The dancing duo

Callie knows how to get her brother to dance with her when she wants to. :)  He acts like he doesn't want to, but then she grabs his hand and will make him start dancing with her.  He gives in and dances along.  She even gets him to dip her!  It is so funny and precious at the same time.  I think even though he likes bugging her, when they get older, he will be there in a second to defend her (or I hope at least!).  They definitely can argue and fight, but sometimes they are the best of friends and get along great.  Callie has even said Harrison is her best friend and when she needs help with something and everyone is volunteering to help (like saying prayers for example) she will usually pick Harrison over Morgan or Tyler.  Although I must admit, she has a pretty special bond with Tyler too.  And she loves to be just like Morgan and do what Morgan is doing.  So, all in all, Callie loves her older siblings and has a unique bond with all of them in different ways.  She is so affectionate, smiley, and her laugh just makes us all giggle.  We are so blessed to have her as part of our family!

What a sweetie!  Love this big smile of hers!  Too bad I didn't get the other side to show her cute little dimple.  You can slightly see it on her left cheek in the first picture.

Happy Easter!

We went to Lafayette for Easter weekend.  We helped Kent's parents clean up their front yard from the winter and then we went out to eat at Arni's. Mmmmmm...  I really enjoyed helping clean up their yard.  I just really love weeding, cleaning up spent plants and flowers from the previous spring/fall, and making a yard fresh and alive again after the long winter.  It was perfect weather, so it was really relaxing and energizing for me, even though I worked my buns off. :)  Once I start a clean-up, I don't like to stop until I am finished.  Kent calls me a slave driver. :)  We got it looking really nice for everyone coming over the next day for Easter.  They had Stake Conference that weekend, so we were able to hear President Davies from the presiding Bishopric, who was a great speaker.  Afterwards, everyone came out to the house and we had a yummy dinner.  I had decided to make deviled eggs and these yummy raspberry/almond cupcakes.  I have quite the story behind the cupcakes!

The Easter Bunny must have decided to make the presents useful and not have so much candy this year. ;)
 

 

The boys both needed new ties, so I figured Easter was the perfect time to get them.  Of course they had to be matching!  And Callie loved picking out a fancy Easter dress out of the many she could choose from at "Morgan's Boutique".  I got a great deal at Kohl's too for Morgan's shirt, so I was happy with their outfits!

OK, so here is the funny story.  I made the cupcake filling (almond cream) and filled the cupcakes the night before so that I wouldn't have to do that in the morning.  It took a while, but it all turned out well.  Then after church, I decided to make the frosting b/c I didn't know if I could let it sit out all night since it called for fresh, sieved raspberries and I had tried refrigerating the frosting before and it just got all runny and melty, so I didn't want that to happen this time.  The recipe called for 8 ounces of raspberries, ran through a sieve to get all the seeds out and then to add that pulp to the butter and sugar all at once.  Well, I wasn't thinking and usually I add the powdered sugar and butter together then see how much liquid I need to make it the right consistency.  The recipe said it made 12 cupcakes (it had the cupcake recipe and frosting recipe together), and I knew I had to double that, so I decided to double the amount of raspberries I used.  It seemed like a lot of pulp, but I figured I would just double the frosting recipe and be good.  Well, after I put all the butter and sugar in that it called for, it was like SOUP!!!  Seriously, it was WAY to runny!  After searching frantically for more powdered sugar, we finally found some and I think I ended up using like 2 BAGS of sugar and it STILL wasn't the consistency I wanted it to be!  I gave up and frosted them anyway and hoped the frosting wouldn't melt all over the place and be able to keep it's shape fairly well.  It actually did and everyone LOVED them!  The frosting wasn't smooth and creamy, it looked like butter when it starts to melt really fast - kind of separated, but it stuck together OK, so I was satisfied enough.  Anyway, I brought a ton of frosting home and made cupcakes the next weekend to take to my mom's house, but they weren't as big a hit b/c 1)they weren't cream filled and 2)there weren't as many adults there to appreciate the gourmet cupcakes that they were. :)  I finally threw away the rest of it after we ate it on graham crackers or other stuff here and there.  I thought the frosting was super yummy - it kind of tasted like raspberry sherbet, but after awhile I got tired of it.

We had another big Easter egg hunt with the grandkids.  They love finding numbers in the eggs that correspond to prizes and of course candy too!  That burley man in the picture is Clark, Kent's brother - he would fit right in with the Duck Dynasty crew and is proud of it too! :)

Spring Band Concert

All the 6th grade band students from all the elementary schools, plus all the 7th, 8th and high school bands in the district came together for a huge spring concert (which was their fundraiser for the year).  It was pretty neat.  They all did a great job and worked well together even though they only practiced a few hours all together earlier in the day.  Tyler really enjoys playing the trumpet.  He and his friend, Sam, who is next to him in the picture will get together every now and then and play together.  He has really improved since the beginning of the year!  Mom and Dad came down to watch him and my mom was so impressed and excited about the opportunities there are here for kids and music.  This is the second time I was impressed with how the community comes out to support the youth in the area.  Columbus is a great place to raise a family!

These are all the different grades together.

Let's Go Fly a Kite . . .

Between General Conference sessions, we decided to go over to the grassy area near the school and fly our kites.  It was pretty breezy, so we were able to keep them up most of the time.  Morgan's flew the best because hers was the right shape, a triangle.

 

Callie decided blowing bubbles was more fun.  She kept putting the wand right up to her lips.  I told her to just blow towards it with the wand close, but not touching her lips but she just didn't seem to get it.  I think all kids that age do that - it kind of grosses me out!

 

 

The sun was bright, as you can see.

 

A little help from big sis and she was ready to go!

