St. Patrick's Day Excitement

St. Patrick's day was a lot of fun for our family. We had green all around (although Josh made me promise not to dye any food green this year...spoil sport). The kids all dressed in green, although we found poor Aubrey does not have green in her wardrobe, so we settled for green barrettes.

When the kids got home from school, they found a leprechaun had been to our house (Bryce and Aubrey were quick to point out they are too old to believe in leprechauns...they get that from Josh). The green visitor had left a treasure hunt around inside and outside our home. The exciting conclusion is in the video below.

After dinner, we all went out to play basketball and Bryce found something green stuck in our fence. He investigated and found it was a $20 bill. I was really proud of him because the first thing he said was that he needed to see if he could find out who it belonged to. We checked with the neighbors and no one claimed it, so I guess he found his treasure for the day.

After baths as we were getting ready for bed, we decided to end our day with "Ireland" by Garth Brooks, that seemed fitting. The kids loved it and asked if we could do it over and over. Their parents were too tired for that, so we settled for one time through. It was a really great holiday, it is always nice to have an excuse to act silly and some extra motivation to do fun things as a family.

I'm So Glad That He's Our Dad

I am always grateful for my incredible husband, but this past couple of months I have been especially appreciative of all that he has done for our family. The first few months of pregnancy I get really sick and it is difficult to function so Josh takes on EVERYTHING!! He cooks dinner every night, does the laundry, cleans the house and children, not to mention he sits by me and preps my toothbrush for me when I am throwing up. He really is super man if you ask me. On top of pregnancy, I also have a lot of things that have to be done for young women so he takes care of things those nights too. Below is a video of one of those hero moments. I couldn't get through without my best friend and husband.

Our Miracle Table

It never ceases to amaze me the way Heavenly Father cares about every aspect of our lives, including our dining sets. For a while now, we have needed a new table because our old one only fit six people, and we have seven people (going on eight) in our family. We have watched adds and on Saturday we decided to spend the morning going to stores to price things out, not necessarily buy anything, but get to know what we needed to save and what was available. We found that tables that sit more than six people are pretty expensive. We went all over and found our best options at R.C. Willey clearance and then D.I. (their new stuff that they make). That afternoon, a bolt from the blue (we think it was inspiration...thanks spirit) struck and we went onto KSL.com to their classifieds. We have NEVER been to that site before. We saw the table above with four chairs (we needed two more) for less than anything else we had found all day, it was in like new condition and was the right size, but also had an 18 inch leaf that would make it huge (like our tiny kitchen could handle that, but still, it's nice just in case). We called immediately and the guy said he had gotten several messages (the add had been up for two hours) but we were the first ones to reach him. Josh went over that evening (thanks Frank for your help lifting) and checked it out and now we have a new table that will fit all of us. It is very sturdy and with six kids we will need that. Also, it matches the chairs we already had which I am really grateful for because those kinds of things bother me (although I would have lived with it....or sanded and re stained the chairs). It is nothing fancy, but is exactly what we needed. We feel awfully blessed and are very grateful to a Heavenly Father who takes such kind care of our family.

Another Kind of Artist

Since his older siblings were stretching their artist muscles (see previous post) Gavin decided to jump on the bandwagon too. Thankfully, he chose to create with a washable marker so most of it came off. My favorite part is the little green tears that slide down his cheeks. Oh kids.

Very Off Broadway Debut

So, last Monday I got a call from my youngest brother who is a senior at Granger High School. He was looking for children to be in a production of "The Outsiders." There is supposedly a fire and they needed children to be able to save from the fire. Josh and I decided to let our three older kids participate. Oh my gosh, they had a blast. They had two practices, then performed Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday. Their part was short, but they did a great job (if you ask their beaming mother). Aubrey did all of the screaming that you hear but they all loved being on stage. The production crew even put little bio's of the kids in the program just like they did with all of the high school students. Gavin and Logan sat quietly when we brought them to watch. It was a great experience for all of us. What Fun!!!

It was also the final production of my brother's high school career. He played "Dallas" (the one who yells "Forget the stupid kids"...he's in the leather jacket). Way to go Joel, it's always fun to see you act.