Father/Son campout

Here's a few pictures Dan brought home from the father and son campout this weekend. Dan invited 24 friends and family members to go up with the ward. The boys had a blast with their dad, all of their cousins, grandpas, and uncles!

Grandpa Rose and Greg, "the dutch oven masters".

Uncle David "microwaving" his chicken :)

Ky just "hanging out".

Grandpa Ostler impressing the kids with his dry ice tricks.

Cirque Dreams Illumination

We took the kids to the "Cirque" show tonight at the Toyota Center. Everyone thought it was AWESOME! Here's a few pics and a little video of what it was like.

Pudding

Does anyone know what happens when you leave a mischievous little 3 year old, alone, with a bowl of chocolate pudding for 20 straight minutes? I don't recommend it.

After finding Hudson with chocolate pudding smeared all over his arms and face I threw him in the shower to get cleaned up. I closed the curtain and told him to start scrubbing. A couple of minutes later I asked him if he was all clean and he responded with a loud, "YES"! When I opened the curtain to take him out I starting laughing because...

..."he missed a spot".

Putting the Kiddos to "sleep"

Dan typically snuggles up with our kids each night and reads them a book as a bedtime ritual. They love visiting with their dad about their day and getting some quality one on one time with him before they go to sleep.

Now when it comes to putting our 17 year old, "adopted son", Kayleb to bed, Dan has to use a totally different tactic. Kayleb's not as keen on snuggling as a way of being put to sleep at night so Dan has to resort to a little trick he's picked up through all of his years of watching UFC. It's called the triangle choke. Puts him to sleep every time :)

Prior to Kayleb and Dan's bedtime ritual as pictured above, Dan would test out his skills on none other than....Me. "The kids were too easy", he would justify, "You are the closest thing to Randy Coutore that I have", He would encourage. Ugh!!! Dan's skill level is getting a little to advanced to just wrestle around with me, so.... thanks Kayleb, for letting Dan feel like he is a real UFC fighter. Once in a while anyway.

Plus, it really does put Kayleb to sleep faster than any bedtime story we know of. :)

A Mother's Day Outing!

I had a great Mother's Day today. Dan and the kids had it all planned out and took care of everything.

Dan got up really early. He got all of the kids ready for church. They made breakfast and had it ready and waiting at the table and then came to wake me up with with gifts and flowers.

I love getting all of the thoughtful homemade gifts and cards that the kids make at school.

Here's a couple of funny lines from this years cards...

Kase's card was the kind where the teacher asks the question and the kindergartner gives the answer...

Q: How old is your mom?

A: 44 (I'm 32. Thanks Buddy:)

Q: What is your mom's favorite food?

A: Fruit (I'm pretty sure that fruit isn't what has packed on these extra 80 pounds I've been lugging around)

Q: What makes you proud of your mom?

A: For letting me have a pretzel when we go to the mall.

Hailey's Card...

Dear, Mom I love you so much. I like to be in your family. You are so sweet. I DO NOT hate you. Love, Hailey (Ohh, so sweet ;)

Alaina and Ky had some super thoughtful cards as well and they were much appreciated.

Next it was off to church from 9-noon. It was a nice change having time to get ready for church on my own instead of scrambling to get 5 kids ready and out the door.

I thought I had received all of my gifts and surprises at this point but when we got home from church Dan told the kids to quickly change and meet back in the car. Dan carried an already packed ice chest out to the car and then they all let me in on our plans for the day.

They were taking me for a picnic at Pioneer Park. (A park, in Walla Walla, about 50 mins away)

Here's a few pics from our fun day together in Walla Walla.

Most of the drive had really pretty scenery; all except when we were passing the stinky paper factory right as you leave Burbank. PeeeeeUuuuu.

Pioneer Park

After we ate lunch we played a few rounds of "spoons".

A little Bocce Ball.

At this park they have duck ponds and also fenced in areas with different unique birds that you can walk around and look at.

Before we left the kids played on the toys...

...while Dan rested up for the drive home.

Today was a ton of fun! Thanks for all of the planning and hard work you guys. You all did a perfect job at making me feel special today. I love being your mom and really appreciate the special attention today!

Greg singing with Franc D'Ambrosio

So earlier this year, Greg entered a contest.

He sent in a CD he made, with him singing 2 songs.

The first was a required Phantom of the Opera song;

the second could be a Broadway song of his choice.

The winner would preform "All I Ask of You", from Phantom,

as a duet at an upcoming Franc D'Ambrosio concert.

Franc D'Ambrosio is best known for being the world's longest

running Phantom on Broadway!

He was also cast as Anthony Corleone; the opera singing son

of Al Pacino, in The Godfather III.

The night before D'Ambrosio's concert,

and before they picked the winners,

the 16 finalists were able to attend a workshop and

get some personal training from Franc himself.

At the end of the Master Class Franc announced the 2 winners.

And guess what... GREG WON!!!

He got to sing the part of Raul tonight during Franc's concert!

In front of 1500 people!

Greg did a great job tonight!

It was really fun seeing him preform, and we are looking forward to seeing him

in the CBC production of "The Drowsy Chaperone" this summer.

Here are a few pics and videos from the evening. Enjoy!

Greg and Franc during the Master Class.

The Pre Performance (shaking off the nerves) interview :)

Greg and Brittany before the show.

THE PERFORMANCE!

Taking a bow.

Welcome to the gun show

Today was Hawaiian day at school, so all of the kids wore their Hawaiian duds. (Grass skirts, sandals, shell necklaces, and flower leis.) Ky went in his swim trunks, flip flops, and tank top.

