{easter}

This morning the boys got their fill of candy before church and then more after church and birthday cake on top of it. We have never really talked Easter Bunny with them since we don't see the bunny as having any meaning or lesson behind Easter or the spirit of Easter so when the boys got up this morning I think they had forgotten it was Easter to begin with. But when they started seeing the hidden eggs the fun began.

Here are the baskets that were left and a few of the items they received. It makes for a fun morning and a few of their eggs even had some money in them! Lucky boys!

Happy Green Day

So this past Friday K came home from school with a lot of info about St Patty's Day and leprechauns. We have never celebrated this holiday...not Irish...so this was new to us. He was sure he could catch a leprechaun and planned out his trap and got E to plan one out too.

Monday was a day of building the traps and getting them all set up.

This One is K's

This one is E's

When they got up Tuesday morning this is what they found........

in the bathroom...and the toilet water was green too!

The cookies were turned green

nothing in the traps but lots of leprechaun dust and gold moneyDVDs stacked at the door and bottom pantry shelf emptied

the boys' closet cleaned out and shoes all over the doorway and hall.

There is leprechaun dust everywhere with gold coins and we have decided they should return to clean up their mess too!

Valentines Day

So yesterday was Valentines Day happy day to you all....

We celebrate every year with a scavenger hunt for the boys....we have done this forever...i used to draw the clues so Kaden could "read" them himself. Now I am trying to think of harder clues so it doesn't take them 3 minutes to do.

This year I also ordered them heart pizza....that was fun and K even drew us directions on how to cut heart pizza.

One last cute E. thing. Lately if he writes you a note or card that he has to sign it says something like "This is Ethan." So when he made Chad's Valentine this is how he signed it.

Too cute!!

The Clean up

So the holiday is over and we cleaned up all the decorations. Chad thought it appropriate to take a picture of all the boxes it requires to pack away our Christmas stuff...I just keep telling him "remember this is 2 less boxes than last year!"

The box total would be 9 tupperwares, one big tree box, one samll stree box and two very small tress boxes...not bad right?

Happy New Years!!

I thought I would share what we did on New Years Eve.

We had a "dipping dinner." We had spinach dip, veggies and dip, pizza dip and sausages in dip. Than for dessert we had chocolate fondue. I found a great recipe you make in a crock pot and let sit....my kind of easy recipe and it worked really well. The boys thought it was great fun and something we could do more often!

Top 8 of 2008

Top 8 of 2008

Kaden was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in May after turning 8 this year.

Ethan started 1st Grade this year,

A family trip to Washington DC to surprise Grandma Apo for her birthday; we also got to see all the Apo family there and go into DC a few times to sightsee.

Books…we are always telling Kaden to stop reading & go to sleep, and Ethan has figured ot reading & loves to sound out all street signs.

Soccer both the boys played spring season and Ethan played again in the fall..and will again this spring.

Bowling...we have been bowling more this year than ever before..it's probably b/c the boys are old enough to enjoy it the entire game.

Serving…our children love to serve others & have figured out how to quietly serve without drawing attention to themselves. These are very sweet loving moments to witness.

We can't wait to make more memories in the new year!!

Happy New Years everyone!!

Something New

So the past two nights....I think it was only two...the boys have had what we call "family sleepovers" We don't do sleepovers at friends houses so they have never had that real sleepover experience but this week we have pulled Ethan's mattress out to the front room and let the boys stay up too late and watch movies. the first night we all slept out there the second night I gave up and went to my bed and Chad slept out there. Tonight everyone will be tucked into their beds in their bedrooms and we will wait for another fun occasion to roll around to do it again....

One last Christmas Picture

Here is a final Christmas picture tradition. The boys in their church clothes in front of the tree.

Hope you had a great holiday!!

Christmas Night

Blaine and Vannessa and girls came over for the afternoon and evening to have Christmas dinner with us. It was a great time. Amaya still screams when Chad looks at her, and when he isn't even in the same room as her. One of these days she'll remember how good he was to her before the screaming started.

Blaine, the boys and girls also played Wii. And we got out the Wii fit for awhile too. Here is Amaya and Blaine....

Lulu also spent a lot of the time playing with the boys...another cute picture of her with Kaden.

We are so lucky to have them close by! We love to spend time with them!!

Christmas Morning

Surprisingly we didn't have the boys in our room until 7:13. We did tell them not to get out of bed until 7 am and we think Kaden woke up Ethan but at least we got a few more minutes. Then we even made them climb in our bed and wait another 20 minutes....mean maybe but we were still wanting to stay in our warm beds.

Chad went and turned on the Christmas tree lights while I got blankets to wrap up in.

The boys were so thrilled with everything Santa brought and were so thankful. Santa leaves the boys everything to share. They got a few things just for themselves, but most of it is left for them to share...that Santa is one smart guy!

Their stash this year included a lot of video game stuff, Pokemon, books, Legos, and bakugan.

Under the tree where the gifts to one another and they mostly got clothes from their parents...every boy needs new school pants (we are averaging one ripped pair per month for each boy so far!).

I couldn't believe the mess just the four of us made. But it sure was fun!

