Test

I'm trying to figure out how to get pictures directly from my phone to blogger. I have Google's phone, so it seems like it should be easy. We'll see how this goes.

Spring and St. Patrick's Day

Spring has sprung around here.  Actually I took these pictures about a week ago, and most of the flowers are gone now, replaced with leaves.  The last week our temps have been in the 80s (F).  That is a little warm for my liking in March.  Hopefully that is not indicative of a very hot summer in our future.

The Cleveland Pear in our front yard (beautiful, but smells awful)

Looking from our yard to the farm

The night before St. Patrick's Day, the kids set up a trap to try and catch a leprechaun.  They baited it with money.  Sadly the leprechaun outsmarted them.  He took the money, and used some candy he had on him, to build steps to climb out of the trap.  Of course, he left the candy behind.  He also left a tiny, leprechaun sized note telling the kids that was a "nice try, better luck next time." :) 

On St. Patrick's Day they were very careful to wear green, so they wouldn't get pinched.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures from that day.

Jared, Kevin, and Jenna with their leprechaun trap

Random Happenings

Here are some random pictures from the end of February, beginning of March.  Enjoy!

Trying to keep Alyssa happy with a spoon and bowl

This is how the set up is supposed to be, so that she can hit the bowl with the spoon

Jared was entertaining Alyssa with his Leapster

Jenna, Alyssa, and Jared hanging out in a fort together one Saturday Morning

My boy loves to dress up as a girl. Here he is with a dress over a cowboy costume, finished off with a lei

Alyssa after her bath

Jenna dressed up for favorite sports team day at school.  (She wasn't the only one in her class with a BYU shirt on)

Jared with his bike

One night we had a really loud thunderstorm.  The kids were already in bed, but Derek and I were still up.  Jared came down stairs very scared.  We let him sleep on the couch while we finished cleaning up.  He fell asleep. 

Jared sleeping on the couch during a thunderstorm

Crazy Hair Day

My children had Spirit week at their school in March.  One of the days was "Crazy Hair Day." This is one of our favorite days.  Here are Kevin and Jenna with their crazy hair. 

The spike.  He has so much hair!

View from the side

Lots of pony tails and barrettes

The side

The back

It Snowed!

We finally got a snow storm this winter!  It happened the night before President's Day.  Most of the kids around here were out of school for the holiday, but my children are in year-round school, so they had school on President's Day.  They had a two hour delay. 

Honestly, I was so happy to have snow.  I don't love snow, but I believe we should have at least one snow storm every year.  Jenna and Jared had a great time playing in it.  Kevin chose to stay inside and read a book. :)  Here are a few pictures I took.  We only got about an inch, but it was enough to satisfy us.

Looking out the front door

One side of the deck

The other side of the deck

Valentine's Day, Trombone Lessons, and Random Pics

Every year around Valentine's Day, Derek's work holds a father/daughter dance. This is the second year that Jenna and Derek have attended. They both love it. Here are the few pictures I snapped before they left:

What a cute couple

Derek and Jenna

Jenna and Derek

Jared's preschool class has two class "friends" that the children take turns taking home for a sleepover over the weekend. Jared had the opportunity to bring one home the other day. He brought home "Manny the Monkey." Manny is supposed to observe Jared using manners. We recorded two instance of Jared using good manners in Manny's notebook, and we recorded some of the fun things Jared and Manny did together. Jared even made a special bed for Manny to sleep in. It was very sweet.

Jared with Manny the Monkey, his frog and his monkey

Since Kevin and Jenna are now taking piano lessons, I thought it would be good to have a family talent night for Family Home Evening. Kevin and I played the piano (separately). Kevin played Ode to Joy, which he had memorized. Jenna tried to do a hand stand, and sang a song. Jared did a somersault and pretended to argue (really funny). Derek played his trombone. It has been a long time since Derek has played his trombone for the kids. I'm not even sure Jared was alive last time he had it out. Anyway, they were fascinated by it, so he let each of them try it. I was impressed that they were each able to get some sound out of it.

