Up to Idaho

On Sunday we traveled up to Pocatello to attend Baby Macie's blessing. The blessing was very sweet, then after Vanessa made a delicious lunch. The kids had fun playing while the adults visited. It was fun to see everyone!
Tom and Chuck
Grandpa and Grandma Allen and James









Tom and Ali
Grandma Christy and Bentley playing a fun game of chess.









Cute cousins!

More Easter Fun

We enjoyed the Ackerson Easter party on Saturday. There was good food, great company, and fun times. The kids had fun searching for eggs, and we had fun taking their pictures.
Thanks to Allen and Missy for hosting!

Shorts, Sledding, Swinging... What season is this?

On Monday I put the new Easter outfits on the kids, shorts of course. (Thanks Mom! They are so cute!) Later that day we went sledding. As you can see we still have several feet of snow on the hill. After sledding the kids wanted to swing. We have had some melting because the swings were covered with snow not too long ago. The whole thing made for some fun pics.















Today has been a lazy Friday. Luckily the older two kids got dressed on their own because otherwise they'd probably still be in their PJs. I'm sometimes not too sure about this whole blogging business. Is it keeping me sane or driving me crazy? I've spent way too much time on the computer today, but I guess everyone needs a down day every now and then. Hmmm... How do like the justification of my actions?

Easter Weekend

We had a really fun Easter weekend this year. Allen, Missy, Carson and Ellie came up on Friday, and we got to go to a fun swimming easter egg hunt on Saturday morning. Missy and I took off to Park City for some fun shopping (dangerous), and then the Easter Bunny visited early so the kids could hunt for eggs in the green house.

















Easter Sunday, the Easter Bunny brought some fun things, we got ready for church, took the kids' pictures and enjoyed a really nice Easter Program by our ward choir. It doesn't really feel like spring here yet, but it has been warmer which makes for some melting of the snow and a lot of slush and mud. Still it is amazing how more sunlight throughout the day lifts the spirits.

Tag, they're it!

The cute Christensen girls tagged my kids. I'm supposed to write 8 random facts about each of the kids. I'll try not to make this a brag session, but bear with me if I'm not successful.

Bentley Thomas
nick name: 'B'
1. Bentley is my little ball of energy. He's very coordinated, and loves to run and play outside. I always wanted to have my children while I was young, so I'd be able to at least attempt to keep up with them; Bentley leaves me in the dust.
2. He is all boy. Today he got very mad because we were doing "girl things". He had had enough and wanted us to stop singing and dancing. It's definitely a good thing he's all boy though because he is around "a bunch of giggling girls" more often than not. I tried to talk him into getting a pink tie to match the girls for Easter. We settled with a green one. (We took this picture before we bought his new white shirt.)
3. Bentley is smart. He remembers things easily, and it is usually fun to have him come home from school and spout back things he has learned. Not so tonight though. He came home and informed me that a certain child in his class told him this Easter Bunny is not real! I asked him what he thought, and he said he believes. Then he kind of stated/asked, "You didn't do anything at night, ... did you?" Seeds of doubt have been planted. I could cry.
4. He's already attended college. He went with me to a psychology class when he was brand new.
5. Bentley is very strong-willed. I've had more than one "comment" from other parents (I hate those) that go something like, "Wow, he could be a lawyer." or "He sure is persuasive."
6. His favorite food is lasagna, and he especially loves the mushrooms.
7. Bentley is very self motivated. He loves to golf, and last summer spent hours (literally) out in the back hitting balls, gathering and hitting again. I'd go out for a while, but then get hot and go back in. He'd come in for a drink occasionally and then go back out for more.
8. He is snuggle bug, but he is so not fun to sleep with. He had the sharpest toes and moves a lot in his sleep.

Emma Anne
nick name: 'Emma Lou'
1. Emma is currently very three. She is exercising her initiative to refuse my requests. She is so sweet, so when she flat out says, "NO" I'm sometimes caught off guard.
2. She is very sweet and loves to snuggle, hug and sit on my lap. Lately, she likes to tell me out of the blue, "Mommy, I love you."
3. Emma has an extreme fear of animals. From the time she was tiny, she has shown fear of things that even look like animals. She would cry whenever she even saw the colored feather duster they use at portrait studios and has shown fear of stuffed animals as well. She is actually doing better now and can sometimes be in a room with an animal (as long as I'm holding her or am at least close by.)
4. As much as Bentley is all boy, Emma is all girl! She loves to dress up, put on make up, and has the cutest feminine run.
5. Emma is the sweetest little mother to her babies. She holds and rocks them, strolls them, and even pretends to nurse.
6. Along with Emma come her fun friends Jack and Jill. The other day while we were sledding and I was pulling her up on the sled, she informed me that I was actually pulling Jack and Jill too. They come with us to pick up Bentley, when we go shopping and are always around during play time.
7. Emma is very talkative and lately likes to inform me of my part of the conversation. If she says something and I don't respond how she wants she'll say, "Mommy, say ..." and then tells me what to say. My favorite is when she has to go to the bathroom when we're out somewhere. As soon as she starts to 'go' she always says, "Say, You did need to go!".
8. She has been wanting to sing some songs for the blog for a while, so what better opportunity. Enjoy!

