THIS IS MY JOY...

Poppin' bubbles

Swingin' and singin'

I talk all the time about what a struggle my sweet little Laiklie is. She is so head strong and determined to have things her own way all the time that we do have alot of two-year-old fights, BUT Laiklie is also the first two-year-old that I have had without having a brand new baby and it has been amazing to watch all of the things that two-year-olds do that I missed with my other kids. I love watching her eyes light up when we blow bubbles and I love listening to her sweet voice try to say new words and I love watching her kiss and hug on her brothers and sister. She has an excitement about life that has made me look at things differently. Laiklie, along with her brothers and sister really are - MY JOY!!

Locks of Love

Oakley Before her Hair cut.
She wanted it straight for her last day long, so it does look a little stingy - part of why we decided to cut it.:)

Oakley after her hair cut. Isn't she SO CUTE!!

She wanted to cut off enough to donate it to locks of love. I wanted her to cut off enough that she can wash it by herself without her mom having to go in and make sure she got all the shampoo out. Oakley is at the age that her friends are all starting to do their own hair and when hers was long she couldn't even reach to comb it by herself. She is excited for the new adventure of hair fixing. Her hair grows SO FAST that I think it will be nice to have it short for the summer and it will be long again by the time school starts next Fall. How fun, how fun!!

Happy Easter

HE IS NOT HERE; HE IS RISEN!!

We had a great Easter this year. This is the kids in their new Easter clothes. Laiklie was upset as she is every Sunday because she ALWAYS wants to wear her swimsoup (as she calls it) to church. And once again, like every other Sunday, her mean mom made her put on a pretty dress instead.
Our little "Bucket Heads!" This is pre-Easter egg hunt. We always do breakfast and egg hunt at our house on Saturday morning with the Hawkins cousins so we don't have to fight the crowd at the Easter Egg Hunts in town. The kids had so many eggs this year they not only filled their buckets but also the hoods of their jackets.

This is the famous egg dying!! We only had one black egg this year from being put in multiple colors.:) We did this for FHE and put together some plates to take around to a few neighbors. My mom started a widow basket tradition when we were young that she still does. This year my sweet mom put together 40 baskets to take to people in her little town that needed some love. My kids happened to be some of the cousins that were there the weekend she delivered them and they LOVED it. Oakley and her cousins got so many kisses and hugs from these sweet little ladies that they had never seen before. It is so good for them to learn to serve others. I thank my mom for that great example, and I thank the Savior for giving us the real reason we celebrate Easter!

Craving Summer...

We don't know about you, but everybody at our house is craving summer. We cannot wait for the hot sunshiny days and the sprinklers to run through and the tan skin and the nice green grass and the fishing and boat rides. I updated my kids pictures on here to their outdated last summer pictures because the green grass looked SO nice. I figured if summer isn't coming outside atleast I can enjoy it a little on my blog. (Rhett's picture wouldn't rotate AGAIN - I tried downloading it 5 times and each time it started out right and flipped during the download and won't flip back. ARGH!! So, you have to enjoy him sideways - he is cute no matter how you look at him right!)

Our BIG Project

So, my sweet husband, whom I love very much, has a serious problem. When he gets an idea in his head that he likes he becomes 200% FULLY involved in it. It is great in some cases, but in some cases - like this one - it sometimes goes a LITTLE overboard. So, Ryan's idea of cutting down a few old dead trees and planting a few new ones in their place has turned into a MAJOR PROJECT.This is Ryan loading like #5 dump truck full of dead trees. It was a major cleaning process and with his crappy back whatever the tractor couldn't lift was left to me. I am proud to announce that I lifted some BIG OL' MOMMA TREES all by myself. That is until I saw a mouse...then I wasn't quite so helpful.:( The one job I also had was the job of standing on the forks of the above mentioned tractor and Ryan lifting me up as high as the tractor could lift - which is mighty high - and I got to hunch down and wrap the heavy chain around the tree trunks so that he could use the tractor to pull them over. Of course, I don't have any pictures of proof that any of this went on, but trust me it did and it was traumatic.
We measured each of the kids next to a tree so we can see how the trees and the kids are growing. You can see a few of the baby pine trees in the back ground if you look hard too. This is Dallin. He was some really good help for his dad.

Oakley in the whole tree cutting process was great help. She too saw a mouse so she wouldn't help with loading the truck, but she did drive the 4-wheeler one day to pull her dad out in the dump truck since he had gotten himself stuck.

Rhett is at an age that when we mention work he has to go to the bathroom or is SO tired. He did like helping plant the new trees though and he is the one with the sunburn to prove he had been out helping.

The sun was so bright that I didn't know Laiklie was glaring at me when I took this. She loved the holes and especially filling them with dirt - before the trees were put in them of course.

So, after the first 90 trees Ryan bought ...that is right 90, we had to have a major talk about how trees don't give us anything back except a little shade and shelter and that at some point you are just throwing money away. Ryan didn't hear me very well and went and bought 30 more. So, we are now the proud owners of a fruit orchard in the middle of our freezing climate and I am praying we didn't just throw our money away. Hopefully all these trees will turn into a little forest for my kids to play and make forts in.:) I am just glad to say that we are finally finished with the entire tree fascination...I think anyway!!

I got TAGGED...

My friend Heather tagged me. I was suppose to open my fourth photo in my fourth folder. The only problem with that is that those of you that have been following my blog since the beginning know that about December my computer crashed and we lost ALOT of photos. It broke my heart. So, we only have recent photos on my new computer and the photo that I was suppose to post was Laiklie's butt crack photo that is already on my blog. So, I went to my last folder and counted back four and that is the folder I opened...so I cheated a little. But - the picture that came up is one that everyone should get a good laugh at anyway. This is Laiklie at her best!! I tag my sisters...I can't wait to see what pictures they come up with!

Time for change!!

I am one of those people that love change - CONTROLLED CHANGE - that is. I move my furniture atleast once a month and we move my kids rooms around, etc. One of the other things I love to change is my hair. It was time once again for a hair change. I have had blonde highlights for over a year now and I get so sick of keeping up on them, so I decided to go back to my natural brown for awhile. So here, are the before and after picture.This was not actually a picture that was taken of my hair - it is just the only picture I have of me. SAD I know. So, it doesn't show the before too well, but you can atleast see that it is a big difference.
These are the after pictures, courtesy of Oakley. They were taken just after I got home from the salon, so it may look a little different once I get my hands on it, but I am definitely happy to have something different for a minute.