Isak's Birthday!!

Isak turned 4 today! I can't believe my baby boy is already four. He was such a fun 3 year old, I'm sure 4 will bring its own set of interesting ideas and challenges. On Saturday, we had a party with his little friends from our ward. It was kind of cold, which it was last year too on his party, but we had fun anyway. We had it at the park, close to the toys, and had pizza and watermelon.
Isak and Lucy loved chasing the bubbles they got out of the pinata.

This was my first time making a pinata and it turned out okay. Spiderman originally had more of a body but then I thought it would be easier to hook it together with just the head. He sustained several whacks with the bat, however.
I made Isak a spiderman cake this year which turned out to be a lot harder than it looked. I did the head out of rice krispie treats and had to remake it a couple times as it was too heavy and kept falling forward into the cake. It still didn't turn out that great but Isak loved it and he was all I had to impress.
All the red frosting stained all the kids faces red and they all looked like they had attacked something.
Sunday night we had a family dinner with mine and kevin's parents and his grandma. Isak got even more presents, namely superhero squad figures, dr. doom's castle, and a large captain moroni and Nephi figure.

Today was his actual birthday and we did cupcakes at preschool, got a happy meal for lunch, and had friends over to play this afternoon. Then tonight was preschool graduation. I know, he's only four and he will graduate next year, but look at his cute hat! Isak's birthday was like a 3 day celebration. I think next year we will make it one day and I will just buy a cake from costco and make my life much easier. After all, he will be 5 and as Isak says, "When I turn 5, I will loose my teeth".
So Happy Birthday Isak! He loves to play super heros, hide and go seek, jump on the trampoline, go to the park, play games, have books read to him, cut paper, and talk to any kid who looks like they may be within 5 years of his age. He can be quite emotional at times which can be frustrating but with that he is also very sweet and really wants to do what is right most of the time. And he makes me laugh on a daily basis.

Last week it was quite warm here and the kids and I had a lot of fun. I couldn't get the pictures from my phone to upload or I would've written this last week. One evening Lucy decided she wanted to do watercolors so I got out all the stuff.

Only to find her drinking the blue paint water. She was really mad when I took it away.We made a volcano outside with baking soda and vinegar. Isak and Lucy loved this and kept wanting to pour more baking soda on it.

I am glad we still have a mud hole in the backyard since we put grass in. Someday hopefully it will be something useful, but for now, my kids love digging in the dirt.

We also went and saw the cows out at the dairy. Isak LOVED them. Its been a while since we have been out there and Isak wanted to see the baby cows, "they are so cute mom!We even saw ", the medium sized cows, and the big momma cows. We saw some pretty new baby cows that were trying to stand up, they were pretty cute. And yes, Isak is barefoot, He is a farm kid at heart. And I gave him a bath when we got home and scrubbed his feet :).

The warm weather has meant that the snow cone truck is back at the park! Baseball season is in full swing which means the park across the street is busy almost every evening and weekend. The kids got their first snow cones of the year and Kevin and I had some delicious tacos from the Taco Wagon.

Kevin''s sister Lindsey and her husband Nate came up from Rexburg on Thursday and stayed the weekend. We had a great visit and I got to sharpen up my dance central skills. My kids especially love Uncle Nate and that he is their personal play toy that will wrestle/carry/throw them where ever the please.

I had a great Mother's Day yesterday. Kevin let me sleep in, well, Isak came and visited me a few times but I still slept in. Then he made me breakfast and I got a pretty hanging basket of flowers and Isak and Lucy gave me a card. In the afternoon we visited my mom, and my brother made us homemade ravioli which was delicious. And I didn't have to change any stinky diapers, although Lucy dear did get kicked out of nursery briefly for knocking over other children in her excitement :). Above is the best picture we could muster at the end of the day, Lucy was sad because she just knocked her snack all over the trampoline and wanted to go eat it. My little, mostly sweet, boy who made me a mommy after 12 horrible hours of labor.
And my crazy, crazy daughter who took me by suprise by being a girl and has taught me lots of

patience. And a belated Happy Mother's Day to my own mom who I am lucky enough to get to see on a regular basis and is great mom and grandma to my kids. One of the many things I love the most about my mom is that she always shows an interest in what I or my kids or doing. She is always the first one I call after their check-ups or after they met one of their milestones because she is always just as excited as I am. She is one terrific lady!
This week it has been in the 70's here and we are loving the warm weather, spending most of our days in the yard, garden, and jumping on the trampoline. We like to put the sprinkler under the trampoline and then jump through the water.

I planted my garden a few weeks ago and today I noticed all my little bean and pea sprouts are showing. I also have some raspberry starts that I am hoping will give me some berries next year, so far I have managed to keep everything alive.

Lucy's favorite activity is snapping the heads of my tulips and then carrying them around. Almost as much fun as unearthing all the seeds in my garden. Almost.

