Johnny Boy turns 5!!

It is hard to imagine that our little Johnny Boy is 5!  He is a smart, sweet FUN boy!  We were so happy to celebrate him this month!  We started celebrating the first of May, anytime I made a dinner he liked he would say, "Did you make this for me because it is my birthday?!  Thanks Mom!!"  

He kept on celebrating with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Seamons.  He got to go out with gma and gpa, they had a special day together.  Johnny felt so loved and special.  He came home with a Lego set and then Grandma helped him figure out how to put it together.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!  Kyla got Johnny a red dino Lego set that is only half put together...  he needs some mommy time to help work on it.  :)

Johnny and his "Lego shaped cake"  When we were making it Johnny kept making the distinction between a Lego cake and a Lego shaped cake...  A cake made out of Legos would be gross...  :)

I love that Leo and Kyla are helping Johnny blow out his candles!

The Saturday after Johnny's b-day we went to the museum to check out the dino exhibit with a few friends and cousins.  We were lucky to have Liz and her kids here for a visit so they got to come too!

Then we headed over to the park for dino cupcakes!

Thanks to our missionary Grandparents for the special birthday note and to Grandma Grover for the card and "yellowstone" stickers!

All in all a great celebration for a GREAT kid!

Best Friends!

Spencer and Steve

For years Steve told me about his best friend, Spencer.  I didn't believe him... we had never spent any time with him and his family...  Happily we reconnected about two years ago and it only took 10 minutes for me to believe that they are best friends... "almost brothers."  
Spencer and Natalie spent some time with us on their way to a wedding in Phoenix a few weeks ago, it was lots of fun hanging out with them!!

Mustache Boys

Thank you, Mr. Potato Head, we look GOOD with a 'stache!

Duck Pond!!

The three littlest and I had a picnic at the duck pond yesterday.  Ky was at a b-day party for a school friend and Steve went to the temple with the young men.  

It was a gorgeous day, after our SNOW on Thursday we were happy to have sun again!

John dude, he is growing up!

Leo has such a cute run...  He was running up to get rocks and then back to the pond.

LEO!

Sweet baby Mae!

When we have been outside this spring, Mae keeps her mouth open, like this...  She likes how spring tastes!  :)

Easter Saturday! In our family it is the day for egg hunts and bunnies and fun!

Mtachy Matchy! My favorite... (see later post... :))!

Maeli Jo and Grandma Connie Jo!



Kyla and Erika, sweet cousins! Can you tell they both have Easter egg hunt spoils in the mouths... sweet candy... :)



Johnny took the egg hunt serious, he wanted a good start!

"Oh Yeah! Break it down now!" Leo's favorite song, he sings it ALL the time and dances too!

Yummy toes!



Easter Sunday! Love my wonderful kids! SO grateful for my Savior, they will be mine, FOREVER!

Kitchen is DONE!!

Well 99% done... I still have a little touch up paint to do but I am putting it off, I'm a little burned out... :) But LOOK! Isn't it beautiful!!

OK I have to add a before picture so you can see how drastic the change is...

After we moved in we took off wall paper and painted and this is what it looked like... cute, right?! After 6 years in the house we grew up and I guess it was time for the kitchen to grow up too... That is what Amy calls the new kitchen, my grown up kitchen. :)

Steve took out the pantry and moved the fridge into the space along with some BIG pantry cabinets.

Now this wall only has the oven instead of both oven and fridge. I can cook on the whole stove top without cringing about working to heat and cool side by side...

Since we were getting a new window anyway we decided to make it a little bigger, like 6 inches... that 6 inches was way more than 6 inches of work... Ask Steve, he LOVES when I get great ideas like that...

Steve moved the dishwasher from the peninsula to this spot right next to the sink, one less step to doing the dishes! New sink and faucet, I really like the under mount sink, no more grim around the sink, just sweep crumbs right in!
And there is the paint I have to do, the red line... I have to decide where to end the red...

