Random Snow Day

Yesterday night Jacob and I were too tired to clean up and Jacob promised he'd do it in the morning, if I just let us both go to bed.  So this morning while Jacob cleaned up, I had the chance to watch Ryan eat his cereal.  Apparently he liked the reds and oranges best and eat them first.  Oh and you always need to dump your cereal on the table when eating it, right?

 We had a pretty big snow storm today, which was really weird and nice at the same time.  I opened the windows to let the boys watch it falling down.  There is something magical about snow falling, whether it's in December or April.  We read books and played toys for a while.

 Then after the babies went down for their nap we watched a movie and had popcorn.  It just seemed right.

Ryan, Christopher, William

 After lunch the boys couldn't take it any longer and had to play in the snow.  Please note that William and Ryan have jackets that are too small on, Christopher has no jacket, and Steven has boots, a coat, and snow pants and nothing on underneath.  Apparently it's fun like that.

 I convinced them to come inside for some hot chocolate.  (They kept on coming in and leaving the door open.  And it was COLD!)  Where we played, I don't remember with what except that they had a fishing pole they were playing with.

 That's why Christopher's standing on the table, trying it get it untangled.  Though it's not unusual for our boys to stand on our table, unfortunately.

 These two were the cutest!  A lot of times I will start to get after Steven and Christopher for playing too rough with Max or Spencer, but then hear the babies giggling and have to stop myself.  It's really just too cute!

Steven and Max
(Oldest and Youngest)

 Normally I put William and Ryan into their rooms for quiet time, put on a movie for Steven and Christopher and I take a nap, but today I was feeling nice so I let Ryan and William stay awake and watch the movie too.  I put on the movie in my room and then went to the couch to sleep.  Right as I'm starting to doze off William comes and lays on me like we are about to play.  I push him off and tell him I need to sleep.  He stood next to me crying until I couldn't pretend not to hear him anymore and invite him to sleep with me, which he did! I was quite surprised, and he looked so cute when I moved.

 I woke up to find this...they were hungry so they each got a bag of cereal out to have while watching the movie.  Ryan dumped his fruit loops on my side of the bed, which Christopher thought looked like fun so he dumped his wheat puffs all over the floor.  Then while I was in the bathroom preparing myself to clean this up, Ryan got the baking powder out of the pantry and dumped on the floor and part of our quilt.

Needless to say the rest of the night was spent cleaning, and making little boys clean.  Oh but it was wonderful to have Steven stay up a bit later and do his homework while I cleaned.  He was so much more cheerful and willing to do his work, when it was just me and him!  It's funny how during the day I can have such perfect moments like reading to the boys while watching the snow fall and hearing the boys laugh and play together, and then moments of frustration like trying to convince Christopher why it was important that HE cleans up and not just me.  All in a day's work apparently.

Families that Play Together, Stay Together

Get ready for a long line of photos that may or may not be in order, but sometimes I just don't have time to get it exactly right.  So here we go:

Sliding down the stairs with sleeping bags

 Playing in the snow with dad

The Park...we love the park

Spencer's first slide ride

First successful trip to the Dinosaur Museum taking the kids myself

William

 ....then we had to go back with Steven because I left my drivers license...

PI day with family

Two sets of twins with the common cousin in the middle.
(our boys kind of over powered them all)

My fruit rainbow I made for a family St. Patrick's dinner

Painted our door. It's not the color I expected, but I LOVE it! 

 St. Patrick's Day at the Park

Spencer saw that Max had some more bread

So he took some

And enjoyed it

Jacob surprised us by getting work off early and meeting us

Love this sea of green of mine!

Jacob stick fighting Ryan

Masked Men

I just love seeing my cute crazy family!

 More Park 

Big sticks are always found

We had the middle three in the bath and put the babies in for a second and how could we not call Steven in for a picture!  It just melts my heart!!

My sister Dorene and I met at the Hogal Zoo for their free day (along with all of Utah). 

It was crazy, but really fun. The boys loved it!

2 adults and 11 kids...we got this

We had our sister-in-law and niece and nephew stay with us a couple of nights, so we took them to the curiosity museum and had an absolute blast!

Ryan

The water part was the biggest hit

William

Ryan

Spencer

Max

Steven asked Jacob to go fishing, so we decided to go to our favorite park: Glenn Park in Highland.

I really felt like I was in Heaven.  My life is SO good.

Steven running away from the ducks

I LOVE this picture

We came home and Jacob decided to break down the stairs since they were practically falling apart.

The boys found worms...

After a quick nap, we then had our Roberts cousin's come over to play.

We took them to the park...of course

The next day: Sunday.  I took Steven after Sacrament meeting to the Insta Care where he was diagnosed with Strep Throat.  Poor kid was really hurting

These kids are so cute when they all play together

My parents stopped by for a few hours, which is always a treat.

especially when mom does some chores

and dad takes a nap.

Fun in the front yard

I was so excited because I was having a great shopping trip with no tantrums or trying to run away.  I walked past a man who looked at the cart and chuckled, it was then that I noticed I had totally buried Max.  He was cute though and went with it.

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

Easter morning, kids usually wake up to find baskets of candy and presents.  Our kids woke up and we went on a walk to the park to look at...dead fish.  But we have boys and they LOVED it.

These two didn't love it so much

Jacob showing them a dead fish on his stick

Then he threw it.  I love Christopher's face

William poking at the fish

Never too young to start a love of sticks

We went to the Kimball's for lunch and the last session of conference.  To keep the boys quiet we dyed eggs.  (side note: William and Ryan learned how to peel hard boiled eggs and did so for the next few days all of the floor.  Until we ran out then they tried it with normal eggs...a couple of times)

This past week has been Spring Break.  Monday we stayed home and watched WAY too much TV, so we've tried to do at least something each day.  We decided to go to each of the Thanksgiving Point venues.  Tuesday we went to the Farm Country for the first time.  Ryan was too scared to ride the horses, but everyone else loved it!

picture by the bunnies for dad

This peacock was awesome

And these two were troopers

William

I love this kid reading

Max started to walk behind the lion.  It's only a matter of time...

Wednesday we went to the Dinosaur Museum. Luckily when we got there it wasn't too busy, it was pretty early, and the boys convinced me to skip to the end.  Genius.  They had a blast.

I wanted a picture of everyone, but Ryan fell backwards and in tears was sure the shark did something to him. I convinced him he just fell but I couldn't convince William.  He wouldn't get near it.

Today (Thursday) we discovered The Gardens.  We all loved it!

"We can just run here"

Looking at fish

All I wanted was a cute picture of the boys in front of the beautiful scenery.  These were the best I got: