Christian's 12th

Last year, I started asking the kids if they want a birthday party or a more expensive gift. Both years, Christian has chosen the gift. Last year he got a Nintendo DS Lite. Unfortunately, for the past several months, he hasn't been able to find it. This year he requested a remote-controlled dragonfly. He saw a boy flying one in the church gym quite a while ago and has wanted one ever since. He said that if I couldn't get that, could I get him a Nintendo DSi, which is better than the one he got last year, plus it has a built-in camera. Michael and I decided that the dragonfly probably wouldn't last very long, so we decided to get him the DSi.

We had to celebrate his birthday a day early since we had a funeral to go to on his birthday. As Christian requested, we went to Bertucci's for dinner. He love the rolls and oil dipping sauce. He had pizza (one of his favorite things to get) and was pretty excited that they came out and sang him "Happy Birthday". He also was happy to get his very own chocolate layer cake!

The whole weekend before his birthday, he kept talking about how excited he was about getting a dragonfly. When it was time to open his gifts, Michael told him that he wasn't going to get a dragonfly since he was still talking about it. He didn't look happy at all.

I decided to let him open his gifts in whatever order he picked them up.

Not too excited about socks (who is?).
Putting on a brave face. How many 12-year-olds get a tie, after all?
NOW, we're talking! (It's a DSi case, so I think he knows what he's getting...)
I don't think he minded that he didn't get his dragonfly...
I had to talk him into opening his suit...then he went straight back to his DSi.

On his birthday, my mom waited at our house for the kids to get home and then took them to her house. They had some yummy food, ate outside, and watched a movie that Christian picked out (The Wizard of Oz). My mom was also ambitious enough to make a dragon cake, one of Christian's favorite things...

Big Boy Haircut

I cut Timmy's hair last Saturday. Wow, was it getting long! I had a whole dustpan of his hair! He was pretty lucky because he got two baths (he's been requesting them lately by saying, "Mom, I need to take a bath."). I started to give him a bath and decided that if I was going to give him a bath, I might as well cut his hair, too. He was pretty good and held still, that is, until he got some of his hair on his face and body. Then he got it in his mouth and really started to wiggle and complain (aka whine/cry). I gave up on getting it "perfect" and settled for "pretty good".

Before

(I couldn't resist putting this one in!)

After

He didn't really want his picture taken, but I got a couple anyway!

By the way, this was his second haircut. His first haircut was professionally done.

Katie the Climber

Katie has lately started climbing the step stool if I don't put it away. I guess since she's gotten so good on the stairs, she's looking for something a little more challenging!

I have to be careful where I leave it!

Katie's First Birthday

I can hardly believe that Katie is one already. Since her birthday was on a Saturday, we had the whole day together. She took two naps as usual and woke up in enough time to have her very own cake!

On Sunday, we invited both sides of the family over after church and had dinner, cake, and ice cream. Katie was pretty tired by the end of the night. She got a bunch of great gifts, though!

Not-Easter-But-Fancy Dress

Eliza is very particular about her clothes. It's come to the point that I don't dare go clothes shopping for her without her. Even when I DO take her, she later won't wear the clothes that she picked out. I think it's because she has a few favorite outfits and doesn't like to wear anything but her favorites.

Last year, I made the mistake of telling her that the dress was for Easter. So she wore it on Easter and refused to wear it again. I got her to wear it one more time with the understanding that we would give it to Ashleigh if she did.

With that in mind, I wanted to buy her and Katie matching Easter dresses. My mom offered to pick her up and take her shopping for a "nice dress". Never did I make the mistake of calling it an "Easter dress". Luckily, they found a dress that Eliza liked that was also in Katie's size.

Here they are on Easter Sunday:

By the way, Eliza has only worn the dress once so far...

Celebrations

My birthday was expensive this year. First I got braces, then Michael bought me an anniversary ring (to replace my wedding band that I lost), and I went on a shopping spree to Dress Barn. It was great fun, though! On my birthday, Nathaniel insisted that he and Michael make me breakfast in bed. It was fun, even though I had to get up to get the kids off to school! Then for lunch, some friends, family, and I went to Olive Garden to celebrate. The only sad part was that my teeth hurt from the braces, so I was a little limited in what I could get. The portabello mushroom ravioli was so good, though!

