Easter

We had a fun Easter. My boys were so excited that they got a kite. I don't think they would have cared if they didn't get any candy.

Hayden was not to sure of the whole thing.
The boys with their loot.

Hayden discovered licorice. He was in heaven.
The boys cute Easter shirts. They couldn't wear the shorts that we got to go with them. I will have to take better pictures when they have the whole outfit on.



We loved having conference during Easter. The talks were all wonderful and much needed!

Hayden is 1!

It seems like only yesterday I was incredibly overdue and anxious for this little guy to grace the world with his presence. Now I wish he was still my little baby. He is such a cutie and we love him so much.
Hayden spent his day dancing around the house. Every time I tried to take a picture of him he would stop and give me a look. He was dancing to Beyonce and Lady Gaga when I interrupted him in this one.

It is hard to tell what is going on but we are singing to him. He could care less about the cupcake.
This is him before the cake. He sure is full of crusty looks today.
He totally downed the frosting and wanted another one. He didn't care about the cake.



His brothers were more excited about opening his presents than he was.
Hayden got a few sand toys for his sand box. He kept trying to wear one of the buckets as a hat and he would put a ball in the bucket and then stick his face in it. What a weirdo. We love you Hayden baby! Happy Birthday!!!

food

I read a book a while back about cooking for a whole month in one day. Basically you are supposed to save money because you are buying everything in bulk, not wasting any food, and saving money by not going out to eat on those stressful days. I really wanted to try it but then we didn't have enough room for our freezer and had to put it in storage. We now have our freezer back and I wanted to give it a try. Today I cooked from 8:30 until around 4:30. My freezer is full of food. I am hoping that everything tastes okay when we pull it out to reheat it. I have saved money at the grocery store so far. I will have to wait until the end of the 30 days to add up milk and produce money to see how much I save and if it is worth it.

Party like a rockstar!!!

For Jackson's 5th birthday he wanted to have a rockstar party with is friends. This should not shock any of you that knew my cray guitar playing, band organizing kid who is always singing a song. The pictures are out of order but you get the idea.


Here are a few of the kids getting tatted up.
Jackson's "killer" guitar cake.
Hayden is rockin' it with Aunt Steph.


My fabulous "rockstar" brother is showing all the kids great moves for when you are rocking out.
More tats.

Jackson's cute friends.

KUED Readathon party

My boys read enough hours in a month to attend a party sponsored by KUED. It was pretty cool. They were able to meet many characters from some of their favorite show. Sid the Science Kid was the biggest hit.




There were tons of activities and games. We came home with bags full of fun things.

Ladies man

We have some friends that have a little girl that is 6 weeks younger than Hayden. Her name is Kate. She weighs the same that Hayden did when he was a week old. She is teeny next to my big Hayden baby. Hayden always pushes her over or grabs her hair when he is near her. The cutest thing happened yesterday. Hayden was playing (or torturing) with Kate. He put his hand on her head and slowly brought his face to hers. He was so gentle. It was cute. He then gave her a very long kiss until she had enough and started to scream. It was so cute. I wish I had a camera when it happened. I guess I better be careful with him around girls. He also has started walking. He will take a few steps here and there but not if you want him to around other people.

My last whine for a while

I am so sick of taking my kids and husband to the doctor. It is ridiculous how much we have gone lately. Here is the most recent happenings: (If you are also sick of me whining just skip this post-I would probably do the same.) Hayden has had tubes in his ears for a week now. He wasn't a bad or angry kid before he got them-he just always had fluid in his ears and his ear drums kept rupturing. Since he has gotten tubes in he is very clingy and whiny. He is not the same kid. His doctor looked at him on Wednesday and said that his breathing has gotten worse and his stomach is very upset. We are hoping it is just from all the different medicine he has been on. We are giving him a few more days to see if anything changes and then, if not, we are going to look at some new possibilities. One of Jackson's eardrums started to leak junk while we were waiting to be seen at the doctor's office. The doctor said it looked so horrible he was surprised it hadn't ruptured yet. He also said that his throat looks horrible. On the way home from the doctor, I called Chris to see how he was doing because he has been getting sick. He told me that he passed out while walking home from work. I asked if anyone helped him. He told me that when he came to, people were just staring at him. SERIOUSLY-I would hope that if I saw someone pass out after crossing a very busy crosswalk, I would try to help them. I took him to the hospital. It was a very interesting drive. He was slightly delusional. He would randomly yell out weird things and he kept asking where we were. After 6 hours in the hospital and many different drugs and tests, we got to come home. He has strep throat and his white blood count was high. He had a very high fever. That is what made him pass out. On the way home, he told me that he had some weird dream while we were there. I told him about his crazy rantings and he didn't remember any of it. He is now loaded with different drugs that will hopefully get him back to his old self.
Well that is the end of my whining. If you are still reading, thanks for letting me vent. I really hope that everyone will get better in our house soon. I hate having sickies.

