Easter!

Easter Saturday!

This year Grandpa Farr had a "burn day" at his house.  The older grand kids helped Grandpa clear some of his land and they got to have huge bon-fires.  They also got to have foil dinners for lunch and smorse.  The babes and I stayed home until after naps and after fires:) Then made our way there to have an egg hunt.  It was fun to see all the cousins, we were missing Jeff and Brooke's clan, but enjoyed being together. 

 Megan and Tyson, 8 months apart, and best buds!

 Nathan 8, Lauren 10, Braxon 10, and Braden 11

 Daddy and the twins waiting for their turn to look for eggs

 Found one!

 Princess

 Grammie was here from CA and enjoyed watching the babes look for eggs.  Here is Grandpas head, Kate 7, Wells 22months, Grammie, Justin and Jessica. 

 Megan with the prize she got from Grandma and pa...

OK we all had to try the glasses...so funny

EASTER MORNING

 

 One for each hand is enough for me!

 Jess "showing her teeth" with a hand full of loot!

 Braden, Justin, and Jessica checkin out the spoils!

 Braden in his funky drink glasses that were in his basket

 Bubbles....such a hit!

 Mama's boy!

 More Bubbles

 Handsome boy in his Easter best!

Beautiful girl in her Easter dress!

We have had a wonderful Easter/spring break, even though the weather has been cold and rainy:)  Grammie was here to share the week with us but sadly had to leave this morning.  Today has been warmer and we have enjoyed our backyard and a wonderful Easter dinner with Uncle Spencer.  We are so grateful for this Easter season and the reminder of our Savior and His love for each of us.

Girls Trip

All of us moms know that we all need a break now and then, and in mid-April I got one:)  I went with my dear friend Amber down to St. George to spend a few days without worrying about the constant schedule to keep, meals to make, groceries to buy, and house to clean.  We had a wonderful time that included lots of eating, sleeping, shopping, and of course hiking and biking!!  Here are some pics from our trip.

 We hiked Angels Landing in Zion.  It is a must do if you can stomach the height of it.  It is a pretty short hike, 5 miles round trip, with wonderful views.  Here is the view of the saddle we had to hike along before we could get to the top!

 Looking down from the saddle!

 Our entertainment while up there.  Amber tried to make him crawl on me while I was relaxing in the sun:)

 We made it to the top!

 On the way back down, this was more frightening to me then going up.

 Down we go...

 Pause on the saddle to take our pic

 Amber biking, a different day, the Bear Claw Poppy trail.  Way fun and super easy.  I am not a huge mountain biker and it was not that bad.

We left refreshed and ready to face "mom" duties once again!!

Growing TOO fast!

It has hit me recently just how fast my twins are growing. They are at the perfect age right now and I just want them to STOP growing. They are so fun to be with and love exploring and learning about the world around them.

Justin is trying to talk more and more and just looks you in the eyes and jabbers away. He expects you to know exactly what he is saying. He learns new words everyday, yesterday Nathan taught him "choo choo". He often sits at his seat and rattles off all the words he knows. He will pick up his cup and say "milk" then show you his "poon" and point at Max and say "kitty" He is just so fun. He still enjoys to cuddle and loves to wrestle with daddy.

Jessica is also growing more and more. She is more quiet and doesn't say too much but she loves to use the word "mommy" Whenever she can't find me she will walk through the whole house saying "mommy, mommy" until I answer her. She also uses that trick when I happen to be talking to someone else or the attention is off of her...a real girl:) She has just learned how to show her teeth, and she smiles so big. She loves to walk down the stairs, while holding a hand of course, and she climbs up the ladder on our play set all by herself. Jessica growls when she doesn't get her way and has earned the nickname "chewy" from dad, like chewbaca from star wars.

They both love animals and know many of the animal sounds. They LOVE to sing songs, their favorites right now are "3 little ducks went out to play" and "head shoulders knees and toes" It is so cute to see them do all the little actions to these songs. They love to dance and are quite entertained by their brothers who constantly want kisses. They love to play chase, steam roller, and timber.

These two have brought so much life and joy into our home, we can't imagine it without them! Now STOP growing babies!!!

Springtime Fun!

We finally saw the sun and had a warm day on Friday so I packed up the babies and enjoyed the sunshine at Thanksgiving Point Animal Park. Amber and her two youngest joined us, so I wasn't alone to contain the two monsters:) The babies LOVED all the animals, although Jessica would randomly cry a bit, I think when there were a lot of other people around she would get a little overwhelmed. I need to get a season pass to this place with the animal park, dinosaur museum, and gardens it is worth it. I loved the park too because it was small enough for the babies to roam free and still be in my sight.

Justin and the baby chicks! Bonnie and Amber

Jessica checkin out the chickens, she loved to pet the fence...thinking it was the animals!

At the favorite spot, the DUCKS!!! This is Jess saying "ducks"

Justin checkin out the ducks. There was a ramp that led to a deck that over looked the pond. The kids spent lots of time runnin up and down the ramp.

Browsing through the garden!

Of course as I write this blog it is snowing outside and there is about 2 inches on the ground! Utah weather...

Tyson's Concert

OK so it really is his guitar recital, but he ROCKS!!! Tyson wrote this song and his teacher played the bass guitar with him, he also improved the solo. He is so talented in playing the guitar and how music feels. We hope he always uses this talent!!

Half Marathon

This Saturday, Jaron braved the cold and ran his first half marathon. He wasn't able to train as much as he would have liked and he rolled his ankle slightly the morning before at basketball, but he was ready to run!! The boys and I went along the route trying to find dad. We missed him at the first spot by our house...he was too fast for us. After dropping off babies at Ambers (thank you!!) we followed the route backwards to make sure dad wouldn't pass us again.

Here we are at our second spot, about mile 9, and dad ran right past us. We didn't recognize him without his sweatshirt and beanie on:) And again at mile 10.5, still smiling!!

Here we are at the finish line with the signs Tyson and Braden made for dad...Grandpa came out to show his support. Grandpa was an avid runner back in the day and I think he likes to relive those days through Jaron!!

At the final stretch...run baby run

And at the finish. Tyson got a great shot with the time clock. His official time was 1:43:30, that is an average of a 7:54 min/mile. We are so proud of him!!

Our BUSY Life

With the crazy, busy time of life that we are currently in, I thought I would take a moment to document all that is done, week in and week out in our household so I can look back and remember how I got all these gray hairs:) The spring is a very busy time for us. There is the yard work that needs to be attended to, a garden to be planted, spring sports starting, and household projects to be done. Thankfully Jaron takes over the responsibility for all things outdoors...which takes a huge load off of me and adds some stress on to him! This spring, Jaron has also added a new job which adds much stress to him and the family as he learns the ins and outs of it. With this new job he has evening phone calls, which is new for our family so we are trying to survive the evenings without dad available. Also, my business has recently picked up, I met with a new client the other day and I am currently working on two of their business accounts. Although Jaron and I look at each other and think how can we fit this in, I am excited to have something different to do and Jaron is very supportive. A typical week in our family includes the usual housework, laundry, food prep, grocery shopping, trips to the library, gas station, taking things forgotten to the school for the children, picking up children who need to stay after or missed the bus, errands to be run, etc. We now have 3 boys in scouts which thankfully is all on Tuesday afternoon/evening. Between the 3 boys and their sports, Braden does baseball and Tyson and Nathan do soccer, we have 6 practices a week and 4 games...add to that guitar lessons for Tyson and piano lessons for Braden (which is done before school since after school is just too hectic). Next Saturday Jaron will be running his first 1/2 marathon so there has been training for that and my weekly workouts and training for my sprint triathlon in May...most of this is done early morning since there is no other time. I also currently have a scout calling which takes me away from home an hour each week and adds to the craziness of scheduling! Oh and my kids do have homework and school projects and chores to complete each day. Did I cover it all??? Oh no I am leaving out the two cutest, but time sucking, things in our house right now, Justin and Jessica. Anything to do with these two takes time, feeding, changing, playing with, etc, though I won't complain too much if I have to sit and rock them or play outside with our cute twins. I know all the moms out there can relate to the craziness of life and I wanted to write it down so I can look back on this sometime and think...how did we manage to do it all! Thankfully all the "problems" in our lives are good problems, we are all healthy and strong and have a comfortable home to live in:)