April Fun

April flew by this year.  I can't believe we're already in May & we move to Alabama in June.

Here are a few pics of fun times in April.

Sometimes even 15 year olds want to take a
cuddle nap on mom.  I wouldn't trade these
moments for anything in the world.

Canyon disappeared while I was cleaning & I
found him all cuddled up on my bed sleeping.

I bought all my fabric for our Halloween costumes in April.
I know WAY EARLY.  There's a place here that sells fabric for $1-$2
a yard so I had to get it all before we moved.  Most of our costumes
this year take 4-9 yards per costume, so it made it cheap.

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO BE THIS YEAR????

Crazy Hair Day was in April & all the kids opted for old Halloween wigs.  Bladen had a Snape wig, Craiger had a Gaston wig, & Taya chose Cruella DeVil.  They looked pretty hilarious.

And Sundays are the best days for family walks.  We are going to miss this base & the HUGE green field in the front of the base.  We have made LOTS of memories there.

It was a great April.  Here's to MAY & all the craziness that comes along with it.

Camping - Lehi Park 2018

We love to camp.  We love to unplug from the world & just enjoy the creations God has given to us.  Bladen begged to go on a camping trip for his birthday this year & since Trek was kind of over the ward campout, we planned it on the same weekend.  Camping as a family is loads of fun, but it's even funner when you have 15 other families there with you.  

The kids had a blast.  All their church friends were there with them.  They could play on the playground, explore the trails to the frog pond on their own, sleep in the hammock, start a campfire, etc.  It was heaven.

There were tons of animals out too.  There were lizards EVERYWHERE.

Canyon just enjoyed finding sticks.  He would find one, use it for about an hour, then find a bigger & better one.

We had a wonderful campfire program Friday night with songs, skits, a spiritual thought, & wolf-ums (crescent dough roasted over the fire on sticks with spools at the end to make little bread bowls.  Then you fill them with chocolate, marshmallows, pie filling, whipped cream, pudding, peanut butter, whatever sounded good.  They were amazing!)

Saturday morning we woke up & had a wonderful pancake, egg, & fruit breakfast with hot cocoa.  It was amazing.

Bladen was in heaven.  He did several hikes, some all by himself, learned how to start a fire, chop firewood with & without an axe, & for the first time he helped pack up the tent with dad.

After camp was all packed up, I led the ward members on the 3 mile hike I lead for girls camp here.  It's pretty crazy hard, but it's SO fun.

The Waters of Mormon were beautiful.  There was quite a bit of water this time around & everyone enjoyed splashing around in it.

Trek even gave himself a shower in the waterfall.

It was a great campout.  We are definitely going to miss the beautiful bug free camping of California. It's been great camping here for the last 2.5 years.

Bladen's 9th Birthday

Since Bladen's birthday fell on a Saturday this year, he celebrated at school the day before his birthday.  It also happened to be "CRAZY HAIR DAY" so he looked hilarious in a Snape wig as he handed out cookies to his class.

The poor kid actually dropped his cookies into a mud puddle right before the bus came.  I had to run home & get the cookies I bought for our camping trip & take them to him so he had something to take to his class.

Bladen REALLY wanted to go camping for his birthday this year so Trek planned our ward campout for the weekend of his birthday so we could go camping.  After our camping trip we came home & showered, then opened his birthday presents from family.

My friend Nancy spoiled Bladen rotten with tons of summer
clothes, shoes, some science books, & an ice dragon for his
dragon collection.

Auntie Cari & Uncle Justin sent him a Zelda game
for his new nintendo ds.  He was pretty excited.

All the siblings got him a Minecraft game for his new DS

Mimi & Baba got him Kingdom Hearts for his DS.
He was SO excited about all these games.

Trek & I got him a case for his DS as well as a date
night with mom & dad to dinner & a movie.

Bladen also got an adorable card from Grandma Kinsfather with $10 inside, a cute card from Mamoo & an AWESOME music stand for his drum music from Opa & Oma (I don't know why I didn't get any pictures of those).

Sunday morning we did Bladen's birthday breakfast since we were camping on his actual birthday.

We had breakfast burritos, grapes, & cupcakes.

He was pretty happy.  Bladen LOVES food.  He's such a crack up.  I am scared for how much he'll eat as a teenager.  He already eats me out of house & home.

9 years old.

Then for his special birthday dinner, he wanted pepperjack chicken enchiladas, caesar salad, & apple spirals.  Yum.

Happy Birthday  Bladen.  We love you.

