Happy Birthday, Xadun!

Xadun celebrated his 2nd birthday on Easter this year. At this point, he still doesn't really know what his birthday is. Chaetun sure did, though. He kept asking if Xadun could open his presents and kept telling me he wanted to share with him. Yeah, of course you want to share Xadun's presents, but not your own. :s

We used the family Easter BBQ as a celebration for his birthday. I made another cake. Again, I'm no Martha Stewart, but it didn't turn out too bad

Eating the cone, he doesn't like ice cream.


Don't mind my finger


After opening the cars first, he didn't want to touch anything else. Grandma ended up opening the basketball hoop. Then he liked it :)


After all is said and done, they were playing on the box, not with the toys.

Happy Easter

Our Easter was eventful, yet uneventful at the same time. We did a lot of Easter stuff on Saturday as well as Xadun's birthday which was also on Sunday. (Stay tuned for that blog :) ) My mom's ward had an Easter brunch on Saturday, so we went to that. They had a really yummy egg casserole!! After breakfast they had an Easter egg hunt.

After getting ALL that candy we went back in to get pictures with the Easter Bunny

Lunch was at Ellen & Boyd's. My kids LOVE going to see Grandma & Grandpa (great), Ellen & Boyd, and Mark & Carole!! The only bad part was it was in the dirt. I am NOT a fan of dirt. Chris keeps telling me it's what boys do, but it doesn't make me like it any better. Here's some pics from the day:

Xadun playing with Grandpa


Flying the Tustison's kite


All the kids playing in the dirt, plus Carole :) (Katie wasn't playing, just taking pictures.)


Chaetun & Riley on the tractor.



My boys




What'd you say?

We colored eggs that night. My mom heard a couple of new ways to color eggs, so we tried them.

This was the tissue paper method. You cut up different colors of tissue paper and wrap the wet egg in them...it didn't work.


This was using food coloring and rolling it around in the colander. It worked, but was more work than needed.


So, we finished the old fashioned way.

I thought I had pictures of Easter morning, but apparently I don't. Church at 9 makes for a whirlwind mom trying to get everyone ready.

How well do you know me?

I posted this quiz on my MySpace site (www.myspace.com/mengelbrecht) and thought it would be fun to post here because, really, most of the answers on family know. So, if you feel so inclined, take it and see

Create your own Friend Quiz here

Happy Birthday, Chaetun!!

Tuesday was Chaetun's 4th birthday. It's hard to believe it's been that long, but on the other hand...I've got two more kids, so it seems like he should be older. lol I think he had a great day. He had school that day so he was able to celebrate both at home and at school. At school he got to take an "About Me" poster and a show and tell. He took his twisting "Incredibles" toy from Disney on Ice. He was excited to show all his friends. Here's the poster we made:

The teachers at school gave him a small box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and a Capri Sun. I thought it was pretty funny.

Chaetun had to wait until Daddy and Grandma got home from work to open his presents. He was very patient, though, and did bug me too much. :)

Both presents are getting a lot of use. Unfortunately, the automatic part of the T ball set is not working :( Hopefully we can get it fixed or we can take it back. He's still enjoying going outside and hitting the ball, though. He asks everyone to come out and play any chance he gets.

That night we went and saw the new Disney movie, "Meet the Robinsons". It was a really good show with a great message. We all enjoyed it.

After the show we came home for cake. Chaetune has been talking about a Dinosaur cake for months, so that's what he got. Now, keep in mind, I'm no Martha Stewart, so it's very basic, but, hey, he got his dinosaur :)

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And in classic Chaetun style, eating the cake with his finger

House progress

We're almost 2 weeks into building the house, and so far, we're happy with the progress. We just hope it continues to go quickly! So here is the progress. I'll start with the plans:

The Front


Upstairs


Bonus Room


Basement

Here's the hole we were so excited about :)

The footings, with and without kids

The foundation walls are poured

From the back

The forms are off

They are planning on pouring the concrete floor on Friday.

Grandma & Grandpa

Friday we went up to see the progress on the house. On the way up we saw traffic and decided we should wait to go home in order to avoid it. So, we decided to go up to see my grandma & grandpa since we were planning on it anyway this weekend. I love my grandparents. Grandpa is 93 and Grandma is 88. They are definitely getting up there, but they're still doing great. Each one has some challenges, but overall they're good considering their age. When I walked in the house I had to get up in my grandpa's face because he can't see. lol He's funny. When I sat down to talk to Grandma, I noticed she had a black eye. I had also noticed when I walked in that she had a very purple toe. Apparently she tripped on the stool and fell, probably on the kitchen chair. We joked that Grandpa was keeping her in line. :) That's only funny because that would sooo never happen. Here's a picture of her holding Brekan. You can kind of see the eye behind the glasses.

I always make sure to have my camera when we visit Grandma & Grandpa because I want to make sure my kids have pictures with them to remember them later. Not everyone has the opportunity to know their great-grandparents, I didn't. So, I want my kids to remember the wonderful blessing they've had. Here's a couple more pics:

Wearing Grandpa's hats

But the funniest part was Grandpa pushing the boys around in Grandma's wheelchair. Just to see a 93 year old man doing this was pretty funny, but my Grandpa is pretty funny anyway.

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I can't imagine life without my grandparents. They have been such a huge part of my life. I remember growing up, after my dad died, we used to go up to their house, or one of my aunt and uncle's, every weekend. My extended family is so important to me! I have been blessed with an incredible family and it all started with Grandma & Grandpa.