Mom's Day

Baylen had to work on Mother's Day this year.  So, I was just expecting a normal, crazy Sunday morning.  Boy, was I surprised!  Tanner and Mickell woke up extra early.  When I got up, they sent me to get a shower and get ready while they prepared all of this...

 How cute is this breakfast.  They totally made the muffins and came up with this plate on their own.

 Then I stepped into the family room.  They had a pillow, blanket, and my book sitting on the couch for me

 with this note and the remote...

 and my favorite show paused and ready to go

Yes, of course it would have been fun to have Baylen home.  But, I loved the fact that the kids did this ALL on their own.  I had a permanent smile on my face all morning.  I'm one lucky mama!

Tanner and Mickell both made me sanitizer bottles at school.  Inside of the bottles were poems that they typed onto transparency paper.  I want to remember the poems, so I'm going to put them on here.

Tanner's:

Mom

When I wake up to start the day

You let me go out and play

Once I am on the bus

You start to clean with a brush

And once I get back from school

You give me a snack that is cool

What I am saying is I love you mom

So please don't leave me so I'll be calm

Love,

Tanner

Mickell's:

Mom

I really, really love the way

You make me dinner every day

You make me happy when I'm sad

You make me smile when I feel bad

You are my idol, my superhero

I hope you know that wherever you go.

Love,

Mickell

                                     

Tanner's Last Derby

As we were starting the prep work for Tanner's Pinewood Derby car this year, I asked him how he wanted his car.  He responded by saying that all he wanted was a car that didn't win this year.  He's won the last two years and really wanted to give someone else a turn.   Tanner got his wish… he didn't win.   Although, his car did do well.  

Funny story… Baylen's got the engineering down on how to place the weight on these cars.  One of our kind neighbors invited all the boys over to his shop so that they could cut their cars out using his tools.  While there, Baylen told one dad exactly what to do to make a car that wins.  Guess who won?  Since we don't have any more boys, I guess it's okay to share Baylen's talents with the new group :)

 Tanner's car is the Blue and Gold "BYU" one

Easter 2012

We had a super special Easter this year.  I feel like we were really able to focus on the real reason why we celebrate this holiday.

Of course, the Easter bunny payed us a visit during the night.  Here are the kids with their loot.  Besides candy, they also got a couple of movies and a new Wii game.

After dinner we had Easter dinner with our own little family.  I think this is the first time I've ever made Easter dinner.  I was pretty proud of myself that I didn't mess anything up!

Later that evening we were able to attend our Stake's Easter Cantata.  Mickell was asked to sing with a small Children's Choir.   Singing is something that Mickell loves to do and this was such a special opportunity for her.  They practiced hard for it and all their work paid off.  It was beautiful.  They sang a song called "He Had Come."  This song was written by a lady in our stake and talks about when Christ visited in the Americas.  It is sung as if the kids singing were the children that Christ blessed when he came.  It is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard.  They recorded it so you can listen to it (or download it) from here…

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songinfo.cfm?bandid=1174077&songID=11527857&from=downloadsong.cfm&referer=www.amywebbmusic.com/He_Had_Come_.html

Mickell had lots of support.  Grandma and Grandpa Sillito, Grandma and Grandpa Whipple, and Grandma Bird all came.  After we had everyone over to our house for dessert.

Easter Party

This year we had our Whipple family Easter party the day before Easter since Mickell was singing on Easter.  It's always lots of fun.  I love all of our traditions.

Of course we all had to dye our eggs for the big egg cracking contest...

Bailey wins the award for the most original way to get those eggs dyed!

This is what happens when you use your hands to color Koolaid eggs.  I was a little worried that they would remain this way for church the next day :)

Of course, Grandma always spoils the kids with an Easter egg hunt.  I LOVE this picture.  Poor Hailey was looking at several eggs that she wanted to grab.  However, her cruel mom made her stop for a picture.

Baylen, Seth and Leslie hid the eggs this year.  They definitely made a few of them a little more tricky.

The highlight of this party is always the egg cracking contest.  Ashlyn really really wanted to win this year.  She talked about it for days before.

