I think 10 years was a pretty good run, right?

Our lives have changed drastically. Nope, not because Ayden is 6. Not because I am a very happy stay at home mom and we are going to live on one income for a very long time. Not because Obama is president.
Nope, our lives will forever be changed due to the ownership of a Wii. I have long said that I will NEVER (you know what they say about saying NEVER) have a "video game machine" in my house.
I surrendered. It's ok to lose some battles right? I have to admit that my change of heart may have a little to do with my mad Guitar skills. I rock. Ok, I don't rock. I sound a little like Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future when his hand is disappearing into time travel oblivion.
Ayden is super happy with the Wii, the only person happier than him is his father.
Wish me luck and if you don't hear from us in a week, we've become zombies who think they are professional snowboarders, or world famous rock stars.

The Camera

"I think the camera is broken. I can't get the shutter to open"
"Let me see it"
"I don't think I dropped it, I can't imagine what happened"
"oh, hmmm, did you happen to look at the last picture taken?"
"No, why?"
"I'm pretty sure I know how the camera got broken"
"AYDEN!!!!!!!"

This is why I am now $250 poorer than last month and why you are reading a month's worth of posts in one day. Oh, did I mention he was grounded for a week?

The Hair Cut

Before

After

Yes, we're Irish

There is an awesome celebration in Springdale every year for St. Patrick's Day. The town has a parade, kids activities (which were free this year), music, food and of course, beer. It's become a family tradition to attend the festival. Here is Ayden climbing the rock wall (I'm below him having a small panic attack- he's only 5!)

Here are the kids begging for candy at the parade. They didn't have to do much begging- there was candy galore!

Our Happy Irish Family.

The kids, acting like Leprechauns (I'm not quite sure they've got the idea).

Sand Dunes

We recently spent a day in Snow Canyon at the Sand Dunes with some fantastic friends. It was another beautiful day in Southern Utah. The only thing that sent us home early was the wind. But, it is Spring. And, Spring in Utah also means "batten down the hatches". In the picture above, we had buried the kids in the sand. They are actually standing straight up (they were some deep holes)!!

Beautiful Jadie.

This is the smile I love.

Hiking with Kids

Hiking with Kids is kind of like herding cats. It's easier as they get older, but with the range of ages we had, it was still an adventure. 5 kids, 4 adults. Ages of kids: 6 (two of them), 5, 4, and 3 years old. The thing about hiking is that there is SOOOO much to distract the kids. And, for whatever reason, they are all infatuated with rocks. Yes, rocks. 5 minutes into the hike, all children had handfuls of rocks they were trying to stuff into the pockets of the adults. Well, that didn't fly (hiking with two or four pockets full of rocks? No, thank you.) So, the next thing that got their attention and resulted in major anxiety was looking for coyote tracks. Jade was especially upset about sharing this hike with coyotes (if you've seen Barnyard, you'll know why). With much persuasion, we finally convinced them that if there were coyotes on this trail, we had definitely scared them away by now. Now their attention turns to sticks, next on the list of distractions is lizards, then bugs. Finally, we reach our destination and they get busy looking for arrowheads (much more productive than hunting for coyotes, I might add).

It was a fabulous day. Anasazi Valley is beyond beautiful. It's quiet (minus the 5 kids and the 4 adults trying to keep those 5 kids alive) and full of things to see. We survived, the 2 mile hike took us 5 hours to complete, seriously. But, it was great. We will certainly do it again soon!

Cool Website

In an effort to trim our grocery bill, I've been using the Pinching Your Pennies website to create my shopping lists.
So, I make a list of what I need at the store, then go online and see where it is on sale. I can check all of my local grocery stores at the same time.
Another thing that is cool about this site is the ratings. They give every sale a rating based on how good of a deal it is (which is VERY helpful for me because I have a hard time knowing how much I pay for things- but I'm getting better).
Check it out if you have a minute. Sometimes their site is a little slow, if you're a little patient, it's well worth the wait!
www.pinchingyourpennies.com

A Natural

Steve took Ayden boarding for the first time this past weekend. It was a complete success. Ayden had a fantastic time as did Steve. No broken bones, or sprained knees. Just awesomness! Ayden is really good, kids learn so fast!

Baker, baker, cookie maker

Jade loves to cook. Since she is still quite little to do much of the cooking, her favorite right now is baking. As soon as I get the mixer out, she is on the counter, ready to go. We made yummy sugar cookies for Valentines day. Really, she just loves to eat the dough.