Easter!

We fit in some quick Easter egg coloring when we got back from our trip to Lincoln City!
Easter Sunday we went to church which was amazing from the moment we stepped through the doors until the moment we stepped out! There is no better place than our little church in Mabton! We have the most amazing people there! It was such a great way to start our Easter! Celebrating the Resurrection of our Savior! After the service we headed up to my Mom and Dad's for an egg hunt with all the cousins and some yummy Easter dinner! Thank you Mom and Dad for making it such a great day! The kids had a blast spending time with all of their cousins!

Fan of the Game!

Last Saturday Mike had gotten tickets for us all to go to the hockey game again! We have been having such a great time rooting for the Americans this year! Gracie was chosen to be the Fan of the Game! She was so excited! She got the VIP treatment for sure! She was able to go down on the ice, decked out in her Fan of the Game t-shirt and cap, and blow the horn for the Americans to come out on the ice! Her best buddy Hannah came with us to the game and got to go on the ice with her too! She was thrilled and I don't think the smile left her face all night! She was up close to the hockey players which was really neat! She even got to sit on the Zamboni!

Spring Break!

It's been a while and I have some catching up to do so hold on to your shorts here I go! :)

Over spring break my sister Emily her three kids, myself and my four kids, my cousin Dawn and her three kids and my cousin Mo and her two kids (yes that's four adults and twelve kids if you were having trouble adding all that up) headed to Lincoln City for the week! Aunt Barb was so awesome in getting us two three bedroom condos at her Worldmark resort! Thanks Aunt Barb!! It was a crazy week with all those kids, but we all had a great time! The weather was HORRIBLE unfortunately but we made the best of it! We had one beautiful sunny day (well mostly sunny, at least we made it to the beach) and many rainy days where we had to find things to do inside. We ran out the door every time the sun peeked out behind the clouds! The kids swam a lot in the rain which didn't bug them one bit! Hot baths were taken often! One event I don't think the kids or I will ever forget was getting caught in a hail storm on the beach! It was pretty scary and I think Cole and Joey thought we were going to die! I had to laugh so I didn't cry! Just my kids and I had gone down onto the beach because the weather seemed to be holding steady for the moment and the kids were so excited when we got down to the beach! They were smiling and running and had just kicked off their flip flops when out of nowhere it started hailing and the wind picked up and was blowing about 50 mph! Their smiles quickly turned to panic as I screamed RUN! I scooped up Eli and started running back towards the stairs that led up to our condo. We ducked behind an cliff to try and get out of the hail and so I could gather all the kids together. Then we ran! Joey lost a flip flop and I had to practically drag him through the gravel, and of course we forgot a key so we had to go all the way around the resort. Joey was screaming and crying, Gracie was so soaked that her pants were falling down and Cole kept looking at me with this panicked look "Mom are we going to die?" Like I said before I just had to laugh or I would have probably cried! Anyway, we finally made it back to the condo soaking wet and freezing cold! Hot baths again! :)

I think my favorite part of each day was 8:00! Bedtime!! :) Dawn, Mo, Em and I were able to take a deep breath and just hang out and visit! It was a great end to each day! I didn't get to many pictures but here are a few that I took! The kids loved the pool! One time Eli even decided to climb in the tub with all his clothes on! Woops! :)
This day made the whole trip worth it! The beach was so much fun! The wind was blowing a little and it wasn't exactly warm, but the sun was shining and the kids were smiling!

The resort had a little park which we took advantage of a few times!

One day Em and I had to get out of the condo so we went down to Newport to the aquarium there. It was really fun and the rain even stopped so we could go outside and check out the outdoor animals!

Thank you Dawn and Mo for including us in your fun week! I hope our kids didn't scare you off and we can do it again next year!

Slumber Party!

