Happy Easter!

Easter was absolutely beautiful this year!  We did the usual family rounds with brunch and egg hunt at the Casebolt's and then more egg hunting and dinner at my mom's.  And a whole lotta sitting and soaking up the sunshine.  Perfect. day.

Here's a picture of the baskets all ready to go:

And then, all you are gonna see here is a ridiculous amount of redundant photos of my incredibly cute kids and all their fun little cousins.  Enjoy!

 

Treasure hunt for the Golden Egg ~

It was Hudson's actual birthday!

Fightin' with the big boys!

 

Egg hunting:

 

Ben and Hudson are only five days apart!  So we like to ham it up together!

Jesus is risen!  Christ is King!  Happy EASTER!

Smileys.

Taught my girlie how to do some emoticons.  Yeah, I know.  I'm digging my own ditch here.  But I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Recently, she started texting me her own emoticons.  To be fair, almost all possible emoticons have already been invented. 

Here are hers:

 

i)  This would be a person with a black eye.

 

!) This is a person whose left eye is black.

 

I sure love that girl.

 



Peace and quiet.

A little weekend getaway with good, old friends.  Good food, good weather, good shopping, good hiking, and even a little snowstorm to cozy up in.

Pictures from Will's bday (yes, from over a month ago!)

I didn't get all these shots up!  We had a stellar day celebrating my little bud, turning the big 9!  Which of course, started and ended with a whole lotta sugar!

Red Ryder BB gun!

...and a spider!  Which I think he likes mostly cause it totally grosses me out :)

 

(Incidentally, they showed our apartment that morning.  Totally unannounced.  After the french toast and ripping open of gifts, but before the dishwasher and the trash run.  Total. humiliation.

Just so ya know, no, I was not raised like that, and yes, sometimes a lot of times, my house looks like that.  But never ever ever if I am expecting any company.  Just so you know.

Cause I'm beyond certain it was probably someone I know, or someone I will know someday.  Moscow's a pretty small town, after all.)

A day in the life.

I don't have a story here.  Just a moment I wanted to capture of my favorite little people.

Three words: I.KE.A.

Scored our bathroom cabinets and barstools at Ikea.  Which means several nights of Joe doing this:

His very favorite thing in the whole world to do.  Ikea assembly!

See!  You can tell by that look on his face :)

You can never start 'em too young!

Teeth.

Kayte lost her first 'big-girl' tooth!  Yanked that baby out all on her own!  Scored some lip gloss from the tooth fairy (by special request :).

In other dental news, Will was the first of our kids to see the orthodontist.  He was relieved to find out that he has a couple of years yet, before we panic....but it does start to seem like my kids are getting so big all of a sudden!

Goin' campin.

One day, early in March, Ben hops out of his tub all clean, and, before getting dressed mind you, he gathered up this little pile of gear: his legos, a dinosaur puzzle, a calendar, pjs and pullups, a school tie, some hiking boots, and various articles of clothing.

"I'm all ready to go camping!" he announces from his room.  Still in nothing but his birthday suit.

"No, Ben.  It's still winter.  We can't go camping today.  Go ahead and put all that stuff away."

Five minutes later, I find him sitting up on his dresser on his little bare bum, staring out of the window in deep thought.  "How can it still be winter?  The sun is shining and there's no snow!"

Poor little bud.  Put some clothes on already.

Technology Malfunction.

Our CD player in our car has always been a little tempermental.  It doesn't like it if you change tracks too quickly, it overheats, it is overzealous about spitting out CDs that are slightly scratched.

But today, the thing would not even eject the CD we were trying to switch up.  It would try and try and then just give up.

Kayte's pretty desperate for some different tunes, so she pipes up, "Alright.  So the thing is broken.  Does this mean we get to buy a new car?"

.....My thoughts exactly.

Poor Joe.  She's me all over again :)

These are the days of our lives...

Wrapping up some final house stuff, and had to jet to Ltown today.  Happened to be Driskill's bday, so I had little Jem and Henry along for the ride.  I think my standards must've dropped significantly from when I only had two kids myself, cause I thought the three of them (Ben, too!) did pretty stellar, as we spent nearly an hour in Home Depot hmm-ing and ha-ing over tile pieces and toilet paper holders.  And I even forgot to bring the snacks in with me!  We rewarded ourselves with a stop at Wendy's and a ride through the carwash.  Always a good time.

Kelly warned me that we'd probably have to stop for the bathroom at some point before we returned, but I asked the little toddlers what they thought about that, and they disagreed.  So we headed up the hill.  Twenty minutes from home, Henry starts to holler, "Poddy!  Paula!  Poddy!"

I do tend to take these things seriously and pulled right over.

"You can potty on the side of the road, right Henry?"  says I.  I throw on my flashers, pull Hen out of the car, and dangle the half-naked kid at a 45 degree angle, using my legs to hold him at one end and my arms pulling him away from me so he doesn't pee over us both.  The wind was whipping around us at a Palouse-spring-typical 50 mph, throwing what may have been snow up the back of my sweater.  And if you can't picture all of this, let me clarify.  If you'd been lucky enough to be driving up behind us (likely at 70 mph) you would've seen one little bare bottom hanging out and my sweater sweeping halfway up my sun-free back.  It was a glorious moment to behold.

Unfortunately, the kid was having nothing of it.  His legs were turning into gooseflesh, and there was no potty.  Which in hindsight, probably saved us both from a wind-whipped spray of it.  I simply cannot think of everything.  I gave him 30 seconds in this position and then we gave up.

I tucked him quickly back in the car and jammed his carseat locked.

"Poddy.  Paula!  Poddy!"

Jemma looks up at me and (finally) interprets the mystery, "Buddy.  He said he wants his Buddy."

Buddy.  The little stuffed dog.  Sitting in arm's reach of the driver's seat.

 

And yet, before you roll your eyes at me, he did, in fact, manage to soak himself completely through anyway, by the time I passed the baton over to grandma. 

It was really a win-win, dontcha know.

And lest I remember my kids only as perfect little angels....

St. Paddy's Day is one.big.deal. at this house.

You better be wearin' your green jams to bed.  Cause there ain't no mercy once the clock strikes midnight.

Case in point:  Sara and Kayte told their poor unsuspecting little four-year-old brother that if he wore green on St. Patrick's Day, that he would get pinched.  And then they made sure to set the clocks for 2 AM so they could sneak out of bed and give him a good pinch.

Thankfully, the kid is a heavy sleeper.

 

On the other hand, Will says I'm protected for eternity.  Cause I have green eyes.

I gotta admit.  I love this game :)

Happy BDAY to me!

While I was off playing in the mountains with some friends this weekend, my little bud was hard at work with my dad on my birthday present.  Will and Dad built me a bird house!  Which I had just been dreaming about having right outside my new bedroom window.  Course, Will couldn't keep the thing a secret for more than half a day, and so 6 weeks early, he surprised me with it:

So. Perfect.

I love my little handy man!

 

***(Please disregard any random furniture in the background of any of our recent photos.  It is simply too long of a story....)***