Kevin playing trombone

Jenna playing trombone

Jared on the trombone

Alyssa enjoying the "talent show"

When I was growing up my mom would always get us a little treat for Valentine's Day. We would wake up on Valentine's Day to find the small treat at our "spot" on the table. I have continued that same tradition with my children. However, two years ago we got the children a balloon with a treat attached to the bottom of it. We didn't do that last year, but they have not forgotten. They talk about Valentine's Day including balloons, so we decided to get them each a balloon to go with their small treat this year. They were so excited. They also gave us Valentine's, which was very sweet. Other than those small tokens, we didn't do anything to celebrate the day. The kids did all have parties at school though.

Valentine's Day morning

Alyssa's Valentine treat (oh well, next year it will be better)

And of course, no post would be complete without a couple of pictures of Alyssa. :)

Amanda and Alyssa

Alyssa sitting in the laundry basket

Karate

Kevin has been taking Karate for about 11 months now. He really enjoys it, and, thanks to practicing, is getting pretty good at it. Getting him to practice every day is still a battle, but so far it is worth it. We signed up for a year, so next month we will sit down and decide if it is worth it to keep going or not.

At the end of each month Kevin has the opportunity to test for a higher level. He has to have attended so many classes to test. When he tests for a belt he has to have forms filled out by us (his parents) and his teacher saying that he is behaving, and trying hard at school. It usually takes three months (at this point) to move from one belt to another, because they have to get two stripes in-between. This time will lengthen as he moves farther up in belts.

Some of these pictures are pretty old, but I thought it was better to put them all in one post, than to split them up in the other posts.

In September Kevin got the second stripe for his orange belt. He should have gotten it in August, but had to miss too many days because of being in Virginia for the adoption.


In October Kevin got his blue belt


In November Kevin's studio had a tournament. Here he is doing Sumo.



Jared and Alyssa at the tournament


Kevin got a first place medal in Sumo (around his neck), and a 2nd place ribbon in Cata (form)


Alyssa sporting Kevin's medal


In November Kevin got the first stripe on his blue belt


Thanks to Kevin's hard work and practicing, he was able to skip a stripe (very rare in his studio), and get his green belt a month early. He got his green belt in December.



In January Kevin got the first strip on his green belt


Well done Kevin. We are proud of you and your hard work. Keep it up!

Zoo

My children were tracked out the last two weeks of January, and part of the first week in February. During the second week of track-out, my parents and sister were in town. It was so nice to have them around. It made track out a lot more fun, and made it go by a lot faster. One of the days they were here, the weather was amazing (about 70F). We decided to take advantage of it, and go to the NC Zoo. Derek took the day off of work, and joined us. We had a great time. We needed a little more time to be able to see everything. I guess that we will have to go again. :)

Kevin - King of the Zoo


Janie and Grandpa checking out the alligators


Alyssa "enjoying" the zoo.


Alyssa


Janie


Kevin, Jared, and Jenna checking out the animals


The whole gang, except me


Janie, Jared, Kevin, Jenna, and Levi checking out the otters


Kevin and Jared biking. I'm not sure what the point of the biking was


Kevin, Grandpa, Jenna, Grandma, Jared, and Levi posing with the bison. Janie refused to get in the picture. :) We learned that there were no buffalo in US, only bison. Kind of a bummer. "Home, Home on the Range, where the dear and the [bison] play..." just doesn't have the same ring to it.


Jenna, Kevin, Jared, and Levi with the bison


Jared and Kevin checking out the zoo maps


Janie, Jared, Levi (in the stroller), Jenna, and Kevin checking out the baboons


Kevin in a life sized replica of an ostrich egg. As a female it makes me a little queasy to see the size of that thing.


Jared in an ostrich egg


Kevin and Jared both easily fit in one ostrich egg. In fact Kevin and I both fit into one of the eggs just fine.


Kevin and Jared with the Rhino


Derek and Alyssa


Alyssa