I wanted to share some pictures of the fun slumber party that Gracie had for her birthday last night! She had four friends come over to celebrate with her! It was really so much fun! I even enjoyed myself! They were very busy getting pedicures and manicures, tye-dying tank tops and watching movies! Oh and of course they ate lots of pizza, cake and popcorn! All in all it was a great night! What a great bunch of girls these are! I feel so blessed that my daughter has such terrific friends! Hannah, Jordan, Gracie, Faith and Hope

Aren't their fingers and toes pretty?!

Tie-dying fun! I was so pleasantly surprised at how these all turned out!

Hannah brought Gracie a balloon bouquet to school and we wrote special birthday wishes to Gracie on the suburban windows!

Happy 8th Birthday Gracie!

Our first born, our baby girl is 8 years old today! Wow it's amazing how fast time flies! Scary to think that she is half way to 16! Yikes!! She is growing up to be such a beautiful girl inside and out! You make us so proud Gracie! We love you! Gracie is sure lucky to have such special Grandmas! Thank you Mimi and Grandma for making her bedroom such a special place to "hang out"! It's so girly and pretty and pink! She absolutely loves it!
Mimi took Gracie out for her birthday for some special Mimi Gracie time! They went shopping for the cute bedding for her new bedroom, got a manicure and pedicure, and an "up-do" and also out to dinner at Red Robin! What a princess!

I wish I had older picture on my computer, this is the oldest one I have of Gracie. She is 21 months old! What a cutie! Look how much she has grown.... :)

Mike and Katy plus 7!

Avery and Joe spent a lot of their mornings cruising the back yard in the Jeep! I wish I would have gotten some video of it! Poor Avery spent a lot of time running after Joe as he drove off smiling! What a stinker he can be! For some reason Avery did not want me to take her picture!

Layla is a fighter! She was an absolute angel all week, but you try to take a toy from her or she wants something you have and you better watch out! LOL

Okay this picture makes me laugh so hard! All the kids are playing around and I say "Say Cheese!" and Avery.... points the gun at me and smiles! LOLOL

Gracie and Sage!

What a pretty girl!

I love Mal's cheesy grin! :)
Well, I may not get my own reality show because I sent three kids home on Friday, but I sure felt like I was in a crazy one all week last week! Em and Chad went to Las Vegas for the week (okay it wasn't a week just Mon. night through Friday night) and we kept the girls! The hardest times of the day were bedtime and dinner time, which is no different when it's just my kids. They are great little girls and I love them to death! It was really fun getting to spend that much time with them! I grabbed my camera a few times over the week and here are some of the pictures that I got! I had to take advantage of having little girls in my house that couldn't fight me when I did their hair! I miss that so much! Gracie wants to do her own hair and really just gets mad at me when I do it! So poor Layla and Mal had to be my little projects every morning! But they were such troopers and sooooo stinking cute! :) My cousin Mia came over on Thursday afternoon and spent a few nights! It was fun to see her and Sage! Sage got her taste of being in a big family! Hope we didn't scare her to much Mia!

First Wrestling Match!

The middle picture is after his three matches! What a fighter! :) Bottom left is weighing in and bottom right is waiting to get started!

Cole's first wrestling tournament! Actually it was a practice tournament, but to him it was the real deal! We got up early and headed to Walla Walla where he weighed in at a whopping 52 pounds! He wrestled a group of 5/6 year old boys who weighed from 50-75 pounds. I think they tried to keep the smaller one's in the group together because they all looked like they weighed about the same. It was nice because they set it up so the kids wrestled three other kids in three one minute rounds. Even if they got pinned they got to get up and try again! The first match Cole got pinned three times, went straight to his back. It was pretty funny to watch. The next match he did a little better but still got pinned. This video is from the last match where, although he got pinned, he fought hard! I know the video is a little long, but totally worth watching! There is one part in the video where he waves to me and it just cracks me up! The look on his face is priceless! He is loving every minute of it! I thought after he got pinned every time he may not like it so much, but he says he loves it and is having fun and right now that is all that matters! Mike was so intense, it makes me laugh! It was like Cole was wrestling for the state championship! He was one proud Dad after that last match though! :)