Maxine's 4th Grade Science Fair...

Maxine loves the science fair.  Since she's in 4th grade, I figured she could pretty much complete the whole project on her own.  She came up with the idea by herself, completed the science testing, and typed and assembled the whole board herself, including downloading and coloring the fonts (something she learned in school.)  She won 3rd place in her division, which she was super excited about.  I was pleased because it wasn't a project completed mostly by a parent.  She did it and she won.

Congratulations Maxine, I'm proud of you!

TurkEaster...

One year after Easter, we had a "Thanksgiving dinner" with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, etc.  It was so good, we decided TurkEaster needs to become an annual event.

Turkey dinner is too good to only have once a year!

Time to dye eggs...

We decided to dye eggs on Friday because Saturday was going to be packed with Easter Egg hunts.  

Saturday included the hunt up at Grandma C.'s ward.  It was Mikayla's first Easter Egg hunt!

She picked up 4 eggs.  If I hadn't pointed to the eggs and the bucket, I don't think she would've picked up a single one.

Grandma C.'s ward always does a great job and has lots of giveaways.

They are ready to hunt eggs at our house.  (Sunday morning.)

We hit purples and greens for our Sunday Easter outfits.  Wahoo!

Mikayla's poor little face...

I really wanted to have a child make it through infancy and toddlerhood without falling out of a vehicle.  Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

I was taking something to a neighbor and the back seat was pulled out of the Tahoe.  Julie wanted to ride back there and hold Mikayla.  Since it was just around the corner, I agreed.  I walked out, put Mikayla in the back of the Tahoe and closed the door.  I ran back into the house to grab something and when I walked back out, Mikayla and Juliet were both screaming.  Mikayla was face down of the pavement and was bleeding from her mouth and nose.  Julie said she was opening the door to get in and Mikayla fell out.  We were parked on the street so her nose received a lot of road rash.  Eeek.  She also had a huge goose egg and bruise on her forehead above her right eye.  Oh, poor baby!!  I just held and rocked and apologized in her little ear.

 Here she is the next day, already improving!

Unfortunately, she had a runny nose at the time and it was really hard to keep petroleum jelly under her nose.  It was hardest hit and didn't heal as well.  She has a little red mark under her nostril that will fade with time, I'm sure.  This is a week later.  It's a good thing babies heal!

Fun on a Saturday...

We went to Fiesta Fun for mini golf and bumper boats because we had some free passes we needed to use up.  The bumper boats were, by far, the most exciting.

At one point Juliet got stuck in a corner of the pool and the kind employee went over to get her out.  He pushed the boat right when Juliet gunned it; he lost his balance and fell in.  I felt bad for him because he was just trying to help out my little girl.  Too bad he got wet from the waist down.  Anyway, it was a fun Saturday.

Bungee in Boise!

For Christmas, Merril gave me a trip to Boise to go bungee jumping.  Bungee jumping is something that I've always wanted to do but just never have yet.  The kids have also been dying to go on an airplane.  We found roundtrip tickets for the whole family for $450!  So we flew out of Vegas.  The kids were so excited!

Mikayla was getting a cold so she was all over the place but she didn't cry.  She just wouldn't sit still.  We crashed at Merril's Aunt Laurie's house and her two daughters, Jessie and Andrea, watched our kids the next day while we bungee jumped.  We're waiting in the car for the bungee guy to arrive.

This bridge on Highway 21 outside of Boise, was 120 feet high.

Merril gets ready to jump!

Merril said he wasn't scared but look closely, that's the face of fear.

And then the cops showed up right after Merril jumped.  I really thought he was going to shut us down but it's not illegal and he just wanted us to be safe on the side of the road.

Then it was my turn.  At this point I thought, "This is a bad idea."

But everyone counted down and I jumped.  Then I thought, "This is a really bad idea!  Someone save me!"  It's a good thing you can't see my face or else you'd really see sheer terror.

But at the bottom it was fun!

Afterwards we picked up the kids and headed to a friend's house.  Jill and I knew each other way back in Las Vegas.  She's still stylish and amazing and I was reminded why we became friends in the first place.  She has an amazing family of 5 little kids and we really enjoyed staying with them.

 Hmmm...one of my kids and one of hers are missing in this picture.  Oh well, we got them all home safe eventually.

The last day there, we went to the Boise Discovery Museum and had a great time playing with the experiments.  And then we flew home.

When we flew home, we flew right over our house and the kids thought it was super fun to see Sand Hollow and Wal-Mart.  And now it's time to recoop after all that playing.  I'm still a little tired.  *yawn*

President's Day Fun Run...

Beka hosted a President's Day fun run to help us get into shape!  It was only a 1/2 mile but the kids had a great time!

 Jack did well!  I think he came in 2nd place.  He's always been pretty speedy.

The kids received a medal and a gold dollar coin with one of the Presidents on it.  I walked/ran the whole thing too, pushing Mikayla and realized that I'm out of shape.  I've put it off long enough and now it's time to get going again, especially in time for summer boat season!

Shearing the sheep...

Merril has been growing out his beard for almost 3 months and his hair for a little longer.  Today, he decided he was sick of both and so it was time for a buzz.  This is his crazy beard.  I felt like he was starting to look like a viking or mountain man or that guy from The Notebook.  

This is just for fun!  Can't you see him playing an 80s cop in a B movie?  "I'll need to see some identification."

And then the spikes, which I was proud of this year.  They turned out nice.  We axed the moustache because we both couldn't take it longer than 5 minutes.

Then we went to the sand dunes because it was such a beautiful Saturday!  The kids had fun burying Juliet.

Mikayla had fun watching from the truck.  That windows was all sorts of slobbery by the time we left.

And then Jack wanted to be buried.

There's Merril on the bike.

And then it was Maxine's turn.  She said the sand was like a cold, heavy blanket.

And since spikes don't exactly encourage the spirit, Merril shaved so he could be ready for church.

Mikayla's 1st birthday!

Mikayla turned 1 and I just can't believe that a year of my life has slipped away so quickly!  We had lemon cake with strawberry icing.  Mikayla seemed to like it!

Julie helped me make the cake.  I think Mikayla was worried she was going to steal some of her cake.

Then we cleaned her off and let her open a present.  Mikayla didn't seem to understand what she was supposed to do with it.

She didn't seem to like that Jack was "helping" her.

Mikayla is a sweetie.  She says banana, hi, Mommy, Daddy, book, ball, and uh oh.  She waves to people when they say hi.  She growls a lot, in happiness.  I've never had a growler.  We love her!

Hiking on MLK Day

We decided to do a little hiking while the kids were out of school!  We packed up a picnic and took off to some red rocks!

Julie found a rock and named it "rocker."  She carried it around all day.

Mikayla was a happy camper and rode around with Merril.  Merril's beard is looking especially fine these days.  He's starting to remind me of a viking.

The kids found lots of little "caves" to hang out in.

The kids picked the routes we took and just meandered all about.

We only had one little mishap when Julie fell and scraped her tummy just a bit but she was fine after we dusted her off and gave her a hug!  The weather was warm and we had a nice day!

Merril's cinnamon toasties...

Merril loves to eat Cinnamon Toasties, the Malt-O-Meal Cinnamon Toast Crunch knock-off.  Even if Mikayla has had breakfast, she'll always migrate to his bowl of cereal.  I think it's cute.

She still has some crazy bedhead though.  :)