Fishing with Grandpa...Again

Since Ethan has the day off of school he wanted to go fishing with Grandpa Oman. When the kids woke up, we had breakfast and then ran some errands on our way to Washington. Grandpa was ready for us when we got there and Grandma loaded up a bunch of snacks for the kids.

Courtney has been wearing Ethan's shoes lately and today was no exception. She was coordinated with the skirt and shirt, but lacked something with the shoes. I told her before we left that she was going to freeze, but she would not put on pants.



As we were driving to the little fishing pond by my parents house I noticed a really bad smell. When we got to the fishing spot the smell was really bad and it was awful. The wind was blowing and so each time we got a big gust we would almost fall over from the smell.



Grandpa got the fishing poles ready and the kids cast out. Courtney quickly bored of throwing it out and waiting for a fish to bite, so she sat by Grandma and ate snacks. But Ethan was determined to catch his limit of 2 fish. He is really good at casting and was getting bite after bite, but no fish would get hooked. After about 10 minutes of fishing in the cold wind, Grandpa cast the line for Ethan and that's when Ethan caught a fish! He doesn't count it because Grandpa did part of the process, but I think he should still get the credit.



By this time, Courtney was in the van trying to keep warm and out of the wind. Once in a while she would open the door to ask me to bring her another snack, but mostly she was content to sit in the van.



After another 10 minutes, Ethan hooked another fish and this one he counts as his because he did it all himself. I was happy and ready to go but Grandpa wanted to try for a few more and Ethan wasn't counting the first fish so he didn't have his limit yet. But I was cold!!



It only took a few more minutes and some strong gusts of awful smelling wind before Ethan decided that he was done. It was right then that Grandpa caught a fish. We tried to get Courtney to help him reel it in so she could say she caught a fish but she wouldn't do it. She told me that since she had touched that fishing pole previously that the fish Grandpa caught was really HER fish and that she just caught her first fish. (I think she is missing something in that logic.) So we were ready to go home and have Grandpa clean the fish for us. It was a fun outing!

Courtney has the camera!

This is what happens when Courtney has the digital camera!

Easter Sunday

April 4, 2010

Ethan told us on Saturday that he would like the Easter Bunny to come on Saturday instead of Sunday so we can focus on Christ on Sunday. We thought that was a great idea but our Easter Bunny wasn't ready on Saturday, so he came this year on Sunday.

Ethan woke up bright and early and went out to see his loot. We then heard him playing in his room. He got a Lego Star Wars thing and Courtney got a gardening basket with a shovel and rake. I made Courtney a cute dress and purse and bought Ethan a shirt and tie that was from us. Since they already had so much candy the Easter Bunny didn't think they needed much more.

They played with their stuff, we had our Easter breakfast, then got ready and went to the Church to watch the first Sunday session of Conference. It was nice. Ethan payed great attention but Courtney got pretty tired after a while.

We went home, had lunch and then went to my parents house to watch the afternoon session and have dinner. After dinner we came home and went to bed. It was a nice Sunday and a great Easter!

The loot:

Our cute Easter picture:

Cute Courtney:

Dressed up kids:

Easter Saturday

April 3, 2010

Our neighborhood always has an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Since there are so many kids, we have it split into three age categories, 0-3, 4-7 and 8+. I was in charge of collecting all the eggs. So for a week people would bring by 12 eggs per child, filled with candy and taped shut. I would then split them into age categories and put them into a box. On Saturday morning I went to aerobics but at at about 8:15 some of the neighborhood teenagers came by to get the eggs from Bryan and hide them. (They ended up splitting the categories a bit differently because we didn't have many 0-3 kids who participated this year.) I drove like a mad woman to get back in time to see the hunt.

At 9 a.m. SHARP they took a neighborhood picture and then the kids split into their categories. Bryan had the camera and we decided that Ethan would be quicker so Bryan would take pictures of him first and then run over and take pictures of Courtney. Boy were we wrong! Ethan was very selective of the eggs he picked up. He went for the camo eggs and the green ones. Courtney, on the other hand, just ran and grabbed her 12 eggs as fast as she could. It was hilarious. So we only have a couple of picture of her.

Everyone brought donuts or juice (depending on if your house was an odd or even number) and so we all stood around chatting and eating while the older kids (8+) did an egg drop game. They had 3 minutes to pad a raw egg enough that when dropped from a 6 foot ladder the egg wouldn't break. It was fun to watch and the older kids had a lot of fun.

Ethan and Courtney then went to jump on the trampoline of a friend and I decided I wanted to jump too. Some girls had slept out on the tramp and wanted me to bounce them. I took a run and jumped, but slipped on a sleeping bag and didn't bounce them very well. So I just jumped and made them bounce. It was fun.

I then loaded Courtney in the van, Ethan loaded into his best friends car, and we took off for Unity Park in Ivins for the Ivins City Egg Hunt. This is a free-for-all egg hunt where they don't limit the amount of eggs you can get. Courtney and I got there with 2 minutes to spare so we got a good spot. I told her to run to the middle and work her way out. Ethan and his friend got there as they were counting down so they only ended up with 2 eggs each. But Courtney cleaned up!! She had a ton of eggs and had great fun grabbing whatever she could find.

When we got home and she found out that Ethan only had 2 eggs, she put some of her eggs on his bed with a cute note telling him that she loves him.

The rest of the day was relaxed. I took the kids to dinner while Bryan went to the priesthood session. It was a fun day!

Camera Courtney

Courtney has been using the digital camera to take a ton of photos...mostly of the TV or the furniture, but she has to start somewhere. Here are some cute closeups that she has taken lately. She is really good at self-portraits. She has figured out how to hold the camera at arms length and push the button...a very valuable skill to have.

The Best Bread Ever!

I have been experimenting with sourdough bread lately and it has been great! I made my own starter that has been active for about 2 months now (I have "put it to sleep" a couple of times when I didn't want to mess with it, but I "woke it up" without a problem). I have learned that the longer you let it rise, or the more times you allow it to rise, the more pronounced the sourdough taste is. Case in point: When I forgot I was making bread and let it rise overnight, it was really strong sourdough bread! But, when I only let it rise one time the other day, it turned out not tasting like sourdough at all.

Ethan doesn't like sourdough bread and he loved the bread I made the other day because it wasn't made from "that weird stuff that sits on the counter." Little did he know!

Anyway, I was proud of myself and thought I would post a photo. This is the last of the 2 loaves I made on Wednesday. It was yummy!



If you want to try it yourself, here's the link for the info and recipes I use (the cinnamon rolls are to die for too!): http://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/SourdoughStarter.htm

Bunny Kids

It's Easter time so that means...candy. I don't really enjoy Easter candy because it's a big fight in our house. Courtney came home from preschool yesterday, looking all cute in her bunny ears and face paint and began begging me to let her eat all her candy. After the 15th "no" I decided I don't like candy holidays! But I do love how cute my kids are: