Art Festival...

After our Easter Egg hunt we headed over to the

Arts Festival in downtown St. George.

Lots of cool art to look at.

A whole area just for kids. Crafts, face painting, chalk art.

When we first got there Cody was complaining about how dumb this was

and that he didn't even want to be there.

By the time we left he was the most excited about the whole event

and kept telling us how awesome it was! 

Here are some fun pictures of the things we did at the festival.

Helping the boys make bookmarks.

Green glitter glue with some glitter sprinkled on top! Nice choice!

Cody got really creative and used 3 sticks!

This kid was amazing with all these hoops.

Every time we would all clap Crew would get really excited and clap right along with us.

Here we all are enjoying the white Indian hoop guy!

These fountains were so awesome. Landen loved counting all the copper leaves and showing me the path the water would take. He was very into it. Too bad I didn't get a pic of him!

The guy who sold these bells would let the kids take the mallet and ring all of them. This made his booth a big hit! 

Some cool chalk art.

Landen loved watching the dogs. Every time we saw a dog he would ask me if I saw that cute little dog? :)

Cody working on another craft.

This craft was fun. It was a peacock and they had tons of feathers and legumes to glue all over it.

Crew & Landen making some of their own chalk art.

Crew's artistic talent! Love the abstract lines. :)

Grandpa teaching Crew to rock climb. Landen on a free climb.

Crew was cracking Grandpa up with all his clapping.

Cody wanted to get his face painted. He got a blue star on each side of his face.

Crew offering some chalk to Grandma.

Cody showing us his blue stars.

Me & my Beautiful Mopsy!

Thank You Mom & Dan for taking us on all these fun little adventures.
I know the boys sure love it too!

Enjoying the Festivities...

Saturday morning we woke up early and got ourselves ready to go have some Easter fun.

The Washington City Easter Egg Hunt.

We arrived just in time for the candy hoarding to begin.

10 am sharp!

They had different areas for the different age groups. 

0-2, 3-4, 5-6 and so on.

Each boy was in a different group.

While waiting for Grandpa to park the car & come find us, 

I was holding Crew at Landens age group. 

Just as the whistle blew for the egg hunt to begin Crew wanted out of my arms and had thrown himself into a complete body spasm.

Grandpa arrived just in time and grabbed Crew from my arms to get him over to his age group.

With him gone I can now focus on Landen and Grandma Nette was with Cody.

All the kids are running out into the square grabbing candy faster then I can blink.

I see Landen still standing on the other side of the starting line crying.

What? Why is he crying?

My boy who thrives on candy? How could this be?

I kneel down to talk to him and find out why in the heck he is not out there getting ME some candy! 

Between sobs he tells me that Crew kicked him in the eye. 

Poor guy.  :(

So I pull him out into the middle of the square and while he stands there crying I am down on the ground getting all his candy for him. 

All the stuff I like, of course!

Then before we knew it, the entire event was over!

We went and found Cody, who was the last one still out in the square wandering around searching for any possible pieces of candy that may have been overlooked!  

Grandpa and Crew joined up with us too. Crew I guess froze when it was time to get candy.

Dan was telling me that there were so many babies & parents

that it was standing room only in the square. 

All the chaos scared Crew.

He did manage to walk away with 2 pieces of candy! :)

And he was happy.

The End.

Spring Break...St. George Style

This trip could not get here fast enough!

I was so ready to be out of the snow & cold and into the SUN!

We arrived here Friday afternoon. 

The drive down was good.

Not great. But good. :)

For some reason Crew does not like to be strapped down in a car seat for 4 hours.

Not that any babies do but he REALLY does not like this. 

He was ready for battle when we had to put him back in the seat after a pit-stop.

Cody was asking if we were almost there before we even hit Spanish Fork.

Landen, well Landen I think woke up as Oscar the Grouch. Sheesh! Was he on one!

So, like I said the drive was good! lol

My Mom had recently moved to a new house. 

The boys had been so sad about this. 

We all had so many special memories at her last house.

But as soon as we pulled into the new neighborhood then into the new drive way and then...

they saw the new house.

I don't think they have thought of the old one since. :) 

I don't know if I will be able to get them out of here when it's time to go!

Here are some fun pictures of the boys and Grandma Nette's new house.

