Catch up!

I'm finally, finally posting again.  Our desktop died, so we had to get a new computer.  It's been taking forever to get everything transferred over and working right.  I'm still not done, but I think I've figured out the pictures so I can at least do something.  So much has happened that I think I'm just going to upload a bunch of pictures with short descriptions.  I would just like to add though, that May is such a crazy month!  So full of recitals, school programs, field trips, etc, etc.  I feel like we're running with our heads cut off all the time.  I guess maybe it works that way so we're really ready for summer.  Anyway, enjoy the bajillion pics.

Easter fun.  I let Sage put candy in all the eggs because I'm such a good mom

Baby chicks for Easter!  We got 8 because usually a few die.  Well, 6 weeks later we still have all 8.  Eggs anyone?

We got a croquet set for Easter so we had to play.  I remember playing this when I was a kid.

Kate took a sewing class and made this.  She gets so mad when I can't help her sew.  This is when she needs her grandma 

We finished our patio!  So much work, but we love it!

Our first time enjoying the fire pit.  We'll be using this a lot!

Jake ordered a huge gas kit, because that's what men do

Zack graduated from his social skills class at BYU!  We're proud of him because it wasn't easy!

Sage had her second grade program.  Look at those dimples!

Apparently Sage really thought we were going to leave her in the chicken coop

Bless Zack for building everything we buy.  We would be lost without him.

For FHE we got all the bikes ready to go for the summer

I went on a field trip with Kate to a Bees game.  I thought I was going to die of heat, but other than that it was great!;)

Eating pancakes with sugar in honor of Linz.  The kids were so excited.

Redneck style fun.  Jake is the favorite uncle because of all of his fun toys.  He loves it.

Cousin redneck fun!

Cutest dancer ever!!

She loves showing sass

Her BFF

You can kind of see Kate playing the violin.  She gets to skip 6th grade orchestra and go straight to 7th grade!

We had the best spring break ever.  It was the first time I can ever remember being gone for the whole week, which was kind of awesome.  Turns out when you're gone the whole week you don't have to kill yourself to try to entertain your kids.  This is a good thing for sure.

We headed to St George first so we could split the drive up.  Then we were on our way to Long Beach, California.  We had great fun.  The first day we were there they were having drift car races (I think that's what they're called) right by our hotel.  Jake and Zack thought they had died and gone to heaven.  Every boy/man who was watching was wishing they could somehow drive a race car.  It's definitely a guy thing.  And those engines, holy cow were they loud!  Apparently in order to go fast your car must also be loud.  Again, loudness + speed = every man's dream.  The girls and I got separated from the boys, well, we left them because they wouldn't leave.  We wandered around and found ourselves right by all the race cars.  Super cool.  So we told the boys to come join us.  They tried and couldn't.  Somehow we made our way into a 'tickets only' area without tickets.  So, we took pictures by the pink and purple car and then proceeded to exit.  The boys were jealous.

Anyway, while in Long Beach we did some exploring, went to the aquarium (super cool one), and went to the beach.  The beach right by our hotel was like sitting at a lake.  I guess there are breakers at the end of the bay to keep sharks out.  These breakers also keep waves out.  Happy there weren't any sharks, but beaches are no fun without waves.

So on Monday we headed to a real beach (Huntington Beach) and played all day.  It was so great and relaxing.  The water was freezing of course, but we still managed to play in it.  The kids even had their swim suits on.  We got to watch Sage get picked up and tossed onto the beach by a wave.  Everyone has to experience this at least once.  We bought a super cheap Sponge Bob kite that we got in the air.  Sage loved flying Sponge Bob and it stayed up the whole time we were there.  We ended the day eating delicious mexican food right off the beach.  Such a great day.

