Super Big Picture Post! Early 2011

 The kids playing on the slide on one of our trips to Artic Circle.  This place was nice during the winter because it was close, indoors, big and got their wiggles out.

 One of the first warmish days we had, they insisted on a picnic outside.  They are eating mac and cheese.

 On Sunday afternoon.  And I promise, this picture is not staged!  I walked into the living room and they were all sound alseep on top of each other!  Jeremy sure is a good daddy!

 I was cleaning out the kitchen and the little found these plastic margarita glasses.  They wanted their juice in them.

 Ace loves ice cream!

 My boys!

 I am always finding Lydia in weird places like this.  And with a dirty face.  That girl cannot keep clean!

 She also has taken to making her bed in weird random places.  I also find little beds for dolls everywhere too.  Like, in the kid's training potty.

 Wyatt has a hard time going to sleep by himself.  So we started locking him in his room at night.  At the beginning of this, he would always fall asleep by the door, and we would move him to bed.  This night, he fell asleep propped up in the corner.  Poor kid!  He is sleeping much better now.

 We were all being silly one night before bed and I drew smiley faces on their tummies.  Wyatt thought it was AWESOME!

Wyatt and his best friend Graham.  I have watched Graham all year long.  These two are only a few months apart in age and get along so great!  They are also the trouble twins and have wreaked havoc on many a thing.  It is so fun to see these to together.

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

 At the Idaho Falls Kite Flying Festival!  It was a perfectly windy day to take our kites to Sandy Downs and test out our kite flying skills.  They had a professional company of kite flyers there showing off their HUGE fancy kites and doing some trick kite flying, so it was a lot of fun to see them do their stuff.

 But we didn't do too bad either!  Aidan was pretty good at it!  He kept this kite up for a while, until the wind died down.  Unfortunately, Wyatt wouldn't even try.  He did like watching all the kites.  There was a dog one there that he loved!  Lydia even kept her kite up for a little bit! 

All the kids there also got these pinwheels too.  It was a really fun day!  We hope to see you there next year!

Easter

 Their Easter clothes.  Wyatt was being a little stubborn today.  And I love Lydia's bows!

The Easter bunny came to the Barnes house on Saturday morning.  For several reasons.  I didn't want the sugar high to happen right before we attended Sacrament meeting, I didn't want to have to pry them away from their toys when we just barely gotten them and we really wanted to keep an empahsis on the meaning of Easter and why we celebrate it for that Sunday.

 The kids each got their own chair and Easter basket.  They all got a Butterfly Habitat to share.  We are going to send away for the catepillers very soon so we can see them grow!

 Major candy haul!  I love doing their Easter baskets-I color code everything.  Lydia gets pink stuff, Wyatt gets blue and Aidan gets green! 

 Of course, Wyatt got lots of Thomas things.

 We also had a small Easter egg hunt with just us 5.  We have some cute plastic eggs in the shape of animals that we have had since Aidan's first Easter, so we filled those up and hid them in the backyard.  Thankfully, it was a beautiful day.

 Wyatt REALLY got into the Easter egg finding groove.

 My silly kids.  Lydia was NOT into the hunting, so she pretty much jumped on the trampoline while her brothers found her eggs.  She was, however, into the eating of the Easter egg candy.

 That night, we dyed eggs.  It was MESSY, but the kids loved every single second.  They kept wanted me to boil more eggs, but they don't like to eat hard boiled eggs, so it would just go to waste!  We need to think of something we can dye that wouldn't be a waste of food, because they could have painted for hours.

 I didn't want to stain their clothes, which is why everyone is stripped down to diapers (well, Aidan had his pants on, and Jeremy and I took the chance of getting dye on our clothes).

 The fruits of our labors.  They turned out really nice, I thought.

After the egg dying mess was cleaned up, we told the kids to get in their jammies and we were going to learn more about the reason we celebrate Easter.  We made Easter cookies.  Using scriptures, we made a cookie recipe (like meringue) that helped to illustrate what Christ went through.  We end the night by placing a sheet of cookies in a preheated oven and sealing it up with tape (to represent Jesus being sealed in the tomb).  No cookies are eaten.  The next morning, we removed the tape and talked about the Resurrection, as we ate the cookies.  It was a neat experience that I would like to repeat when the kids are a bit older.  Aidan got it, but the littles didn't.  We also watched Lamb of God before Church.  I was really glad we did the fun Easter stuff the day before.  It really brought the Spirit into our house and I think it made an impression on Aidan too.

