Truly Blessed

My sister blessed her baby this last weekend and so the WHOLE family went up to Boise for the special occasion. It's the first time that all of us have been together since Christmas, so it was fun for all the cousins to get together and play.

This is my baby sister, Crystal, with her adorable baby, Paige.

This is Paige. The newest member of our crazy family. She is so tiny! She weighs almost nothing {at least compared to my baby} and is such a good baby. She slept most of the afternoon.

This is my Grandma, holding her newest Great Grandbaby. She won't be the newest for long as my cousin is having a baby in about three weeks. :0) Lots of babies around here! My Grams made the blanket that Paige is snuggled in and she just loves it. She would turn her head so that she could feel it on her cheek. Such a cutie!

And these are ALL of the crazy kids. My mom's 15 grandkids. Good looking bunch of kids if you ask me. :0) I think it must be genetics.

I figured we'd better get a picture of all of them together because it doesn't happen very often.


Sadly, I realized I didn't end up with a single picture of my parents with their newest grandchild. So, if any of you have a copy...I'd love to get one from you! Thanks!

Anyway...all in all such a good day. I ended it with TWO yummy brownie concoctions that my sister made. I'm going to post the recipe on my baking blog, so if you want to check it out.....you won't regret it. They are SO good. :0)

She is adorable Crystal! We love her to pieces!

Baby Love

So, my sister has gone home. She left this morning. I was sad I couldn't spend more time with her. She came over on Monday and hung out for a few hours while my mom taught her piano lessons.

And then on Tuesday they were gone all morning shopping for things they needed for a project my mom was working on. So, I didn't get to go out and visit until 2:30ish. But then I had to leave at 5:00 because of Landon's scout meeting, so it wasn't for very long. And yesterday, my dear son decided he needed to be sick and stay home from school. I didn't want to get new baby sick, so there was no way we were going out to visit with my sicko. Miraculously, he felt better around dinner time so we were able to go out around 5:30ish. But, it just wasn't long enough! :0)

The short time we did get to spend with her was nice though. I know my mom LOVED having them stay with her so she could be a grandma to them all. We miss them so much since they moved away last summer. I enjoyed holding Paige immensely as well. :0) She loves me. Seriously...I'm her favorite. :0) Landon was quite taken with her as well.

He was dying to hold her on Tuesday, so we got him all set and he just stared at her for a while with a big goofy grin on his face. Kenzee held Paige a few times as well and "helped" Nana rock her to sleep last night. She couldn't get enough of her. Crystal got Kenzee to tell me that she wanted a baby sister...but just so you all know...this is still not going to happen! I will enjoy holding my new neice and soon to be new nephew {Jaysen's brother is expecting a new addition to his family in a few weeks as well.} and be content.

Anyway...it was great to have you here Crystal! Sorry we couldn't visit more! But I'll see you in a couple of days!

I've been pinned!

My son is now a Bobcat. Not a real Bobcat...in the cub scout program. :0)
I am clueless when it comes to scouting stuff. I' m a girl. SO, obviously I haven't had any experience in this kind of stuff. So, when my friend {who is also one of the den leaders} called to tell me about the Den Meeting, and that Landon could get his Bobcat if he finished the stuff in the book I was totally confused. You mean we're supposed to do some of this stuff at home? Yeah....Clueless. She kindly explained it, and so I was all set to get Landon in gear during Spring Break so that he could get his Bobcat at the Den Meeting.

I explain all of this stuff to Landon, and we started going over the little "pamphlet" that is attached to the front of the manual. It took a little time as there was a lot to cover. Part of me was truly sad that part of the required curiculum now contained 'How To Protect Your Children From Child Abuse: A Parent's Guide' because it shows what a truly sad world we live in. My kid is 8. He should be able to live in innocence and not even have to know that there are bad things in life like this. But, I understand the reasoning behind it. It's better to make them aware to prevent horrible things, than to keep them in innocence and have it be taken from them. It's just sad is all.....

Back on topic here! We went through the pamphlet...it took some time. Then we started to get into the memorizing stuff. After about 20 minutes of attempting to get both the Cub Scout Promise and The Law of the Pack memorized, Landon wanted to quit Cub Scouts. :0) Sigh. I'm sure he was figuring it was Spring Break and he just wanted to go off and play. So, I told him fine. I wasn't going to force it. I reminded him that all of his friends would be getting their Bobcat at the meeting, but if he didn't care, it was up to him. He was shocked that I gave in so easily, but merrily went on his way to play. I figured he would change his mind about wanting to do it all after the Den Meeting when he saw his friends getting their awards. Imagine my surprise when not 10 minutes later he came back to me and said, "Ok, I've got it this time." And said the Law of the Pack from memory! Kudos to you Landon. He didn't give up. {which is unlike my son...he'd rather take the easy road.} So, we finished up the requirements for his Bobcat and even got some of the requirements done for a few other areas in the Wolf portion of the book. So, we were all set!

The Den Meeting was last night. We played a few games and at the end they got to break the pinata they had made at the last pack meeting. Landon had the final hit to the pinata that broke it open {Sadly, he later told me it was because he could "kinda" see and knew where to swing. CHEATER! Melanie...we should have put that blindfold on tighter! It wouldn't have hurt him...too badly anyway.... :0)} Anyway, during the "awards ceremony" Landon was able to get his Bobcat patch {something else for me to pretend to know how to sew onto his uniform!} and unknown to me...the mommies get little pins too! I assume it's because everyone knows that behind every little boy who has accomplished their scouting goals is a mommy who helped him do it. So, Landon "pinned me" last night in front of everyone. It was cute.

AND...he saw that a couple of his friends got their little Wolf badge to hang their beads on. He immediately turned around and said, "How come they got those?" Yes, he is addicted to scouting now. I don't know if it's for the right reasons...but hopefully he'll at least learn something in the process of getting all those little beads and arrows. :0)

Thanks Jodi and Melanie for being such great Den Leaders! Landon is having so much fun with it thanks to all your hard work.

Kissing Cousins

My cousin, Ryan, was at my Grandparents house for Easter yesterday. He has two adorable little blonde boys. Brennan, the oldest, is four. I think Mackenzee has found a new boyfriend. :0) They had so much fun playing together. At one point, she really wanted to sit in the chair with him, so he scooted over and let her climb into his chair with him. He was even nice enough to share his drink with her, which made her day because there was ice in it. :0)

Such cuties! Yes, I realize they are related...but friends can kiss! And, like Brennan said, "I'm just making friends!" As you can see, Kenzee didn't mind at all. :0)

BTW...lots of posts today. It was a busy weekend...so keep scrolling down! I think there are about five of them!

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.....