Morning

Tyson got the "big choo choo" he'd been wanting for awhile now.

Logan and katelyn got clothes from build-a-bear, which they asked for and Katelyn got her easy bake oven. The picture of Tyson with the camera stand: it was so funny, he kept pretending to take pictures and would say "cheese". A little later, he sat on the floor and would say "hohoho" and tell us to come sit on his lap and then (as best as he can), would ask us what we wanted for Christmas. It was so cute.

Just some fun pictures through out the day.

I love these 2 pictures!!!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a safe and fun New Year's too!! Family, we hope the weather will be better when we attempt to visit in February cause we can't wait to see you all.