Branding Festival 2020

Casey is working a weekend graveyard shift so he wasn't able to take Caleb out bright and early for the beginning of the Saturday branding festival.  Luckily Angela, Jeff & Blake were part of the morning crew and let him ride with them.  He was in charge of the gate - but was happy to let Taylor & Rylee take over when they got there and he got some reading done.

Blake has gotten so much braver over the years.  I wish I could say so for myself.  Cows still scare me to the core.  Angela is always so dang fancy!  Just ask Taylor.

 Luke, Lexi, Taylor & Rylee all had soccer games in the morning, but then we were able to make it out west.  Luke liked having the job of keeping the elastics on the de-nutter (??) and Lexi was just chillin.  Luke got bonked on the head with the heavy end of the hot shot....that resulted in some alligator tears.  Ice packs and band-aids.  Best placebos out there!

 I wish I knew what these ladies were thinking.  Were they talking to each other about what they were doing?  Were they using mental telepathy?  I hoping that whatever their goal was that it was accomplished. 

Only two selfies were taken!!  But they ended up being good ones.

 As far as I could see - it ended being a good day.  Tazer Tay was always at the ready and uncle Dylan helped the kids pet a calf.  They only thing missing was baby bunnies.  Last year they were so cute!  The kids kept asking when we could go find them.

Geocaching

Casey has found a new hobby. Geocaching. What? Yep, that is what I said too!

Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System receiver or mobile deice and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", at specific locations marked by coordinates all over the world.

So, seek & find, treasure hunting, scavenger hunt - whatever you want to relate it to it doesn't matter. Mainly because my kids really enjoy it! Casey put the app on his phone and off they went!

He even took the cute girls that I babysit, Laynee & Addy, a couple of times!

It is a nice inexpensive family activity for those months of 'blah'.  

Not enough snow for winter activities, way too muddy for hiking, and not hot enough to go swimming.

Casey & Mona snuck away from a family baptism for a bit and found one!

At the Anderson Easter picnic in Bothwell, Blake & Casey went on the hunt.  Success!

It is kind of interesting.  Some are so tiny and you just find the 'log' and put your name (or handle on the app) and the date.  You then put any helpful details onto the app as well.  That way you can see when it was last found or someone might give more hints as to where it is.  They are all pretty different!  The kids gathered up some random things around the house and they take it with them so that they can trade 'swag'.  If you take something, leave something behind!

You also want to be pretty sneaky.  Which is quite difficult with 5 kids.  You don't want people to be watching to see what you are doing because they may go to it after you leave and throw it away or ruin it.  Hoodlums are the worst!  

Easter

I tried to get pictures of these cuties at home before we left for church, and NOTHING was working out!  So we left.  I saw this tree in someone's yard on the way to church and made Casey pull over for a 'drive by shooting' and got some pretty cute pictures of my littles!

Taylor & Rylee love their choker neckline and Caleb's GIANT tie has little army men on it.  One day he will grow into it.....I hope!

 After church everyone found their baskets!

They all got a cute new shirt in their baskets.

 Caleb got the most amazing bubble wand in his basket of goodies!  There was just a tiny bit of wind that afternoon which made the bubbles blow up just right!

 Alexa got a cute little fairy garden.  Taylor was a great big sister and helped her get it all set up.

Pre Easter Traditions

Would Easter even happen without the stress of food dye on your new counter tops?  It was such a wet & cold spring, that outside wasn't even an option.  So with my teeth clenched and heart pounding, we got out some shaving cream & food coloring and made a beautiful mess.  The counter survived!

 Another night of EGG-celent fun.  This awesome contraption uses markers only, so the stress level was down considerably.  All of the kids thought it was pretty awesome too.  Mom win!

 Honestly - one of the best egg coloring years yet!

Time for the Promontory picnic!  Wait.....that didn't happen.  It was so dang cold!  But, the girls got the cutest new hair ties.