Jackson is turning into a smurf…. from the inside out

Yay!!!  This little girl actually won!  She was one happy kid and is so excited that she gets to keep this trophy for one whole year.  Mom, on the other hand, thought the ugly trophy was a hilarious, awesome idea until we finally ended up with it ;)

No Joke

This year General Conference was on April Fool's Day.  Kind of a weird mix of a day, but somehow we were able to go back and forth from completely and totally crazy to thinking more along spiritual lines.

Baylen and I were able to pull off an awesome prank.  I would highly recommend it to anyone.  We put those little easter egg dye pellets in the faucet of our sinks.  When the water came out, it came out different colors.  Tanner was the first to turn the water on in the morning.  Baylen and I were standing outside of the bathroom listening.  We heard the water come on and then Tanner say "Eww, gross."  Then he turned it off and went to the downstairs faucet.  He didn't even say anything to us about how the water was coming out orange.

 For breakfast we usually have milk in bowls and pancakes in glasses.  However, it's a long standing tradition to have sticky buns on conference mornings.  So, that tradition won over the other one.  However, we still had chocolate milk in bowls.

 We loved playing different games to help the kids focus better on the talks.  For this one they got a candy every time they said the word in front of the bowl.  We discovered that certain words are said A LOT in talks (for good reason :)

 We then had our traditional April Fools mystery menu meal.  For Tanner's first course he got a piece of ice, a fork, spoon, an fishy crackers (they get 4 items each course)

 Hailey got her drink… but she didn't have a cup to drink out of yet.

 We put this puzzle together as we were listening to the last session.  It was pretty challenging because most of the pieces were the same color.  Go Cougars!!!

Fun with the Fam

Baylen, Ashlyn and I were able to go on a "sister" get together to the opening of the new Natural History Museum at the U.  I think this was the biggest turn out we've ever had for a sister get together.  We had just as many guys as girls there.  I guess that's what happens when you plan something besides a craft :)

This picture may appear like Raylee's had a huge growth spurt.

 Actually, Ashlyn just loves carrying her around.  It's crazy that these two are only 3 months apart.  It just happens that Raylee is on the incredibly short side and Ashlyn is on the incredibly tall side.

 All four kids fit in the mold of this dinosaur's foot.

This has become somewhat of a Whipple family tradition.  We love hanging out at Real Soccer games.  We have all become quite the fans… especially the little kids.  It's so cute to hear them sing the Real fight song.

 These two are definitely best buds!!!

I'm back!

Yup, it's been a long time.  I have lots of catching up to do so here we go…

For Baylen's birthday we went to the new Get Air at the Sportsplex.  It was super fun, but that place is so dangerous.  We saw several people get injured in the hour that we were there.

I believe this picture was taken right before I accidentally stole Ashlyn's bounce.  I didn't even realize what happened.  We were jumping right next to each other and all of the sudden she was laying on her back crying in intense pain.  We thought her leg might be broken because she couldn't put any weight on it when she woke up the next morning.  Thank goodness it wasn't!

                                                   

Spring is always a busy time at school.  There are lots of field trips, final projects, and programs. Here are a few of the fun times we got to participate in…

I was able to go with Ashlyn on her preschool field trip to the children's museum.  We had lots of fun hanging out together!

 Hailey worked super hard on her 2nd Grade animal report.  Baylen and I were able to go to her class to see her present what she learned.  Through research, we found that giraffes are actually very fascinating animals!  Hailey did an amazing job moulding and painting her giraffe.

 Tanner and Mickell participated in their fifth grade program.  It was seriously incredible!!!  Those fifth grade teacher know how to put a program together!

Here is Mickell with her good friend Analiese.  Mickell was a colonist.  She sang and did sign language for "Tis a gift to be simple."  She also had a speaking part.

 Tanner was a Civil War soldier.  He did a dance to "When Johnny comes marching home."

 Ashlyn was able to bring her class pet, Rattles, home to hang out one night.  

Tanner and Mickell also had an Emmy Award day at school.  They were suppose to play the part of different characters and wrote all the background info about themselves.  It was really fun to be there for.