Easter!

Easter morning came bright and early at our house.  The kids were up to see what the Easter Bunny had brought them.  Ethan got a swimming suit, tie and shoes, and a water balloon launcher.  Courtney got a swimming suit, dress, and a water balloon launcher.  They were pretty excited.

 Bryan and I hid eggs in the backyard for them to find.  They had a blast looking all over until things got hard.  They could each find 12 eggs.  Eventually they found them but it took a while.

 I made an Easter dress for Courtney. She liked it but the top was a big baggy so she wore a shirt under it.  But I think the dress turned out really well!

Ivins City Easter Egg Hunt

Our neighborhood always does it's own Easter egg hunt but this year it was at the same time as the Stake baptisms.  Courtney had a friend in our ward who was being baptized and she didn't want to miss it.  So I took her up to the Ivins City Easter Egg Hunt because it was held an hour before the baptism began.  They had the Park split into age groups.  We got there with only 2 minutes before the hunt would begin, great timing!  Courtney got to her field and was ready to go.

When they said "GO" it was chaos.  Kids were running everywhere and there wasn't a limit on how many eggs you could grab so they all went nuts.  It lasted about a minute before all the eggs were picked up.  Courtney was happy with her haul!

Ethan's Finger

Ethan was playing dodge ball during school right before Spring Recess and he hurt his finger.  He thought it was just jammed so he didn't say anything about it, but after a few hours it was really hurting him.  He showed me his finger right before dinner and the tip of it was just hanging there.  It hurt when it moved but he could move it a little bit.

After dinner, Bryan and Ethan went to get the mail and saw our neighbor, who is a physical therapist.  They asked him about it and he said that Ethan had probably hurt his tendon on the back of his finger.  He said to just put a splint on it and it would be fine.  But when I looked it up online, it said that a doctor needed to be consulted immediately or the finger would be permanently deformed.  So I ran Ethan to Urgent Care.

Once there, they took an x-ray which made Ethan's day because he had to flip the bird because it is his middle finger that is hurt.  The doctor said it didn't look like the bone was broken and the tendon hadn't taken a bit of bone with it when it snapped so he put Ethan in a little finger splint and told us to take him to our regular doctor on Monday.

On a side note, Ethan is left handed and the hurt finger is on his left hand.  He had a lot of trouble writing.

On Monday, I took him to the pediatrician who looked at the x-ray and said that Ethan didn't need the splint on because it would heal itself.  Ethan was pretty excited until a few days later when the finger began to ache and the knuckle was all swollen and painful.

I made an appointment with a hand specialist in town.  He took another x-ray and said that, not only is the tendon really damaged but the damage is also to the growth plate in Ethan's finger.  So he had some special splints made for Ethan to wear on that one finger and told us that he can't take the splint off, except to change it so it doesn't smell, for 6 WEEKS!  Ethan was not happy at all but he has been really good to keep the splint on.

We are about 2 weeks into it and Ethan said it already feels better.  I hope this takes care of it! 

Ethan's x-ray

Spring Recess

At our school, we have Spring Break and then 2 weeks later we have Spring Recess.  Don't ask because I don't know why.  Anyway, we were bored during Spring Recess, so Ethan, Courtney and I loaded on our bikes and rode to Between the Slices, a pizza place in Ivins.  Ethan loves this place and will save his money to bike there to buy a slice of pizza.  Courtney and I had never been so we decided it would be fun. 

It was a beautiful day for a bike ride and Ethan was very cautious and made sure Courtney rode her bike carefully.  I think he was showing me how careful he is so I don't worry and will give him permission to come with his friends more often. ;)

Ethan ordered a BBQ chicken pizza, Courtney got a personal cheese pizza and I got a salad.  Ethan ate 1 bite of his large pizza, Courtney had 2 slices of her personal cheese pizza and I ate half the salad.  It was then that I realized we needed to be creative if we were going to get all the leftovers home.  We got a bag for the small pizza and the salads.  Ethan held that in his hand while I balanced the large pizza box on my handle bars.  We did it!!  And we had dinner for that night too.

It was a fun outing!

Courtney running around while we waited for our lunch.

Ethan

Courtney

Kathy and Don's Welcome Home

On the Saturday before Kathy and Don were going to speak in Church, there was a 10 K race for the local newspaper.  Don, Kristina, Heather and Bryan entered it.  Bryan hadn't run a 10K before, so this was a trial to see how things would go.  He LOVED it!

The Overton's came by our house to pick Bryan up and take him to the Ivin's City Park where they caught a shuttle to the top of Snow Canyon State Park.  The race was downhill, through Snow Canyon, and then West to Ivins.  It ended at the City Park where the shuttle had picked them up.  We went up to watch them cross the finish line.  They all did a great job!!!

Sunday we went to Don and Kathy's ward for Church.  They gave great talks and it was fun to hear stories from their mission.  Then we all went back to their house for lunch.  It was their granddaughter's birthday, so I had made her a birthday cake.  I think it turned out really well. 

They they had an early Easter egg hunt.  My kids had a lot of fun looking for eggs and I had a great time talking with family.

Spring Break

On the Tuesday of Spring Break in March, we decided to go tubing at the Brian Head resort.  It was $15 for 2 hours of tubing so we figured it would be worth it.  We borrowed snow gear and took off for the mountain.  The kids had wanted to go skiing, but that is just too expensive and tubing is just as fun, I think.

Now, Brian Head has taken care to get rid of all the main thing I hate about tubing... having to hike 5 minutes up the mountain just for a 10 second ride down.  They had tubes with a rubber ring on them.  On the side of the groomed hills, there was a cable that they would hook your tube to.  Then, as you sat and enjoyed the scenery from your tube, the cable would pull you to the top.  You would hop off, grab your tube and pick a tubing run.  It was fabulous!!

We thought that it would be cold, we ended up taking off our ski gear pretty quickly and just went tubing in our pants and t-shirts.  (I got pretty sunburned because I didn't put sunscreen on my arms thinking they would be in a jacket all day.  Oops.)  And there weren't many people at the resort, which made it so much more fun.  We went up and down for 2 hours and didn't have to wait in line longer than 1 minute.  The runs were fast too!!  

Courtney wasn't so sure when we got there.  But she got in a tube and tried to go down....but only made it halfway before her tube lost momentum and she stopped.  There was another family there with an 8 year old girls also.  That mom and little girl worked on Courtney for 30 minutes before they got her to go back up and then we didn't see much of her after that.  She and this other little girl just went up and down and up and down.  Courtney loved it!!  And she had a great time with a friend.

Ethan had so much fun racing us and we worked trying to figure out which run was the fastest.  I flew past the boys on numerous occasions!

When our 2 hours was up, they closed the hill for the day.  We loaded up, ate some lunch, Ethan had some hot chocolate but we thought it was too hot of a day for hot chocolate, and then we headed home.  It was so much fun!!!

Kid's Spring Photos

When it comes to school pictures, we usually only buy them in the Spring.  They have pictures taken in the Fall that go in the yearbook, but I like the Spring backgrounds better.  I think they turned out really well.

Sorry that the quality isn't the greatest.  The company does something to the photos so they don't scan well.  It makes it so you have to buy the photos from the company.  But I still think they look cute!

Ethan, 5th Grade, 10 years old

Courtney, 2nd grade, 7 years old