The Boys slept in the Theater room.
This is their favorite room in the house.

Fat Lip...

Fat lip is an understatement! 

This is the biggest, fattest lip I have ever seen!

Maybe I should check in with the Guinness Book of World Records?

My poor sweet Cody! 

So, it was a typical Sunday afternoon.

Nice, warm, sunny day.

Matt playing video games in the basement.

The boys playing Legos.

Me, wanting to see them all doing something

Together!

I suggest a bike ride.

Cody didn't want to go.

He wanted to stay and build Legos with Dad.

I pushed it.

It was nice out. 

The bikes had not been ridden all winter.

It was something Matt could do with all 3 boys.

Finally, they are convinced.

I can now enjoy a few minutes of peace.

With Cody on his own bike,

Matt on his bike pulling the bike trailer with Landen & Crew.

They leave.

I am happy.

About 30 minutes later I get a phone call.

It's Matt.

He tells me I need to come pick up Cody & his bike.

He wrecked and does not feel like riding his bike home.

That was it.

No more, no less.

I jump in the Tahoe. 

Head over to the park.

Pull up to find Cody sitting on the curb.

Bloody, dirty, hurt and crying.

I am shocked by what I see.

Besides all the obvious, his lip was so badly injured.

Matt had forgotten to mention any of this to me!

I was not prepared to see my little boy hurt like this.

I of course am freaking out.

Who wouldn't!

Matt interrupts me to say he told Cody it was not that bad.

Oh, well... Still would have been nice to warn me.

Sheesh!

So I told Matt,"if you think this is not that bad then you get clean him all up!"

If it was up to me, I think we would have been headed to the insta-care.

I drove Cody home and apologized profusely.

This was all my fault.

I made them go!

I felt so bad for Cody.

I carried him into the house and put him in my bed.

I kept him as comfortable as I could until Matt arrived.

Then turned Cody over to him.

There was so much dirt packed up into his front teeth and gums.

Blood and dirt on his face.

Cuts and bruising.

And the swelling! Oh, the swelling!

It was shocking to me to see this.

But Cody, who is such a strong boy, did not let this slow him down one bit.

Within the hour of getting him home and cleaning him up, we were supposed to leave.
We had our annual Easter Dinner & Egg Hunt at my Aunt Peggy's home.
We gave him the option to stay home or go.
He, of course, wanted to go.
He went and made an amazing recovery.
Not once that night did he complain about his lip.
He did tell me he would stay out of all the pictures.
That broke my heart!
That he even had that thought still makes me feel bad.

These photos don't even show how bad it really was but gives you an idea.

Date With Mom...

This past Saturday I took Cody out on Date!

My Dad always took me on Father/Daughter dates and they meant the world to me. 

They still do.

I want to make sure that Matt & I take the time to do this with our boys.

The one-on-one time we have together is so different from the every day hustle & bustle.

A few weeks back, one of the little boys in my primary class told me about an activity he did with his family. The minute he started telling me what it was, I instantly knew I had to take Cody there. The place is, Color Me Mine. 

It has been around forever but I never thought about actually going there!

As you all know Cody is my artist/engineer/scientist. 

I knew he would love all aspects of this place. 

And He did. 

It was so much fun to go and spend this quiet time alone with him.

We were there for a few hours and we each painted a different ceramic piece.

Cody picked out a Dog! What else! Right??? lol

We have a long running doggy theme going in our family. 

Thanks Grandma Elly, we Love you! :)

I picked out a piggy bank to make for Crew. 

The girl who runs this location was amazing. She made the whole experience even sweeter. 

I love happy people who truly enjoy their job and want you to feel the same. 

It remined me of the good ol' days back at the scrapbook store.

I loved that job and miss it daily!

We finished painting our pieces and had to leave them there so they could be fired.

Cody was not real excited with the thought of leaving empty handed.

Cody said to me, "will you ask her if there is something we can do about this?"

Oh, Cody! How your little mind works. 

I had Courtney (the girl who runs the place) explain the process.

So we go back on Thursday to pick up our masterpieces.

We both can't wait!

Our date didn't end here but the rest was just running around to other stores,

stopping in at places I normally would not take 3 kids to. 

This was so much fun for me as much as it was for Cody. 

I can't wait to do this again.