Kaden is 10!!!

Wow, my babies are growing up too fast. Kaden turned 10 on Sunday but we had his party Saturday evening. We offered to let him take his friends bowling, to play laser tag, to the movies or whatever and all he wanted to do was have his friends over, eat pizza and play games. Pizza it was with chips, breadsticks, cake and ice cream. Then presents......ta da the much anticipated Guitar Hero for the Wii. He was very excited! The weather was amazingly nice that evening and the boys all went out to play football in our huge backyard. Wow, nice to play in....going to be hard to maintain. Anyway, they topped off the evening by sucking helium out or all the balloons and laughing so hard. I know Kaden had a great time...I hope the other boys did too. Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!!!! I love you!

Last Night of Dance

This has been such a great year for Makenzie. She has loved being on the Sandcreek Middle School Dance Team! Even with the early morning practices. She has been so good at getting herself up..I certainly don't get up at 6:00 am! April 17 was their "Night of Dance" the team performed all the dances from the year and then the 7th and 8th grades each made up their own dances, came up with their own costumes and performed them for the first time. Kenzi was absolutely beautiful and did a great job. After it was all done we took the family out for ice cream at Cold Stone. Grandma and Grandpa Poulsen were there too. We sure appreciate their support. It was a fun night!

TAX SEASON IS FINALLY OVER!!!!

Wow, Tuesday couldn't come soon enough for me (or Jeff either). This has been the hardest tax season we can remember. Being apart so much didn't help either. I'm not sure how much longer I can handle this long distance work situation. Anyway, we are so glad to have Jeff home. We had a big banner waiting for him when he got home and then we took the kids and went to dinner. He is spending the rest of the week at home and I am LOVING every minute of it. I enjoy his company soooo much! We are really looking forward to some great family time now that he isn't going to be so busy, not to mention our great trip to Portugal in May!!! I can hardly wait!!!!

Spring at the Zoo

What a great day to be at the zoo. Makenzie's comment was that we used to come to Tautphaus for vacation with Grandma and Grandpa and now we can come anytime we want. She is really enjoying our move and all the fun things to do in I.F. especially her fun outings at the mall with her friends. Conner is very funny about the weather, even worse than me. He was worried that there might be some wind, (in Idaho, what a crazy thought) so he wouldn't take his hat off. The funniest thing about the day was that Conner plugged his nose all over the zoo, just like his mom. I definitely passed on the "super smeller" to this child. Kenzie could care less, she just LOVES animals!!!!
Our great friends, the Griggs invited us to go with them. Julie and I are insane, obsessed scrapbookers and her son Ethan and Conner and inseparable. I'm sure glad Conner has such a gread buddy to be creating all these wonderful memories with.

Finally, Spring!!!

So this is what the kids do on the first real Spring day in Idaho Falls. Last Saturday and Sunday were the best days we've had this year. Seriously, the kids lived outside both days. They couldn't wait to get home from church Sunday so they could get outside and enjoy what they knew wouldn't last. Spring in Idaho is so random. Especially this year. Sure enough, by Tuesday we had another blizzard and freezing cold temps. I'm sure glad they got the chance to be outside for a little bit.

Baseball

So, Kaden got on a great baseball team. They are the Diamondbacks and had their first practice last night, in the freezing cold! He knows 3 of the boys on the team so he wasn't so scared to play. Makenzie has her end of the year "night of dance" next week and Jeff finishes tax season in 6 DAYS!!!!! We are looking forward to getting on with the summer (or even spring) with Jeff around!

Little League Try Outs

Kaden tried out for Little League last night. He was pretty nervous because he has never had to try out to play baseball before. There were about 90 kids from 8-11 years old trying out. All the coaches sat lined up at tables taking notes of the kids they want for their teams. Pretty nerve racking for some little boys. Kaden did great though, he has got one heck of an arm on him. Hopefully he gets on a good team with some of his friends. He really didn't even want to play because he just wants to play with his friends from Burley but we told him he will still make friends here and needs to play. It is probably taking him the longest to make the adjustment to the move. The only friends he remembers are his friends in Burley and he misses them. I guess time will tell.

Love the new purse Lana. Whoever said people in Burley have no sense of style never met Lana Gibbons, she IS a sense of style all her own and with 6 kids to boot!!! Wow! Really, the box was just her way of cleaning out all of her vending machines, it was full of quarters.

Lunch at Stevo's, YUM!

While in Burley for Spring Break I got to go to lunch with "the girls". They all agreed to go to my favorite restaurant up there, "Stevo's" . Oh yeah, it is really the only restaurant I like in Burley. It was a pretty spur of the moment lunch but we still had a good turnout. I sure do Love these special ladies!!

Easter

Okay so Easter was a few weeks ago but I just downloaded my media card and found these pics. We have fun coloring eggs and our friends the Mallory's came down from Burley and colored them with us. We used a magic crayon and the kids had a ball writing and coloring on their eggs. The next photo is just to show the kind of personality my Kaden has. The other two took all the grass and candy out of their basket but Kaden, oh no, that would be too messy. He had to line up all his candy just so. Needless to say, I am quite sure I have passed on some of my OCD tendancies to him! The last photo is of Easter dinner. My mom and dad came and I told my mom she didn't need to bring anything, that I had everything under control. It wouldn't be mom if she didn't come with a whole meal under her arm though. She made the little nests by all of our plates, chocolate dipped strawberries, deviled eggs, and a fruit salad. I thought I had it under control but everything she brought was a perfect addition!!! Thanks mom you're the best!!