Sunday, April 23, 2017

Easter time!

Erica, Landon, and Hawkins came in for Spring Break. We were very happy to see them! Erica brought Carter's present from she and Kels. He loved it of course! It's a giant Nerf gun! We wish Kels, Joe, and Linc could have made it, but Kelsie is coaching softball this year. They had a game Monday. Who scheduled that? It makes no sense.
That is the face of a happy kid!
Easter egg dyeing time! We made some masterpieces as usual.
3 happy kids!
Hawkins made some lovely eggs. Most of them he dropped first! He also dyed his hands green so that he looked like the Hulk. He makes me laugh!
Lando and Papa have always been best buds.
A cute picture of Grandma and Carterman (in one of his cool new shirts. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Barsness!)
Erica and her big boy.
Teague was especially proud of his bright red egg. It is his favorite color now, and it was very red!
He wanted two pictures of it!
Abbey and Avery having fun together. I feel bad that I didn't get any pictures of Jordan and Kyle. They were participating I promise. Sorry!
The finished products! We had many lovely colors, wax crayon designs, emoji decorations, pirates, princesses, and glitter galore!
A happy fella on Easter morning! The Easter bunny brought Teague a cool Scarecrow Lego Batman set.
Avers had some colored pencils she thought were really cool and a cool coloring book to use them on.
Carterman got a Donkey Kong game for his new DS.
Hawkins looked like a model here. The "fresh diaper" look is so in right now.
Grandma and Grandpa spoiled us all as usual. These guys loved looking through their baskets.
Avers loved hers too - lots of candy, chalk, toys, bubbles, and other fun stuff.
It's like Christmas in April.
Hawkins went straight for the candy!
It had been pretty miserable up until Sunday. Luckily the sun was out! They went outside for some bubble fun before the Easter Egg hunt began. I like Ave's swirly sweater in this picture!
Teague wanted to wear his "Easter hat" again this year. I'm so glad he did. I love it!
I like Carter's face here. He was catching some bubbles from Landon.
4 crazy cool kids. The boys looked very handsome in their jeans.
Time to find some Easter eggs. Teague was ready!
Hawkins was ready for more candy! He wore one of Kyle's LSU hats and looked so cute in it!
My handsome big boy on the hunt!
Miss Boo looked gorgeous as always.
Lando looking dapper in his Easter shirt. Grandma always has them looking great on Easter. This year was no exception!
Papa enjoying watching the kids find the 62 eggs he hid around the front and back yard.
Time to open the eggs. I knew Dad had filled them with random things again this year. Besides the money and candy, there is always some weirdness. I got some great reaction shots! Here is Ave finding some quinoa and broccoli in her egg!
This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it. Landon found a Vienna sausage! Gross! We put those in Dad's stocking at Christmas time. He informed us later that he doesn't like them. I had no idea there was any type of meat he didn't like. I guess we will go with Spam next year. Anyway, Duke seemed to enjoy the sausage! There was also bacon, chicken wings, almonds, blueberries, and carrots in some of the eggs. The kids are always in for a surprise! Yum!
Hawkins was pretty happy with what he found. He looks so cute in his shirt/hat combo here!
Austin and Liam came over for the hunt. We had to get a cute cousins picture!
These two always get along splendidly. They are only 8 months apart.
Two cute sisters looking very springy!
I tried to get one good picture of my three all dressed up.
Girl cousins picture - we were missing a bunch of you: Kelsie, Terri, Nicole (had to work), and Kathi. Someday we can all get together hopefully!
We went down to C St Park a little later in the day to run off some of the mass quantities of food we ate! The swings are always a good way to burn off some energy/calories!
Kyle pitched to Carter, Avery, and Landon for quite awhile. They all had some very nice swings. I was impressed! We had a wonderful Easter. Hope everyone else did also.

Carterman is 10! Laney sadness...

