A Hunting We Will Go

One of our favorite parts about holidays is going to our families' houses. We are so lucky to live so close to both Jaysen's parents as well as mine, and so we can see both sides of the family and not have to miss out on any of the fun. :0)

After I picked up Landon, we were supposed to meet Jaysen and Mackenzee out at my Grandma Casperson's house. They had already done the egg hunting at the Burnham's, so Kenzee had gotten her practice in for the one that my Grandma does for her grandkids. Sadly, she had already filled up 150 eggs before she realized that not only were most of her grandkids too old to hunt eggs, but most of her great grandkids weren't going to make it to the party. By sad, I mean sad she spent all that time on 150 eggs for four kids. It wasn't sad for the four kids who got masses of eggs after the hunt was over. :0)

Landon has yet to learn the fine art of letting the little kids get some too. Do you see how full his basket is? Even if one of the little ones found the egg first, he was such a stinker and ran and grabbed it first. Let's just say that Mamma took about 7 of those big eggs and gave them to little cousin Bailey. NOT NICE! I made him stop looking too. Here is this 8 year old hunting for eggs with two 2 year olds and a 4 year old. Not quite equal there. Sigh.

Here's the four cuties with their Easter Baskets. Again...notice how full Landon's basket it compared to the other children. Sigh. That's ok. It's over...We'll just have to remember for next year and have a little "talk". :0)

Here are the kids checking out their loot. Landon came out of this with almost $6.00! What's up with the money eggs anyway? Seriously...they never had those when I was a kid! Strictly jelly beans man! Oh well. And, you know those big eggs that I gave to cute little Bailey {who is watching Landon in this picture here} they were the ones with all the quarters in them. :0) Landon was more than a little mad at his mommy for giving away all of his money eggs! I didn't feel bad. Like six dollars wasn't enough? He made $11.00 between the two Easter Egg hunts. I don't think he's hurting. Aren't I mean?

Here's Kenzee checking out her candy stash. But, my daughter is not my favorite part about this picture. If you look in the background you will see little Bailey {I keep saying little, but he's the same age as Kenzee} hiding underneath the pool table. His little fist is clenched SO tight. Do you see it? He managed to nab a piece of chocolate without his mommy noticing. :0) Sh! Don't tell her! Anyway...he ended up with melted chocolate all over his hand.

Such fun! The kids always have fun with it. Thanks Grams! We love you!

This is for you Jodi!

Let me just start by saying that Jaysen didn't take all of the pictures that I wanted him to. I wanted you to get the full effect. July is a long ways away. :0)

I wanted him to take pictures inside some of the really cool cabinets that pull out and what not. Your mom loves them and I'm sure she told you about them, so I wanted you to have the visual. But, oh well. :0)

AND...I'm also going to say here, for the record, that I am totally jealous of these cabinets. They are gorgeous. And there are so many more than what I've got. I know, I know, thou shalt not covet...but I am. :0)

These are the cabinets above the washer and dryer.

Here's the view from the dining room. It's totally different now, huh? The countertops haven't been put on, and the tile backsplash is missing too, but I think she said they were getting done this week.

Here's the other side of the kitchen from the dining room. She put in the extra cabinets on the other side of the fridge. That long one next to the fridge has individual little pull out shelves. So nice! She moved that little side table that used to sit here to where the high chair used to be. I asked her the other day what she was going to do with all of her favorite pictures that she had on her fridge {see how bare the fridge is?} That's the only downfall here. :0)

And here's the tile. It turned out really nice too.

Now you just have to come visit so you can see it in person! :0) It really is like a whole other room. It's beautiful. Your mom, with all of her stressing, did a fabulous job choosing everything. :0) I never doubted her for a minute. But I do understand the stress. It's hard to decide, because once it's in, you're stuck with it whether you like it or not. :0)

Anyway...there you have it! I hope you enjoyed this little tour. :0)

Ready, Set, Hunt!

After church, Jaysen took Kenzee out to Jerome for the annual Burnham easter egg hunt. I had to go pick up Landon, so we had to miss out on all of the fun. :0( Grandma Burnham is a true Grandma and had already given me Landon's eggs that he would have got if he were there (isn't she awesome?) so I got to give them to him when he got home. He was thrilled to see all the extra eggs he got to open up. Especially the "special" one with the cash inside. He's already trying to figure out what he should spend it on. :0)

Anyway, I sent Jaysen with the camera.....

The Little Princess

Sadly, Landon was gone this year for Easter. So, the Easter Bunny only had one child to leave a basket for.

Mackenzee woke up and the first thing she said was, "treats?" because I told her the night before that she had to go to bed otherwise the Easter Bunny couldn't leave her any treats. :0) She remembered. Luckily, the Easter bunny didn't bring too much candy our way this year. I put in a special request because the person that ends up eating the candy in the end, is trying to make her "end" smaller. Instead, Kenzee was given oodles of Barbie Mariposa fruit snacks. OOOhhhhhh AAAhhhhhh. Right? :0) She also got lots of stickers and a brand new package of Dora panties. The Easter Bunny must have known we were doing well with the potty training. :0) He's such a smart guy that bunny.

The best thing he left was a beautiful new "Princess Dress". That's what Mackenzee called it. She wanted to put it on right away. I knew we'd never make it until church without getting something on it, so she had to wait. That didn't keep her from asking every few minutes though. She carried it around the house with her and everything. Sadly, she wanted to wear her crocs with them. What? She only has three different pairs of "princess" shoes! We did some negotiating and we compromised on her black sparkly shoes. They worked.

Isn't she adorable? She knows it too.....

I hope the Easter Bunny treated all of you as well!

We've Dyed and gone to egg heaven!

It's true... :0)

Ok, not really. If you've been reading along, you know I've been yucky sick this last week. It hasn't been very fun. But, Easter is coming this weekend and I had bought the fun little egg dying kit for the kids to use and I wasn't about to let it go to waste! Besides, it's tradition. We ALWAYS dye Easter eggs.

Let's just say it wasn't the most fun we've ever had doing it, and it was probably the quickest egg dying party ever held. BUT! We did them and the kids had fun...as short lived as it was. :0)

Here's hoping you have a very Happy Easter!

Splish Splash

Landon is taking swimming lessons this week at the YMCA. Sadly, he is 8 and hasn't ever taken "real" lessons before. He took a few at the gym a couple of years ago before Mackenzee was born, but all he got out of that was how to doggy paddle. :0) So, I figured it was about time he learned how to swim for real. {I'm such a slacker mommy}

He has been having so much fun with it. He's learned to float on his back and stomach {he loves the "Dead Man Float"} and he's started to swim forward and on his back as well just using basic strokes. He's doing pretty good too! I know I'm his mom, and so I'm extremely partial, but when they did their little race at the end, though he didn't win, he was the only one that actually SWAM for real. They are in water that's only up to their shoulders, so the kids usually just walk as they move their arms. You can see them bouncing up and down as they tried to "swim" to the finish line. Landon doggy paddled the whole way across the pool. I was pretty proud of him. :0)

And, as I'm trying to watch my son and be a good mommy, my dear daughter is trying to slowly kill me with her toddlerness. I love her to death, but today was definitely one of those "I'd love to trade her in for a new pair of shoes" days. We had places to go after swimming lessons. Important things to do. So, she couldn't get dirty and wet. She didn't care. She ran splashing through all of the little puddles that had been created by the previous swimmers and crawled around on the dirty pavement barking like a dog. At one point, she booked it for the pool. I was waiting for that one and caught her before she reached the steps. I swear she does stuff like this just to watch me get frustrated. Here she is with that little smirk on her face, like, "will you catch me if I make a run for it?" Sadly, she looks so much like me as a little girl in this picture that it's scary. Was I this bad? I tell myself that I wasn't....mom...you tell everyone I was really good ok? Mackenzee gets her "crazy" on because of the Burnham genes, right? It can't be because of me......sigh. :0)

Anyway...Landon's favorite part of lessons is free swim, because then he gets to go down the slide. It would be my favorite part too. :0)

Here's to hoping he learns how to swim even just a little bit out of this. Make this slacker mommy feel better! :0)

Weekend Getaway

We had planned on going to visit by brother Cameron in Utah this last weekend. It's been planned for about a month now. We had to wait for basketball season to be over so we'd have a free Saturday. :0) Unfortunately, Mackenzee decided to get sick on Tuesday. We kept our fingers crossed that she'd be better by the weekend. Thankfully, her fever only lasted for 24 hours, but then her nose exploded with a cold and a cough magically appeared. And, to top off that, Jaysen had to go and get sick on us as well. He had caught whatever bug Kenzee had. I called my SIL, Holly, on Thursday night to let her know we might have to bail. She said that as long as it was just colds to still come. So, I told her I'd keep her posted.

{This is Cameron and Holly}

Miraculously, Jaysen woke up Friday morning feeling better, but with the same nasty cold that Kenzee had. So, I called Holly again, and she said that we still had to come, colds and all. :0) I think both Austin and Landon would have had heart attacks if the trip was cancelled. So, we packed up the car and headed off.



And, though I know most of you will be shocked at my laziness...I didn't take a single picture the entire weekend! What's wrong with me? I took the camera...just didn't take the pictures. Sigh.

{Landon and Austin}

Anyway, we had a great time! We did absolutely nothing and it was fabulous to just hang out. They have a new home now and so we got to snoop around and check it all out. It's ginormous! So much so that they don't even use the basement. I think Holly should use it as a girl haven though. Set it all up with her crafting stuff and have girls nights galore down there. :0) I would come!

{Greta and Alina....and Santa too. :0)}

The kids had so much fun playing together even though I heard Alina tell Mackenzee "I hate you!" a few times. Gotta love girls.....they didn't really like "sharing" too well. I told Alina that she could come home with me and she was mad when she found out it wasn't real. :0) Normally none of my neices and nephews actually take me up on the offer. It's been made to most of them because they're all so stinking cute...but she's the only one that literally wanted to hop in the car and head out of town. I loved it. :0) And...I've never heard Greta talk SO much. It was non stop. I couldn't believe my ears. Normally you have to drag even just a word out of her. She is still scared of Jaysen though. She said it's because he's a boy and has cooties. I can't say that I blame her.

Poor Jaysen slept most of the weekend trying to get better, and Kenzee nose was an ever flowing river of snot. So gross! Cameron had a hey day playing the Guitar Hero we brought with us {Just go buy one Cam!!!} :0) and the boys tormented the girls non stop. What can you do? I just sat back and watched it all. :0)

We did go to the Mayan for dinner on Saturday night. I can't say that it was the best food I've ever had {Kind of like Cafe Rio} but the atmosphere was so fun for the kids. We had to wait an hour for our table {With 2 two year olds!} but the kids had so much fun watching the little shows and the people diving into the water. Kenzee was scared to death of the man walking around in the headdress and loincloth. :0) It didn't help that Cameron growled at her to scare her when the man came around. {MEAN!} But she lived.

And now we are home...Thanks so much for putting up with us this weekend! We hope we weren't too much trouble! Unfortunately, I have begun to get whatever Kenzee and Jaysen had. I hope your family doesn't get it! I'm sorry! But you said we should come! :0) I'll send a couple bottles of cold medicine to replace the ones we drank. :0)