Easter Time

We started off Easter bright and early this morning. Actually, it was still dark out at 6:20am, so it wasn't very bright. But by the warm glow of the Disney Channel on TV, the boys were able to find their hidden baskets. 

 After a long morning of eating way too much of their candy we got ready to go to church (which starts at 2pm. Go ahead, be jealous…not.) I am amazed any time I can get a decent picture of all 4 boys. It's like a circus trying to take a picture without anyone crying, moving, looking off in a different direction, hitting, turning around…you get the picture. This one turned out really well for my standards!

 After church Grandma and Grandpa Brudnicki and Jen and Jason came to have Easter dinner with us. They also hid some eggs out in the backyard. Hudson could have cared less about those eggs.

The other boys had a great time.

It was a lovely Easter. We had a nice program at church, a nice visit with our family, and because I'm super organized, we're having our Resurrection FHE tomorrow night! There is no wrong time to celebrate the risen Savior of the World. 

Our First Ever Cub Scout Pinewood Derby

 Carson participated in his first Pinewood Derby last night. He had fun making his car and enjoyed the great races that our ward held.

Carson didn't want anything too fancy. He kept his design simple and knew exactly how he wanted to paint it. Blue sides, and a white top adorned with a BYU "Y."

 The funniest thing was that when his buddy saw Carson's car at their early weigh-in, he had to have a BYU car, too. They are both adorable!

Aside from looking great, Carson's car, dubbed "The Cougar," performed very well. He came in 2nd during most of his heats. (His is the white blur on the track!)

I think this was the race where his car came in 1st. He was so excited- he was dancing and frolicking spastically across the gym. I sure hope the gal acting as the ward "paparazzi" got some shots of that!

I spent the evening starting the races (which was the best job) while my amazing MIL chased my little guys around and even managed to get the above pictures. Since I was starting the races, Carson attempted to take a video of his car racing. In hindsight, I should have gotten someone to record it who wasn't so excited about the outcome! After a couple of tries, he finally got this video. It was the one race where he came in 3rd. Anywho- it was a fun evening!

Hey Batter, Batter!

My big boys have been playing baseball for a couple of weeks now. They both seem to like it, although they really wanted to play basketball (which isn't in season right now). This is the first team sports experience Jensen has had. He was slated to play soccer a year and a half ago, but broke his finger right before the season started, so we didn't have him play due to his cast. So far, he's had a fun time, and he has a very enthusiastic coach.

This is Carson's 2nd season playing baseball, but he had a year off in between. He likes it, but it's definitely not "his sport." While he does fine hitting and throwing the ball (when he remembers he's supposed to throw it instead of running with it in his hand) he still struggles with catching. But he has shown some improvement in this area, especially since the last time he played baseball.

I know it's fun for my kids and its good for them to participate in team sports, but all in all, I'm not much of a fan. Mostly because I'm the one getting everything and everyone ready to get out the door on time, including everyone who has to go who is not playing. And it has been our experience so far, that I am the adult doing all the practices/games, while dragging the younger ones along, AND doing it solo. It kinda sucks all the fun out of it when I'm forced to do it this way. Hope these boys appreciate it someday.

Hello Again

So I realize it's been a few months since I posted on my blog. Yeah, sorry. Life happened. So here's a run down of what's been going on.

In December:

We had Christmas.

3 days after Christmas, we moved from our beloved home in Kyle... 

…to our new home in Driftwood.

 In January:

We got some snow, which meant snow days for the boys! This also means we're going to have to have a bunch of make up days in the months to come… 

 In February:

I got to go on a girls cruise- and I don't have any pictures.

While I was cruising, Grandma and Grandpa Jensen came to visit! (Also no pictures)

And Jensen turned 6! 

 In March:

Hudson turned 1!!!!!!!

And, Hudson also learned to walk! I tried to post a video of him walking, but blogger wasn't cooperating in a timely fashion.

In conclusion: 

 We are really loving our new home. The boys (big and small) have plenty of space to play inside and out.

