Some Special Women

We had a little easter get together with the Maseda side of the family on the Saturday before easter. This is a picture of myself with my mother-in-law and three of my sister-in- laws (Heather, Liz, and Heidi). These are some pretty special women. I have been blessed to have them in my life. I wish that the rest of the family could of been there - they have all touched my life in many different ways. Thanks for being WONDERFUL!

What a little Angel

This morning we were trying to hurry out the door to take Bailey and Taylor to school and get there on time. I walked into my room to grab my shoes and there Addy was. She looked up at me and then folded her arms. We hadn't said our Morning Family Prayer. I called up the other kids and she said our prayer for us since she was the one to remind us to say it. She can only say please (peas) and thank you, but she did a great job. These little kids are truly gifts from god sent here to help us stay on the right path. I am so grateful for the wonderful blessing to be a mother.

Easter Pictures

Having FUN making a mess!

Dying Easter Eggs this year was a lot of fun. We left little Addy out of this family event to save us an even bigger mess- She went to bed. After the rest of the kidos were ready for bed, we started our egg dying extravaganza. I probably should of waited for them to bath until after wards. I looked over and Parker was dipping eggs with his hands. Yes, they were green for church the next day. I bought Taylor and Parker green shirts with cute little ties - so he did look like a little leprechaun.

This did actually wash off of my table with a little cleaner with bleach. I was happy about that!!

Spring Break

We went to the Monterey area for spring break. Tom was not able to come with us because of work and church obligations so I loaded up the four kidos for a road trip. This is the farthest that I have ever ventured by myself with four kids. We had a great time. We stayed with our friends the Otterstrom's. Caitlyn knows all of the great places to visit. Thanks Caitlyn for the fun!

Here are some of our adventures...

The Santa Cruz Beach:

It was a cold day but the kids still loved it. This beach was awesome. There were tons of shells all over for them to collect.
Bailey and Taylor running to the beach.
This was the first time Addy had been to the beach. She loved the sand.

The cold was not going to stop Bailey from getting the perfect Sand Dollar.

Taylor renamed this beach Sand Dollar beach because there were so many Sand Dollars all over.

The Carmel Mission:

Bailey has the Carmel Mission for her 4th grade Mission report. We were able to visit the mission and get lots of pictures.

We went for a stroll through the Santa Cruz Red Woods.

Spring Break

Visiting the Sea Lions and Sea Otters at Mott's Landing:
We were really able to get close to the Sea Lions (We could of touched them). My kids have been talking about this ever since. It was amazing to watch them in the wild and be so close. There were to many Sea Lions to count and about 30 Sea Otters.It was fun to see the rock that Sea Otters keep with them to crack open their food.

We were not going to touch them!!

The UC Santa Cruz Discovery Center:
This was a neat place where the kids could get up close to sea creatures. They were able to hold some of them. They enjoyed this.

We are standing in front of a Grey Whale that washed up on shore.

They had fun looking at the beach.

These are Sea Sunflowers.

I did not like sticking to the Sea Anemones.

April Fool's Day Fun

My kids are always trying to play jokes on me - to scare me and trick me. Well little did they know that I have a few tricks up my sleeves too! What a great day. I had so much fun.

The Unsuspecting Cast

Rise and Shine Sunshine.

Breakfast is the start to a great day. We just had plain old Honey Nut Cheerios. Before I poured the cereal, I put in a few drops of food coloring in the bottom of the bowl. When the kids poured the milk, they ended up with red, green, or blue milk. Taylor ended up with he red bowl. He thought that he had blood in his cereal. I had to calm him down and let him know that it was just food coloring and April Fool's. He was mad for a second but then he started to laugh. Parker was the last to wake up so everyone was waiting for him to notice. Taylor asked him if there was something wrong with his cereal. He looked at it and said, "What there's nothing wrong with it, Green is my favorite color." I had to laugh. Nobody was taking his breakfast away from him whether it was green or not.

Parker's always ready for fun! He is such a good sport about everything.

Next joke, Just a plain old bag of chips. Which by the way, everyone had to be excited about because I hardly ever buy chips.

I carefully opened the chips and dumped them out and put grapes in and resealed the bag. I wish that I could of seen every one's faces. Tom called from work. I even got him. Bailey said that a friend told her that her mom really takes holidays seriously.

Next, DINNER! Fish sticks with ketchup, peas, and colorful cupcakes. Looks can be deceiving. The cupcakes are really meatloaf frosted with colored mashed potatoes. The peas are Airhead candy rolled in little balls. The fish sticks are not really fish sticks, they are wafer cookies coated in peanut butter and rolled in cornflakes. The ketchup is strawberry jam. I did have to add some cooked carrots for a real veggie after they figured out the joke. I had told Tom about this since he would be working late. He had me set up the video camera and record the kids without them knowing. It was funny.

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS!