Chocoholic

So our friends made us these yummy cookies, as soon as she walked in the door with them Brody smelled sugar and begged for one. When I gave one to him he took the hershey kiss and dropped the cookie. He continued to beg for more, but I put them on the table thinking they were out of his reach. I came back into the room about 2 minutes later to find Brody on the table and these bites out of the chocolate:)

Spring Break 2010

When it's 50 degrees outside and mom and dad tell you don't go in the fountain...

You should listen!!!

Playing dress up at the church museum at temple square

Little shepherds

We had never taken our kids to temple square, so we went to Utah for spring break to visit our cousins who are about to move to Georgia :( and to see temple square.


but first we stopped at the olympic park in park city (She's pretending she's flying down the course at 90 miles an hour)

Ryan had a very long (3 hour) conference call on our last day with our cousins, so my sister Shelly and I loaded all 7 kids into their suburban and took off for Ikea:) I was not impressed with Ikea the first time we went (a year ago) - but this time I appreciated it a little bit more :)

We spent our last night in Utah with Ryan's grandma and grandpa. Brody kept walking up to grandpa and giving him "5" and then "knuckles" It was good to see them. It was a quick visit, since it was supposed to start snowing in the mountains that afternoon we got an early start so we missed it. We'll have to go in the summer next time:)

We got back on Wednesday because Ryan had a big meeting Thursday morning. So we spent the rest of break making this. We hauled out about 11,000 tons of dirt (only a slight exaggeration) so we could put rocks under the swingset. Now the kids don't track mud inside:) (just little tiny rocks!)

Happy Birthday Max!!!

Headed to the nuggets game:)

Max was so excited to turn 4, he counted down for 3 weeks! All day long on his birthday, wherever we went, he told whoever we saw that he was 4! Here are a few facts about Max: He is a ham. Max tries to make everyone laugh, most of the time going overboard:) The other day Max was in time out for doing something naughty (something that happens a lot lately!). He whined for about 1/2 a second, then said to himself "that was the funniest thing I ever did!" Today we went to the baptism of some friends in the ward and Max was AWFUL. So on the way home I was explaining that he would have some quiet time and said "the way you acted was unacceptable" to which Max replied "that was Awesome!"
Max already is a little bit of a ladies man, with a decided preference for blondes. We were watching a show one day and there were a few girls on the screen, Max said "I like that one" pointing to the only blonde! He loves sports, especially baseball. Ryan took him to a Nuggets game for his birthday, he loved it:) He loves his sisters - he calls them "my girls" (as in "Dad, where's my girls") He's a good big brother to Brody too, he loves to wrestle and play with him.
Max has such excitement for everything! He is a happy kid who brings a lot of sunshine into our lives.

Karate!!!

Riley had her first ever karate tournament. She had a blast, even taking 2nd place in one event. It was a relay - they ran through and demonstrated how to break out of 4 different holds. It was worth being in Greeley by 8 am:) Karate has been so good for Riley - she always comes home excited and she has really come out of her shell since starting (kindergarten has a little to do with that too I think).

Poor baby!!!

So Sunday morning poor Brody got 5 stitches under his lip. We think he climbed up on the changing table and fell off , but nobody was in the bedroom with him. He's never climbed on the changing table before, but he climbes on the toy boxes next to it a lot and anything else there is to climb. His newest favorite thing is getting up on top of the table. The stitches doen't seem to bother him, but he has had a hard time sleeping through the night this week. I'm just glad we have a children's hospital satellite just down the street!

Riley's Ipod

Riley wanted an ipod, so we told her if she worked hard and saved half the money she could get one. It took her 3 months, and she worked hard (asking every day what other chores she could do to earn money) and saved like crazy and here is the result!!!

Making chocolate chip marshmallow pancakes!

I love no school days!!!!

Naughty Max

Max was being naughty recently while we were trying to read scriptures, so he was sent to his room. When we went to get him out a few minutes later this is what we found...

Max loves the Buffaloes!

Ryan took Max to a CU Buffaloes basketball game a few weeks ago. Max L-O-V-E-D it!!! He got a buffalo tattoo from the cheerleaders, he got candy and gatorade, he brought posters home - everything that makes a 3-year-olds night perfect. When they got home Max fell asleep with the program in his hand. He has a yellow shirt with brown around the neck and arms (CU colors) that he now calls his "buffaloes shirt". I think they have a new fan!!!

Making Chocolate Cupcakes with Dad

Impatient

Max asked me to get him a piece of cheese, I told him I would in a minute. When I went to cut him a piece I found that he didn't want to wait a minute:)

"Earth-Friendly" Iceskating

Over Christmas break we went to the outdoor mall by our house, that has an "earth-friendly" iceskating rink (insert huge eyeroll here)! Earth-friendly means some plywood coated w/ some sort of plastic that is impossible to skate on. It was cold but the girls had fun. Max doesn't have much tolerance for cold, and poor Brody couldn't move he was so bundled up, so Ryan and I took turns "skating" w/ the kids and taking Brody into stores to get warm -- good times:).

Emma

Emma played basketball again this year, and Ryan was one of her coaches again (that's how we bribe her to play:)) She seemed to have a lot of fun, (she won't admit how much fun she has - already a teenager!) and she placed first in her age group in the Denver Nuggets Basketball Challenge. (Way to go Emma!!!) This year was the first that boys and girls were seperated and that they kept score. They also had regular 10 foot baskets, which were super tall!!! I'm impressed they made any baskets at all! Some of the games were about an hour away, but we got to see (and smell) towns that we never knew existed in Colorado:) They won one game, and when they lost it didn't really bother any of the girls:) It was fun to watch, so hopefully she'll do it again next year!

Karate girl

Riley started taking karate this fall and she LOVES it:) 2 weeks ago she got her "full splits" patch, which means she can do the splits both ways! Way to go Riley:)

Little Drummer Boy

Christmas Day

So Emma must have gotten up around 3, because by 3:30 she had been down to see the presents, gotten Riley up and taken her down to see the presents, and come to our room to tell us "It's Christmas, let's go open presents!" (even tho we threatened to take presents away if they got up before 6:30)! So after threatening life and limb we got the girls to at least go to one of their rooms to play. They did fall asleep at some point, and at 6:30 this is what we woke up to:) Which is better than last year, they let us sleep until 7:00, but they had been downstairs playing with their "Santa" presents for about an hour! I told Ryan, if Emma ever has the nerve to wake all the kids up at 3:30 we should just get up and open presents - in the interest of making memories:)

North Pole

Grandma was the only adult who could handle the tilt a whirl!!!

2nd Annual Christmas Eve dinner under the Christmas tree!

Woo Hoo!!!

Max is not allowed to stand up to use the bathroom at home (I'm sure you can understand why!). So we were in a public bathroom the other day and I told him "since we are in a public bathroom I want you to stand up to go." A few seconds later, from the other side of the door, I hear "Woo Hoo - Great shot!" Maybe he would be ok standing up at home...

Brody turns 1!!

Brody turned 1 the day after Riley's birthday, so he got a little gyped, but he doesn't care:) He was a little unsure about presents, so the older kids took over to show him what's up. Brody is such a laid-back baby, he's pretty content just crawling around and playing. He loves to play catch, if he finds a ball he will play catch with himself, throwing the ball and crawling as fast as he can to grab it. He's also very righteous - "amen" was his first word:) He says "mom", "dad", "amen" and "baby". He is super smiley and snuggly - he gives the best hugs! If we could just get his sleeping down he might just be the perfect baby!! Happy birthday Brody!!!