And as we continue to get settled, I hope I can post a little more regularly. :)

Too Fast

Boy, time keeps getting past me. We've had an eventful month, but as a quick update, we had a lovely Thanksgiving, we bought a new house, and Hudson has learned to crawl. (I'm seriously shocked by this last thing, since at 8 months, he is by far our earliest crawler!)

Here's a little proof. More details on the house to come…

Caring for the Cranes

I had the wonderful opportunity to serve on a community committee to help give aid to a family who we have become friends with over the past couple of years. Two of their 3 children have terminal illnesses. And they are some of the funnest, sweetest and wonderful people. You can read more about their story at www.caringforthecranes.com. 

We held a large fundraising event yesterday. We worked to organize a BBQ dinner, a carnival, concessions, and a silent auction. I'm not going to lie, it was a lot of work. We spent just 6 short weeks preparing for the event. But it was so worth every minute.

Getting set up the night before. I got to work with some seriously amazing people.

I worked at the front table at the event, giving people their will call BBQ tickets, selling carnival tickets, bracelets, T-shirts, and taking donations. It was non-stop busy from 3pm until about 6, when it finally slowed down. We ended the event at 7 pm. I loved talking to everyone who came!

Dickey's BBQ here in Kyle donated all the food for the BBQ plates. We sold over 500 plates.

My kids had a total blast at the carnival. I honestly didn't get to see it in action- but it looked like fun from afar! And can you believe that everything at the carnival was donated!?!

This is Emmalee Crane, who is currently battling cancer. She loves horses, and we were super excited to have the Little Horses of America come to the event.

Local TV station came out to the event to interview the family and publicize their story. We are still getting donations online, thanks to them.

This was our total after the fundraiser. We still have money trickling in, which will not only help the family with their medical bills, but allow the mom, Lisa to quit her job and stay home with her beautiful children. I know you can't buy time, but I think we just did a little.

This was Steven and Lisa Crane getting the total. Pure awesomeness.

There were so many amazing things that happened to us while working on this project. So many people who were SO generous, and so many people who reached out to us to find ways to help. There was always someone crying at our meetings while telling everyone about these amazing experiences (and a lot of times it was all of us).

At our very first "Caring for the Cranes" committee meeting, our chairperson, Michelle, said that not only would we bless this family with our service, but we would feel blessed to have been apart of it. I didn't realize how profoundly true her words would be. I absolutely felt blessed to have been apart of it. 

Halloween Festivities

We had a successful Halloween this year. We really don't do much, other than the standard trick-or-treating, church trunk-or-treating and our Halloween cookie painting party. But now that my kids are getting bigger, we've enjoyed a couple of years of pumpkin carving. It's always a little tricky here in Texas, because it's usually very warm at Halloween, so we can't carve our pumpkins too early. (We learned that the hard way.) This year we timed it pretty well. 

I let all the big boys pick out their own pumpkins this year. It wasn't until after the fact that I realized that Dustin was out of town till just a couple of days before Halloween, so I was going to have to supervise this project on my own. But it worked out well. The boys were awesome about cleaning out the insides of their pumpkins (once I had scraped them down really well inside) and they helped pick out the designs. Carson and Jensen helped transfer the designs and did some of the carving. They turned out great!

 Mason loved his Mickey Mouse pumpkin. (I did too- can we say easy-peasy?)

Jensen has been learning about bats at school recently, so his choice was very obvious.

 Carson actually carved his all on his own! (I just cleaned it up a little for him.) 

 I didn't actually get a picture of the boys on Halloween, so I made sure Dustin took one of us when we did our Trunk-or-Treat the next night. Carson and Jensen loved wearing their ninja costumes again, and Mason and Hudson were SO CUTE in the lion costumes that I made for Carson and Jensen 5 years ago (was it really that long ago?) Plus, it was awesome not to have to "figure out" or make new costumes for everyone this year. It was just what this mama needed. :)