Happy Easter 2011

The kids and I had a very happy Easter this year (poor Daddy had to stay home and work!).  We went down to Gene and Millie's on Saturday and played with cousins.  On Sunday we got up bright and early to see what the bunny had left and he didn't disappoint!

Taylor loves to read!  She is so smart and is at a 5th grade level already.  Go Tay Tay!!!

Cooper always appreciates any "boy" or "man" stuff that he receives!

Can you feel the excitement?!

Unfortunately, Cooper takes after his mama and is a raging gum-aholic.  As soon as he cracked open an egg filled with bubble gum, he was in hog heaven!

Thumbs up for gum!!!

Aren't the girls getting big... :(

 After stuffing ourselves with candy, we got ready for church.  Here Cooper is strutting his stuff!

Hams.

After church we had a candy feast.  The kids were so excited because I let them enjoy as much as they pleased...this was a new experience for them so they took full advantage of the opportunity!

Cooper looks as if he is slipping into the beginning of a sugar-coma.

Candy crazy!!!

Such a cutie.

After our indulgences, we headed up to Rob and Jan's for the annual Jorgenson Easter Eggstravaganza!  We always love seeing everyone and the kids have such a blast with their cousins.  Their favorite part is the egg hunt and they all cleaned up quite nicely.  In fact, we have so much candy that I had to send some of it to work with Richard today and there is still tons left over!  Yikes!  Definitely not a good situation for my fitness goals!

It was fun to have Cooper 'get' the whole egg hunting concept this year.  He especially loved when any grown up guy (uncles or a particular soon to be cousin-in-law) would lift him up so he could retrieve an egg from a tree.

Shane was a total creeper in this one, Taylor had no clue that he was there.  Funny.

Egg hunting is serious business.  Notice Dakota's new outfit, she picked it out herself and was very proud of her selection.  She liked how the flamingos on her shirt were "married".

Some of the haul!  

We headed home on Monday morning and Taylor started back to school on Tuesday.  We are now back into the swing of things and life is going good.  I have been such a slacker of a blogger lately and will try to do better.



I knew it was too quiet...

 I suddenly realized that I had not heard a peep out of Cooper for a good 10 minutes.  I searched high and low for my boy.  I called for him all through the house and in the backyard.  No response.  I started to worry that maybe he had snuck out the front door and then I saw that his bedroom door was closed.  I slowly opened the door and this is what I saw!!!!!:

(p.s. He is not this skinny, he was sucking in his tummy so he could pull off his pants :).)

As shocking and naughty as this was, I have to admit that I had a really hard time not laughing.  He was so proud of his artwork.  I had to keep sticking my head out the door so he wouldn't see me crack a smile as I was chastising him.  I think I might be able to save the doors with a magic eraser, but the walls are a lost cause.  Oh Cooper!

The End of 2010

Cooper enjoyed wearing his dad's Christmas ties to church this month :)

What a CRAZY year it has been! We've had so many ups and downs and I am happy to see this year go!  2011 looks like it's going to be a great year with loads of potential for good times. Although this year has been incredibly challenging, I am grateful for those challenges as we are more appreciative of what we have and our marriage and family are stronger and better than ever before. December has been a fun month. We added 2 new additions to our family-Gus and Harry. I have wanted to get kittens for years and the time was right. I found them on craigslist and since they were free, cute, and not feral, I couldn't resist. The kids love them (but I think I love them the most!) and Alison, the dog, is not too sure about the whole idea.

Dakota and Gus

Taylor reading a book to Harry (as in Potter)

We went to Rob and Jan's to do a nativity with the kids.  We didn't really plan it out ahead of time and the end result was pretty ghetto.  The kids seemed to enjoy themselves and I enjoyed a good laugh!

The angel Dakota

Mary and Joseph

Mary riding the donkey (aka Jan).  This was unexpected and hilarious!

Baby Jesus (aka Cooper) wasn't too thrilled about the whole idea and wanted his mama!

The audience

Our beautiful babies

We went to my parent's house on Christmas Eve Eve.  Danny/Leanne and fam and Clark/Loni/Faye were there too!  Kendal was working, but we did get to see him during some family photos on Christmas Eve and he and Sabrina came over Christmas morning!  It was fun to have all my sibs and their families together.

Green sweater men (Loni bought a bunch of green shirts at Salvation Army to make a stocking for Faye.  I think the guys looked pretty dashing!)

The cousins enjoying each other

We went to Richard's family Christmas Eve party and had a great time.  The kids played and enjoyed their cousins and received many fun gifts.  Santa even stopped by! 

Christmas Eve jammies

Christmas morning was great!  There were people and presents everywhere, yet it was surprisingly mellow.  Santa pulled off yet another great Christmas and the kids were thrilled with their gifts.

The kids and their stockings

Cooper received many "man toys" and was quite happy.  He got a weed wacker, lawn mower, blower, and chain saw set from Santa plus Grammy and Papi got him some tools and Mama Spencer got him a guitar!  He was a VERY happy camper!

Taylor got the cake factory she requested and Dakota got her Baby Alive!

I LOVE this baby!!!

We headed home Christmas morning since Richie had to go to work that afternoon.  The kids have been playing with all their loot and we are all pretty pooped!  Now that the holidays are over, I look forward to getting into a new groove and moving forward in our lives.  Things are so good!

Snow in Bakersfield?

Cooper dumped the contents of our paper shredder (it was completely full!) in the office one day.  I was in the middle of doing something and completely forgot to clean it up.  The next morning as I was getting everything ready for Taylor to go to school, Dakota came prancing down the hall with handfuls of shredded paper and as she frolicked, she tossed it in the air all over the living room.  Well Cooper could not miss out on the fun so he too went down the hall and emerged with his own giant fistfuls which he distributed all over the living room.  I was not too thrilled about the whole situation and thought for sure that Richard would not be too excited about it when he got home from the gym.  Richard walked into the house, said, "Oh my goodness..." and surprised us all by continuing, "it snowed in our house!!!"  It was on!!!  Taylor, Dakota, and Cooper were grabbing fistfuls of 'snow' and had an all-out snowball fight!  They had a blast!  Lately, there has not been enough time in the day to get everything done that's been going on.  This was another particularly busy day and the mess had to be left as it was for a day or two.  Unfortunately, this caused our entire house to be covered with 'snow'!  Every square foot of our 1400 square foot house was covered in shredded paper.  We finally were able to get it all cleaned up, but it still shows up every now and again.  A big mess, but a super fun memory for the kids.  I guess that's what life is all about, making memories and having fun with our loved ones.

 A sample of the floor:

Even poor Alison couldn't escape it.  (This was taken a day later in the evening.)

 

Ward Christmas Party

Our ward Christmas party was very nice this year.  The highlight for my kids was Santa'a visit.  Cooper was especially excited to tell him that he wanted a "weedtacker lawnmower" for Christmas this year.  They were all happy to take a turn on his knee!

Buckets

I love these buckets for toys:

(I have one of these for each of the kids rooms...this one is empty because the girls are now in one room...a useless bit of information, but I'm letting you know anyway.)



The only problem is when someone wants to make one of these:

They have to do this:

Fortunately, the culprit looks like this:



So many options...

Cooper has mastered the skill of getting dressed and undressed by himself.  He changes his clothes so many times during the day that I thought I would document it.  This particular day was actually a slow day for him, but all of these changes ocurred between the hours of 6am and 9am.  He is such a nut.