Then we headed to our next stop, which was....Disneyland!!  Greg and Tracy got everyone a hotel and took us all to Disneyland.  And when I say everyone I mean like 60 people, so this was no small feat.  We got to spend two days in the park (Jake had to leave a day early because of work).  The first day we just had horrible luck with fast passes.  I somehow lost some, rides were broken, basically the odds were not in our favor.  We still had great fun, we just didn't make it on all of the rides we wanted to.  We left at 5:30 to join some of the Higleys at The Cheesecake Factory.  A delicious way to end the day.  The kids were so tired after dinner that we didn't end up going back to Disney.

The second day I was determined to make up for our failures of the first day.  Mission accomplished on that one.  We were there before the park even opened.  We strategically got our fast passes and went on as many rides as possible before the crowds showed up.  The kids were troopers for sure because we walked all over.  We left the park for like an hour to get dinner and then we stayed until after 10:00pm.  We all barely made it back to the hotel because our feet were so tired.  Some of the favorite rides were the big roller coaster, splash mountain, thunder mountain, space mountain, and of course radiator springs.  Sage is not a big fan of fast, crazy rides.  We had to convince her to go on all of them.  During the ride she would scream and put her hands in the air.  After she would say, "That was fun!"  But when we asked her if she wanted to go on it again we would get a quick "No!"

We headed back to St George on Thursday.  The kids got to swim with their cousins until it was dark.  The perfect way to end the trip.  You know you've had a good time when you've been gone for a week and the kids still complain that its time to go home.  Thanks to Greg and Tracy for a most excellent adventure!

Awesome race cars.  Turn the sound way up for the full effect!

awesome pink and purple race car

at the aquarium

the Queen Mary ship in the background (I think that's what its called)

Sponge Bob flying high!

Kate playing in the bubbles

Out on the pier

Disneyland!!

Waiting in line.  This is Sage's I'm scared face

Mickey's house!

This picture says a thousand words  Love it!

Waiting in more lines

Lovely Snow White

Sage was the only one who knew who this was

Storm Trooper!

We loved Splash Mountain!

Sage collapsed on the bed the second we got back to the hotel

Ending it all in the pool:)

Long Beach lake

This picture is kind of horrible

Sassy Sage

March Happenings

I feel like March was pretty uneventful.  We were busy with the regular running around we do, but definitely nothing exciting.  That's ok though.  We can't always have a party.  So here are a few pictures from the month.

This is what Sage looks like every morning.  She's always freezing so she eats breakfast while sitting on the heat vent.

Sage decided to build the biggest cup tower ever.

This is hard to see, but this is Kate swimming at one of her swim meets.  She's in the middle in the pink swim cap

Kate and Jake took a ski day together and loved it.

Jake was busy working but this is a cool garage he built

February Happenings

February is gone and we are on to March!  Which means spring is that much closer.  Hooray!  This month flew by, and I think we quite enjoyed it.  Valentines Day was good fun.  We (mostly I) left special valentines for each other in our lovely heart mailbox.  I even managed to make sugar cookies for the kids to decorate.  They love it, but I can only bring myself to do it once or twice a year.  I'm such a good mom;)

Sage was busy playing basketball this month.  She had great fun and we loved watching her.  Those girls are hilarious.  They dribble about once every 10 steps and take a few minutes to set up their shot.  She definitely learned a lot though.

We've of course been skiing a lot.  The snow has not let us down this year.  Its about time.  Its also about time for the snow to start melting for spring.  I'm ready...

The most exciting thing to happen this month though is that we got a goat!!  Yep, you heard me right, a real live goat.  Our neighbors of the last 10 years decided to sell their goat.  Well, this goat is part of the family.  We've lived by it for as long as we've been in Midway, so we couldn't let it go.  We'd talked about getting one anyway to keep our pasture grass short, so now we have one a little sooner than planned.  Yes, we're farmers.  We'll be adding chickens to the farm in a couple of months.  My dad said we should call the goat Rudy, and it stuck.  So Rudy is now the mascot of the neighborhood.  Everyone who comes over wants to see it.  Gotta love farm life;)

Decorating valentines cookies

Sage's basketball team

Red faced Sage after a game

Rudy!!

A picture of Linz with Kate thrown in since it was her birthday:)

Jake and I snuck away to ski without the kids