April Showers Bring May Flowers

April flew by fast this year. Here are some highlights from this month: 

The kids love our new fire pit and have had a lot of fun roasting marshmallows. 

Makayla has been begging us for a few months to get her ears pierced because she's, "like the only first grader without ears pierced." We made sure she understood that it was a big responsibility and that she would need to take care of her ears. She promised us she would, and we knew she would follow through.

We picked Daddy up from work and headed over to the mall. There was a girl in front of her getting her ears pierced, so Makayla watched to help prepare her... then it was her turn. She proudly climbed up on the chair and picked out her flower earrings.

They pierced both ears at the same time. I just love this picture of Makayla. She was closing her eyes so tight and holding on to her bunny.

After they pierced her ears she cried just a little bit, but was so excited and went to pick out some other earrings.

If it's even possible, Makayla looks cuter with her earrings and we have been so impressed with how responsible she has been to make sure she cleans them everyday. 

Ninja Caden showed off some ninja moves before bed.

Looks like Daddy was really into the Jazz game. #takenap

Well it's not just the Jazz game that puts Tyler to sleep. Just about anything will send him into a snooze... especially books. 

We went to the open house for the Jordan River Temple that is right by our house. It was fun to show the kids the inside of the temple. We made sure we showed them the Celestial room and tried to explain what would happen when our family gets sealed.

As we were driving home we asked the kids what was their favorite part of the temple and Caden told us the bus ride. I think he missed the significance of the night. 

Tammy got our whole family free tickets to the Bees game! The kids had so much fun doing everything but watching the game. They went on the train and ate a lot of snacks.

This pretty much sums up our dinner conversations every night.

And my response to just about every question the kids ask me.

Caden wanted to spend some of his birthday money on some new Legos. They didn't have them in the store so we had to order them online. Caden asked me just about every single day when his Legos would arrive and when they did he couldn't open the box fast enough. 

Spring is officially here and I just love the colors on this tree. It is the weirdest shaped tree, but we love it.

Our kids are so lucky to have such cool parents. Can't you tell from their expressions?

Soccer season is in full swing again. Caden is playing with the same team and with Coach Adam (or Addy-Poo as we like to call him). The team is really working together and Caden is learning a lot about defense and assists. He has really improved this year and we are so proud of our soccer dude!

Oh these two. One day I will have to do a blog post about these two and their love/hate relationship. This particular day was a love day. On Fridays we usually pick Caden up from school and then run to Costco. They always ask if they can get pizza for lunch, and I usually agree because it is the cheapest and easiest lunch.

Makayla had her friend Samantha over to play and they almost dressed alike. They are so cute!

One of my favorite things is when I pick Caden up from school, Makayla is just coming out to recess. She usually stops by the fence to say hi. This particular day she had all of her friends with her. They quickly ran away after I snapped this picture because they had to play, "run away from the boys".

The tramp is up and the kids ask Daddy if he will play crack the egg almost every night. He's such a good daddy!

We ran to Costco one day and Caden was jumping off of the concrete pillars and he slipped and fell flat on his face. A huge goose egg popped up and for a few days after he looked pretty banged up.

When someone would ask him what happened to his face he would reply, "you should see the other guy!"

Weekends are made for treats and we have found a new favorite: chocolate dripped marshmallows and strawberries. Yum!

They are obviously a big hit at our house.

We celebrated my mom's 69th birthday this year with a bar-b-q at our house. Happy Birthday to my mom!

The Terrible Three's Get Better, Right?

Will someone please tell me the Terrible Three's get better? I mean we've raised two other kids besides Brynn and they were no where near as challenging as she is. You would think we know how to raise three year olds, but apparently Brynn is going to keep us on our game. 

The biggest struggle we have with Brynn right now is her temper tantrums and her odd sleeping schedule. Brynnli can throw massive temper tantrums over the silliest things. Take for example last night. She screamed for at least 30 minutes because she "wanted a better bandaid" for her toe... that's not hurt. Or if I let her watch an episode of Doc McStuffins (her favorite show right now) she screams for at least 10 minutes when I turn it off, no mater how many episodes I let her watch.  She asks everyday to go to either the gas station or to Grandma Kathy's and when I tell her no.... you guessed it... more tantrums. She is probably our most persistent child... I think she got that character trait from Tyler. Hopefully one day her persistence will pay off, but right now I'm about ready to pull my hair out. 

The other thing we struggle with is her odd sleeping habits. Brynn will sometimes fall asleep at 4-5 at night and then when it's time to go to bed, she is ready to play for a few more hours. This particular night we were up until at least midnight. 

But as much as she drives us crazy with her temper tantrums, she can melt our hearts the next minute with her cuteness. Brynnli is becoming very inquisitive. She asks us really thoughtful questions like, "how come we don't have to wear a jacket on our legs?" She says the cutest things all the time. When we go to the store she doesn't stop talking. Every thing we walk past she says to me, "Can I get that for my birthday? And also, I want that for my birthday." She loves to put the word "also" into every sentence, and it cracks us up. At first Brynnli was really scared to go to church and I had to stay with her in class, but now she loves it. In fact she loves it so much that we have to play "church" every Sunday. She leads us in singing time and she practices saying the prayer or scripture in the microphone. Brynnli is such a sweetheart too. She told us one day after church that "Mister Beck (Sister Beck) was sick, so she couldn't come to church!" She was so upset about it that she drew her a picture and we ended up taking cookies and hand picked flowers to Sister Beck after church. Just about every night when we try to put her to bed she asks us, "can I sleep in your guys' bed? We tell her no, put her back in her bed, and then she usually comes out a few minutes later to tell us something that makes no sense, or to ask for a drink, or tell us she's hungry. Then she asks us again if she can sleep in our bed. After a few times, we finally give in. For a three year old she is very manipulative, or we have just gotten soft (more likely exhausted) in our parenting with the third kid.