Here is a little something I wrote about Bladen on my Facebook page:

Happy 9th Birthday to this sweet boy of mine. He makes my life full of excitement, knowledge, & adventure! Here are 10 reasons why I love Bladen so very much!!!!

1. He is the best brother anyone could have. The way he protects & watches over both his younger brothers & his older sisters makes my heart happy. He would do anything for them.

2. He’s my math superstar. He’s always been fascinated with numbers since he was a little boy & now we enjoy seeing just how amazing his little brain is. 65 squared? No problem. The square root of 7225? Yup, he could tell you that one too . . . all in his head. AMAZING.

3. He’s my ROCKSTAR!!! This kid was born to be a drummer. He’s been playing for a little less than a year & his teacher is already talking about how he’s going to be the youngest professional drummer he’s ever seen. 

4. Bladen has the most heartwarming smile you’ve ever seen. His smile literally makes your whole heart & soul warm up with happiness.

5. Bladen is the hardest worker I’ve ever met. School is hard for him & it takes a little more effort for him to get things done than most kids his age, but he tries & tries & tries & never gives up. 

6. He is a walking encyclopedia. Have a question about sharks? Chemistry? Bugs? Bats? The Periodic Table of Elements? He devours non-fiction & usually memorizes them as he reads them. We never know what interesting tidbits he’s going to share with us at the dinner table.

7. He’s my piano prodigy. This kid is FLYING through piano books. He can play almost anything you put in front of him & it’s amazing to see how he loves it.

8. He is STRONG. . . physically & emotionally. He can climb a fire pole with just his arms & loves pull ups. Emotionally he can withstand the winds & storms that blow his way at school & shake them off without hardly a bat of an eye. If only all of us could be as resilient as he is.

9. He’s FUNNY!!! He doesn’t say a whole lot, but when he does, it’s usually hilarious & we can’t help but crack up.

10. He is mine & I wouldn’t trade him for anything in the world.

Bladen's "JAWS"ome 9th Birthday Party

I can't believe Bladen is NINE years old.  Where does that time go?

A week before his birthday, Bladen finally saved up enough money to buy the new nintendo ds XL game system.  He's been saving for over 3 years.  He was pretty excited about it.

For his birthday this year, Bladen wanted a shark themed birthday.  Bladen loves sharks.  Every week he comes home from library with 2 new shark fact books.  The kid knows EVERYTHING about sharks.

We pulled out our remote control shark that Auntie Tarrish gave the kids for Christmas a few years back & got it ready for the party.

I made the cutest little shark cake ever.  Thank heavens for Pintrest & all their amazing ideas.  It turned out perfect & Bladen LOVED it.

I also made some shark fin cupcakes.  Bladen likes white cake, but he knows his friends like chocolate cake.  He asked if I could make his shark cake vanilla & chocolate cupcakes for his friends.  He's always thinking about everyone else.   I love him so much.

He was SO excited for his birthday party.

We had shark goody bags with shark suckers, shark tooth necklaces, & sharkwater squirters inside.

He also picked out a 9 pinata since he was turning 9 years old.

My friend Nancy sent a hilarious backdrop of a shark attack for pictures.  The kids thought it was hilarious.

This little man makes me SO proud.

For the activities at the party, we went to the park & played "Fish Out of Water" & "Sharks & Minnows."  Both are tag-like games & the kids ran out all their crazy 9 year old energy.

Then we came back to the house & played with Bruce, the remote controlled shark.  The kids got a kick out of controlling Bruce as he "attacked" everyone.

Bladen's favorite part is cake.

After cake, we headed outside for pinata time.  That pinata almost didn't break, even with 8 nine year old boys trying to beat it down.

And then of course they all just wanted to play video games for a while.  Typical boys.

Bladen has had a rough year this year.  He's been picked on most days & bless his heart, he just keeps smiling.  He has a very small group of REALLY good friends who look out for him & protect him.  I am SO thankful for these friends.

Eli gave Bladen a shark pillow pet, a drum card, & a shark lego figurine

Kam gave him an awesome shark book, magic set, dinosaur, & craft kit.

Sweet Frankie (Bladen's best friend) gave him a pocket
shark book, shark ice cube makers, & a cool melting shark.

Liron gave him a fun hot wheels set that he can build himself.

Luke gave him some awesome Star Wars Legos

Caleb gave him a fun game to play outside.

And Warren gave him some fun Star Wars Legos too.

It was a great party & we had a ton of fun.  Happy Birthday Bladen.