I'm finally getting around to updating my blog. With us working so many long hours at the house I haven't had the time or energy to keep up. I realized over Easter weekend that it has been a while since I have had so much to do that I was stressed to the max. It made me miss the days when I had to keep a day planner to stay organized. Don't get me wrong...being a mom is hard work, but you can only write "eat, change poopy diapers, nap, eat, nap, change poopy diapers, eat..." so many times on your calendar before you just don't have to write it down anymore.

N-e way, April 10 was the end of my last post of "A Very Long Week" where we were working really hard on the house all week. Friday night we went to dinner with Celeste and Nate who were in town. Then we went back to our house to work some more. Saturday morning was my sister Celeste's baby shower so I spent the week getting ready for it. Josh took Brayden to work at the house while I took Brooklyn to my aunts house to set up for the shower. Overall, I think it went really well. We had yogurt and granola cups, bagels, banana bread, and OJ. It was fun to see Celeste as she gets closer to having her baby. We had a good turnout and she got a lot of stuff that she needed. After the shower I spent an hour and a half looking for Brooklyn's Easter dress. I knew which one I wanted but couldn't find the right size. I finally found it, then the rest of the day was spent working on the house while trying to get the kids down for naps and keep them entertained.

Saturday night I added black ribbon and a flower to Brooklyn's Easter dress so it would match Brayden's outfit. I also hemmed Brayden's pants. Around midnight I tried to find our plastic eggs to get them ready for Easter. No luck. I opened all the boxes I've packed trying to find them. I finally gave up, made crepe batter and went to bed upset that we had no egg hunt for the kids.

Sunday morning we went to my aunt and uncle's farewell and then we headed over to my mom's house for a yummy crepe breakfast that I was in charge of. After hanging out we went home for the kids to nap, then we had FHE at Josh's grandfather's house. We had a yummy ham dinner and a nice lesson, then it was back home. Since I had no eggs and we are all past the state of exhaustion, we bypassed the egg hunt and went to bed. We decided we would still do an Easter egg hunt for Brayden sometime during the week since he was so excited for it. Luckily he is too young to realize that Sunday was Easter. As long as the Easter bunny comes sometime this week, he'll be happy.

I love the picture of Paige, Brayden, and Brooklyn. We never got a picture with them smiling or looking at the same camera, but I love how all three of them had their hands in their mouths.

I tried so hard to get good Easter pictures of the kids. Unfortunately, as soon as the camera comes out, Brayden goes running. We plan on getting family pictures done soon in these outfits, so hopefully those will turn out better. I posted a few so you can see their cute outfits. (Thanks to Josh's sister Rachael that bought Brayden this outfit. It's a little big, but he is SO adorable in it. He looks like such a big kid.)

I have put a new post, (thanks Shantelle) on our blog about our trip to Utah. Hope you will all check it out and we loved seeing everyone! www.nateandceleste.blogspot.com

So this is like such a "must live in Texas" moment. Today we found a turtle (and by we, I mean Sean and Becca, I on the other hand was at work!) It was so cool. It was just randomly in our yard! We don't know how it got into the yard, don't know where it came from, and don't know where it went, but I do know I had a really good dinner!

Not the turtle, Sean made barbecue chicken with pilaf rice! It was delicious.

That is all.

I have done quite a bit of blogging on our house blog. Feel free to check it out. It's really coming along!

www.ericsonjourney.blogspot.com

About every night this week (April 6-10) we have gone over to the house to work. The kids have been troopers. I finally brought a bunch of stuff to keep the kids busy while we worked. Thank goodness I thought to bring a blowup mattress and a TV. Helps Brayden have some down time while there is so much going on.

I bought this little tool set for Brayden - best thing I've done. He loves to "help" grandpa and follows him around asking all sorts of questions. Brayden loves that he has a tool belt like grandpa. He hasn't stopped playing with the tools. I have quite a few more in the set I haven't given him yet. I'll add one every now and again to keep him excited. I didn't have to buy anything for Brooklyn. As you can see in the picture, all she needs is a box!

On Friday we had to be at the house early so the carpet guy could come measure. I have been promising Brayden for a couple of weeks that we would go see all the fish at the Aquarium in Sandy. I had decided to get a season pass since we will live less than one mile from there. This was definitely the wrong day to go. I didn't realize that EVERY kid was out of school and EVERY parent decided to take their kids here. Brayden started freaking out when I told him we would come back, so we stayed and waited in line for 30 minutes to get in. (The line had doubled in size by the time we left.) Because I bought the season pass, I didn't really care to see everything and get all the pictures of the fun things they have there. We'll be going back lots so I'll get those pics later. Here are a few we did take.

Decided we needed to get some pics of simon

Well, she is ONE, I can not believe it!! It makes me feel like I'm officially a parent for some reason. I know I have been one for a year, but something about that first birthday party, and knowing I have a one year old, it's crazy!

We had a fun day, Justin came home for lunch and we gave her gifts from us, she got a cute little play kitchen, cloths and some other toys. That afternoon I had my first attempt at making a "Birthday Cake". I made a butterfly cake for everyone at the party to eat and a flower cake for her to dig into! They turned out cute but took way too long to do. (We will see if that happens again.)

That night we had a family party, just presents and the cakes. It was fun to get together and celebrate our adorable little girl. She loved her cake, she started with one finger in it, and ended up squooooshing it between her fingers and smearning it all over her body. It was fun!! Thanks to all those who came and for the presents. (Shantelle, I bought a cute jacket for her with the money!)

Carson Snowboarding from Ryon Brewer on Vimeo.

This is Carson's first day of snowboarding at Jackson Hole.
be sure to watch it in HD

Simon was born at 1:59 P.M. on March 29th, 2009. He weighed 7lbs 9 ounces, and was 19.5". As you can see his brothers and sister are very excited to introduce into the world.

Dad had a meeting on Thursday morning in Gillette, Wyoming. So he left on Wednesday about 11:30am. Flew to Denver for layover, then on to Gillette where he landed at 8:00pm, then a taxi ride to the local Wendy's for dinner then to the model home where he arrived about 9:00pm. Long day. His meeting went fine, one hour. then he got word that Denver got slammed with snow and his flight was canceled. So he had to stay another night. His next flight was canceled, and he finally switched airlines and got home at 4:00pm on Friday. Yea! He would have been really mad about the delay, cause he packed lite and didn't take any work to do, or even his computer. But he is excited to say that he is now 3/4 of the way through reading his second book since high School. (Not church related). Angels and Demons was a Christmas present and mom had him slip it in his briefcase at the last moment. So while he might have been stuck in Wyoming, in airports, etc. his journey has included Rome, the Vatican, etc. It has been a good break for him.