Literacy Night with Brennen

This week, Brennen's school scheduled a literacy week. Tonight was a night where parents could come into the school library and read with their kids and then take the AR tests on them. We loved our little outing with the B man! He reads so well! At home, he is reading the Harry Potter series (very advanced for an eight year old if I may brag!!!) After we were done at the school, we went out for ice cream, just the three of us. Taylor had her first "real paying" babysitting job at home while we went. Both she and Parker survived!!!

Brennen and Shane picking out a good book to readHow about a volcano book?
listening to Brennen read

Finally, it's test time! B did great!

ThRoUgH pArKeR's EyEs!

I caught Parker playing with the camera. He said he wanted to take a picture so I decided to show him how. Here's a few shots through PaRkEr'S eYeS!

This is my dirty kitchen floor-do you want a green m&m??? I tried to duck out of his picture, but he caught me!
Ok, ENOUGH!!!! LET'S TURN IT OFF!!

Happy Easter!

Easter morning-the Easter bunny came! Taylor
Parker
Brennen

We invited my brother, Rob and his family over for another egg hunt after church and I cooked a ham and party potato dinner for us all to enjoy afterwards. We had so much fun! I love having my brother and his family here in the valley with us.

ON YOUR MARK,

GET SET-GO!!!!!!

Finding a ton of eggs-these eggs are the good ones with candy in them!!!

We had a wonderful Easter especially for the opportunity to once again be reminded of our Savior's love for us.

Easter Egg Time!

"It's time to decorate Easter Eggs!" Our kids look forward to this every year. The only thing I don't look forward to besides the mess is the smell of hardboiled eggs! (I have a very sensitive nose!) Brennen and Taylor are old enough that they were able to do most of this on their own. Parker needed a lot of help! As soon as I would help him get an egg in the dye, he'd grab the stick and try to get it out and say "nother one!". I finally got him busy putting stickers on his drying ones so that we could let a few soak a little longer! This was so much fun for us to do. We also went on our fist family bike ride of the season. We rode through a mini hail storm-lucky us! It didn't look like it was going to rain when we left the house-go figure!

I watched a few kids on Friday for my neighbor. I broke out the Easter crafts and the kids made bunny masks and water color painted. They had a lot of fun. Parker loved painting. It made me miss my preschool days a little! I am so glad I was able to have this time with Parker and a couple of his friends.

Our kids are so lucky to have two sets of grandparents who love them so much. They are spoiled a little I think!

The kids opened an Easter package from Grandma and Grandpa Heuseveldt the other day full of goodies along with a card for each of them with some money in it. It's so much fun to get a package in the mail!

Grandma Harris made each of her grandchildren these darling pillowcases. She gave them to the kids last week for Easter along with a bag full of candy. The kids were so excited! Now we have really cute pillowcases! (I think I might beg for her to make Shane and myself one as well!)

St. George trip-Zion's National Park

Our family went to sunny St. George, Utah for our spring break. This year, we had a whole week off to enjoy. Shane has an aunt and four cousins who live around that area. We stayed with his cousin and his wife, Sean and Teresa Moon. They live in New Harmony right against the mountain that hides the Kolob Peaks which is part of the Zion's National Park. We spent most of our time in St. George at Shane's cousin, Shannon and her husband Jared's home. They have two little girls, Maycee and Kallee. Taylor was in heaven playing and having sleepovers there with the girls. Maycee is one grade younger than Tay. There, the kids played outside and rode street caboodles down their street. Parker enjoyed the sand box in their backyard. We had a few of our meals there meeting with all of the family and enjoying each other's company. While we were in St. George, we were busy the whole time doing fun things. We went to a Wildlife museum, went to the Kolob Canyon, had a picnic and played at an awesome park, enjoyed Zion's National Park, played at a rock/splash park, went swimming at the Washington Rec Center, hiked and rode four wheelers, and enjoyed a session at the St. George Temple with Mom and Debra. We also enjoyed great meals together, loved visiting our relatives, and even enjoyed a few games of Rumikub! The best part was escaping the two feet of snow still on our ground back home. There were a few days that were cooler, but compared to here, it was still a nice, warm, needed getaway as a family. We traveled with Shane's mom so that she could visit and stay with her sister there for the week too. It was a lot of fun. I must say, spending between 7-9 hours in the van does get old with a whinny two year old! All in all, the kids did exceptionally well considering the time spent driving. I'm proud of them for keeping their complaints to a minimum. I also was thankful for modern technology aka dvd player and two nintendo ds systems. What in the world did our parents do when they had to travel with us as kids???? Actually, Brennen is in the first book of the Harry Potter series and read over a hundred pages while driving. I'm glad he enjoys reading.
I WANT TO WARN ANYONE READING AND LOOKING AT THIS BLOG THAT IT HAS BECOME MY JOURNAL/SCRAPBOOK. Now that I can print these up at the end of the year for a minimal price, I will be using it more for scrapbooking too-HENCE- an extreme amount of pictures. This will be boring for anyone other than my family; however, look at your own risk of boredom!

Our trip consists of FIVE separate posts beginning with Zion's National Park.

OUR FAMILY AT ZION'S

Brennen, Kellie, Shane, Taylor, and ParkerSean Moon-cousin, Brennen, Kellie, Shane, Ula Harris-mom, Shannon Redfearn-cousin, front row: Parker, Maycee-cousin, Kallee-cousin
Parker enjoyed his freedom out of the stroller. After about half of the day, he was crying for his stroller!

There were a ton of places for fun pictures there.

Brennen looking cool

Taylor enjoying a warm rock.

A bridge on the way to the Emerald pools in the park

After we stopped to eat our snacks, the squirrels were begging for food. Here is Parker and a squirrel.

Parker on a rock-it is hard to capture a good picture of this active little boy, but I think this one turned out pretty cute.

Mom Harris and her sister Debra.

Our Family sitting on one of the many posing rocks.

The kids-always eager to pose for a picture.