When Ky got home from school he looked worried and said, "Mom... I got in trouble at school today. Of course the hair on my neck stood up and I got all serious with him. What Happened!!! "Mom", he said... "When I went to PE today Mr. Butts got me in trouble for bringing guns to school. He said he was going to have to take me to the office and talk to the principle about it. Mr. Butts said, "I mean, come on Ky, you didn't even conceal them, you just have your "guns" right out in the open...This is unacceptable and totally against school rules. It is especially bad that you are just waving them all around. We're definitely going to have to talk to the principal about that."

Ky was scared at first, wondering what his PE teacher was talking about but it only took a little while to realize he was just talking about his arms hanging out of his tank top.

Welcome to the "GUN" show!!!

Alaina's 11th B-day

Today was full of Surprises for Alaina. As soon as she headed out the door to school Dan, Hudson and I got to work on her birthday surprises. She had no idea what was in store for her.

Surprise #1: Hudson and I started on her birthday cake. We used food coloring in white cake mix to make a rainbow surprise cake. We frosted the outside of the cake white and plain so it would be a big surprise when she cut into it.

Alaina has been wanting a chair, like the one below, since Christmas so that's what we got her. After I purchased it though I started thinking about where she would have room to put it. That lead to surprise #2. While Hudson and I were working on her cake, Dan went into the girls room and stacked their beds up into bunk beds so we could do a little surprise bedroom makeover.

Here's a few pics of how it turned out.

Surprise #3: We picked all of the kids up (except for Alaina) from school today instead of having them ride home on the bus. When we got home we set up a surprise scavenger hunt for Alaina. With all of the pieces to the hunt put in place....the family waited in her room for her to get home.

She got off the bus and came to the front door to find her first clue to the Hunt which lead her to her 4th surprise. A Letter From Grandpa and Grandma Rose with a ticket to the Lion King in Portland coming up in June. She was stoked and couldn't wait to see where else this journey would take her.

After visiting her play house, the trampoline, her favorite climbing tree in the side yard and another dozen clue locations, she ended up back at the front door to see her final clue leading her into her room.

SURPRISE!! We all yelled as she entered her new and improved "Crib". Chair and all. Room make over, new rug, spic and span clean, new chair, and a loving family excited to show it off.

The rest of the afternoon was spent opening gifts, eating cake, singing happy birthday, giving her birthday spankings, and all the rest of the stuff that goes along with turning 11 years old.

Last but not least.....she has been wishing for a bike since last year. The one she has is way to small and falling apart. Long overdue for an upgrade. Her birthday wish came true with surprise #5.

Now she can keep up with Little Brother Ky on his new wheels.

Happy Birthday Alaina!

Quesadillas

Dan took Kase and Hudson to Taco Bell for lunch today. When going through the drive through he asked the boys, what they wanted for lunch. Kase began describing the kind of "cheese only burrito" that he wanted. He was really talking about a cheese roll up, but Dan didn't know that, so he assumed Kase wanted a cheese quesadilla. Jax wasn't answering so he just ordered them both a quesadilla.

Once the food was purchased Dan started passing out their lunch. He said, "Here you go Kase, here's your quesadilla, and Hudson... a quesadilla for you." Hudson wasn't happy Dan got him a quesadilla for lunch, he wouldn't take it and just kept saying, I don't want a quesadilla."

After insisting that he definitely didn't want the same thing Kase was eating, he said with authority that all he wanted was for Kase to eat his own "KASE-adilla", he would eat his own "HUDSON-adilla", and dad could eat his own "DAD-adilla".

Too Funny!

So to clear this up for everyone, and so you don't have to go through the same confusion when ordering at Taco Bell I have included a picture of what a Hudson-adilla looks like.

Not to be confused with a Kase-adilla:)

Kase's first elementary school performance

We just went to Kase's 1st performance, as an elementary schooler. It was about the Little Red Hen and all of her baby chicks. It was short and sweet, and super cute. Also quite a coincidence that just today a few of their very own baby chicks had hatched in their classroom. All of the kids were really excited to be back at the school during night time hours to check on them.

Kase had a little speaking part in the performance. His lines were, "And sure enough... the little red hen had to make the bread herself." He nailed them of course! :)

Kase passing time

Any guess what our kindergartner enjoys doing as he waits for his older siblings to get home from school?? Can anyone say iphoto booth on my laptop :)

I set up my laptop for him to play on Nick Jr. or Webkinz and then after getting my computer back realize he has been sitting there taking crazy pictures of himself for the last 30 minutes.

This was one of my favorites from today's batch.

Ky's 10th Birthday!

It's my Birthday, it's my Birthday!!!

For Ky's 10th birthday he invited 7 of his favorite friends over to celebrate. They road the bus home after school with him. As they walked through the front door the birthday party was set up and ready to go. (Sign in the yard, banners, cake, and balloons.) After doing the "Happy Birthday" song and getting them all sugared up we did a quick round of gifts before racing off to the movie theater to catch a 4:15pm showing of "How To Train Your Dragon."

Considering there were eight 10 year old boys with me, there wasn't too much chaos, it was actually a fun movie and we had a really fun time!

(Tyler, Drew, Kyle, Alan, Alex, KY, Bryce, and Chance)

Happy birthday bud!

Easter Eggs

On your marks...Get set...GO!

DONE!

Not so sure we can eat 5 dozen eggs as fast as the kids just painted them :)