Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! Our family pictures didnt go as well as planned this year - so this is the best we got :)

Easter Morning:

basket fun:

The Easter Bunny sees the advantages of giving a toy they would like with less candy. Much less.

Easter Egg Hunt. The Easter Bunny got sneaky this year and hid them in the front yard.

Later at Grandma and Grandpa Harmon's house. We had a great family dinner. This picture is so priceless because Lucy doesnt go to many people - especially Brian but when he promised her a treat she reluctantly agreed. Brian has a way of scaring of most toddlers in the family.

Grandma's Easter Egg Hunt. This was the last picture I got before the camera died. I guess thats a good place to end. :)

A day off

A day off of school and it looks like summer is right around the corner. Caitlyn and Nathan spent a good portion of the day swimming, eating popcicles, watching Tangled and of course: crafting. (the "of course" is for Caitlyn - but Nathan always enjoys the project after it is done)

The craft of the day was making a car out of a cardboard box - with a "Tangled" theme.

Quest

I am on a quest for answers, help, suggestions, whatever could help.

Let me start with an explaination. We have a little girl {who will remain nameless}, and she is very VERY strong-headed. She doesnt take direction well, which also means that she doesnt listen to her parents very well.
Please dont think that we are picking out negative things about her. We love her! She is an artistic, creative, smart little girl. We see all the good qualities that she has. As parents we understand that this will and drive can be a great force of good in her life when she gets older, but for right now it leads to disobedience. On most occasions, when she is asked to do something, or we give her directions, it is met with why that wont work, what she is doing instead, or why she wont do it. ~ Which is why we say she is so smart. She thinks about things and want to try things her way.
But this has sent me on a quest to figure out where the real problem lies; what can we address as parents to help her be obedient without feeling like she needs to complain or talk back. One thing that I have noticed is a lack of time managment. It takes way too much time for her to complete most tasks ~ which leads to frustrated parents. Does anyone out there have a good theory on teaching time management to kids?
Just so you know - timers dont work. She hates the stress of competing with it.

Discoveries

Now that we have discovered how helpful headphones can be for Nathan, he is willing to try new things. He LOVES to help mow the lawn.

Somebody please just put me to bed

San Diego - a welcomed break

We were so excited to get of Arizona for a few days and have a vacation in San Diego. We visited the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center (renovated and so much fun), Old Town, Seaport Village, the beach, a couple "Diners Drive-in's and Dives" places, and of course the beach. After checking all of this stuff off our list we were ready to head home. Six hours, 3 kids and 1 Prius equals and interesting drive (but so worth it - ask us about our gas mileage!)
Here are the pictures:

Nathan took our picture in the hotel room. We were sure he cut our heads off but he didnt do too bad.

Waiting for everything to open at SeaWorld

Sea Lions

The Shark Encounter. I was so shocked that we got Nathan through that tunnel. We was such a champ!

This was totally spontanious on Nathan's part. He just wanted to walk with Caitlyn.

Caitlyn really wanted to sit in the splash zone for the dolphin show. We let her- but she was on her own. We made sure we could see her, but when she thought we werent looking she would scoot down a row. She ended up on the third row. So this is her before shot

And this is her after.

Abby's Sea Star ride was the only one Nathan begrudginly went on. I think he regretted it.

You would have thought that the most popular pop star was in their midst. Alison and Nathan were so excited. From 20 feet away Alison just kept saying "Elmo! Elmo!" over and over. Have I mentioned she doesnt say momma yet? yeah, its awesome.

The Baluga whale exhibit. Alison is in the middle of "loving" the window.

Last time we came to SeaWorld Nathan had a huge meltdown at the Shamu show. Its just too much stimulation for him. So before we came I had the idea of headphones. I have seen other kids where them and it was amazin how much it helped him. Not only did he remain calm, he loved the show! It just took the edge off. He will now tell you that his favorite part was Shamu because of the splashing. Everytime Shamu splashed he would laugh like he just heard the funniest joke ever.

We like to go the PetShow. This time they had a kangaroo as part of the show and Caitlyn couldnt wait to go up and meet it afterwards.

Chad and Caitlyn are the only two in our family that you can convince to get on a water ride.

At the Mormon Battalion visitors center they dressed Caitlyn up in the same stuff that the men would wear. It is a great interactive tour that I highly recommend. At the end of the tour they take your picture - all western like, and the kids pan for gold, and pretend to make bricks like the saints would havd done back then.

On the front porch they have rocking chairs and a wagon the kids can get in and try out.

Old Town San Diego is right around the corner so we decided to walk around. They have a jerky and root beer store. How great is that?!

Caitlyn got to pick out a candle and dip it herself

Then we were off to the beach. Nathan wore my sunglasses so he could see his kite in the sky.

Alison is not a beach baby. She was constantly giving us her feet to wipe them off.

The next day (and our last) we went to Seaport Village to find our Christmas ornament and to walk around. We found some, not so shy, ducks and fed them for a bit.

Then we realized that we feed Alison in the same exact way.

It was a great trip! The kids slept well at night - and we realized that being a parent on a family trip is not that relaxing, so we're already looking into what our own vacation will be later this year :)

Preach My Gospel FHE Books

This is an amazing book that was printed by inspirationfor our efforts in missionary work. It is also a great learning tool for the family.

We are so excited to be selling a companion Family Home Evening book for our Young Women's girls camp fundraiser. The Preach My Gospel manual has been divided up into weeks for an entire year of Family Home Evenings. Every week has a lesson and activity that can be adapted for younger or older kids. If you are interested in purchasing one let me know.
We are also selling Ward Cookbooks. We have over 100 recipes!

The books are $15 for one or $25 for two - any combination of two.

Help our girls get to camp please!

Short and Funny

Here is a short but funny story:

Yesterday we were sitting and enjoying out sacrament meeting. Nathan was eating is snack and then all of a sudden he spits something into his hand. Upon further investigation Chad and I realize that it is a tooth. No blood, just a tooth. So we looked in his mouth and saw that it was one of his bottom baby teeth and that hole had already almost healed over. It must have been hanging on by a thread. The weird part is that we brush his teeth with him and we didnt even detect it. Either this is just really odd or we need to brush his teeth better.

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Im not too big on this day but I do believe you can tell those around you that you love them and enjoy one another!

Oh - whats that on Alisons face you ask? Well, she had a run in with the treadmill on Saturday. They're pretty much like sandpaper when they are on, and I feel bad because I was the one on it. After a quick pop in to the ER we were on our way with neosporin and some children's Motrin. She'll be good as new in no time :)

Going on a Bear Hunt with Nathan

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This is one of Nathan's favorite things to do right now. We love how vocal it makes him. He's totally imitating the tape that they listen to as school, but he's so cute!