No more dark poorly used space in the corner... no corner! Just a big open room! The door and window on that wall are gone too, just the new slider. Steve is all about light, I think we may overload our house at some point, he is always adding lights! :) The can lights are from the fall redo but this time he added lights under the cabinets.

And now room for 4 bar stools at the BIG long breakfast bar.

Steve did such a great job on everything! He is going to have to share his talents elsewhere from now on, every room in our house has been remodeled. Liz says she thinks we'll move in the next 6 months... nothing for Steve to do. Steve says he will work more on the yard now... I say go for it! At least I will still have a working kitchen when he takes down the deck to rebuild it and digs up the yard to put in sprinklers!

Yea for home remodeling... when it is finished!!

Matchy Match

I love matching kids! It is easier to match the boys since they are only 2 years apart...

But look the GIRLS are matchy!

LOVE her smile!

Spring Break 2012 Day 1

When deciding what to do for spring break this year, the kids had two requests. McDonald's and swimming. So easy! We came up with a few more things to entertain us but kept it pretty low key. I had a super fun week with my kids!

Monday I had to do a little laundry and house cleaning but we found time to make these fun Easter crafts...

Day 2

We had lunch at McDonald's and played at their NEW play land... Steve even got to come, he met us there on his lunch break. Super fun!

Look at that gorgeous girl!!

Best friends!

Choo choo!!

Day 3

SWIMMING!! It is Leo's favorite thing to do right now! I was super brave and took all four kids by myself for a little while until Steve could get off work and join us. We just stayed in the kiddie pool, which is small and shallow and we did great.

We made rainbow cake and cupcakes earlier in the day and had them for a treat after dinner...

Everyone say "swimming!"

Mae loved the water!

Yea for rainbows!!

Day 4

We spent a day at the park. The "big" kids rode their scooters and I pushed the littles in our new bright orange stroller...

We took a picnic. Leo's powered sugar mustache... He looks good in a stache!

Mae's first time on the swings, and of course Johnny is pushing her!



We went on the nature trail to this little pond. Only one rule... don't fall in!

Leo throwing rocks.



"We saw footprints from a mountain lion and th-"
Johnny pause for a picture. Click.

"-en there was this big bugs house that we found but couldn't get to it because it was under the bridge and we couldn't reach it and we didn't want to fall in and..."

He is seriously so excited about going to the pond! You can almost see the words he is holding in. :)

Really?! One rule, just one...

We made it home after 3 wonderful hours of park fun, a little pink despite putting on sunscreen, a lot tired, but dry and happy!

We made a fruit rainbow for dinner! I think they liked it even better than the candy rainbow...

O'Henry

Kyla came home from school talking about all the tricks the leprechauns have played all week and wanted to make a trap to catch one. Here is what we came up with... We were trying to catch the leprechauns from the north... they are tiny!!

The leprechaun comes in the door, sees a piece of gold and goes for it, he sees another one and another, it is a trail of gold that ends at a rainbow!!

More gold on top of the rainbow...

He climbs up to get it and, bam, he falls into our trap!



That is how it was suppose to go... this is how it went.

We came home from our camping trip to find this note and some treats from O'Henry the leprechaun.

Later that day Kyla said, "Hey mom, we have these gold treats... and skittles... and these bags..." Magic Ky, magic. I actually worked to keep O'Henry a mystery. I don't do the Easter Bunny but I do Leprechauns?!

Day 5 and 6

We have been going "spring break" camping for 6 years... this is the first year we actually have a spring breaker!! We drove less than an hour down the hill, camped one night among the cacti, hiked a little, skipped a few rocks, Steve and Paul invented rock bowling, ate camp food, got really dirty and smelly and came home. It was perfect!

Johnny asked if he could go camping for his birthday, he loved it!! Maybe because he had peeps for breakfast... We roasted some the night before, even better than marshmallows, or so they say, I am a traditionalist, s'mores for me. Ky kept saying we were roasting Petes... poor Pete!

Mae did not love camping, she and Steve ended up in the car all night trying to get her to stay asleep... maybe we'll give her a few months before we try again. At least she was still happy in the morning!