Hayden's love for balloons

Hayden loves balloons more than anything. When we pass them at Dan's he reaches for them and cries if he doesn't get one. They keep him entertained for hours. Sometimes he will just lay on his back and pull the string and watch the balloon. It just cracks us up.

Hayden is 9 months

I can't find the cord to my camera so I can't put an updated picture up yet. I can't believe Hayden is now 9 months old. He now weighs 23 pds. He is 97% for his height. He has 8 teeth. He can get anywhere that he wants to. I think that when his tubes get put in on Friday, he will be walking shortly after that. He walks around our furniture like a mad man and can stand in the middle of the floor by himself. He is a very happy boy even with his constant ear infections. We love him so much and can't believe how fast he is growing.

Our craziness

We had a fun Christmas other than the fact we were all sick at various points during the Holiday. I think that must happen to everyone. Hopefully our Hayden saga is coming to an end. Hayden has had many different antibiotics and shots to stop an infection in his ears that just won't go away. He will be getting tubes put in next Friday. That should help with the fluid in his ears and help cure the infection. Hayden has also had some issues with always being congested and he sounds horrible when he breathes. His doctor thinks some of that is because he is allergic to his formula. We are trying some new stuff that stinks even more than soy formula. (I didn't think that was possible!!) Our doctor has also told us to move out of our apartment. He thinks that the mold in it is not helping with his nasty sounding lungs. They have gotten really bad the last month or so. He was pretty concerned on my last visit. We are now on a search for somewhere new to live. We are sad because we have made so many friends and really love our ward, but if it will help Hayden, we are willing to do anything. Hopefully once we get infections and congestion under control, he will actually sleep through the night. Oh I can't wait for that!!!

Christmas Eve

We had a good Christmas Eve. Jackson woke up this morning and ran into the living room looking for presents. Apparently he didn't understand the difference of Christmas and Christmas Eve. After we broke his heart, we told him the fun things we were going to do. Here are some pictures of the boys with Santa at the Nielsen party. Hayden would not take his eyes off Santa. It was pretty funny. We are excited for tomorrow morning. We hope everyone has a fabulous Christmas!

Sing-a-long

These pictures are horrible but here they are anyways. We went to the Christmas sing-a-long at Energy Solutions. The boys had a lot of fun. They really liked riding trax.

MoTab

Chris and I were able to celebrate graduation Saturday and Sunday. The boys stayed overnight at my parents house. We went to the Cheesecake Factory Saturday night. It was delicious as always. Sunday morning we were able to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Sunday broadcast. It was so beautiful and the singing was fabulous.

Zoo lights

We had a lot of fun at Zoo lights this year. The boys loved posing for lots of pictures with their friends.

Friend Party

My boys have some great friends that live in the court. We decided to draw names and have a little Christmas party. It was so fun. The kids were so cute with each other. We also had some good food which is always a plus.
Here is my group of girls. They are fabulous. They are all so willing to help and even more willing to have some fun. I think I would go crazy without them to spend the long winter days with.

Hooray for Chris

I am so proud of Chris. Not only did he just finish school, he did it while working full time, had three crazy boys, and graduated with honors on the Dean's list. I just have to thank him for all his hard work and dedication to everything he does. His is a great dad and husband. We all love him so much and are grateful for him.

Here comes Santa Clause

We had our ward party on Thursday. We are so glad it is over!! (We are on the activities committee.) Poor Hayden couldn't go because he was sick. The best part of the whole party was the look on Jackson and his friend, Jacob's face when Santa came in the room. Their whole bodies were shaking with pure joy. It was so cute. Here they are standing in line. You can't tell by the picture but they were so excited.
Chris was the photographer for these pictures. When I first looked at this picture, I was going to delete it because all you can really see is how Blake spilled water all over his shirt. Then I noticed he had his arm wrapped around Emma's. It is so cute.
Blake and Santa. The first picture that I have of him not crying while on his lap.
Jackson and Santa. Thanks Dad for being a fabulous Santa. Jackson told me later in the week that this was the "real" Santa and the others you see around are just helpers. You never know, he could be right!!! :)