Happy Birthday Kimbre!!

niiice.

Happy Birthday to a total hottie who is now entering her late 20's! Love you so much Kimbre and it's awesome seeing you continue to grow and become even cooler every year! I'm so excited for you to become a mama and I know you'll be amazing.

Love you tons sista and...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(26 just for you!)

ooh. yeah.

Running for Risa

On Saturday we attended the Running for Risa benefit marathon and had a blast! Risa Whitaker is an 18 year old girl who recently lost her battle with a rare cancer and she's a part of an amazing family we know. All the proceeds from the race went to her family. The race was awesome! There were a total of 386 runners doing a marathon, half marathon, 5k and fun run. It was the most gorgeous perfect clear day ever and being at Haag Lake was so pretty! Jayson got there super early to help set things up and we arrived later and prepped for our race. I ran the 5k along with Karen, Madison, Ashley, and Natalie. Clarissa did the half marathon and was awesome! There were a lot of other friends and people we knew running and it made for such a fun atmosphere. I was a little nervous because I hadn't prepared as well as I could have, but it was great! Yes, I did walk a bit on the up hills - there were some good ones! - but I ran most of it and made a time of 35.06. I'm happy with it as it was my first 5k ever! It was fun hanging out with the family and enjoying the atmosphere and especially remembering Risa and supporting her family. Awesome day and a great experience. Kind of makes me want to do more runs! We'll see...

Getting ready to run
Coming into the finish line!


Karen had a great finish!

So impressed with Clarissa finishing her first half marathon! She did awesome!
Have to pose on the finish line...
The boys were kind of bored but did great hanging around.

After the run, we went home, cleaned up, took a short nap and then went to a friend's house for an Easter egg hunt! They have a couple acres and invited a few families. The boys had a lot of fun playing with friends and finding eggs. Dallas was content to hang out at the treat table and eat lots of chips and salsa! (The scrape on his nose happened at the run when he took a nose-dive off his bike!) He also had tons of candy from the eggs that Jett found. =)

Later in the evening, we left the kids with some friends and attended Risa's funeral. It was incredible! Karen did the eulogy, which was so perfect and wonderful - then the Encore youth choir performed a few musical numbers, her brother read from her journal, more singers and the whole thing was so great. She was such an amazing girl with a very powerful testimony of the Savior and the gospel and her funeral was a great celebration of her life and legacy. It was quite a day and one we'll always remember!

Brycen's Birthday and A Fabulous Weekend!

Lots of pictures - you've been warned!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYCEN!

Woody & Woody!

You can't get a new potty chair without something to read too!

Ava, Brycen and Izzy! Ty, Haley, Izzy, Jeffrey & Amanda came to town for the weekend. Perfect timing, and what a blast. It is always fun to see them, especially for the cousins. They played together all weekend.

Grandma & Paka took everyone to PoJo's. By far the favorite was the Carousel! I think we rode it 8 times!

We are so fortunate to have Grandma and Paka with us. I feel so blessed to have them so close, and also to have them watch Ava & Brycen. The kids love going to their house and spending time with Grandma. It is especially nice to have more family come to visit. Thanks to everyone for a really great weekend!

She's so Smart!

Funny story-

So Ava goes to preschool, and occasionally has to make up a day if we miss one. So a few weeks ago, she was making up a class, (which means she is with a group of kids she doesn't know), and they were doing a math worksheet:

1+1 = 2

1+2 = 3

2+2 = 4

etc...

So Ava finished very quickly and after she was done, she decided to go around the class and help the other kids. Well, as a mom, I was very proud of her! She sat down to help a little girl who is from Russia. Ava's teacher came over and said, "Oh honey, she doesn't speak English." To which Ava replied, "Okay..."

Uno + Uno = Dos

Uno + Dos = Tres

Dos + Dos = Quatro

etc...

HA, HA, HA! I laughed out loud when I heard this! She didn't skip a beat. She realized right away what her teacher meant and switched gears without a second thought. Unfortunately it was still the wrong language. Well, she tried hard! That's my girl!

Artwork by Jacob

So Jakey's cousins, Mylie and Brynlee, used to live here in Vegas but moved about 6 mo. ago to Utah. Jakey talks about them all the time and still asks whether they'll be at Grandma MacKay's house every time we go over there. Anyhow, Mylie's birthday is coming up so I asked Jacob if he'd like to color a card for her. He got all excited and created this a few days ago.

Then, this morning after breakfast, he decided he wanted to draw pictures of Mylie and Brynlee to go with his card. I couldn't resist sharing them! My favorite is Mylie's eyelashes!:)

We miss you Baker family!!

Happy Birthday to Dallas!

Dallas is TWO! I can't believe it really - he's still my little baby but oh is he trying to be a big boy! He just won't stop growing...He sure brings a lot of joy to our lives and we all have so much fun with Dallas. He's snugly and funny and sweet and of course a super cutie!

