Gavin is 8!

Gavin had his birthday on Monday.  It's hard to believe he is 8 already.  How do I have an 8 year old?!  Time sure flies.  It was Gavin's year to have a friend party, but we gave him the option to have a party or take the money we would have spent on the party.  He chose the latter, so I didn't have to put a party on for his 20+ friends!  (Yes there are that many boys his age in our neighborhood, I have 16 of them in my scout den).  Gavin woke up to the house decorated Angry Birds style.  He spent most of the day at school where he got to take show and tell and had his class sing to him.  When he got home he wanted to open presents, but we made him wait until after dinner! :) Here are some pictures of his big day!

Before school.

Angry Bird stuff.

Opening presents!

Another Lego set.  He really wanted this one.

Plenty of help from brother and sister.

Birthday boy with the crown his teacher made for him.

The birthday cake.  Thank you Costco.  It is what he wanted and it is VERY yummy!

Everyone for a birthday picture.

Gavin with his new golf clubs.

Play his new super Mario Bros chess game with Dad.

Ashlyn

Ashlyn was all ready for the day last week and said, "mom take my picture". Here is my pretty girl!

Easter 2012

We had a good Easter. Not too crazy, very relaxing. We have 9am church so the boys got up and got all ready for church before they were allowed to look for their baskets. It is amazing how fast they can get ready for church when they are motivated! :) They all found their baskets before church so they got a glimpse of what was in them. Amazingly the Easter Bunny came while we were at church so when we got home the kids had a fun egg hunt. Luckily the Easter Bunny didn't bring as much candy as in years past. We don't need all that sugar. I took a few pictures of our day.

Gavin with his basket.

Ashlyn with her basket. Opps! She blinked. :)

Liam with his stuff.

Ashlyn in her Easter dress. Opps! She blinked again. :)

My goofy kids. Don't expect a normal picture from them.

Dying eggs. You can see Uncle Jordan's head next to Gavin. He spent Easter with us.

Ashlyn with her egg in the pink dye, not a surprise. She loves pink!

Spring Break 2012

We had our Spring Break last week. Nate was out of town for the first half of the week. We went to my parents so the kids could have a sleepover with some of their cousins. Then we headed down to Salt lake for the second part of the week to have a mini vacation. We stayed in a Hotel (for free thanks to Nate's points!). We shopped, swam (2 or 3 times a day), visited City Creek, Gateway, the Clark Planetarium, Discovery Gateway, and ate a whole lot of good food. I manage to take some pictures, so prepare for a little bit of a picture overload.

Fountain at the new City Creek Shopping Center

Eating Godiva chocolate in front of a cool statue at City Creek.

Our hotel room. Not only was it free, but an upgrade!

The stairs in the hotel lobby. The kids wanted me to take their picture on them.

Gavin and Liam on the moon at the Clark Planetarium.

The kids on Mars.

Gavin testing his knowledge about the planets in our Solar System. The planets are all above him.

Eating yummy food at the Hong Kong tea house. So good!

Ashlyn loves rice. That was all she ate for two days!!

At Discovery Gateway (children's museum) playing with magnetic things.

Trying out the life flight helicopter on the roof.

Ashlyn could have spent the whole day at the museum. She had so much fun with all the activities there.

Love this picture!

Playing music!

I think Liam looks a little too comfortable behind the wheel of the car.

Grocery shopping (Gavin's favorite thing) and crazy Liam with a banana.

The climbing wall.

The horse on the farm.

Dad and Ashy in a hut.

Playing in the water.

Doing the channel five news.

The waterfall at the Gateway.

Chillin at the hotel. Poor Ashlyn had her awful rash break out every time we swam. I put calamine lotion on her to stop the itch. We had a great time getting away. It was just nice to spend a few days together as a family having some fun!

Happy Easter!

HAPPY EASTER!

Ashlyn is 3!

I can't believe my little girl is already 3! Where did the time go? Ashy had her birthday last Saturday the 31st. She has been talking about it for weeks and could tell you that her birthday is "March ferdy first". She also knew that she wanted pink balloons, a pink cake with strawberries, and lots of presents. :) We tried to make sure we covered all the requests and I think she was happy with her special day. Although, she did say she wanted to open more presents when it was time to go to bed. Oh well. We did get some pictures of her big day with the exception of opening presents because Nate filmed the whole thing and didn't take any still shots. Here are the pics from the big day!

The birthday girl right after waking up. (yes she has a dirty face. apparently she went to bed that way ) :)

Her pink balloons.

Wearing her new clothes from Grandma and Grandpa Kohl. She loves them!!

The pink cake with strawberries. If only all cake requests were that easy.

Her initials. Yes, I am not very creative. :(

We are so blessed to have Ashlyn in our family. She is so spunky and brightens every day for us!