Isak has been coming up with some pretty interesting stories lately. I love seeing how his little brain works as he tries to put it all together. This past weekend there was a carnival in the Wal-Mart parking lot here, which we did not attend, but Isak was quite fascinated by. On Monday we saw them packing it up and Isak kept asking me where they were going, which I told him, I don't know. Then he said, "Mom, they are going to a city called Trample, where there is lots of electricity. And there are flying cars. But we can't go there because there are lots of shock hazards". We are so glad that Kevin's CPA exam is over, he took it last Thursday. There were lots of late nights where the kids and I battled it out alone. He has one more this month, but luckily, its the easier one. Below is one tired Lucy lounging on the floor. She has to be wearing shoes at all times inside the house and gets mad when one falls off. She yells, "shoe off! shoe off!". If she doesn't like the shoes I put on her, she goes and gets a different pair and brings them to me. And then there is Isak, who can hardly be bothered to even wear shoes. There has to be a middle ground!
Now that Kevin is home in the evening, he can help with hair duty. Brushing Lucy's tangled mop after her bath is always a chore. We have also been busy getting our yard ready, now that we have grass and not dirt, its much more fun!

Easter!

We had a great Easter weekend. I didn't have to work and we got to spend a lot of time with family and just hanging out at home. Yesterday my mom and I went shopping in Tri-Cities while Kevin studied and my dad hung out with Isak at my house. Lucy tagged along with me for a girls morning out shopping which she Loved. I had to try some dresses on her to see what size she was and she was twirling in the mirror and talking to herself. At one point we found a three way mirror and she was talking to each "Lucy" in the mirror. She was quite fascinated. We had Easter dinner with my parents and brother last night and today we celebrated with Kevin's dad who came over for BBQ and the first watermelon of the season.

We usually don't make Easter huge deal in our house, its pretty commercialized already, but I think a little Easter basket is fun and the kids each got some treats with a toy. Well, some of the "toys" were things I picked up in New Zealand and just saved to give to the kids. Isak has been really into board games lately and I picked up this cute fishing one for pretty cheap at Target. Its much more his age than the Risk game he has been "playing" lately or rather playing battle with the little guys.Lucy was the first one awake and she woke up pretty early and had gone to bed pretty late the night before. In fact, she had fallen asleep in the car and apparently we forgot to take off her sandals when we laid her down. So, excuse her crazy hair and slightly less than excited expression. We got her this cute Kiwi backpack in New Zealand with some dollar store polka dot morracas. I love the backpack, it even has little feet.This was the first year I actually tried to dress the kids nice for Easter and got Lucy an actual Easter dress. The dress is huge on her, its a 4T, but they didn't have a 3T and as long as I tied it tight, it fit fine. I got Isaks shirt and sweater last July in Michigan at a consignment store. Her dress just made it hard to grab her during church while she was climbing on all the benches, too much skirt. Don't they clean up nice? When their faces are washed, hair brushed, and shoes and socks are both on? It doesn't happen too often, which is why I have to document this occasion.

I found the bunny ears from last year and Lucy sported them tonight, she was quite excited. Tonight we had our home evening for the week and told the story of Christ's death and resurrection and showed a short video for the kids. Isak was actually pretty focused and asked questions. I know he probably wont remember any of it a week from now, but maybe something is sticking. Anyway, it was a nice relaxing weekend and we also got a lawn mower so we will no longer have the longest grass on the block. One good thing about the dirt lawn last summer, we never had to mow it.

So, back to life as normal now. Kevin is studying every night late for up his upcoming CPA exam and I am busy trying to get our garden in while keeping Lucy from digging up all my seeds. Forget birds, the two year old is way more of a threat to my little plants! So last week my good friend Katie Reese, formerly Jensen, who now resides in North Carolina was in Washington for a visit. I haven't seen her in over 5 years and was so excited to catch up. Since Crystal also lives conveniently in the same town, we all got together for a mini-reunion with our kiddos. We were such good friends in high school and have managed to stay in touch pretty well. Katie now has a super adorable little boy, Kaden, who is 8 months. And who Lucy felt a need to torment by repeatedly taking his binkie and then trying to shove it back in his mouth backwards.

This was our attempt at a picture of all our kids together. We graduated 9 years ago, who would've thought this would be what our little offspring would look like?

From left to right: Lucy (2), Isak (3 1/2), Livy (3), Kaden (8 months), and Aubrey (5 1/2).

Dang we have some cute babies! Katie lives close to the beach and I think Crystal and I need to take a vacation down there while our hubbies spend a quality weekend with our kiddos. Livy was feeling less than cooperative with the picture, but she belongs to Crystal :). I love that being close to where I grew up I get to see friends from high school every so often. Now if I could just convince some family in the way of siblings and sibling in laws to move closer, I would be set forever.

Its been nice to be home and back in our routine. Isak likes to tell me that he is "so glad you came back from New Zealand" and that he loves to be back at his house. He told Kevin yesterday, "I am made up of bones. Yep. I shoot them out of my eyes when fighting my enemies". Today he told me, "Mom, it smells like human food. It doesn't smell like boy food". Funny kid.

We got our kids some sheep skins while in New Zealand which I have reserved for special occasions only with no food, drink, or stinky hands nearby. Lucy was pretty excited.
Saturday we had an Easter egg hunt at a friends house here with a bunch of kids. Isak and Lucy were pretty excited, I recycled our pumpkin from Halloween and Isak used the actual Easter basker. I think Lucy was more into it than Isak was, after he found about 10 eggs he just wanted to play on the equipment. Lucy was really mad she had to wait to go find eggs, she kept trying to run into the backyard ahead of all the kids. I have a friend who had a good idea about teaching kids about Easter that I copied. In the Friend this month there was an activity about the 8 days prior to Easter and what Christ did each day. I printed them out and stuck them each in a balloon with some jellybeans then numbered the balloons 1-8. Each day we pop one and read what happened. I'm not sure my kids get it at all but its a start at least.

Hamilton/Auckland

We spent some time out in Hamilton, where Kevin spent 20 months of his mission. The beach above was Raglan, a little surf town about 45 mins outside Hamilton. They sell awesome leather sandals there at a little shop called Heart and Soul. Kevin has had two pairs of sandals from there since he served his mission there and they last forever. The beach there was gorgeous, the road out there was rather trecherous and very very windy.

While out in Hamilton, we had the opportunity to stay with some families Kevin knew there on his mission. Below, is Amanda and her daughters Kendall, Choree, and her husband Jeffrey. Kevin knew Amanda when Kendall was about 3 or 4 and now she is 13! They live out on a dairy farm in a little town right outside Hamilton. It was so fun to meet the people that I have always heard Kevin talk so highly of. They were so friendly and made us feel so welcome. Unfortunately I am dumb and didn't get a picture of Raina and her family that we also stayed with for a few days.

Kendall really wants to come visit us now in Washington, in "America". We tried to convince her mom how great it would be for her to come work on a dairy farm in America for a summer... Below is Choree and her cousin Makiah..she was seriously cute. About 20 months with the cutest belly I have ever seen on a baby. I just wanted to rub it for luck. All of us trying to squeeze in for a picture, not the greastest, but at least we all got in one!
The temple in New Zealand is in Hamilton. We got a chance to go do a session while we were there and it was beautiful. We also got to go the visitors center there and see several church videos that I had never seen before and visit with some missionaries.
I loved being able to go running in the mornings around the temple grounds. It was so pretty! Also in Hamilton, there are these very awesome gardens that represent different areas in the world. Below is an Italian garden that was filled with lemon trees.

I really don't remember what they all represented. I just remember there were a whole lot of them, and they were amazing.

I was pretty fascinated by the bamboo trees that grow all over New Zealand. It was all over in Paihia and I found it again at this garden in Hamilton. So Cool!

The national soft drink of New Zeland is Lemon and Paeroa, Lemon for the taste and Paeroa for the town where it was discovered. We traveled up to the coramandel peninsula while we were there and the town of Paeroa was along the way. Had to take a picture with the giant L&P bottle! I tried some while I was there and its actually not too bad. Its slogan is, "Give it your all....most". Kind of funny, its like the national slogan of mediocrity.
We went up to the Coramandel Peninsula because we had heard about this place called Hot Water Beach. There are these natural hot springs on the beach right by the ocean. You can rent a shovel (or just take someone else's spot if your cheap like us) and dig a hole to lay in. You have to bring a bucket to haul cool water into the hole so it doesn't get too hot.

It was pretty awesome. I think I could've sat in my little hole of hot water all day long. We were pretty close to the spring and it was getting pretty toasty on my toes or I might have.


I thought the other mountain roads in New Zealand were bad, the ones up to Coramandel were by far the worse. There were even mirrors for trucks on the roads so they could see if there were oncoming cars before they completed a turn. Talk about hairpin turns, I thought we were going to die!

We spent the last few days in New Zealand in Auckland. Above is the pier in Auckland. It also happened to be my birthday while in Auckland and we celebrated by eating on top of the sky tower. It is apparently the highest structure in the southern hemisphere and the top does one full rotation every hour.
Apparently New Zealand has become the hot spot to visit for reality shows, just this week I saw the biggest loser contestants jumping off the sky tower and then I discovered Kate Gosselin and her kids also did the same. Crazy. After the sky swing experience I flat out refused to do anything more with heights. We had an incredible time, totally worth the 13 hour plane ride there and back and missing my kids for 2 weeks. Who, by the way, were totally and 100% find and not scarred at all from the experience. I thouht we were going to have some major clinginess/insecurity issues and they were completely fine! Not so sure about our parents, but the kids were doing great! I don't think I will ever be gone for that long again while I have little babies but I'm so glad we did it once. And who knows? Maybe someday we will make it back there. I can only hope.