Easter 2013

 We started off the Easter festivities as the Plain City Easter Egg Hunt.  Jaki stayed with Addi and Will on the ages 0-3 field and helped them.

Kip went with Zack to the 4-5 year old field.  Kate and Zack stayed close to each other.

They had a lot of fun and got a lot of candy!

We went over to Sally's for pancakes after and they kids had fun playing there.

 Next, we went to Lee's for their Easter Egg Hunt and to get a picture with the Easter Bunny.  The sun was bright in our eyes and Will would not put his hand down.  The kids got some more goodies but not really candy.  They got a cheese stick, some carrot sticks, toothbrushes, chocolate milk, light up rings, and a few other fun little things.  They ate the cheese stick as soon as they could.

 This is what the Easter Bunny left for the kids.  There are also plastic eggs filled with candy all over the room.

 Zack and Will went right into grabbing eggs and seeing what the Easter Bunny brought them.  They were excited to see all of the candy, candy, candy and Zack loved his new church outfit with a blue shirt.

 Addi found one egg and was done.  She just wanted to eat the candy.  We helped her out by grabbing a few more eggs to put in her basket.

 So handsome and beautiful in their new church clothes!

Kip had to work that night so he stayed home to sleep while Jaki and the kids went to church and then to her parents house.  The kids had another Easter Egg Hunt but Addi was done after one egg.  She sat down and just popped it open and sat there eating her candy while the rest of the kids searched for a lot of eggs.  She looked so cute there with her dress just puffed out around her!

 Jaki and the kids then met Kip over at Sally's and Christy's houses for yet another Easter Egg Hunt, dinner and birthday celebrations.  Will really had it down by the time we got here so he didn't need any help and neither did Zack.  Addi had fun picking up candy and eggs.

 Zack just loves all of the holidays, especially spending time with family.

 Yet another adorable picture of Addi in her Easter Dress.  She found this necklace in the grass, it wasn't actually part of the hunt, but Christy said to keep it since Addi loved it so much.

Kate was helping Jane and Addi pick up a little bit more candy and eggs.

The weather was beautiful and perfect for Easter Weekend.  It was a wonderful holiday filled with fun activities and family!

 We had what Kip said 'an Easter miracle' with the first flowers blooming on Easter morning.  We also had a few others pop out the next few days.  We will post more pictures of the spring here, we know that Elder and Sister Spencer are probably missing all of this.

Fun Times in March

 March was a great month.  We had a lot of fun.  It was finally warm and we were ready to get out and play.  We spent many days at parks, going for walks and runs, and just being outside.  

 The kids also had fun with their cousins and friends.  Addi and Jane are playing more and more with each other.  Cace and Will really get along well most of the time.  They enjoy building small forts like the one at right.  Silly boys.

 Zack LOVES to play on the computer!

Addi is just sooooo cute!  She really knows how to cheese it up for the camera, too!  She loves any kind of candy or sweet and when she gets it, she downs a whole cup of juice in just a few minutes. Her hair is long enough to do pig tails and a little pony tail up top but Addi doesn't let anything stay in her hair for long.

We love Will but he just has his moods where nothing will make him smile.  Here is one of them.  He wants to be so independent these days but still wants Mommy to help him with everything, all at the same time.  

On Friday March 15, Zack didn't have school due to the end of 3rd quarter.  Jaki invited her siblings to go to the zoo.  Cassi, Jason, and Rylan joined as well as Russell and Rand, although Rand didn't let them stay with the group for long.  He kept going so Russell just went with him.  
At one point, Zack, Rylan and Jason ran up ahead of Jaki and Cassi and about 5 minutes went by while Cassi and Jaki searched and searched for the lost boys.  They were about to tell a zoo worker when Cassi spotted them.  Zack was scared but Jason and Rylan didn't seem to notice much.  They didn't leave the group after that.  

 Just love that smile!

Riding the carousel.  Addi and Will had fun sitting in the peacock, while Zack rode on a frog and was having fun with the boy on the animal next to him.

 Addi is all about shoes and jackets.  She loves to put the shoes on and off her feet.  She will find any shoe that is left out and put it on if she can.  She found Will's shoes and jacket and put them on with a little help.  Her favorite thing to say is 'shoe'.  She will point at her foot and say 'shoe' if she wants them on, if they are on, or just to say it. She also knows most of her body parts and is even starting to show interest in the potty.

 A couple weeks after visiting the zoo we had some wildlife in the field.  This is a very large cat, we think a cougar or possibly a jaguar.  It was on the other side of the field and was just huge!  It seemed to be close to Kip's size.  We have since seen a couple of regular house cats in the field and this cat was definitely much, much bigger.

It seemed to be either eating something or just had it's head in a hole in the ground.  It's head kept moving up and down slightly until it decided to leave.  We weren't entirely sure what it was until it got up and walked into the trees.  We didn't have the camera ready so we didn't get a picture of it moving into the trees.  Scary!!!

February!

 On February 7, Zack signed up to show his class a simple science experiment, with the help of a parent.  We decided to make dry ice bubbles and Kip helped him with it.  You take dry ice and put it in a container of water that has some sort of hose coming out of it.  You then put the end of the hose into a funnel and dip it in soapy water.  Then drop the bubbles onto a towel and ta-da you have bubbles filled with fog.  The students all thought it was pretty cool but we forgot to take any pictures of it.  Here are the kids watching the fog from some leftover dry ice.

