And MORE Cousins!

During Spring Break, we got to play with these cousins too.

Daisylyn ...

She didn't want to hold still or look at me for a picture, so I took one of her in action. She's checking out our cute little hamster, Nibblet. ...and Sterling.

He was such a happy baby for us. We all took turns holding and loving on him.

We LOVE our cousins!

More Cousins and a T-shirt Re-do

For the second half of Spring Break, we enjoyed cousins locally.

Candice and I made a plans for our kids. We met at a fun park and played for a while, then swapped kids... boys to her house, girls to mine. They played and spent the night together. (Forgot to take pictures... totally unlike me.)

The next day, Amber Munt and her kids came over to play too. We decided to do a t-shirt re-do together. I had been wanting to do this for months and had seen a ton of tutorials out there.

Take 2 t-shirts of the same color. Re-size and cut the neckline, of the one to wear.

Cut the second one into strips. Then baste and gather the strips into ruffles.

Decide on how you want your ruffles to look. Like this..

..or this..

..or this..

..or this..

..or this.

Honestly, I still haven't decided.

Next up, I took a t-shirt that was too big (now). I took in the sides about 3 inches and "pleated" the neckline. I'm hoping the adjustments I've made will make it fit better, but I haven't finished this one either.

Sometimes I hate being so visual... can't tell if I'll like it, until I actually see the end result.

I really should finsh these up, so I'll have some new shirts to wear. :)

Grandma Time

As part of this year's Christmas gift, Grandma Smullin wanted to spend 4 hours with each grandchild, doing WHATEVER they wanted to do. This could include a breakfast or lunch. So when we went to Utah for Spring Break, our kids took their turns with grandma.

Abree was first up. She said she wanted to go to IHOP for breakfast, then to "Toys-R-Us" to look at toys. Maybe "look" wasn't exactly what she had in mind. She came home with a mermaid doll. :) Treyson was next. He wanted to go to Golden Corral. (He's an all-you-can-eat type of guy.) Then he said he wanted to "look" at shoes. Grandma said she wasn't buying any shoes today, so they went to Wal-mart and he came home with a new Zhu-Zhu pet.

On Monday morning, Taylee and grandma went to the Village Inn for breakfast, then to Michael's for some crocheting supplies. Taylee had been taught how to sew and knit from grandma, but now wanted to learn how to crochet.

Rylee and grandma went to lunch at Subway. Then off to a place that does nails. Rylee's request was to get her nails done. She got acrylic nails with green sparkle tips.

Grandma got a french manicure.

The kids had a blast spending time with Grandma Smullin.

Thanks Grandma for the wonderful memories!

Spring Break with Cousins

For the first part of spring break we headed to Utah.

We had a date with this little cutie.... Lynley Francis Smullin,

who was born early, but is growing a TON each day.

And also wanted to meet this little cutie... Sydney Lynn Polston,

who is laid-back and let us all hold her and play with her for a long time.

Also on our list of things to do was to watch tons of 3-D movies on Grandma and Grandpa's new 3-D T.V.!!!

Colton, Emma, Taylee & Jordyn

We also did some of this. Clockwise, starting bottom left-Carson, Treyson, Jade, Rylee, Jessica, Taylee, Jordyn & David.

And some of this. Abree & Emma These 2 were attached at the hip for most of our time there. Which lead to sharing sick germs and Abree started throwing up Monday morning. We were glad she was better by that night, so that (cross our fingers) no one was sick on the way home on Tuesday. On Monday evening, we went over to the Olsen's for dinner and FHE. Jeremiah gave a sweet lesson on being kind to everyone. I loved that when he played his own game, he somehow picked the *BONUS* which helped him to win the prize... reading the scripture. So cute and funny!

Treyson, Jeremiah, Catie

Rylee, Taylee, Ethel

Lex & Bob Abree was home with Grandma recovering...didn't want to further share the wealth.

Cousins are the BEST!!!

Music Festival

In preparation for the upcoming Music Festival, Rylee's school choir put on a practice performance for family and friends.

Rylee is in the back row middle, to the right, in green.

They sounded great.
Next, the orchestra played. They sounded AWESOME!!!

It seems their teacher has a passion for orchestra... and it shows.

UPDATE: Music festival was this week. Rylee said their judges had nothing but good things to say to their choir. She was excited and confident about their performance.

Green Milk!

St. Patrick's Day eve, Abree came down to my room at bedtime and said, "Mom, we've got to put milk out, so the leprechaun can turn it GREEN!"

Where did she get this idea? She must have heard about it from school. It has never been a tradition here before.

Initially I thought about turning her down, but then decided what the heck, it's a pretty simple request.

She was SO excited the next morning, when the milk had actually been turned GREEN.

The rest of the kids asked, "Why do we have green milk on our counter? Isn't it going to get rotten?"

I guess they didn't share in the magic or thrill of green milk. :)

Later that day, Taylee brought me this and said, "Happy St. Patrick's Day. Mom!"

Isn't he cute?!

I LOVE his freckles and pointed ears.