 

 

 

The pro at work

 

What a beautiful, relaxing afternoon!

 

Nothing brings a smile to a little girl's face than new clothes . . .

So I pulled out the tote with all of Morgan's 2T-3T clothing in it, along with a few things I bought on clearance for Callie a year or so ago.  You would have thought it was Callie's birthday!!!  She was SOOOO excited to see all her "new" clothes!  She is definitely a girl who loves her clothes!  She kept pulling different things out and was like, "Mommy, look at THIS shirt!" or "Mommy, can I wear this dress?" and she would open her mouth up wide and squeal with excitement.  She was completely in heaven!  I didn't think she would go through THE WHOLE tote, but she did and had it strewn all over the hallway.  Needless to say, she was quite excited to start wearing all her new clothes.  She has no room for anything else in her closet (I do still have her long sleeve shirts and winter dresses in there too though and she only has 1/2 if not less of the closet) and never runs out of anything before I get to the laundry each week.  It has been such a blessing having the two youngests' wardrobe already ready to go each season.  Of course it is always nice for them to have a few new things of their own and there might be something here or there that they will need, but usually their new wardrobe consists of getting up in the attic and pulling down a tote of clothes from the older two.  Anyway, here are some pictures to show Callie's excitement. :)

 

 

 

 

 

March Highlights

Why does time have to fly by SO fast???  Well, I will try to sum up March with a few pictures.  And hopefully I will still feel like updating to April and what is left of May!

The Odyssey

 

Tyler's language arts class put on the play The Odyssey.  I was impressed with how well they all memorized their lines!  Tyler was a "suitor" to the queen and Posidean.  It was pretty entertaining sometimes. :)  His class seems to be a pretty good group of kids from what I have seen of them.  He has some good friends, but most of them will be going to a different middle school next year.  It is kind of weird how they do it here.  Even though you live in a certain school district, you can choose which middle school and high school you want to go to.  Tyler will be going to the middle school out of our assigned district, which means I will have to take him everyday and pick him up, but after a lot of thought, prayer, research, and visits, I think it will be the best school for him.

 

 

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had lots of yummy green food, Irish soda bread, and a green Brazilian lemonade to drink.  I have been finding new recipes for Muddy Buddies and these were mint flavored.  Yum! The kids asked why the leprechauns didn't come this year, and I told them it was because they didn't make boxes for them to hide treats in.  I guess they were just too busy to come this year! ;)

 

 

Spring Break

We went up to stay with Grandma and Grandpa von Harten one day and then met up with Kelly, Grady, and Leon at the Children's Museum the next day.  I decided it would be worth buying a membership, so that was our first visit.  We have already gone twice since then as well! If we go as many times as I am hoping, we will be able to make it so that each trip costs us about $3-5 dollars instead of $15-20!  The kids had a ball and loved hanging out with their cousins.  Too bad I forgot the camera. :(

It wasn't very nice weather until the end of the week, so on Friday we planned to visit a state park called Clifty Falls State Park.  It was pretty neat, but my camera shots don't do the scenery justice.

It was so nice to get out and enjoy the weather.  It was a bit on the breezy side at first, but the sun was shining and it warmed up by the afternoon.  We went with a few friends of ours from church.

 

This was taken way up on a ledge (where the kids are standing in the next picture) looking down, so it is pretty far down and big, but it doesn't really look like it in this picture.

 

  

I was a little concerned about them getting too close to the edge or looking down because it was a LONG drop to the bottom.  Heights kind of freak me out.

 

 

 

The Rugged Path: (we didn't realize that until on our way back and saw the easy route that we decided to take back.)  One friend was about 7 months pregnant and the other was carrying a 7-month old baby as we were going down!  We were very careful though and made it up the path just fine. :)

 

 

 My "twins"

 

 

Cutie-patootie

 

 

 The energetic one

Well, that is all the pictures I have from March.  It was so nice to not have snow anymore and we were so anxious for warmer weather, but we didn't get a whole lot.  But I guess that is how March is.

February in a nutshell

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love making special dinners for holidays, so this year this is what we had:

chocolate and cheese fondue

 strawberries, marshmallows, fruit, pretzels, and bread to dip into the fondue; sweetheart buddies (I found a website that all sorts of "muddy" buddies flavors!  YUM!)

 Love Potion #9

 Valentine suckers - a kiss for you on Valentine's Day! Pucker up!

 Callie turns 3!

She pulled out a baby carrier and was so excited she threw her arms up and yelled Hooray!

 

Callie with her stash - a Sophia the 1st umbrella, baby carrier and Baby Alive, and a Dora backpack!

Callie's birthday party with family

  

 I saw this cake on Pinterest and had heard that it was pretty easy to make from sister-in-law who makes cakes, so I thought I would try it out!  I think it turned out really good - very forgiving and easy to hide your "mistakes"!  And beautiful too!

 Grandma, Ada, Tyler and Isaiah

 Callie, Scarlet, Aunt Staci, Harrison and Morgan

Callie got her OWN chapstick!  Now she doesn't have to use mine!

 

 This is a typical occurrence at our house lately!

 

TREE DAMAGE

 

We had a HUGE wind storm that blew down a rotting limb in our front yard.  I knew it was going to fall soon because it was already damaged.  Love the shade the tree gives the front yard, so I really don't want to cut it down.

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!

We enjoyed LOTS of snow days!  Callie actually got out and enjoyed playing in the snow this year.   As she was making a snow angel, she flung snow in her eyes, so she started crying.  Otherwise, she loved rolling around in the snow!

 Little Miss Mommy

 One of Callie's favorite things to do - walk around in my shoes!  Now if she could just help me get all the things done I need to do too. ;)