Special Days

April just seems to be a busy month! The 17th was Taysum's Special Day at school. He got to take the "Special Box" home and put all his special things in it and share them at school. He did so well and had so much fun! He sang a couple songs and was excited to share all the things he brought: a little Pooh Bear, some Mega Blocks, a Spinning light (first picture), a picture of him with some soccer balls in a soccer ball frame, the Jungle Book movie, Dr. Seuss's ABC book (our favorite page is G with the Goo-Goo Goggles), a package of popcorn (of course he started singing the song), his TaVaci CD (he performed one of the numbers for everyone...actions and all), a Cars puzzle, a picture of our family, his cell phone that he takes pictures with, and of course his Mater hat!!

I thought this clip was priceless. Our camcorder is not digital, so I took a video with my camera phone off the camcorder so it's REALLY bad, but I really wanted to show his bow!

Here are a few of our sweet Bailey Grace. Anything with the slightest incline is a slide. Even if she has to scoot herself down the whole way, she'll do it over and over saying "Whee!"

She and Taysum both try and ride this little dump truck and it just makes me smile.

Our beautiful girl...

Earlier I mentioned that one of Taysum's special things is his cell phone. Well, he has recently found a fun new hobby...taking pictures. We were eligible for a new phone upgrade, so we gave our old ones to the kids to play with. Taysum asked to take some pictures, so we showed him how and he just loves it! I often sit and wonder what my kids are thinking...or what life is like from their perspective and this has been a wonderful way to find out a little bit! It's so fun to watch him walk around and find things that are important to him. He's getting pretty good (for an almost 4 year old) and takes his time to get it just right. Here are some of his better ones! :)

His (favorite) Rocket Jammies

Bailey's sippy cup

Some movies

His spinning light

(I was so impressed as I watched him try and figure out how to push the button to get it to spin, focus the camera on it and then push the button to get a picture of it...pretty coordinated!)

A close up of Bailey's coat

Thomas on his Thomas shoe

Outside through our front screen door

Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio

One of Bailey's hair twisties

Baiely's crib

Bailey

Dad from a little guy's point of view

Percy

A fish kiss from the movie Dr. Seuss's Mr. Brown can Moo

Skarloey pulling the freight cars

I was really impressed how centered this one was.

Little Wonders

April has just flown by! That and I have a new phone and it took me a while to figure out how to transfer the pictures to my card so I could download them to the computer! So, anyway...it's been a while. There are a lot of pictures here, but this will let you know what we've been up to this month!

On April 1st Taysum played a trick on us. We put him to bed, and later found him tucked in this shelf. He often crawls in here (usually with a pillow and blanket) when he should be in bed...it always takes a while to find him!

This was a cute picture of Ken and Taysum at our Ward Party. Taysum has become quite the poser as you will see! ;)

This is Super Taysum decked out in his fire hat from Halloween (just for you, Uncle Nick!). He is always putting his hands on his hips like this...I love it!

These are a few pictures of Ken and the kids drawing pictures during General Conference. The picture doesn't do it justice, but Bailey got crayon all over her face (and quite a bit on the paper...and table)...she's quite the artist! It was so fun to watch her; Ken would draw a shape for her and she would instantly color it in. They played this game over and over; Ken would draw and no matter where it was, she would color it right in!

In this one, Taysum just came up to Ken with this face saying, "Cheese!" I couldn't have picked a better word to use! ;)

This is a common pose for Bailey when she is chillin' watching a movie.

OK...this one needs some explanation. I came outside to check on the kids and I looked over to Bailey and found her like this. When I looked over at her, she said calm and sweet as can be, with a smile on her fac, "Help me?" I thought it was funny how you could see her top above the tramp and her legs beneath. By the time I got the picture, she was starting to get worried. I thought that she was just straddling one of the springs, but it turned out she was in between the spings and was slowly sliding further and further...then I felt bad...we got her out just fine, though!

Ken and his best buddy.

The day before Easter, we went to "Easter Valley" with my parents and my sister's kids. Easter Valley is a little place in the Big Horn mountains where my parents took us as kids; it's where the Easter Bunny lives. We go up there and have a hot dog roast, then cross the stream and walk down into the valley where the Easter Bunny hides eggs for us. It was so fun for the kids! Taysum and Bailey just loved it!! Bailey is quite the little trooper! We had to help her cross the stream and over a boulder, but other than that she insisted on walking the whole way both ways! Ken's excited for his rugged little mountain lady! They were both exhausted afterwards! They had so much fun; thanks, Easter Bunny!!

East Sunday was wonderful, but busy!! We helped the kids find their baskets and Ken made a nice breakfast. Then we got all decked out in our Easter best and went to Stake Conference. It was our new Stake Presidency's first conference and it was so wonderful! Bailey didn't want to sit still, so Grandpa volunteered to take her out. It was nice to be able to enjoy the talks...that's a pretty rare treat!

It was a beautiful day, so we let the kids go outside and play with their bubble wands.

This is one of Bailey's favorite spots...anytime I lay down, she's right there with me :).

If Easter and Stake Conference weren't enough, I also turned 29 that day!! I've only had a few birthdays on Easter and it's pretty cool! Ken made the day really great and spoiled me all day. We had dinner with my parents and Grandparents and that was really nice, too. Thanks everyone for a great day!

Taysum and Bailey received some Mega Blocks from the Easter Bunny and they both LOVE them! They've had so much fun being little builders. Bailey was so cute in this picture; she built the tower all by herself and kept trying to build it higher and higher. When it would get to about this point, the bottom would fall out. She wouldn't get upset at all; she'd just pick up right where she left off and build it up again. Both of our kids are this way...very tenacious!!

This was a cute (and rare) picture I caught of Taysum. He actually took a nap! I thought it was cute, because he fell asleep cuddling a little Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal.

This was just a funny clip of the kids during their bath last night...we could learn so much from kids in finding this much joy in such little things!!

How Super man stays super!!