Happpy Birthday, It's A Boy!

Since Matt makes great cakes for everyone else, I feel a little pressure to come up with something creative for his birthday.   An eye chart was a great idea in my head, but it didn't turn out quite how I envisioned it.  I especially didn't mean to misspell "HAPPY".  

We decided that Matt's birthday was a great day to share with the kids what baby number 5 was going to be.  We had found out in an ultrasound a few days before and decided to do something special to share it with them.  We filled a box with blue balloons which they opened to find out the baby would be a boy.  The boys were excited.  The girls wanted a girl, but they were still happy.  

These are our first "pictures" of the little guy.

Easter 2013

We were excited to be in our new house for Easter.  

The Easter bunny almost didn't make it to our house this year though.  Life was still a bit chaotic from the move, and being new to the ward our family was asked to speak for the Easter Sunday sacrament meeting.  They asked Matt, Kylee, and I different variations of the topic of the Atonement.  I felt extra pressure knowing that Easter is probably the most attended meeting of the year.  The bunny came and left baskets in the backyard after the house was picked up and Matt got a nap.  Kylee made sure to let us know that the bunny apparently wasn't equitable and she didn't appreciate some variability between baskets.

The kids enjoyed blowing the bubbles they got in their basket off the rock wall.

Blake had an easter egg hunt with his Pre-K class.  Brayden and Julia were excited to check out what he got in the eggs.

We extended our easter celebration by finally getting to the easter egg dying the following Sunday.  Better late than never.

Science Hats

Last year Bob Lewis started a science hat parade.  The students were given a science topic that had to be written on a hat designed around their theme.  It was due after spring break, which we spent working on the house, doing family stuff, and not thinking about school.  That left us only a few days to work on it, during which time the Herrera family came to visit for their spring break, adding to our craziness.  But with a couple of late nights we wrapped them up.  Two days after it was turned in I went to the school with Blake to watch the parade.  It was fun to see all the different ideas the children had.  Brayden didn't really want to acknowledge I was there.  He just looked ahead.  

Backyard Camping

Matt took spring break off from work.  Having been in the new house just over a month he had plans to get a lot done around the house.  We had discussed maybe going camping, but with all the projects and organizing it seemed counter productive.  Matt came up with the next best thing - to camp in the backyard.  He went and purchased a fire pit to make hot dogs and s'mores.  

Being a comfortable night, Matt decided to go without the rain fly and enjoy the view of the stars.  At 4 AM the sprinklers went off and Matt jumped out of his bag to run through the sprinklers and turn the timer off.  The girls woke up briefly, but the boys must have been buried in their sleeping bags enough to not feel the water.  After a quick change off wet clothes Matt went back out to finish up the night.

LBJ Ranch

I wanted to get out and do something as a family during spring break since we had been busy for a month with packing, moving, and trying to set up the new house.  Carlos had the idea to go to the LBJ ranch and I thought that sounded like it would be interesting.  

After an hour and a half drive we first stopped at the The Sauer-Beckman Farm.  It is a working farm set back in the early 1900's.  The people who "work" there are dressed in the time period and do all the chores of taking care of the animals and cooking in the time period.  It was neat to tour the house and see the volunteers doing their chores.  They even made some food we were able to sample.  

The Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch had a lot to explore.  

As we were coming in, there was a one room school house that we visited which was set up as it had been when Lyndon B. Johnson had learned to read there as a child.  

Along the drive there was also a family cemetery and a replica of the house where LBJ was born that he remodeled to be a guest house.   

The LBJ Ranch, also known as the Texas White House, had been set up as an alternate presidential command center when he had been president, with a landing strip for Air Force One and all of the required communication infrastructure.  It was really neat to tour the house set back in the 60's time period.  We couldn't take pictures in the house, but we did outside.

 

 

Peanut Funeral

We knew that the end of Peanut's life was not far off.  When Kylee got her dwarf hamster she read that they typically only live for 2-3 years.  He only lasted a month in the new house.  The kids were pretty sad, so we had a funeral and burial in the back yard.  We buried him wrapped in tissue in a tuna can casket.  Kylee was worried animals  might dig him up so we put a large flagstone over the grave.

Here lies peanut, the greatest hamster ever.  He was my first pet.  Rest in Peace.
Jan. 1, 2011-Mar. 9, 2013.

Kylee's writing about Peanut the hamster. 

Frisbee golf

There is a frisbee golf park just a few minutes from our new house and Matt was excited to try it out.  When Cynthia came to visit with David and Mauren to look at houses we decided to give it a whirl.  Matt bought some frisbees and off we went.

Matt bought five frisbees, which apparently come in different classes with varied sizes and weights depending on the distance desired.  He got a variety so it was a little tricky when everyone picked their frisbee.  We all have plenty of room for improvement, but we had a great time.