Happy Birthday Kirk!

Today Kirk turned...well, let's just say he's a year older. Anyone brave enough to guess how OLD he is now? :-) When I got up this morning he was gone and I figured he was at the gym, but come to find out he was at the church building helping out in the cleaning. What a guy! He then got in his beloved workout at the gym. Then we headed over to his parents house who only live about 20 minutes from here to meet up with his brother and family for lunch. We had a really nice day visiting and eating. Kirk and his brother took the kids over to hit balls at the local range. Justin has been going with Kirk for a few years now and his form has improved a great deal. Avery just started this past year and really enjoys herself. We may have to explain the difference of baseball and golf again. Ha. It was very HOT today (around low or mid 90's), but they still had a great time. We headed home after they got back and the kids cooled off in the backyard blow-up pool. It was a very nice day. Happy birthday Kirk!

Creative Hat

Imagine my amusement when I picked up Avery from preschool and she and about 8 other children walked out in similar hats. She said she had a really fun time making this and I know how proud she is of it because yesterday on our way home after school she was trying to explain the flowers on it and how they made them. She told me how much I will love it and she was right!

SPRING IS HERE!

It must be spring because I got in the mood to garden. I'm not a huge gardener, but I do get the itch every Spring. This year I was determined to plant tomatoes. So, today Avery and I got started only to get held up by the incredibly hard dirt that I couldn't dig in. Yes, I'm weak. I admit it. Kirk to the rescue. We needed his muscles bad. What took me 1/2 hour to do took him only 5 minutes to finish. I was surprised at how much Avery enjoyed herself. She really got into it. Now we get to feed it and watch (and hopefully eat) the fruits of our labor.

Getting started. The finished project.

Family Get-together

Saturday was our yearly "Spring Fling" with all my cousins, aunts and uncles on my mom's side that live in California. This year it was hosted by my cousin Ken and his wife that live in Yucaipa. Kirk couldn't make it this year because he had a weekend class to attend to prepare him to take his electrical license test soon. It was a very fun day, although a hot one, playing badmitten and visiting with my wonderful family. I feel so lucky to have such a loving group of family around me. I prepared a lesson for my young women that I teach at church a couple of weeks ago that was on the blessings of extended family. I know, first hand, what a blessing it is to have extended members of my family that keep in touch. We get together every Christmas season too. Usually at that time we are lucky to have more family from Utah join us as well. I have wonderful cousins that I love dearly and am grateful my children are growing up knowing them too and hope that this tradition of these great get-togethers will continue even after Kirk and I are gone. Here are some fun moments of our day. I was pretty busy chasing Devin around making sure he wasn't going to tear their house apart, so I wasn't able to get a whole lot of pictures, but at least I got a couple.


I had to put this bottom one in of just my kids. I took it as we were walking out the door to leave. Devin hates having to pose for pictures, but at least he sat and let me do it.

Sea World

We had a fantastic opportunity to go to Sea World on Saturday, thanks to our wonderful family. Now we get to go all year long whenever we want to! The weather was perfect and we had a great time together. It's times like these that help build memories and make us closer as a family. You know, I complain a lot about the year round sun, but there's a lot to be said for living in Southern California. Since November we have been to the San Diego Zoo, Disneyland and now Sea World. And Justin was able to go to Legoland last month on a field trip for school. Let's not forget about the Wild Animal Park and Knott's Berry Farm that are at our finger tips as well. Then there's the small fact (said sarcastically) of having 4 temples all within an hour to an hour and a half's drive from us. Yes, we are blessed to live here and enjoy the things it has to offer. I will remember that the next hot, sunny winter day when I'm wishing for cooler weather. :-)

HAPPY EASTER

What a wonderful Easter we had! After getting up at a much too early 6:45 (kids were warned not to wake us until 7:00, but Avery can't tell time yet, so really not too bad) and got decent enough to make our way downstairs to see what the Easter Bunny had left the kids. They love it because on this day and Christmas morning we allow them to eat candy either for breakfast or before. This morning they opted for sausage after having a bit of candy first. The Easter Bunny was very generous with them and they were very happy with what they were given.

We headed off to church at 8:10 and made the kids wait to do the Easter egg hunt in the backyard until we got home from church. Hence the nice attire searching for eggs. This year the Easter Bunny hid 80 eggs. 80! They had a great time trying to find them all.

Shortly after we were done with that our fabulous friends, the Bayless' and the Benedict's joined us and we had a yummy barbecue.

How many people does it take to barbecue hamburgers and hot dogs? Looks like quite a bit! :-)

The kids had such a great time together! It was a very warm...uh, I guess more like hot, day and the egg hunt was quit a job. Yep, our kids got to do another egg hunt. Too fun! We really did have a wonderful time. Thank you Bayless' and Benedict's for coming (if you're reading this).

Coloring Eggs

Devin's feeling good and we took advantage of it by coloring Easter eggs. The kids just love this tradition. It's a smelly one, but a great time. :-)

Devin's first year of helping out and he loved it!

Calling all diaper rash remedies

Sickness strikes again in our house. Devin came down with the stomach flu Friday morning. He's been running a temperature of around 103 and is not a happy camper. Hasn't this little guy been through enough? He had only been home from the hospital 1 week when this came on. Poor baby. And I'll just throw in that Tuesday I took him for his follow-up visit to the doctor and brought Avery to sneak her in for an asthma exam. He's a great doctor and checked her lungs and prescribed an inhaler for her without an official visit. Then only 6 short hours later (after the doctor's office was closed, of course) she was crying about her ears. Off to the urgent care Kirk went (the good daddy that he is) and she had double ear infections. Now she's got the fever off and on with Devin. What's up?! Anyway, I'm writing this in hopes that all you experienced parents will tell me what has worked best on diaper rashes. Devin's tummy has definitely made a mess of his poor blistered bottom and he's in a lot of pain. They are about to bleed. It's really awful! Avery had some bad diaper rashes, but this one takes the cake for sure. Like feeling horrible isn't enough? No fair for a toddler his age.