Waking up these bums in the morning is always amusing. They usually end up cuddled together.
We went up to Skyline Park behind Hillcrest one windy weekend. The playground is for kids much littler than mine, but they still managed to have a little fun. Teague's head fit perfectly in this thing!
They said this felt like they were on a roller coaster. Teague's face kills me!
That's pretty cute. My Teagie Pie is in need of a haircut I think.
We went over to Hillcrest for some bigger playground stuff. This slide is ridiculously huge and fast!
We all went down it a few times.
I know this is hard to read, but this is the note Papa wrote to excuse Carter from school. They went on a little road trip to North Dakota when Dad had a long weekend off track. He used to send these to school with me...from 5th grade (for Taco Tuesday!) all the way through high school. Carter's teacher loved it. I'm glad she has a sense of humor (and she knows that my Dad is not actually insane.)
We have been reading my really old "Wizard of Oz" book at night. It has my name childishly scrawled in purple crayon on many of the pages. Teague absolutely loves it!
When Carter was in ND, we made a trek to Missoula. We went into Cabella's just to walk off some lunch before we hit frozen yogurt (we always eat well when we are there!) This is Callie and Teague's " 'Merica" picture. Patriotic guns everywhere...not my thing.
Mmm...frozen yogurt is delicious.
We hit up our favorite breakfast diner in the morning. Nothing goes with breakfast quite like a chocolate milkshake!
We always have the best time with Callie. It's such a short trip. We should head over more often!
Kyle bought a cooler and three containers of Cold Stone. This is why he really wants to go...
More books! I've saved all my favorites from when I was little. Ave and Carter are getting started on a few of these.
Time for some incredibly sad news. I knew my Laners had not been feeling well. She seemed tired all the time and just not herself. She was born with a heart arrhythmia and had started doing this cough all the time. When I looked it up, it was a sure sign of heart failure. I took her for a short walk one night, and she started walking all crooked. I carried her for a few blocks, and Kyle picked us up. When we got home she perked up and ate her customary piece of lunch meat while I made the kids' lunches. She didn't want to sleep with anyone though, which was not like her at all. I woke up at 2 and heard her make a little sound in the hallway. She was laying down and didn't want to move. I woke up Kyle, and we pet her for a few minutes until her poor little heart stopped. I miss her so much. 13 years is such a long time to love something. I miss her greeting us at the door, cuddling with us, and just always being there. She was the best first dog I could have ever asked for and the absolute best big "sister" to our kids. She adored them from the first day she met each of them, and we are glad to have so many pictures of them together. We will never ever forget her.
We buried her in the backyard with her blanket we took on road trips, her two favorite toys (her rubber duck and her Bobo), some treats, and a picture and charm from her leash that Ave made for her. We washed some stones and made an L. Teague added two of her "favorite sticks." We say hello to her often before we head to school. We loved her. Thank you so much for the card Carl and Jenny. I know you guys loved her too, and you know what it's like to lose a dog. They are family.
On to a happier note, my Carterman is somehow 10 years old! Double digits! He had his party at Bounce off the Walls, and this was the second group of laser tag competitors (Liam, Austin, Connor, Nicole, Abbey, Teague, Ave, Madisyn, and Mason!)
Carter doesn't like cake, but likes cupcakes. Who knows? Anyway, we made three different kinds. I was pretty proud of my homemade cream cheese frosting (thanks Martha Stewart recipe!) They were all a big hit.
It's tough to fit ten candles in a cupcake!
Some of his family and friends from around the table: Connor, Austin, Tre, Danny, Colby, Teague (the tip top of his head), Nate, Prestin, Kenny, Carter, Ave, and Karstyn.
It was almost impossible to get a normal smile from him!
No girlfriends yet!
I love this picture of Teague!
Time for some present opening.
He got very spoiled by so many people. Thank you all for making him the happiest 10 year old around!
Teague was showing Kyle how cops should shoot. I'm hoping Kyle brought this pose out when he had to qualify at the shooting range last week.
Our present to Carter was a Nintendo 3DS. He had been asking for it for a long time. He seems to really like it!
His actual birthday was on Tuesday, which was Mackenzie River Pizza Night for Emerson. They brought him a free dessert, and he loved it!
Jordan had her senior prom before Easter. She looked lovely as always, and I'm glad we got a picture with her. It's a tradition!

July - August 2019

My friend Michelle was in town from Las Vegas. Her brother and sister-in-law always have a fun barbecue for everyone here in town. Dana, Jas...