After Church, we went out to the Barnes for our Easter dinner and egg hunt with them.  Again, Lydia did not get the egg hunt thing.  It was really beyond her, apparently.  So everyone just started to stick eggs in her basket, and she would say, "Ank Ooo!"  I think she got more eggs than everyone, even though she didn't do anything!

 She wouldn't even pick up this egg.  Silly little girl.

 Wyatt was EVERYWHERE!  He loved the egg hunts!  I am going to have to do that again this summer-some sort of hiding game.  He had a blast!

 Aidan had fun as well.  This was about half way through.  This was also his first year to be allowed to go with the big kids. 

We spread out all the eggs to give back to fill for next year (we were figuring there was about 750 eggs total!)  That was a whole lot of candy!

Will You Be My Valentine?

The day of love came to our house quietly and with heart shaped pizza! And pink strawberry flavored cupcakes (that the boys helped me make).
Yay! Presents and pizza! This is the best day ever!
Each kid got one of these sock monkeys and new jammies (because I love new jammies!) Both of the boys are being silly with them. Lydia wasn't feeling great-she caught the flu the day before and we spent part of the day at the doctor. Her medicine hadn't quite yet kicked in yet. And because I promised you a shot of her wearing her new outfit . . .
Happy Valentines Day! We love you!

Sledding

Last Saturday, we were bored. We wanted to do something, but had no money and no really good ideas. But, we had just gotten a good 3 inches of fresh powder the night before, the sun was shining and we did have snow clothes, so we called up Grandpa and took the kids sledding. Aidan's action shot-he loved sledding! I don't know how many times he went down, and then trotted back up the hill.
Grandpa and Aidan. We were so happy that Grandpa came with us! We had so much fun with him. He was so good to help haul Aidan's tube back up.

Aidan thought he was some sort of extreme sledder. I think this is the first time we have ever taken him sledding. What slacker parents we are!

Jeremy, Lydia and Wyatt. Lydia had so much fun! You could hear her laughing all the way down the hill! Every time a sled was open at the top, she'd jump into it and wait for someone to take her down. Wyatt was a bit less enthused with the concept. We kinda had to stick him in the tube with someone and then go. Jeremy got the ingenious idea to bring a rope so he could pull the kids in the tube up from the bottom. It really saved arms and legs. I even went downa few times. I forgot how exhilarating it is to rush down in a sled! And I always made it the furthest. All in all, a very fun time. We promised Aidan that we will go again before all the snow melts. I figure we have until April to make good on that promise!

Happy 2011 Everyone!

We had a good time welcoming in the New Year! We decided to throw a little family party and we had a fun time! There was lots of food (of course, what party is complete without good food?), fun decorations, lots of games . . .
The kids and the "boys" played Wii downstairs. Upstairs, we had a mean Scrabble game going on!
And then when midnight came, we toasted with sparkling cider. . .
Silly string, noise makers, poppers . . .
And midnight kisses. Everyone but Lydia made it to midnight. It was a really good time.

On New Year, we took the kids and went to Green Canyon to go swimming. No pictures, but it was a lot of fun. The babies are really getting the hang of swimming. That night, we had 3 very tired kids, and a very tired mommy and daddy. Happy New Year! I hope yours is full of happiness, fun and love!

Cookies for Santa

Aidan was very concerned that we give Santa cookies. He was convinced that he would starve if we didn't. So, Christmas eve morning, we baked up some sugar cookies and let the kids go to town with the frosting and sprinkles. What resulted was a very fun, memorable mess that will definately turn into a Barnes family tradition. Ace hard at work.
Wyatt was surprisingly into this. Actually, not so surprising. If it has to do with making a mess, he is your kid.
And sweet, sugary Lydia. I think she worked on this one cookie the whole time. She kept frosting, sprinkling, then licking it all off and starting again. This cookie did not go on Santa's plate. Even Jeremy got in on it! He is a master froster. Before bed that night, each child got to choose a cookie to place on Santa's plate, and Aidan placed it on the piano bench next to a big glass of egg nog and a note for the man in red (that Aidan wrote himself!). And of course, it was the first thing they checked in the morning-empty glass, only crumbs left and Santa himself wrote back! If I learn to scan, maybe I'll add it in later. Oh, the magic of Christmas!