First Attempt At Kite Flying

Instead of weeding the front flower beds, we decided to walk to the park and fly the kites the kids got for Easter. Unfortunately, there wasn't quite enough wind to keep the kites up for long, but the kids had fun while it lasted. Here's Brooklyn holding her kite:
Brayden with his Spiderman kite:

Taking a break for some juice:

We took Jazz with us and she didn't stop running after the tennis balls. Here she is pausing to get a drink:

The kids played on the playground for a little bit before we headed home:

One Fun Day

I was really dreading this night for a while. Josh went on an overnighter with the scouts, which meant we would be alone for the first time since we moved here. I wanted to make sure we had a fun night. Here are the kids eating jelly beans and watching Josh leave: I didn't want to sit home with the kids all night, so I called Amy and we headed to the awesome West Jordan park. We ate dinner on the picnic tables then let the kids run wild. It's a lot of fun to watch Jaxon and Brayden interact more now. They followed each other everywhere using their little imaginations. Claire and Brooklyn stayed close to us, but still had a lot of fun. Here's Brooklyn swinging, her favorite thing to do of course:

Here's Brooklyn steering the boat:

The storm rolled in after being there only about half hour, so we decided to head to Arctic Circle for ice cream and more playtime. Of course we had to go to 3 Arctic Circles before we found one with a playzone. Here's the kids eating their ice cream cones:
We spent atleast an hour hanging out while the kids ran around. The girls were a little too hesitant to play while there was so much going on, but the boys LOVED it. There were 3 other girls there, maybe ages 5-6, and Brayden and Jaxon chased them around the playzone the entire time. The boys were Spiderman, of course, and shot webs at them. I was shocked how entertained they were, especially because it wasn't very big. Again it really was a lot of fun to see the boys interacting so much. I am still amazed that at 3 years old they already get the concept of boy chase girl. Here's Jaxon shooting spider webs at the girls:

Brayden helping Brooklyn up the stairs:

Once the other kids left, the girl started playing a little bit more. They were SO cute, just wanting to sit next to each other:

The 4-some:

Ballroom Reunion

A couple of weeks ago the BYU Ballroom Company had their 50th anniversary of when the program was started. The weekend was full of fun reunions, fashion shows, the concert, and many other activities. I wasn't able to go to everything, but I definitely had a great time. It was fun to see so many people and it was a blast remembering all the amazing times we had. I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few I do have. This is Mayo, one of my competition partners. He's gone farther than most, as he almost was voted onto Dancing With The Stars last year.
Everyone that danced in the concert:
The alumnists from 2000-2010:

The Aquarium

Our season passes expired last week, so I took the kids one last time on Thursday. Of course I didn't realize it was spring break so EVERYONE else in the valley was also there. Oh well...that's the beauty of having a season pass - you don't feel like you have to see everything since we can always go again later. Brayden loves playing on the frog:

Watching and trying to touch the stingray:

Playing in the photo booth at the end:

Easter Weekend - Sunday

We had a very enjoyable and relaxing Easter/Conference Sunday. I spent the morning playing with the kids and getting them ready while Josh stayed in bed listening to conference. Here they are waiting: When the kids couldn't wait any longer, we made Josh get up so we could see what the Easter bunny brought. I tried not to buy too much candy, since I always go overboard when the Easter candy goes on clearance. So the kids got some books, toys, kites, and Brayden got his first set of scriptures and a scripture bag:
Then it was off to find the eggs. It took them both a while to get the concept of gathering ALL the eggs before opening them. They were too excited to see what was inside the eggs as they found them.

Afterwards we headed up to the Ericson's. We ate lunch and put the kids down for their naps so we could watch conference. Brooklyn, unfortunately, didn't do so well with the nap thing. She is a perfect sleeper at home, but we haven't needed to put her down for her nap many times outside of our house. I spent 1 1/2 hours trying to get her to fall asleep and she just would not do it, of course after the first hour I realized that there was a freaky poster hanging on the back of the door of the room she was in - some random guy that looked like the devil. I covered it up, but I can't blame her if she was too terrified to fall asleep b/c I would have been!) So I ended up driving her home and putting her down for a couple of hours. We got back just in time for a yummy Easter dinner with Josh's entire family.

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We have been waiting for today to tell them all we are pregnant. We had Brayden say the prayer and just like we practiced he blessed the baby in momm's tummy. He said it perfectly and it was SO cute that he was the one to announce it.

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After dinner we had another Easter egg hunt. Again the kids couldn't resist opening all the eggs and eating all the jelly beans as they went. And yes, they got tummy aches.

Not a great picture, but the only one we have of our family on Easter:

The entire Ericson family:

Easter Weekend - Saturday

We had a great Easter/Conference weekend. Josh had to work for a couple of hours on Saturday morning, so I decided to take the kids to a little farm down the street that was having an Easter egg hunt. There were a TON of people and it was freezing cold. Here are the kids freezing:

They were running behind and were having technical issues, so everyone was getting a little testy. I was tempted to just yell out "Go!" but didn't have the guts. The eggs were in such a condensed area that they were literally gone within about 2 minutes. The kids each got a couple of eggs, but not enough to have made it worth braving the cold! Here is everyone waiting around the area for 0-3 year olds:
Brayden picking up eggs. Just not fast enough since all the parents were scooping up all the eggs for their kids:

Brooklyn grabbed a couple, but was pretty overwhelmed with everything going on:

I mainly wanted to take the kids so we could get a picture with the Easter bunny. There wasn't much of a line, thank goodness. Brayden loved seeing the Easter bunny, but Brooklyn was not so excited:

Afterwards we went and picked up Josh and went to breakfast. I had some of the best Strawberry covered french toast I've ever had. Then we stopped at a few places and headed home to watch the Princess and the Frog. Josh and I slept through parts of it, but Brayden loved the whole thing. Brooklyn, of course, watched for about 3 minutes then it was off to naptime.

After watching conference all afternoon, we woke the kids up and I took them to my parents' house. Josh went to Priesthood with his dad while I hung out with my family. My brother and sister-in-law were in town with their 4 kids so all my siblings came over to hang out with them. It was fun to see Brayden finally old enough to play with his older cousins. We had an enjoyable evening eating pizza and having banana splits, then it was off to home for bedtime!

Rub-a-dub Dub

Who says you need water to have fun in the tub?! This is what I walked into the other day: