Spring Break: Day 1

I am determined to make this Spring Break an exciting one.  We never make plans ahead of time, and we rarely do anything real special.  So I wanted this one to be different!
So for our first day, Nate's day off too, we went bowling!  SO. MUCH. FUN.  Everyone was so cheerful the whole time (well, except Lukey until he started scoring better :) he takes it very seriously), even Erika got into it, which surprised me, we had a really good time!

I love watching them lean when they want the ball to go a certain way... so cute.

We had two lanes, the first lane was the four older kids, and the second was the two littles and Nate and I.  Whoever thought to do that is a genius!  Brilliant!  I'm sure it was my genius husband.  Bradley was cheering everyone on for the first little while, so sweet!  Really set the mood for everyone else to cheer for each other and get excited about it.  

Noah, Luke and Nate all got strikes really early on!  I couldn't believe how well everyone was doing the whole time!!  Nate of course got several more, but gees!  Nothing like making me look bad! :)

Erika squealed with excitement every time it was her turn and then came hopping back to her seat when it was over... so cute!  I can't believe how grown up she seemed there!

The "big" kids were a little torn between wanting to use the ramp and wanting to tough it out and bowl the right way.  It was cool to watch Bradley bowl like a big kid.  He did so good!  

Noah took this pretty seriously too, and watched intently til it was his turn, jumped up bowled, then came running back to me for a jumping High 5!  He did amazing!

Everyone took a turn with the camera, which I loved!  I like seeing what everyone else sees.  These ones Nate took.... I thought they were cool...

Erika loved letting the air blow on her face and hair :)

We all had matching shoes, but I didn't notice that until after I'd gotten all excited about matching with Noah and Luke.  I so wish we'd taken one of everyone's shoes together :)  That would just be cute :)

Kelly was tough too!  No ramp for her!  She did really well, and took some awesome pictures!

I love watching them watch :)  And cheer for themselves after each bowl.

So here are the final scores for our lane....

Noah 97

Erika 82

Me 84 (that's right, only two more than the baby)

Nate 159

Here's Luke's strike on his last frame!!!  AMAZING!! He wowed us all!  And finished in second place because of it!

Here's how their lane ended:

Charity 79

Kelly 79

Bradl(e)y 86

Luke 105

Everyone did so well!!  And we had so much fun!  I love when family outings go so well.  It doesn't happen like this everyday.  So I was very grateful. 

Then we headed on over to Applebee's for some cheap kids meals :).  Good times there as well.  Even though Lukey totally biffed it in the bathroom.

Not the best picture, but so fun!!!  I had to keep it!

We stopped at the pet store to get some things for Buddy and the kids had a lot of fun there as well.  Who knew the puppy toy aisle could be as exciting as the kid toy aisles!!  They were excited to spoil Buddy.
Everyone had friends over when we got home, and then for FHE, Charity chose to go to a movie.  So we loaded everyone into the car (including Kelly's friend Lydia who had just showed up) and went to see the Lorax!  Cute movie!  They all loved it and it kept everyone's attention really well!  I loved hearing Noah's commentary on the movie and Luke's giggles throughout.  Erika did well, even though she was in and out of her seat and on my lap, and out to the bathroom.... she did so much better than even a few months ago, so that is nice.  It's so fun to be at a stage where everyone can go, and everyone has fun!  Priceless.
For our treat, Luke chose Baskin Robbins ice cream.  They love that place :)  Nate gave in... and we all enjoyed our ice cream cones :).  Good times!!
I'd say day 1 was a success :).

Priesthood Session/Easter Party

This year, we had the Maynes Family Easter Party in between the afternoon session of conference, and the Priesthood Session.  I thought it was great!  The kids did their egg hunt, and had their fun games, and then the men left, came back, and we had ice cream with homemade hot fudge!  Great fun!  I took TONS of pictures....

I think this is when the big kids were hiding the eggs...

The little ones find them!

Charity was such a good helper with Erika, they looked so cute together.

Kelly's basket was overflowing and so was her shirt!

Jen always makes a point to play with Erika.  It's cute.  This time it was dominoes.

Jarom and Noah pushing Sam, Hunter and Luke on the swing.

The traditional picture of all the men before they leave.  I wonder when I will get the right to have them look at my camera for this picture ;).... it's crazy how many there are now!

We missed Grandpa Russ.  Hopefully he keeps recovering well.

Thursday at the Church Field

Thursdays are interesting days for me.  I have Nate home with me during the day for the first 3 days of the work week.  So Wednesday night, I'm single mom for the evening, and then we wake up with.... just Mom.  It's embarrassing that this still has a negative effect on me, but.... I'm working on it!  This particular Thursday, we decided to carry on with some of the fun things we would normally do when Daddy is home.... just to keep some consistency.  Thursday is normally my cleaning day (the day to recover from the rest of the week, catch up on laundry... you know), so the kids get really pent up.  So a walk with Buddy really is a great thing and I'm thinking with the weather changing, this will just have to be part of our routine.  

