Easter fun

We headed over the mountain on Sat. to go play with James' family out at the sand dunes. We took both of our 4-wheelers and all of our energy to go have fun. We got an early start but ended up having some problems with the truck, before we even started up the canyon. We got that kinda fixed and headed over. We spent the afternoon there playing, having lunch, hunting easter eggs and riding the 4-wheelers. What fun! Although when we were ready to leave, James and his brother Paul had to do some nice driving to get our truck unstuck. Yes, we went 4-wheeling without our 4-wheel drive and ended up getting stuck. After a lot of trying and their dad picthing in, they were able to get it out and going. I should have taken some pictures of the truck, since I really thought that it might be a lost cause and we would have to walk out. I don't seem to have any or little pictures of the older boys, because they were out riding and riding the wheelers when they were allowed too. So most of the pics are of Paige and her cousins. It was a fun weekend and fun was had by all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!

Happy Birthday to my BIG, 10 year old! It is hard to believe that ten years have gone by, since we brought our first little boy home. I remember the joy and disbelief of having a child, much less taking him home. Now I have a big (he is almost as tall as I am 5'4'') energetic, active, smart, loving, compassionate, pleasant to be around, helpful, full of life boy. This year he has started 4th grade, competed in the science fair, learned how much fun reading is when you have a good book to read, moved from the Bear den, to the Webelos den, rode his bike 100 miles or so, has been able to watch his brothers more when mom and dad need to run a quick errand and more. Boy, where did the time go?! We Love you Bud! Happy birthday!

Here are some pictures from the presents that we gave him, this morning. He got Legos, a Lego magazine subscription (he loves legos), his own tool bag, with tools, a build your own robot kit, a new shirt and $10 (those last three items came from grandpa and grandma Virginia).

Here are the pictures from his party out at 3 Peaks Recreational Park. The boys had pizza, rootbeer, cupcakes and lots of playing and climbing around on the rock out there. They had a great time, they even caught a little lizard that Austin wanted to bring home. I told him NO!

Anyway's they had a fun time and I didn't have a mess at my house. What could be better!

Easter Egg Hunt and Girlfriends

Last night was our annual Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. I actually had plans to go out with my girlfriends, so I had my sister coming to watch the kids, well she also got to take the kids to the hunt. What a great aunt!

Here are some photos:

While they were enjoying their egg hunt, I was getting together with my good friend Julie and some of our good friends from high school. We had not all gotten together to a very long time. Julie and I try to do dinner every couple of months, but it was really good to see my other friends. It was fun to talk and see what each of us are doing in our lives and how are kids are growing. It was definitly needed on my part. I was in desperate need to get away from home and kids. It was nice and quiet, the kids were in bed, when I got home. Oh what it does to my soul, to see my pride and joys sleeping soundly in their beds. Boy how I love them!

My New Toys

I have been wanting a new bike and a bike trailer for a long time and I finally got them! My mom had the bike and had only used it a few times, she thought that she would ride it back and forth to the hospital (where she works) since she only lives a few blocks away. After the few times of riding and then not riding it, she put it away in her shed. So when I got it, it was practically brand new, I couldn’t believe it! I paid her $50 and got a great deal. So I started looking around for the trailer and found it a Wal-mart. I should have bought it when I found it, but wasn’t positive what I was doing, so I waited. Then I had to wait some more and then some more, since they were then out of the trailer when I was ready to buy it. Well last night my dear, sweet husband, who was tired from a very long and late nights at work, went to Wal-mart and to see if they had the trailer, they did and he walked out with it (well after he paid for it). So today after putting it together and putting the kids off, until it got warmer, we went for a ride. I put Logan and Paige inside and our little friend, Colton rode his bike and we went around the block. What fun! The kids had a BLAST and I had a sore bum. Oh well! I will get used to it. I hope that I will be able to get out more, with the kids, since they always want to go with me when I go walking. I also told the kids that we would ride our bikes down to the school (only ½ mile or so) in the evenings this summer and play there. They are way excited. Now if I can only get Logan off his training wheels, we’ll be set!

*P.S.

I forgot to say that I will be doing a photo tag for each of my kids. I started with Austin since he is the oldest and I will work my way down the line. Probably one a week, although it is really fun looking through all my pictures, so I may get them all done sooner than that. :)

Photo Tag-Austin

I thought that I would focus this tag on Austin, this is a tag with some of my favorite photos of him. What a cute boy he is and I can't believe that he is almost 10, Thursday is his birthday.

Some of the photos: Austin on his baptism day, first day of 4th grade, hanging out with his brothers, hanging out with Paige, at my sisters wedding, with his Rain gutter Regate (scouts), goofing off, 24th of July celebration waiting to get dunked in the dunk tank.

Just a few of the many pictures of him, it was hard to pick some. Hope you enjoy!

Painting

I have been busy getting some of my things on my "To do List" done. This past week I have been painting, painting walls that needed a touch up and then a wall in my living room. I went drastic here, with a little encouragement from my sister Jenn. I went from a white wall, to a dark burgandy wall. We are still getting used to it. I like it and just hope that I never want to change it.