Well, we have fun plans to get together with the whole family for some yummy dessert and fun presents and just hanging out! I don't think Dallas realizes today is a special day for him, but he'll get it more tonight when he sees the presents!
Happy Birthday little bug!
We love you!!!

Happy Birthday Jayson!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sweetheart!! Here's to leaving the 20s behind and looking forward to enjoying your 30s!Jayson, you are so kind, gentle, funny, hard-working, handsome, caring, a great dad, talented, smart, goofy, sweet, loving, strong, cool, nice, active, loyal, sensitive, trusting, friendly, reliable, brave, charming, honorable, romantic, skillful, thoughtful, witty, sexy, wonderful...

and best of all...
YOU'RE MINE!!!I love you babe - Happy birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Matt! The BIG 30!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!

You make my laugh and smile everyday and I know you're gonna be a great daddy!

Happy Birthday Brycen!

So Brycen had his birthday pictures taken last week, and it went a little something like this...

He was happy and smiling, laughing and running around... THEN... we entered the photo room and all bets were off! He sat down on the little stool, and all attempts to get him to smile were for naught. He was so shy and SO not willing to cooperate. BUT, slowly he came around and we were able to get a few good ones in the end.

Grouchy, shy - as if he's saying "No, I won't smile for you crazy lady!"

"Are we done yet!"

"All right - I'm a tough guy - I can totally handle this!"

"You caught me! I may seem tough, but I'm really a big softy!"

It was so fun, (and a little frustrating at times) - but totally worth it. I'm really glad that the gal who took the pictures also took some of his sad face. She captured all sides of his personality. Happy birthday buddy! - You are getting so big!

On Your Paws, Get Set, GO! City of Post Falls K9 Fun Run

The City of Post Falls Police Dept held their first "Leashes and Laces K9 5K Fun Run." It's a fund raiser to help pay for the training and keep up with their K9. So Matt decided to give it a shot!Kya was a huge pain most of the time because she was soo excited and nearly tore Matt's arm off for most of the race.But, he managed to tough it out and finish in a great time!

April 1 - Golfing

It was such a beautiful day last weekend - so Drew and I loaded up the kids and took them to the Foxtail Golf Course putting range. Ava loved it! She hit a drive 34 yards and Drew set up a "mock par 3 hole" for her. Brycen liked to chase the ball - and then quickly got distracted by the birds in the area. All in all - it was a wonderful morning with the kids!

Jacobisms

I love how this kid tells stories! He told this at Grandma Day this week. Following it is Jason's translation for what happened-- I love how he can figure out what Jakey's actually talking about. Enjoy! :)

• Jakey: "Last night the car was straight and the door was too flat so it just cutted off. And the wheels blast, and the fixer came and he came to pick up the piece of car. Then it will start working. My Dad took off the tire loop. He took it off with zizzors. He just took off the loop Grandma. That's all he did. That's the end of the story. That's it."


• Translation: "Last night (about 6 months ago) the car was straight and the door was too flat (we were driving on the freeway) so it just cutted off (see scissor reference below, Jake was getting a little ahead of himself). And the wheels blast (and a loud noise came from the front tire), and the fixer came (Zach from our ward came to help Lisa) and he came to pick up the piece of car (and he duct-taped the liner in the driver side wheel that was scraping on the tire). Then it will start working (the noise went away). My Dad took off the tire loop (later Dad took off the liner). He took it off with zizzors (He cut it off with his pocket knife). He just took off the loop Grandma. That's all he did (it came of easy). That's the end of the story. That's it."

Portland Children's Museum

Ready for a picture overdose? You've been warned.
We went to the Children's Museum a couple of weeks ago and I thought I'd share some fun pictures of our day. The boys were so well behaved the whole time and we spent a good 4 1/2 to 5 hours there! It was awesome.Playing at the grocery store and bistro--Tucker loved making me different meals, Jett got good at flipping his pancake, and Dallas loved pushing his cart around filling it up.The exhibit going on right now is Curious George and the boys loved spending time with all the cool stuff in there. Here's a little mini-golf action.Dallas loved this George statue and had to give it a hug whenever we passed by it.Getting the big fan to blow the windmills around.Definitely Jett's favorite area was this conveyor belt. The kids put in a foam block and cranked the wheel to get it to the top where it would then fall down zig-zag conveyors to the bottom. They loved it! Dallas liked watching them fall down each level.Digging in the Dig Pit.

Tucker always likse to brush the alligator's teeth.This was Dallas' favorite area - it had steering wheels! We spent awhile in there.

Tucker's face is goofy but he sure had fun playing on this huge train table!

The water area is always so fun and wet. The boys had a blast there. Dallas was so clever in figuring out if you put your finger in the spout, it makes the water shoot harder and makes the wheel spin faster. He spent forever doing this. And surprisingly, Tucker didn't freak out too much with as wet as he got - a small miracle!
My camera battery died here so that's it for photos, but we sure had a blast! There are so many fun areas to play in and we just rotated between them all all day long! I sure am lucky to have such awesome boys!