Easter 2008

easter was really nice this year. we went to a huge egg hunt. 30,000 eggs to be exact!! they had jupiter jumps for the kids and free hot dogs with chips and a drink. it was loads of fun. as you can see below, my kids were successful at gathering alot of eggs. saturday afternoon we got together with the family at lauren and larry's house and decorated egg shaped cakes and of course, dyed eggs. then on sunday, we had a great easter dinner. we were happy to have a great friends, melani, brad and their cute daughter ari join us in our festivities. hope your easter was as fun as ours....april

blake and ari at the egg hunt.

enough eggs you think???
my mom and the cake eggs she decorated.
my sister carly with her egg that looks like mr. potato. my dad and blythe are in the background.
what's inside these eggs??
tye dye eggs!!
my brother trent and his cake egg...very proud.
carly and her boyfriend evan and their cakes....awww
these are my eggs. the one has a B on it for my niece blythe and then the other is a J for jared...both of their first easters.
far left is my aunt saisunee then my mom and lauren and then blythe and larry.

Spring Break...San Antonio, TX

well, this week was spring break. and for the first time, we took a break and went on a vacation. my parents, little sister carly, little brother trent, older sister faith, her husband brad, their 3 kids austin, abby, and alex and then the 5 of us, all went down to san antonio, tx. the first day we went to the alamo and took a boat ride on the river walk. it was really cool to tour the alamo. alot of history and interesting. kurtis says it was cool but while touring, he was just ready for the next day....seaworld. we had 2 day passes...which i would recommend to anyone going. you can't do it all in one day and be satisfied. it was really great. all the shows were amazing. what an oppurtunity to see those animals up close and performing. they are so smart. by far our favorite was the shamu show. we saw it twice. we were going to go to the beluga/dolphin show again, but kurtis wanted to ride some rides so i took advantage of it and went with him. he's a tough guy that wimpers out on these rides!! we got him on the log ride, the rapids and finally the new one, journey to atlantis. it's like a water roller coaster. he hated it. but he rode it non the less. we stayed on lackland air force base. my dad is in the air national guard and all bases have hotels. so, for $27.00 a night, we stayed on base. so for that price we didn't drive home after the last night. we slept there and got up and had a leisure drive back to faith's. they live in the dallas area. but my most favorite place we ate, was on the way back. it was at Centerpoint Station. i got the most awesome bacon cheeseburger ever!!!! it was so good. and their cinnamon rolls were wonderful. all in all we had a wonderful trip. not too long, not too short. next time, i'll skip the alamo and go straight to seaworld though. the kids had a blast with their cousins too. what a fun time!!!

here is the whole group of us except chuck who took the pic. we are waiting in line to get into the alamo.

here is austin and kurtis at Ripley's...largest woman ever too funnny. i have no idea why they decided to plug their noses.
yes, this is blake with a cannon!
here is our family in front of the alamo!
the night before we left the kids were just so excited! it was alot of fun.
trent my brother and jared.

now, faith, my sister and i had already told these guys to quit picking the flowers. but did they listen??? no, so we took a cute pic instead.
kurtis and abby on the egg ride.
all my boys at the shamu show!


the boys with shamu!!

kurtis and abby are on the last car!
silly face pic of the kids...austin, kurtis, abby and blake in front of the beluga whale tank.
chuck is feeding the dolphins...his favorite!
here is kurtis at seaworld as we left.

here are two orcas splashing the audience. the sign says that shamu can splash up to the 16th row!!!
the shamu show is amazing!! we loved it so much, we went twice. i would have gone a third if there was time.

michael buble

well, can you believe that i almost didn't go to the concert?? our original plan did not include the fact that jared had surgery on his bum. so putting him through the drive there and back in one day was out of the question for me. i didn't really want to drive alone there and come back so later either. but after my family members talked me into it, i went. and honestly, i'm so glad!!!! it was a very fun concert. i loved all of it. the group Naturally 7, opened for him. they are so so awesome. they are vocal play. look them up on you tube. there are no instrumnents...they make all the noises with their voices. i got a few pictures with a few of them. then there are a few pics of michael. all in all, i'm so happy i went. i sat by trent my brother, and cami and jeff. we had a great time!!