 Pre-Anderson family Easter picnic selfie with my littles while Casey ran into the store.

We ended up going to the Bothwell park so that if the weather turned super nasty, we could take cover at my parents house.  Luke ate ALL of his peeps in a matter of seconds.  Jackson ate his weight in puffy cheetos.  Casey found the GOLDEN EGG that had cash-o-la inside.  And Taylor was having the time of her life.

On a warmer Easter afternoon we went to Brad & Mona's house for an Easter egg hunt.  Mona went to so much work!  Clues on each egg, a treat in each egg, and a scavenger hunt with the clues!  She was out of control this year.  As were my bunny/carrot dirt cup desserts.  I don't even like pudding!

March Moments

I decided to sign the kids up for spring soccer.  Caleb informed me that he HATES soccer, so he got to sit on the sidelines.  Taylor & Rylee missed out in their earlier years because I happened to have a couple more babies!  I think that they are going to enjoy it.  Lexi is just happy to be there and Luke is constantly on the verge (or past that) of tears.  "MOM! Everyone keeps trying to take the ball from me!"

Taylor had her friend Lindy over one afternoon and they made the cutest play-doh creation!!  I love when they use their imaginations.

My little cousin Its!

This poor guy had to have a tooth pulled.  They one coming in was all jacked up and moving his front tooth in a weird way, so we had to have one yanked out.  He was a trooper!  He really did a lot better than I thought he would.  He did have tears coming down his cheeks while the dentist was working on him, but I was expecting screaming and freaking out.  He has come such a long way!

We had received a gift card from Maddox and got a banana cream pie one night.  These ladies wanted to have a pie eating contest.  I heart them.

A few of us did a strange thing.  Starting back in January Angela, Jeff, Dylan & I started going to my parents house every Monday night to watch......the Bachelor.  I know. It is weird.  But it was quite fun too!  January & February can really drag on and it was something silly to look forward to.  I attempted yummy chocolate covered strawberries for the finale - they turned out really good!

Casey got the floor all finished in the kitchen/bathroom area and did such a good job!!  We decided to get new carpet upstairs and the stairs.  That means you have to paint first right?  To say it was difficult to pick a paint color would be an understatement.  I painted one color - and it looked blue after it dried.  I finally decided on another, and I still don't love it.  But I was out of money.  I guess that is one way to make a final decision!

I took the kids to an 8 AM dentist appointment  one morning before school.  We were on time and no cavities!  SMILE!

These cuties came home from preschool with little leprechaun masks :)

These cuties also got their Kindergarten check up & shots.  They were brave and hardly cried after the shots.  The way that Luke is eyeing the nurse cracks me up. 

Casey's dad came over one afternoon to help with something and he & Casey were dressed the same!!  It cracked me up.  What's funnier is when I stepped outside to take their picture Brad rolled his eyes so hard I thought he was going to hurt himself.  But he loves me so I got a tiny smile.

It's Great to be Eight!

These little ladies were baptized!! 

I had the best of intentions when picking out their baptism dresses and getting some professional pictures scheduled - but I lived and learned.  I think these ladies are beyond darling, but the lighting and the snow with the dress color and the bitter cold with a lace dress.....all of those were NOT in our favor.  We tried another day (the pictures on the invitations) and I just took those ones.  I need to stop overthinking and just make things more simple!  I will treasure both sets of pictures forever though.

They were so excited.  They loved all of their family & friends that were able to come & support them on their special day.

Casey got a little nervous in the baptismal font, but came through after his nerves settled.  He was able to confirm them both that day with both sides of our families there.  Times like this I'm glad girls don't have the priesthood.   I would get so tongue tied!  Casey always does such a good job.

After they were baptized we had a little lunch our church.  Casey & I were able to give them each their own set of scriptures and darling Scripture bags.  They got some beautiful jewelry from my parents, my siblings & Colby's family.  They also got sweet keepsake book from Casey's parents.