My Little Creator

Do you ever wonder what your kids will grow up to be? It's fun to see their interests and talents emerge, especially at such a young age. Big Man is very much into creating things. He's always creating some sort of art project. It's usually all on his own too. I've always said that using his imagination and creativity results in a HUGE mess for me, but look at the results.


In case you couldn't tell, the first one is an airplane, then R2D2, and C-3PO. We definitely go through a lot of paper, kleenex, and art supplies. All of these creations are 'pillows' as he calls them. They're stuffed with kleenex.

Little Man on the other hand is our athlete. He loves sports of all kinds and he's good at them too. It comes more naturally to him. He's in T-ball this year and loving it. If I remember to take my camera to any games, I'll get some pics. It will be interesting to see what Little Princess likes as she gets older.

60th Birthday Party

Today my dad turned 60. If you know him at all, he hates big parties and being the center of attention. SO, we threw him a surprise party. We invited a ton of friends and family and pretty much everyone showed up. We probably had 50 people come. Everyone arrived 30 minutes before he did. We were all outside waiting when he pulled up.
As soon as he turned in the circle he saw us all out there. I guess it was the big birthday sign that gave it away. He stopped the car and put it into reverse. What a joker. Once he parked the car he wouldn't get out for a while. I think he was a bit overwhelmed :)

Everyone brought something to share for a pot luck style dinner. It was really yummy. Big man thought the cake was hilarious.

We had a great time. I know he hates all the fuss, but it's not every day you turn 60. I think it was great all the love and support that was shown by all his family and friends. He truly is a great dad, husband, grandpa, brother, son, and friend. We love you.

Piano is done...

So if you know me at all, you know that I want things done Now or yesterday even :) I hate waiting. So for me this project seemed to take a year, even though it was only about a month.

I bought this piano off of KSL.com. It was in a little bit worse shape than i had anticipated. I sanded and painted the wood, and redid all the keys. It may not sound like much, bit it was a lot of work. Here's what it looked like before.


Most of the keys were all chipped off and looked pretty bad. Replacing them was a must.
So after many hours of sanding, painting, reassembling, and patiently waiting for it to be moved, it's finally in my family room. I even got out my old piano books for the finishing touch.
I bought the new key tops off Ebay. They were only $30. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.


The final task will be to get it tuned. I'm excited to have it done. Big man said he wants to take lessons. I think I'll go over some of the basics with him. In all of my spare time of course :)

Easter Fun

This year was our first time going to the Riverton City Easter Egg Hunt. The kids had a good time. It was pretty cold, but could've been much worse. We got lots of candy and prizes. It was fun.


The kids had fun posing with the Easter Bunny. Little Princess wasn't even bothered at all. I don't know if you can tell, but her hair is in ponytails. It was really cute.
Finally, the kids decorated Easter eggs. Fun times for all. In between all the festivities, we watched conference too. It was a fun day.
My latest project is refinishing a piano I got off of KSL.com. We had a piano years ago, but we sold it when we were going to be moving in with my parents. We didn't want to store it. After 5 years, I decided I wanted another one. Big man keeps saying he wants to take lessons. I think I"ll teach him until he gets a little older and then find someone for lessons. I got this piano for $100. I thought it was a pretty good deal. It needed a little TLC. I sanded it down and painted it. Soon it will be put back together. Here are a couple of before pictures. I will post some after ones when it's all done.

Easter Clothes, The Farm, and Blackmail

I do this every year. I get the kids Easter clothes and then can't wait until Easter to have them wear them. I took this last weekend. Jeff was at the Sportsman's Expo all weekend, so I did church with all three munchkins by myself. I had them dressed, ready, and out the door early :) Wahoo.
Don't I have the cutest kids. I know I'm biased, but really they are cute.
Saturday all three boys went to the farm. They had a great time being boys and I had a very peaceful day without them :)
Here comes the blackmail. I was combining all of my Hawaii pictures and found these on there. My boys love to play dress up. Since their little sister isn't quite big enough yet, they don't get to do it very often. I think it's cute.
I am loving this spring weather. Yesterday, not only did I clean the house from top to bottom, but I also mowed the lawn. It may be a little early -yes, but it was nice to get all the leaves and 'poop' (from aeration) off. Even though it's not real green yet, it looks great. It was a great day.

Back to Normal

It's definitely a lot harder coming home from a trip than it is preparing or going. When we left for Hawaii there was only a 3 hour time difference, when we came home it was 4. The kids did pretty good adjusting to Hawaii time, but now that we're home they don't want to go back to our 'earlier' schedule. I've had to wake Big Man up in the morning for preschool. We've had some pretty slow mornings.

Friday was my turn for the preschool playgroup. There are four boys besides mine that come over. I only have playgroup about every two weeks at my house. It's a lot of fun, but pretty chaotic. Both my boys have a great time. They're cute kids.

Friday, Grandma Susie and I took the kids to the Sportsman's Expo at the South Towne Expo Center. Jeff was at the show selling optics. If you didn't know he and my brother have a side business of selling optics. (www.vipoptics.c0m) There was lots to do at the show. The boys got to go fishing. Little man even caught one.
They got to pet a baby bear. Little Princess's favorite part of the show was watching the dog diving. The dogs run and jump into the water. (I didn't get a picture).
We could've spent all day on the tractors.
Big Man did the rock climbing wall. He had a blast-I'm not surprised. He's quite the climbing monkey.
He was so determined to get to the top. This is about as far as he made it.

Hawaii Day Six-Final Day

Today was our final day in Hawaii. We had fun in Waikiki for most of the morning. On our short walk to the beach we passed these cool trees with lots of hanging 'vines' as the kids called them. They were pretending to be Tarzan.
Here's another shot. I loved all of the old trees.

I think Waikiki beach is my favorite. I don't know why, it's the most touristy, but it's also gorgeous. Here are two of the munchkins sitting on a little lookout. I love the blue sky and blue water.
We spent our morning behind this great wall. It made it nice to swim without too many waves. It was also shallow enough that the kids could play without too much worry. They did have a fun time walking on the wall and watching the waves hit it.
My little poser. He wouldn't hold still for anything :)
After the beach we got cleaned up and went to Planet Hollywood for dinner. Another restaurant I've never eaten at. It was fun. I love this picture of Little Princess because this is the exact same look I give Jeff every time he takes my picture.
The entertainment part of dinner was going up and down the escalator. Little man was pretty excited that he got on it all by himself tonight. He always has to hold someone's hand, but tonight he did it himself.

After dinner we walked to the International Market Place. Little princess thought she was hot stuff. She's getting so big.

There are all sorts of interesting people on the way to the International Market Place. Big Man wasn't quite sure what to think. It took him a minute to go sit by his dad.

We've had a great trip. We're sad to see it end, but it will be good to be home. Thanks Lori, Dave, and kids for a great time and a great vacation. We'll miss you.