The week before Mother's Day, Scott and I built a raised vegetable garden. I've wanted one for the past two years, but we just hadn't gotten to it yet. Thanks for your help, Scott! Saturday was a busy day and I could tell it would be difficult for Michael to make his usual fancy breakfast on Sunday, so I told him that if he just wanted to do cereal, that was fine with me and that my favorite is Cocoa Puffs... So that's what I got. It was nice because lately I haven't been buying cold cereal. It was very crunchy (remember my braces?), but yummy! At church, the kids sang to the mothers, like they do every year. That is one of my favorite parts of Mother's Day! Then, after church, we went to my mom's house and had dinner with my mom, dad, Aaron and his family, and Scott. The kids love spending time with family!

Michael and my 14th Anniversary was on a Monday, so we decided to go out for dinner on Saturday. We went to NB and walked around, then decided to go to Old Man Rafferty's. That place always reminds me of Sara, since the two times I've been there, it was with her. On our anniversary, our whole family went to the church and deep cleaned it with the rest of the ward and the NB Branch. It was pretty fun and satisfying to see how clean it looked and smelled when we were done.

New Easter Tradition?

Every year for the past few years, I've tried to put more of Christ into our Easter celebration. Last year and the year before, I got the kids some pictures of Christ to hang up on their walls. That was nice, and I'm sure it would've been even better and more effective if I had ordered them earlier so that they had gotten here BEFORE Easter Sunday...

Again, this year, I thought about buying them something from the LDS Distribution Center, but yet again, I was late placing my order, so I decided not to do it. So, I tried to come up with something else Christ-centered to do.

On Saturday, Michael and I had put our heads together (via cell phone while he was at the store) to come up with some new ideas for how we wanted to celebrate Easter. In the past, I've put together an Easter basket filled with goodies for each child. It gets a little expensive and do the kids really need a bunch of candy and toys that just get added to the stuff we already have? Michael suggested we get the kids the sugary kind of cereal that I don't buy too much anymore. I suggested that we have them do a follow-the-clues to a special treat at the end, but that they would have to answer questions about the Savior's Atonement and Resurrection to go on to the next clue. So Michael got all the "materials" we would need for our celebration.

On Sunday morning, we had everyone sit down in the living room. Then I read the story of the Atonement and Resurrection in the New Testament Stories book while Michael made up questions to ask. Then I went and got the sweet cereal and prizes. I showed them the boxes of cereal and told them which one was theirs and that they could earn their box if they could answer a question about the Savior. They each answered their questions correctly, sometimes with help, and got their cereal and prizes. They were so excited about having their very own box of cereal and I'm pretty sure I guessed their favorite cereals: Jonathon - Trix, Christian - Lucky Charms, Nathaniel - Cocoa Puffs, Eliza - Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Timmy - Cinnamon Life, and Katie - Cheerios. The prizes were: a game for the older kids to play, a Thomas toy for Timmy, and a shape-sorter for Katie.

Church was excellent with all the talks and lessons centered on Christ and the Atonement. Eliza gave a talk about the Resurrection in Primary. It was so cute.

After church, we had a family gathering at our house. After our yummy ham dinner, we did the follow-the-clues game and all of the kids did great with their questions. Our "exercise" in the morning seemed to have been very good because they all answered every question correctly and without hesitation. I could tell that my dad was impressed... At the end they each got two bags of candy, one from us and one from Grandma and Grandpa (Katie and Spencer each got a small box of Cheerios). Scott and Linda had to leave to put Spencer to bed and the older kids (Eliza up to Jonathon) went hunting for eggs outside. Luckily, my mom brought colored eggs since we didn't do them this year. It was cold, especially since it was windy. But, it just wouldn't have been the same if the kids hadn't looked for Easter eggs outside!

It was kind of weird to have so few of us together. My parents, Scott, Scott, Linda, and Spencer came. Aaron and his family were in the Poconos this year and John and Kathy usually spend Easter with her family. Still, we had a great time! We might do something like this every year!