 On February 23 it snowed and snowed.  Jaki had signed up for a 5k for that day and did it in the snow.  She was running through 3-4 inches of snow the whole time.  It wasn't that hard but we'd guess somewhat like running on sand only not as bad.  Her time was 32:00.4.  Not her best time but not too bad either, for running in the snow.  There were only about 30 participants but Jaki finished 3rd overall in women's and 2nd in her age group women's.  Here is a picture before the race started.  Kip and the kids hung out in this room that is inside of the Timbermine Restaurant, where the race started and ended and where prizes were given.

 Here is the beginning of the race.  Jaki is about in the middle in the white shirt, blue pants, and pink striped beanie.  You can see how hard it was snowing and it snowed that hard the whole time.  The only downside to the snow was that Jaki's ankles and feet were soaked and frozen by the time she was done and her clothes were wet, too.  The wetness didn't matter until the race was over and she started cooling down, then it got cold, luckily we had brought a few blankets with us.



And the end of the race...

 Here are just some pictures of the kids from throughout the month.  Addi and Jane are starting to play, although Addi is picking on Jane some of the time, I'm sure that will change soon.

 Addi's hair is now long enough and thick enough to do cute little ponytails or pigtails in.  She won't leave them in for long most of the time though.  In the picture above, Addi has a small pony in the top of her hair.

 One Thursday, while Jaki was tending Sally's kids and Christy had come over to visit and drop off/pick up a couple of things, the kids decided they all wanted to play with Jaki's hair.  We thought we should get a picture.  Addi was napping, Zack, Brynlee and Aibree were at school and Bentley was at a friend's house.

Zack's just trying to have fun and Will is not enjoying it.

Zack is so smart.  He can read most words now if he just takes the time to sound them out, he is getting better at all of his math things, although he really doesn't like to do the homework.  We are so proud of him.

Will is getting pretty smart too.  He can count to 10 although he won't do it when we ask but he does it when he's moving toys/food around and counts them as he's stacking them or placing them side by side.  He will also sing the alphabet song but also not when we ask just when he wants to.  He doesn't get all of the letters but he is getting close.  These kids are just growing up too fast!

 She just has such a cute smile and she loves to cheese for the camera!

Addi thinks she is such a big girl now.  She moves chairs around and uses them to climb on the table.  She's just exploring more and more things these days and such a smart little thing, too!  She is now saying Mom and Mama, which I think is for Grandma since she was pointing to a picture of her when she said it.  Her vocabulary seems to grow each day as she mimics everything that we say and do.  We just love her!

 The boys needed a haircut and since it's finally getting warmer we did a buzz cut.  They are getting along most of the time now, except when Zack tries to boss Will around or Will is just being stubborn.

 ROAR!!!!!

We tried to do a picture with all three kids but Addi was not so happy right then and the added annoyance of Zack picking her up didn't help.

It's not all grins and giggles from this cute little thing.  She is definitely spoiled, since we pick her up to save her from her brothers, mainly Will.

Snow, Snow, and more Snow!!!

January 30, 2013.  We had just a couple more inches that morning but there is just so much snow!  After only a few storms too.  We had some snow from the end of December that stuck around because of below freezing temperatures.  Then we had the ice rain on January 24 that half melted but froze the snow that was still there.  We then had 2 huge storms on January 27 and 28 into the 29.  We got about a foot between the 2 days.  Jaki was out using the snow blower at 6 am both Jan 28 and 29 so that Kip could get out of the driveway and to work, also so she could get it done when the kids were all asleep.  There was so much worry about another bad storm, that Weber School District had early out for all schools on the 30 and cancelled Parent-Teacher-Conferences for that day.  We only got a few more inches and there were no problems.

As you can see from this picture, the snow is almost piled as high as the mailbox, just from what the snow plow has pushed into the driveway.  Jaki was digging out the end of the driveway on Jan 29 when Justin pulled up to come borrow the snow rake.  He asked if there was another shovel and started helping her.  Addi was waking up at that point so Justin told Jaki to go get her and that he would take care of the rest.  He moved a lot of snow for us.  Jaki was planning on just making the driveway entrance smaller for now, so THANK YOU, JUSTIN!!!!!

Just the pretty snowy trees in the backyard.









The squash garden is almost completely covered!

On Wednesday, after school, Zack and Aibree helped Jaki clean the tramp off.  There was a nice layer of ice underneath it.  Also, the snow is only about a foot from the top of the tramp!

Cambree and Will played in the snow for a bit too but Jaki ended up carrying them both back up front because they just had a hard time climbing around in the deep snow.

It was fun though!

While Jaki cleared a few more inches of snow off the driveway Aibree, Zack, Will, and Cambree played in the snow.  Aibree was such a good helper with the Cambree and Will.

The snow is up to Jaki's knees, even without being fully on the grass.  We never measured a total but it is deep and fun!  The air is finally clear again! The temperatures have finally gone above freezing too!

Addi stayed inside with Kip this whole time.  While he was out taking some pictures she wanted to join him.

We've had mule deer frequently in the backyard.  They've been eating anything they can find but mainly the pine needles.  Probably with all this snow down here they can't find anything up in the mountains.  We normally have 3 or 4 deer but when Jaki took this picture there were 13.

We've been enjoying all of this snow and are just glad that spring is supposedly on its way.  We've had a good year but according to the weather our snow pack is still not quite where it should be.