Eliza wrangler of the week!

So proud of our sweet 3rd grader getting wrangler of the week at the school assembly last Friday! She is amazing student and an even more amazing sweet daughter! We love u and are so proud of u!

Lorile Howard
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Logan is still cracking me up

So, we had music makers at our house yesterday. It was the first one of the new school year so we didn't really know what to expect. We had about 25 kids and 20 moms crammed into our family room. It was fun, but a bit overwhelming! That was apparent as Logan closed the door after the last mom and daughter left and let out a big sigh and walked back to the family room with his shoulders slumped over. When he sat down, he looked at me and said, "I'm pooped out." It was hilarious and then he let me take a picture of him. So this is his "Pooped Out" face.

This morning he said more cute stuff. I pinched a nerve in my neck or something this morning and so I can't turn my neck to the left very well. I told him that it hurt and he said, "Let me see." So I let him check it out. He was looking for blood - something visible to show my pain. And then after examining and touching it he said, "Don't worry Mommy. It will get better."

I hope he can stay this cute forever. Otherwise I definitely don't want him growing up!

Funny Logan

Thought I would just enter something simple...better than nothing! I thought it was pretty funny today when we were driving down the road and Logan all of the sudden said, "Are you kidding me?" And I said, "What?" He replied again, "Are you kidding me?" He said that after we drove past a McDonald's and he was really offended by whatever was on the windows. I'll have to check it out and see what was so disturbing to him. Just so funny to hear a 2 year old saying, "Are you kidding me?" He is one silly little monkey!
Tonight's FHE we started our "Reading Challenge" to encourage reading. You have to read in a bunch of random places...so we read a book on the grass tonight in the dark. Fun times!

Easter Weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Downen's house

After the funeral we headed back to Valencia for more family time with the Widdisons, Banners, Dust & family, Grandma and Grandpa and Heidi and Alexis. Even Blake and Amy Ambridge stopped by and spent the night. It was a house full of people and fun!
Some highlights: Grandpa and I took the kids out to In-n-out for lunch, Easter Egg hunt planned by Ashley, the party girl, Water play time in the backyard, Down to the pool for a cold dip and then the hot tub, lots of time holding baby Kylie (especially Logan) egg dying and decorating, and Easter morning and then yummy easter dinner followed by opening the 12 Resurrection story eggs and Grandma sharing a very sweet story. Nice trip...that ends our Spring break. Back home to clean and do laundry. :-)

San Diego for Grandpa's Funeral

Grandpa Ambridge passed away on Sunday, March 24. So happy for him to have finished this life and go see Grandma in the spirit world. Hope they are having fun together. On the other hand, sad that Joan will be left alone. She is such a great woman and was so good for Grandpa. It was nice to see lots of cousins and extended family that we don't get to see very often. It was also great to see so much immediate family and the kids had so much fun with their cousins. Kortney was kind enough to let us come and stay with her for Thursday. We spent the day playing at the park, eating ice cream and playing in their fun backyard. The kids loved running around back there. And Kolby loved riding Kade's motorcycle around, even though it ended with a split lip as he flipped over the handle bars. He almost did one of his fainting spells that he loves to do at the sight of blood, but resisted and just fell into a very tired lethargic state. The kids were so great together. 

 The funeral was so sweet and there lay Grandpa's body, spirit definitely gone on to the Spirit world.

 After the funeral we all went over to Ponto beach, the one we would always walk to from Grandpa's house. Even though it was a bit chilly, that didn't stop the boys from getting in the water and having such a great time. I even got to catch up with my friend Jill Wilson who stopped by for a bit with her cute boys. Kids played baseball, crab hunting, running in the water, rock collecting, sand digging and had such a blast.

Start of Spring Break 2013

Start of Spring Break: Saturday Geoff ran the Visalia 10k (see Logan all decked out with Eliza's sunglasses and pink wallet and sunglass case), Monday - Big Easter Egg hunt and play time at the sports park with lots of ward friends, Tuesday - Zoo fun over Spring Break with the Lops and Abbots. We had a great time running around seeing the animals and especially love the bird show. Great way to start off our Spring Break (3/23/13-3/25/13). Eliza had strep throat but was still a good sport tagging along with us. And looks especially beautiful next to my favorite spring tree!

Funny Sayings

Just so I don't forget a few funny things my boys have said in the past week...

Logan, who is now 21 months old, is such a talker that he cracks us up. He spurts out 3 syllable words all the time like it's no problem and is always surprising us with what comes out of his month. His normal bedtime routine is me singing him "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "You are My Sunshine" while I hold him and tickle his back. Last week I was just going through the normal routine and as I was singing "Twinkle, Twinkle" he lifted his head off my shoulder and looked right into my eyes and said, "I don't like that song!" Well, that really surprised me since he goes around the house singing it all the time and it has made him famous at the dentist office (cuz he sang it for the staff and they were so impressed).  So I asked him what song he wanted me to sing instead and he said, "I am a child of God." Ok...that was easy. So I started to sing that and he just put his head back down on my shoulder and relaxed and listened to the song. It was funny. He definitely uses his words to voice his opinions and he is one very opinionated little dude!

The other funny thing that happened was that Carson, who is almost 5, was listening to Geoff talk to me. Geoff was commenting that Carson had recently grown and that he wasn't the tallest kid around but that he seemed to be taller than average. Carson immediately responded, "Who's average?" Kids are always listening and learning. We chuckled and tried to explain "average" the best we could.

I'm sure there have been lots of daily funny happenings but these are the two that keep sticking out in my mind. Life is good. We are so busy so my record keeping really stinks!  Kolby and Eliza started 3rd and 2nd grades this week at the new neighborhood elementary school. they love their teachers and their classes so we are looking forward to a great school year! Carson begins school tomorrow at Stepping Stones for the Pre-K program which I think will be really great for him. And me and Logan are going to try and get this house in order, since we moved at the end of June and still have some boxes sitting around, no pictures hung and projects galore awaiting us!