Ali Marie
nick name: 'Ali Bear'
1. Ali is growing up way too fast. She loves to be one of the kids and tries to keep up with Emma and Bentley.
2. She, too, is so sweet with her 'babies'. She loves to hold and hug them, feed them their bottles, and put them to bed.
3. Ali had a slow start in life as she didn't gain weight for about the first month. It was a stressful time, but we are so glad that she is healthy and thriving now.
4. Ali has picked up on signing and can sign, "milk, please, thank you, more, mom, dad, baby, finished/all done, cracker, poopie, eat/food".
5. She pooped in the potty for the first time last week. (Probably a fluke, but she was still so proud.)
6. For a while her main goal in life was to climb the stairs. She's pretty good at them now, but still enjoys going up and down because I think she knows it draws my attention.
7. Ali is so mild tempered. She hardly even cries, and if she does I know that she is either tired or there is really something wrong.
8. Ali has had only six teeth for quite a few months, but now she constantly has her fingers in her mouth, she's not eating very well, and her gums look very painful. I think she'll probably have whole bunch come in at once. Ouch!

My kids would like to tag: The Harris Kids, The Hansen Boys, Marisa Oveson, The Mair Kids, Carson and Ellie, and The Thacker Boys

Back to the Doctor's

We made yet another trip to the doctors today. However, there were two things different about this trip vs. the previous three in the last month. 1. No one was deathly ill, and 2. I remembered that I had my camera.
I never enjoy a trip to the doctors, but today wasn't too bad. Ali is finally current on her shots, Bentley got the wort on his foot frozen again, and hopefully Ali's diaper rash will go away now.
I call that a successful trip.











One more thing... As we were walking through Smiths. Emma suddenly yelled, "Kenzer!" There was a big picture of a girl who looks a lot like Kenzer (my youngest sister). We had to capture it. What do you think?

St. Patrick's Day!

This year we decided to celebrate St. Patrick's day by ingesting as much green as we possibly could... (Side note: as I was waking the kids for breakfast, I must have spoke with some apparent excitement in my voice because as Emma was wiping the sleep out of her eyes she said, "Did the Easter Bunny come?" It was hard to hold back a chuckle as I had to backtrack so she wouldn't be too disappointed.)

...We started out with a green breakfast, (waffles, pudding and OJ), and while Bentley was at school we made green bread. We had green sandwiches for lunch, made shamrock sugar cookies and finished it off with a very green dinner (pasta, jello, broccoli, spinach, cucumbers, chips and milk).
Then today, while I was changing Ali's diaper I noticed her poopies were an unusual hue... kind of a greenish color. Anyone have any idea why that could be? ;-)

Friday Night Pizza!

Friday is our weekly pizza night. This is mostly because... I love pizza! The kids are not always so enthusiastic. However, this time we decided that everyone would get to make their own pizza. It was amazing how well the kids ate and how excited they were for it all. Bentley put pepperoni on his so that it looked like "a face with a bloody nose". Emma worked hard putting both pepperoni and pineapple on her pizza (of course we had to bring up the letter 'P' in the conversation:) Both decided they are pretty good cooks. Ali enjoyed playing with stickers while we baked but liked eating the pizza too.

Enough already!!!

I told myself that I would not write complaining blogs about the status of our health, so after two, three, maybe four doctor appointments, antibiotics x3, and several bottles of Tylenol and Motrin, and many weeks of coughing, sneezing, runny noses, sore throats, rashes, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach aches, body aches, head aches... you name it, we've had it... We are finally almost all feeling better. There are still some lingering symptoms, but things are finally looking up! (Knock on wood.) I can honestly say that I am SO sick of sickness! That and the fact that it snowed here today makes me ever so excited for spring.
Still, amid all the sickness we managed to have some fun times too.
We don't have much dirt outside (just snow), so we decided to make our own 'dirt cups'.














Ali getting dirty.














Hangin' out with Dad.