Erika and Noah LOVE to go up to the church field.  I'm not really sure what the appeal is, but I'm not going to complain.  Free room to roam around and just do as you please.  Erika loves to roll down the hill, they both love chasing and being chased by Buddy.  It's just a great time, and a good chance to wear some kids and a puppy out.  

I was happy to have my camera there, and you should be happy that I only put this many on here... as you can imagine, I had TONS....

This was right before the tipped the whole stroller over.  Funny because Noah immediately harps on Erika for standing on the stroller and how "you shouldn't do that!".... apparently he forgot that he was standing on it too :).... funny boy.  3-29-12

The Funnies

I just love being able to look back on these and having another good laugh....

At the end of the prayer, instead of "amen", Noah said, "Mom! did did you see how far I flicked my booger!!  It was like neeeerrrrrrrrrrr, all the way to here!"

Erika and Noah playing with the dog:
E: He has a funny bewwy button. (giggles)
N: Ewika, that's not his bewwy button, dat's his penis!  Bewwy buttons don't wook wike dat, only penis do!


Noah: Mom, why is it called 'cloud'
Me: I don't know, that's a good question, I don't know where they got that name.
Noah: I DO!  (making big cloud motions with his hands) It's because they're made of bananas and other white stuff!
huh?


Luke: It took me SIX YEARS to turn SIX!
(pretty smart if you ask me :) )

Erika saw a harness for a small dog in the pet store, and announced excitedly, "Mom, you have one of those!"  I figured out she was talking about my bra.  Same color and everything.  So funny.  What a cute little girl!

Journaling

- One of my responsibilities as first counselor in the Primary is to take a Primary class to the Care Center in our Stake, one Sunday a year, to teach a Sharing Time lesson.  This Sunday was our big day.  I chose Charity's class based on who had been in years past, and who I thought would be old enough to handle it.  It can be very overwhelming.  I also brought Kelly and Bradley with us, since they made our group bigger, and because I knew they would enjoy it.  The kids were nervous, but they did such a great job.  Most of them participated most of the time.  It's hard to not stare, but they really were good about it.  Charity and Kelly made me proud because they were not too scared to sit among the residents.  I liked that.  They were so brave.
I have to echo Stephanie Jones when I say, it is incredible to think about how different everyone's life is.  How Heavenly Father has mapped out a different course for every single one of his children.  These people who spend their lives in a Care Center like that, hooked to all kinds of machines, unable to speak, or care for themselves.... it's just incredible.  I wonder what kinds of things they experience in opposition to that.  Not to sound weird or anything, but there is opposition in all things.  So I wonder what positive they have to counter that negative.  Just a thought.
It was strange to me to realize that some of those people have been there since I was in Young Women's and went there with my ward growing up.  Unbelievable.
It was a neat experience.  I'm grateful my kids were able to participate, I'm grateful I was able to participate, and I can't wait til the next time.

- I had a crazy incident with the car on Wednesday.  It's a long story, but it involved me, slamming my hand in the car door that doesn't open from the outside, while parked outside of the school, with no cell phone or other way to open the door.  Let me just say, it was interesting.  Luckily I was able to pull the top of the door open a little, and squeeze my hand out.  It was painful, embarrassing, and well.... I hope we get that door handle fixed before it happens again. 3-28-12

- I felt really prepared for Conference this time.  Had our packets printed, bingo cards colored and laminated, coloring pages, with crayons, colored pencils, markers handy.... we were SET!  We decided to try a game I heard in a talk in Sacrament meeting about assigning a topic to different bowls of snacks and each time you hear the word, or topic or whatever, you get a snack from that bowl.  It was fun.  We went all out and got some really fun things at Costco for this game.  And I think I would still do this again, but I need to come up with a way to make it a little more reverent..... it just was a lot of up and down at some parts, and whining about when they are going to say the words at other parts.  But overall, my kids did GREAT!!  For all four sessions.  We missed the girls on Sunday, they were at their cousins' houses, so they didn't get to join in on the traditional creamed eggs on toast breakfast, or the goodies, and prizes for Bingo.  But all was well.  We enjoyed Enoch' company instead.  I loved conference.  I can't wait to watch it all again, thanks to the dvr.  I needed to hear a lot of it!  I think Elder Packer's talk was my most favorite though, and it totally felt like an answer to my recent prayers.  I love it when the Spirit goes, "There you go!!  That's it!!  That's what you've been needing!!!  Tell Heavenly Father thank you, and move past it and be better!!!"  It was lovely.  3-31-12

- I'm really disappointed with my April Fool's performance this year.  It's depressing to me, how little I do anymore.  I need to convince Nate that he misses being pranked, because it really puts a damper on my pleasure when I know how much he hates it.... Better luck next year.  4-1-12

- Sunday, right before conference, we convinced Noah to let us attempt to freeze his wart off.  It was horrible!  He screamed bloody murder.  I wanted to cry, but I wanted to leave it on long enough to be worth it!  It was sad.  And it better work.  4-1-12