The white wall before its face lift.

The new wall.

FUN TAG

Thanks to Libby for having this tag on her blog. Way fun!

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Hamster Venture
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Chocolate Oreo
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)"M" Cox
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Green Dog
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Jean Thatcher
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)Coxme
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) "The Maroon Water"
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Ronny Carl
9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)Cinnamon Whopper
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) Jeannine Merril
11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) Eberhardt Enoch
12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower) Spring Tulip
13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Banana Jeanie
14. HIPPIE NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) Muffin Willow
15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) "The reading rain tour"

Is It Spring or Winter?

What a beautiful morning it was today. So nice that we did some badly needed yard work, the kids played outside all morning, without jackets. We just enjoyed the nice, nice day. Well until 1 or 2, when the clouds rolled in, it started to rain and snow. YUCK! I was sure hoping that it would get nice and stay that way, I was wrong. I guess that is Spring for you, when you can never count on a really good day, staying good. But it was sure nice to get out and clean up the yard some, the effects of winter always does a job on things. I so need it to be good weather, I have many things that I want to get done, once the weather is nicer and I can't seem to wait.

Here is a list of things that I need or want to do:
1. Level and gravel both of our driveways. I am so sick of the mud during winter and am not going to deal with it for another year. This is getting done when the weather is a little bit better.
2. Clean my carpets. Badly needed!
3. Paint my kitchen.
4. Touch up paint through out the house.
5. Re-do our back patio, pour new cement and put up and roof over. That will be done later this spring or summer.
6. Plant our garden. Hopefully it will be better this year, we never seem to have much luck with it. But we keep trying, we are bound to get a good crop one of these years, right?!

Just some of the many projects that I have, James has his own set of projects that he wants to do. There is always something that needs to be done when you have a house, I guess.

It's DONE!!!!

Austin and I have been busily working on his Science Fair project this past week and we can finally say that “It’s DONE!” YEAH! He has wanted to participate for the past few years and we just have not done it, so this was the year to have at it. We looked and thought and tried to figure out what he would do and finally decided on “What milk will spoil first?”. So we set out to start getting milk to spoil. How you might ask, well we basically poured some milk into a jar and left it out on the counter to spoil. It took a few days to spoil, curdle and smell. We then put a lid on and left it. We have put together the board and have it all ready. I think that that has taken the longest, to put it all together. But it is done and we can relax a little bit. Now it is off to other things, he still has a county report due next week that we need to finish, a book report that is due tomorrow (we thankfully finished this over the weekend) and his daily homework. He has been one busy kid and hasn’t complained at all, that he hasn’t been able to play and do as much as the other kids lately. Good Job Bud!

FAMILY FUN NIGHT

I have been sick and tired of spending all this time in the house because of winter, so last week I told James that I wanted to do something fun. He told me to figure out what to do and we would do it. I though about it all week and came up with two ideas, 1. go to St. George and hang out (we really didn't need anything down there either), or 2. go bowling here and out to eat afterwards. We decided to go BOWLING! It was so much fun! James and I hadn't bowled in years, Ausitn has bowled once with Scouts and the other boys, never. We played one game, with the bumper guards and had a blast! Austin was pretty good and only hit the guards a few times and did really well. Tanner was funny when it was his turn, he would walk up there and chuck the ball down the lane, it would go back and forth on the guards until it would hit the pins. It was like watching pin ball. Logan had to have the help from dad and loved to throw it down the lane also. Paige didn't get to play, being how she was too little, although she did manage to knock a ball off the ball rack and luckily it didn't land on her. After we were done, we went to dinner. We decided to go to Artic Circle. We had dinner and then the kids got an ice cream cone, they thought that was the best part. Who wouldn't?! We then came home and had a quiet night watching some tv. All in all it was a GREAT night and it was so nice to get out of the house and do something with the family.Here are the scores of the night. Some with blow your socks off.
James: 107

Melissa: 95

Austin: 105

Tanner: 83

Logan: 90

See what I meant about some of them blowing your socks off, Austin did great and all most beat everyone, Logan had help the whole time getting the ball down the lane so does his score count and Tanner did great all by himself!

Latest Obsession

The boys seem to go in spurts as to what movies they like or are obsessed with. Lately it has been Star Wars, The Dukes of Hazard (TV Series), Spiderman and so on. The newest and latest obsession is Indian Jones. Both James and I remember watching these as kids and we loved them and it seems now that our boys love them. I really can't remember why or how they got hooked on these, I think that we were talking about the new movie that is coming out sometime soon. So we had to find someone that had the old movies so we could barrow, thankfully my sister had the box set on DVD and we had to get them. We got them Friday night and I think that they have seen each movie twice, there are three movies. We even had to take the with us yesterday as we went over the mountain for a birthday party and watch it in the van. Logan found one of their cowboy hats and started wearing it and said that he was "Indy", he even wanted to wear out Sat. as we went bowling. He is pretty crazy about them. I just hope that the new movie will be a family rating, so they can see it, they really want too.