Spring Break

Spring Break this year was a bit drab only because it rained a lot. One of the couple of days that it did not rain we went out for a round of miniature golf. We had a great time and enjoyed the short lived clear blue sky. The other days we played indoors with friends and went to see a movie. We looked into going away where it would be warmer but we started looking too last minute. Everywhere we looked into going was booked for the week. Next year we will book a trip earlier!

March and April activities

I started off the month of March preparing for our Relief Society Birthday party. I am the Enrichment leader so this is my fun job. It was the 170th year celebration. My committee and I decided to do a fun zebra and pink theme. This is the fake cake I made for the dessert table decorations. We had a fun time.

After the R.S. birthday party I had more time to devote to my own crafts. I kind of went crazy and have done a bunch of crafty things. A few are this diaper cake for Daniel's sister who had a baby early this month. Another is covering the seat cushions on our dining room chairs. I also sewed a purse and covered some photo albums I got that were very plain with some cute fabric and embellishments.

Next, quickly came Easter. We colored eggs and prepared for the next day. We woke up at home and Cody woke up to see what the Easter bunny left for him. It's hard to always find that balance of the commercialized holiday and the spiritual meaning. We always test Cody to make sure he knows the true meaning and he usually does now that he's getting older.

I let Cody take control of the camera for a little while. Notice his Halloween pumpkin in the background. He likes to play with it all year round.

 Cody and Daniel coloring eggs.

Easter morning Cody received squirt guns and plenty of candy. He also woke up to bunny feet outside.

Later that day we spent the day at Grandma's with all of the aunts, uncles and cousins having an Easter egg hunt and a wonderful dinner. We had a wonderful time and hope everyone else did too.

Happy Easter!

running a race

 Daniel and I and some of his family participated in our city's 5k run/walk. Daniel and I prepared pretty well for it. We are hoping that we ran it faster than our previous time. We are still waiting for our results.

 Cody was our cheerleader from the sidelines. He took charge of the camera and took all of the pictures. He captured Daniel and I coming in towards the finish line.

This is us and some of Daniel's family after the race. We were definitely ready for a rest afterwards, but we had to rush home to get ready to take Cody to karate. He is doing very well in karate and seems to really enjoy it. He is almost a yellow belt.

8 and baptized

Our big news is that Cody turned 8 and was baptized. He was pretty excited about it, not to mention his birthday party after the baptism. Everything turned out pretty nice with the help of family and friends. And it was nice to have my family from Utah come down for the festivities.

On his actual birthday I made him a small cake to celebrate as a family. Oh, does he love frosting!

Cody also got a treat for breakfast. We gave him a pop tart, which I never let him have because it makes him so hyper.

We gave Cody a new watch and a Nintendo 3Ds. He was excited and I tried to make a big deal out of this birthday. I hung up balloons the night before when he went to sleep so he would wake up to a celebration.
And then it was on to making food/dessert for the party. Cody wanted an Angry Birds theme and I was surprised how many ideas I found online.

But first it was the baptism. We took a few pictures before Cody and Daniel changed into their baptism jumpsuits. And then some more pictures of them in the jumpsuits. We had Daniel's Mom give a talk and then my brother, Colby give another talk. There was a special musical number by Daniel's sisters. It turned out to be a nice program.

And then it was PARTY TIME! We got home to finish decorating the back yard. We rented a jump house and that kept the kids busy most the afternoon. We had all of our family there (which is a lot of people) and a few close friends. Then we brought out the huge pig pinata and the kids were all over that. All of the kids are in baseball and have pretty good swings so you can imagine how fast that thing broke and it rainned candy.

 We ate pizza and cupcakes and then Cody opened his gifts. He received a lot of nice toys and video games for his new 3DS that Daniel and I gave him for his birthday. It was a good time but it definately wore us out. All three of us were exhausted. But it was fun for Cody, and that's what matters most. And...you only turn 8 once and we tried to make a big deal this year because he was baptized also.

Time flies

Where to begin is the real question. Well Cody has been learning Karate for a few months now and he loves it. He has passed two tests and is now a white belt with two stripes. He can't wait until he's a black belt.

During the summer we took a trip to Wild Rivers where all had fun. Some of Cody's cousins were there to play with. Funny, but they loved the lazy river and the jacuzzi.

Daniel had something really big happen in his career. He was awarded a Valor award for saving an elderly woman during a fire. He is the first person in his city to get this award so it was a big deal and we were/are very proud of him.

We took a trip up to Utah over the Thanksgiving holiday. We were all prepared for the snow but it didn't snow one day while we were there. But it was a fun trip.

While we were in Utah Daniel were snowboarding one day and ended up with two broken ribs. I received a call from my brother-in-law that they were at the Emergency Room! But he ended up being okay, just breaking the two ribs and being very sore. He is better now.

 Before we knew it, Christmas was here. We had a very nice Christmas this year with family and friends. Cody was excited to see that Santa granted his only wish, to have a quad runner of his own.

 Over Christmas break we tried to keep Cody as busy as we could. We went bowling one day, and to the Science Discovery Center were they were displaying some of the costumes from the Star Wars movies and some of the action figures they used while filming.
                  The next big event coming up is Cody's 8th birthday and his baptism.

 Our family has been pretty busy. In November 2011 Daniel was awarded the medal of Valor which is the highest medal awarded to a living hero. He's the first person in his department to receive this award so needless we were very proud of him. He got this award for saving a woman's life in a fire a couple of years ago.

 We've been getting ready for Christmas. I am way behind this year because I had a Christmas party to plan at church and so that's where most of my time and efforts went. But I am excited for Daniel and Cody to open their gifts and spending time together.

 We took a trip to Utah to visit family. I was glad there wasn't any snow but the kids were a bit disappointed. My sister's family came as well so Cody enjoyed playing with his cousins. He managed to knock a tooth out jumping over the swings and then when we got home he managed to knock out another tooth playing with an umbrella. This was all for the best because both teeth were already loose and he didn't want to wriggle them!

 Daniel went snowboarding with my brothers and brother in law and he fell and launched himself onto a tree. He broke two ribs but is doing well. He's back at work and I think is glad after 4 weeks off work. I think he decided it's time to retire his snowboard.