Chritsmas Eve

This year is our first year staying home with just the 4 of us. Years past we have gone to Canada or Washington DC to be with our families, and we have been really lucky to have our Apo family travel out here for the previous 2 years. This year with a January wedding in our midst everyone is traveling this direction than, so we were brave and thought we could attempt out own Christmas.

So Christmas Eve arrived without much of a plan, but we easily fixed that. We made one last trip to Target in the morning so the boys could do their shopping for one another and we carried on the Apo tradition of L&L for dinner. (L&L make Hawaiian plate lunch and we have done that with our extended family the last two years.) We also made the traditional apple pie. In the Apo family we make apple pie with my dad every Christmas eve....so the boys carry on and make the pie with their dad. Chad wasn't too in to it at first but in the end was having a ton of fun.

We than did pictures in front of the tree in jammies and Chad read us the story of Christ's birth, in Walker tradition...without the costumes and singing though that I remember from past Walker Christmas I have spent with them.

Then we let the boys each open a gift and watch Polar Express. By 930 we were ready for bed and anxiously waiting for Santa. Somehow the boys feel asleep very quickly.

2 Rings left

Ethan is our official countdown to Christmas boy. After Thanksgiving break he brought home countdown rings from school and has been ripping on off each day. So Today (Tuesday) it looked like this....

FHE

Last night for FHE we delivered our Christmas goodies to friends. Kaden and I with a little help from Ethan wrapped the caramels...which were a bit soft but they taste good so I used them anyways..then we packed them all up in the trays and tins I got on clearance last year. (I love after Christmas shopping more than before Christmas shopping and its even better when i pack it all away and get to take it out next year!)

The boys love to do the delivering and even talk to the friends...so much better than last year when they would just stand there and hand it over!

Brave or Dumb?!?

This is what I did last night after I cleaned the kitchen....I was thinking the boys are older and can control themselves....so far it is right except the husband is eating me out of m&ms and that isn't so great for his sugar levels!!! But it looks really pretty on the counter top.

After the holiday all the candy disappears again so Chad isn't so tempted by it.

The Christmas Program

This year we again went to school for the annual Christmas program. Ethan is always so excited to actually be in the programs now. This time both boys were in the choir at the beginning so that was great. And they sang around 6 songs I think.

The pictures are horrible but you get the idea. And you can't really see Kaden at all. Maybe Chad will have some better ones on his phone. (the children aren't evil...i just can't fix all the eyes to not have red eye or that white glossy thing--sorry)

Kaden top row between the two girls...

Ethan in the center two rows below the girl with the white headband.

Christmas Painting

So this week for our family Sunday night Christmas activity I decided we could each paint a snowman canvas. This was the quietest activity we have had. It was an hour of silence until someone would need another color. I gave everyone a canvas and told them all that mattered was that they needed to have a snowman on it somewhere. And they did a great job.

I think it will be one of those things we do year after year and use as Christmas decor each year. I love them and can't wait to hang them all for this wonderful holiday season.

Decorating our Way

Since having Christmas as an adult one of my favorite things was going to my parents house and my in laws houses and seeing all their decorations and deciding what I would like to do for our house. My Mom had two tress...one family and one fancy. So I have now done this. one with all our fancy blue and silver matching ornaments with silver snowflakes, and glitter and straight white lights.

Than the family tree with anything and everything you can fit on it. With a train around the bottom, thanks to Grandpa Walker, and full of candy canes (one a day per person) as Chad remembers from his childhood.

Our twist was to put Christmas books galore under each tree. Under the "fancy tree" goes the books we own (which I pack away every year with the Christmas decor so when they come out it is a big treat) and under the family tree are books form the library. I always try to get some on sale after the holiday and add to our collection. And now I am trying to find ones that are more chapter books for Kaden.

I also love to do Nativities. Each year I look hard for one I love and rarely find one. We have two breakable up high sets, as we call them. The kids can't play with those. Then we have two that are for playing with and one made of fridge magnets given to us years ago by our Grandma Walker.

This year around September I found a lady online who would cut out wood in the proper shapes and you had to paint and do them all up but it is a complete nativity set. So I ordered 11 (the number that would fit into a flat rate box) And when they got here we painted them and than I sanded them and Ethan helped me to wrap some and get them ready for gifts. It was a great family project and we have one we can keep for ourselves too.

Christmas Cooking

So I love to do something every Sunday between Thanksgiving and Christmas that is "Christmas-y" We started this last year and created so many good memories so I was excited to do it again this year.

But then Sunday rolled around, we went to Stake Conference, and had lunch and I had no clue what to do so I took a nap. The boys dumped every Lego they own out in the front room and turned on a movie.

Dinner came and went and guilt started. So I got out some ideas I had for Christmas cookies to give out this year and we started cooking.

Now I hate to give things I haven't tried myself so this was our taste testing batches of 2 Christmas treats.

Fudge and Buckeyes.

We made Buckeyes last February but I lost the recipe somewhere so I made up a new one out of recipes I found on line and we went for it.

The Buckeyes are great...we are still waiting for the Fudge to firm up.

But it provided a fun family Christmas activity and got another thing done for the holiday!