Here's a few pictures of our cutie that make you forget her horrible temper tantrums.

The most frustrating thing happened near the end of April. Brynnli was screaming that something was in her nose. I looked up her nose and saw something white in it. I grabbed the tweezers and tried to get it out, but Brynn was screaming and I couldn't get it. I called Tyler at work and asked him what I should do and while I was talking to him I found a mechanical pencil on the floor with the white eraser missing. I asked Brynn if that is what she put in her nose and she said yes. Tyler suggested I try to suck it out with the central vacuum and a straw. So here I was practically sitting on top of Brynn trying to hold her down with one arm and using my other arm to get the straw/vacuum contraption in her nose while Brynn was screaming bloody murder and saying, "no Mommy, please don't mommy!" After a few failed attempts I just couldn't torture her anymore and called the doctor.  The doctor got us in that day and in about 30 seconds he was able to get the eraser out with a little syringe. Dr Zarbock told me it happens all the time, so I didn't feel like such a horrible parent.

We will survive this phase, right? 

A Ninja Birthday Party for Our Buddy!

How is he 6? There just aren't enough words to describe how much joy and happiness Caden brings to our family. He is definitely our peacemaker, our helper, and our little buddy. We just love him so much and wish he wasn't growing up so fast. 

Caden's actual birthday was during Spring break this year and he was out of school the whole week,  so I told him he could pick what we did that day. He chose to go get a drink at Fizz and then have a picnic at the park. 

We played there for a few hours then went home and he chose to watch quiet time. When Daddy got home from work Caden got to open a few presents.

He got some superhero books

And the Fire Mech that he had been wanting for so long!

Then he got to choose where we went to dinner that night. He picked Red Robin... YUM!

Then, just a few days later we had his Ninja Birthday party. We got Ninja balloons and set out all the many Ninja Legos Caden has.

The morning was his friend party. He invited Stephen and Johnny from the neighborhood and Sauske and Jackson from his school, and of course, his best friend/cousin, Camden.

First we played freeze Ninja upstairs. We turned on music and all the boys showed us their Ninja moves and when the music stopped, they had to freeze. This was probably my favorite part of the party because the boys were showing off some adorable skills!

Then we had a Ninja scavenger hunt. It was pretty wild and hectic, but they all had fun running all over our house looking for their surprises.

After the scavenger hunt it was time for presents. Caden got a lot of ninja legos and toys for outside.

Caden blew out 6 candles on his birthday donuts

After his friend party we had just a few hours to get ready for Caden's family party. Isn't his cake so cute? It has all the ninjas on motorcycles.

Caden sat at the table with all the grown ups for dinner and didn't stop talking the entire time. He told everyone about the different ninjas and what their powers are.

More presents! Caden got spoiled with a lot of clothes, more Ninja Legos, and toys.

We sang Happy Birthday to him and I couldn't help but chuckle as he stood there just soaking it all in and loving every moment.

Since Caden is the 6th generation of William Evans in our family (William Erastus, William Oscar, William Reid, William Craig, William Tyler, and William Caden) and since Caden is celebrating his 6th birthday, Aunt Karen got them all shirts with their cooresponding number for the family party. She also made him a book that goes over all of the William Evanses.  Caden is so lucky to have such a great relationship with his dad, grandpa, and great grandpa!

Then we had Caden's requested pinata and ate some cake.

It was a busy day, but I think Caden had a blast. Oh, Caden, I just don't know how to tell you how much we love you! You have always been the sweetest and most thoughtful boy. I have really loved watching you try your hardest in school and soccer, and your hard work has really paid off this year. You are getting so good at reading your sight words and work so hard on your homework every night. You did so well in soccer this last fall and I can't wait for your games to start again in a few weeks because I know how much you look forward to your games. I love that you love Ninja Legos so much and can play for hours building things. Even though you tease your sisters, I love how you watch out for them and how you love to play with Brynnli when you get home from school. You are such a hard worker and love to work on a project or work outside with daddy. But I think most of all, I love how you will snuggle with me, or just come running up to me to give me a hug and a kiss. We just can't express enough how much we love you and how much you make our family better.  Happy 6th Birthday Buddy!

I love to see how their answers to their birthday questions change from year to year. Here's Caden's answers at 6 years old: 

1. What is your favorite color? "So many choices, but mostly I like red."

2. What is your favorite toy? "Hmmm... Ninja Legos!"

3. What is your favorite food? "Pizza"

4. What is your favorite show? "Ninjago Ninjas"

5. What do you like to eat for lunch? "Strawberries"

6. What is your favorite thing to wear? "A baseball shirt"

7. What is your favorite game? "My favorite game is Candy Land"

8. What is your favorite song? "Hmmm...We have our Carson, Colton, Makayla" (The Land Song)

9. What is your favorite book? "Ready Freddy"

10. Who is your best friend? "Camden"

11. Where is your favorite place to go? "Bees Game"

12. What do you want to be when you grow up? "I wanna be a builder"

13. What is your favorite thing about Makayla? "That she always is so nice and creative"

14. What is your favorite thing about Brynnli?  "She always just is so nice and sometimes I like to be nice to her."

15. What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? "Build the Thomas Train thing with him"

16. What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy? "Help you make lunch or dinner or breakfast"