Hummingbirds

We watch these birds daily, I fill the feeder weekly! The boys like it best when they dive bomb each other, typical! It is crazy how fast their wings move. This morning we had 4 hummingbirds all at once. We were really excited, and with all the excitement there was to much noise for me to step out on the patio and take a picture, again typical! :) I waited until they went with their dad to the ball field, I can be a lot quieter!

 These little birds play a big part of our daily life. 

Daily Life

Addie is always so happy when she wakes up from her nap. She usually will just lay in her crib and talk to herself until I go in to get her. When I walk in her room I will raise my arms and   call her my Binda, Binda! I don't even know where that name came from or what it means, I only use it when I go to get her out of her crib. Yesterday she was especially happy so I had to capture it. 

On Tuesdays and Friday's Preston gets to hang with me while Landon is at school. When Landon is home they are both usually together in the playroom, their room, or outside riding their scooters etc.  Preston by himself is another story, he is my shadow! He wants me to be with him at all times! Yesterday I was getting a little frustrated, then realized next school year he will be going to school everyday, and soon he won't want to hang with his mom. I tried to change my attitude, these are the moments, right?! 

I am going to start trying to capture my daily life. These posts will show the good, the bad and the DIRTY! I know it might not be to exciting, because frankly I do the same things over and over and over everyday!  It's the simple things we do that make us who we are and I want to remember the simple moments! Just like this photo of Addie playing with her deflated birthday balloons, this reminds me of pure happiness. Now the pictures of the mounds of laundry and unmatched socks that will have the adjective AGONY! I really hope I can capture what our household does each day. 

29 and Holding!

Wednesday was my 29th birthday. From what I hear it's H**L to get old, but if I could have a day like that again...I would turn 30 tomorrow!! :) Gavin sent me flowers, which was so sweet! He took me to lunch and bought me a... 

IPOD Touch! 

Then my dad and mom watched the kids later that evening so Gavin and I could dinner ALONE! When we arrived at dinner we saw Gretchen, Dave and family were at Texas Roadhouse too. Dave and I share a birthday, so we got to ride the saddle together. (I rode, he stood next to me and laughed! That was fun!) SUPER totally describes my day, thanks everyone for the birthday wishes, gifts and nice notes. It totally made me feel LOVED!    

A Happy Family!

A couple weeks ago, my family got together before Christie, Brian and Mykell moved to Oklahoma. We finally took some real family pictures. I think they turned out great. I love each one of the people in these picture SO MUCH and I know they love me too! That is what makes us, like the primary song says "a happy family!" 

Addie's Party was so FUN! Here are a few pictures, from her big day. 

Loves that Baby!! 

 It was so fun to use pink and purple frosting!!

She ate her cake really lady like. She didn't really get any on her shirt! 

Happy Birthday Addie!

I can't believe Addie is ONE today! Where did the year go? As I look back and think, exactly one year ago, I was pregnant and waiting for the hospital call. Finally about 1:30 pm they called and said I could come in at 2:00 pm. We were so excited! I had B strep so after having the antibotics in my system for 4 hours I got the PIT at 6:00 pm and Addie was here at 8:48 pm. It was a long day, but a great one. There have been so many fun and sweet memories with Addie, I am truly thankful each day that she is apart of the family! She is such a blessing. Here are a few pictures of Ad's throughout her first year.... 

Sucking the thumb, with her favorite blankie! She started sucking her thumb at about 2 months, I TRIED to giver her a binkie. She didn't buy it, the thumb was a lot better. Now we can just hold the blankie up, and she will put her thumb in her mouth. Like we say, it is cute now, but in Kindergarten it might not be so cute! Oh well, we love our thumb sucker! 

6 Months

Sitting in the Bumbo...

Halloween, Garrett took this picture on his phone, I think she has the cutest smile in it. 

Crawling at Christmas. 

Shopping with Me! She is my sidekick, we go everywhere together! She is a great little shopper!! 

Easter, hanging with her dad while the kids were out egg hunting. She has her dad wrapped around her finger! He loves her to pieces! 

1 Year old and starting to walk! 

Addie, we love you so much. You are a light and a joy! Happy 1st Birthday!! Now lets go eat some cake!! 

Egg Bust!

Here is another one of those weird Santa Clara traditions... the Egg Bust! On Easter morning (Sunday) at about 8:00ish friends and neighbors meet on the corner of Victor Street and Santa Clara Drive to have the traditional Egg Bust.

As you can see from the pictures, each person has their boiled egg. They first hit either the big end or the "pointy" end of the egg, then turn the egg over and hit again. Which ever egg doesn't crack is the winner! The losing egg must be given to the winner. We came home with about the same amount of eggs as we started with, so we did pretty good! I remember one year Landon had a really stout egg and ended up with a extra two dozen eggs, you would have thought he won the lottery! Who needs easter presents when you can go to the corner and win boiled eggs?! 

Speaking of Easter presents, all the kids received Sunday clothes from the Easter bunny. We were in a hurry to get to the Egg Bust so I forgot to take a picture and then we were in a hurry for church (typical) and I didn't take a picture then either. So, you'll just have to trust me, they all looked very cute! 

Jake received the priesthood on Sunday too. I can't believe he will be passing the Sacrament next week. He is really growing up and turning into a great young man. A real role model for my boys. We had dinner at Grandpa Dennis' after church. His new house and BIG table held all the troops great. After dinner we had a Dance contest with the kids, it was funny! Brooklyn won, go figure! 

All in all Easter was a great day! I am so thankful that we have a chance to celebrate Christ's atonement and resurrection. Repentance and the opportunity to live again with family and him someday is such an incredible gift. I hope you all had a happy Easter!

Easter Fun!

Saturday was a fun busy day. We went to the Santa Clara Easter Egg Hunt at 9:00 am and got a little rained on, but still had fun. Then Gavin and I went were lucky enough to be invited to Jake and Stephanie's temple sealing. What an incredible experience, to see their family in the sealing room all in white really was like heaven on earth. I am so thankful for the sealing ordinance and that my family can be together forever. 

Landon and Preston stayed with all the cousin's at the Lasswell's! Preston really had a great weekend with Callum, he informed me that Callum was his BEST friend! I am so glad he had a friend to play with for a few days, there really isn't any boys his age around our neighborhood. So he either has to hang with his mom... or play with Landon and his friends, that is if Landon lets him! Anyway, Callum and Preston played great together and had a lot of fun! 

We had an Easter Egg Hunt out in front of Uncle and Aunties. It was later in the afternoon, the weather turned out great, and the boys were all thrilled to find treasure's beyond measure!!

Coloring Eggs

There are a few traditions that Gavin and I have in common one of them is coloring Easter eggs the Swiss way.  It is not your typical method... it takes a little more work, but the result is always beautiful! 

Start with raw eggs (farm eggs take on the colors a lot better than store bought) and wrap them with flowers, weeds, leaves etc... 

Boil in Red Root (root of a weed) or onion skins for 20 minutes. 

Unwrap.... 

and ta da!! Swiss Easter Eggs! 

This year after we had finished cooking the eggs, Garrett decided we needed to start our own family egg busting tradition. I will be happy to announce that my egg was the stoutest! 

Let the Games Begin!

Landon is playing in the Little League in the machine pitch league this year. He had his first game on Friday. He did great! He got a hit and made some great plays in the field. He is awesome ball player, I couldn't be prouder! 

Preston had his first Game of T-Ball last Tuesday! He did super! He got a hit and as you can see from the pictures blew bubbles while he was running the bases. He also did awesome in the field! He was scooping up balls left and right. Good Job Preston, we are looking forward to a great season.