Happy First Birthday Landon!

From this:
To this!

I can't believe that my baby is 1! Where has the last year gone? We had fun celebrating Landon's birthday on May 7. My brother Michael was kind enough to drive all the way up from So. California for the occasion since we have no family close by. I tried (note the word tried) to make a special "1" cake for Landon, and we had a fairly low key, little family party to celebrate after Jon got home from work. Landon got lots of fun presents and "boy toys", but I am not sure whether he or his sisters had more fun opening and playing with them? We love this little guy more than words can express and are so glad that Heavenly Father saw fit to send him to our family. He is so fun and full of life. I love to see the world through his eyes. Happy Birthday Buddy Boy!

My pathetic excuse for a cake. Don't look too close at it!

This little cake took about 1/20th of the time to make as the one above but looked way cuter

The loot

Trying to rip off the paper!

"Hmm, where do I start?"

One of his favorite presents, the blue buggy!

Helpful sisters keeping his little hands away from the burning candle!

Testing the waters. . .

"Am I dreaming? Because this is too good to be true!"

KICKS Soccer!

I signed my girls up for the spring soccer league (KICKS) this year. It was quite a bit different than our experience with the fall league (AYSO), but they still enjoyed it, cold weather, disorganization and all! Brooklyn brooded about being on a team with all boys, but she actually ended up being about the best player on the team and scored many of the goals! Jacey also scored a goal or two for her team and also proved to be one of the better players. Now it's countdown to fall soccer!

That's my girl! (Look at her school all those boys!)
You maybe can't see it here, but Brookie always sticks out her tongue while she dribbles the ball!

Jacey is a really fast runner and always hustles to the ball.

Happy Easter!

This year Easter was a somewhat quiet affair, since it was General Conference and we didn't have to rush off to church. We did the usual, kids woke us up early to find their Easter baskets, and then we all indulged in some treats before breakfast. The kids were quite pleased with what the Easter Bunny left this year, lots of good candy, video games, and books for Jacey and Brooklyn, and some Gerber treats, new binkies, and a little toy car for Landon.
We did invite some friends over for Easter dinner, and attempted to do an Easter Egg Hunt with the kids despite the cold weather. We settled on a combination indoor/outdoor egg hunt, and while the kids were occupied outside Landon crawled around and found many of the indoor eggs. He was so intent on getting to the treats that he didn't waste time unwrapping them before popping the candy into his mouth!

Odd Fashion Sense

One of Jacey and Brooklyn's favorite pastimes is dressing up. Usually Jacey is the fashionista and dictates the style, but one day Brooklyn went rogue and came up with her own sense of, er, style? I thought that this choice was especially interesting, something like G.I. Joe meets Tinkerbell.

April Fool's?

On April 1st, we woke up to this:
About 6 inches of snow fell in what was thought to be a "spring storm". Unfortunately, we seemed to miss spring altogether this year as we had many more snow storms after this one and had fairly cool weather clear up until June. I took some pictures of the kids in the middle of April trying to fly their kite at the park while standing on icy, sloshy grass and freezing their rears off!

Their poor legs and toes were about frozen off by the end. . .

but nothing was going to stop us from flying this kite!

Landon managed to stay snug and warm in his stroller as he took in the action!

This Boy Takes After His Dad!

What is it about men that they can fall asleep anywhere? Is it in their DNA? Landon definitely seems to be following in his dad's footsteps!

He's Definitely All Boy!

One thing that has amazed me as I have watched Landon grow is how different boys are than girls. Landon is constantly eating and getting into everything! He especially loves to get into the dishwasher. Once he hears the door open and the plates and silverware clanking, he sprints for the dishwasher to see what treasures abound there. It is always a race to try to load up the dishwasher before he can unload it!

Dumping out his "puffs" all over the floor!

Hurrying to shovel them into his mouth before we take them away!

Maybe he has a future in dishwashing?

Waiting patiently to make his move. . .

Now go for it!

Green Eggs and. . .Pancakes?

For St. Patrick's Day this year I decided to make a dinner of green eggs and pancakes for the kids. They had a little trouble at first deciding that it looked palatable enough to eat, but once they got past the color thing they enjoyed every last bite!

While Dad's Away, The Kids Will Play!

I forgot to mention before that while Jon was in Europe, Jon's mom was nice enough to come down for a few days to help out and visit us. It was a nice reprieve for me to have some help. We shopped a little, went out to lunch together, went to a couple of parks with the kids, and even met Jacey at school one day to have lunch with her. Since Jon took our camera to Europe I didn't get any pictures of her visit, but we had a great time with "Red Grandma" and were glad that she made the effort to come!