big post!!

well, needless to say, we have been busy. first off, thank you for all your prayers and concerns for jared. we appreciate it so much. he's doing so much better. he's got his appetite back and is eating normal again. he turned 9 months today! he's also pulling up on the furniture already. but he gets stuck once he's standing, he can't get down. and well, i don't really blame him. i wouldn't want to plop down on my bum if i were him either...not yet. we went to the surgeon's office today and received good news. looks good and is healing properly. we go back for another check in a few weeks. so far, the kids have been well, meaning not sick. so that is awesome!! this last weekend, my sister mallory and her husband casey came to visit. we had alot of fun hanging out. chuck is doing well in school. he's got a job lined up for the summer, which is paid. that's awesome, cause not only could we use the money, but only 3 first year law students had paid positions last year. so we are very proud of him! kurtis is doing well too. i had parent teacher conference last week. it was a 10 minute conversation compared to the hour and half of last semester. her main concern is his manners....that was great news!! we can handle that!! for those of you that don't know, kurtis faked that he couldn't read last semester. he'd read for us at home and would play dumb at school. i finally went in and asked the teacher if she could send some more challenging material home and she gave me this weird look. i told her that he brings the books home he reads them quickly and then we are done. then she continued to say,"kurtis, you can read?" so stunned. i was furious and embarrassed. so i had him read for her of course she was shocked. she was so happy that he could read!!!! so see what we were dealing with?? so if the news is that we need to work on his manners this semester, it's all good!! blake is doing good too. he's such a good big helper for me during the day. he's addicted to watching dora and diego though. and his new favorite is Ne Hao Ki Lan. it's a cartoon with a chinese little girl and she teaches you how to speak chinese!! seriously, blake knows alot of words. it's cute.

and now, there is me. to tell you the truth, i'm tired. no seriously, i've been well. i've been hanging out with lauren and my friend melani alot and having a good time. the weather here is warm and it's glorious! i'm loving it! spring break is coming and we are all so excited. don't worry, i'll tell you all about it when we get back!!

this is what blake does at the target. he gets underneath the shelves and lays on the big boxes. he thinks he's very clever for finding a hiding spot.
here's jared just chillin in the cart.
this is my new haircut. i'm loving it. super short in the back and it feels so nice! it's kind of addictive...getting your hair shorter and shorter.

me (old haircut), then my sister lauren, sister mallory who came to visit from utah and sister carly. faith is missing, she went back to TX before we took a pic.
here's carly and her boyfriend evan...so cute.
lauren and blythe...she's smiling so much now. she likes auntie april!
my dad and jared. he walked him all over the playground while the big kids played. what a nice bumba. (that is what the kids call my dad. it was started by my nephew and it stuck. so my dad is bumba.)
blake is so proud of how high he can climb.

hmmmm....does she fit??? we love you blythe!
jared at the doctors office today. we got good news. he's healing well and on the right track! yea!!!! such a sweet face.
we went to the park, it was a beautiful day! the babies love to swing. dirty swings though.
what a happy time! yes, warm enough for shorts!!
blythe loving the swing too!

milestones....

yes, it's a string hanging out of his mouth. we used to do this when we were little and losing teeth. my mom would tie a string around the tooth and no, not tie the other end to the door knob!! though i must admit i did that once. when the door slammed, i ran with it so it wouldn't pull my tooth. but anyways, back to the picture. you have the string tied to the loose tooth and you just tug on it over and over and it helps loosen it. but when it gets super loose, usually the tooth pops right out!
pretty messed up huh!! chuck and i think it looks like one of those fake mouth pieces with bad teeth. but these are the real thing. he's lost 5 teeth now. he bites into food funny and talks funny now and then. but he likes it.
blake had to get a funny face in there too with kurtis.
it's dark, it's kurtis reading his new book from mugga and papa to blake and jared. they love i when he reads to them.
and here is sweet blakey.