Extra Busy Easter!!

This last weekend was another one of those crazy busy, exhausting weekends filled with fun. On Friday night we went to the Flash basketball game to watch Skylar perform with her dance group. Grandma Cammi came to watch as well. Skylar's dance group, the Mini Stars, combined with the older dance company and have been putting in extra practice time for the last two months to perform this dance. They did such a great job! The pictures I have are not the best since I was holding the baby who was grabbing the camera the entire time. Skylar is the one in the very front on the right. Skylar absolutely thrives on dancing! She has so much fun! I kept calling her my Flash dancer. She really is a maniac on the floor and has the time of her life when she's showing her skills!

On Saturday the kids and I went to an Easter cooking class and a baptism while Ben worked on the never ending bathroom projects at our house (will they ever be over?). That afternoon we headed out in the cold rainy weather to the annual Owlz Easter Egg hunt. This has become such a fun tradition for our family and this year did not disappoint, even with the lousy weather. The Tongs and the Hoens braved the weather to join us but it was nice because most people did not, so there was only about a quarter of the crowd that is usually there. This meant more eggs for the kids and more free tickets for games this summer for us! The kids got to play some games and even Dan & Spencer joined the egg toss. Alexis was a trooper through the entire thing and just stayed bundled up in the stroller.

































After the hunt, we went to eat at the new Five Guys Burgers & Fries and then the Hoens headed back to our house to dye eggs-the Tongs went home since they are still recovering from the sickies. We had a lot of fun making some pretty fancy eggs. Alexis is totally stoked to finally have another baby person around with new little Ellie! We planned on playing some Rock Band but were too exhausted!

Easter morning did not arrive as early as I expected. I guess our kids were as worn out as we were because they didn't wake up until their normal time of 7:15. This is amazing for a holiday that brings surprises! We did a mad rush to find our baskets and collect all our eggs in time for Ben to head off to his weekly 8 am meeting. The kids got a present each and some books from the Big Bunny and way too much candy!! We had a nice morning just hanging out until church began. It's days like these that I appreciate late church.










Before church I made the kids go out and model their beautiful matching Easter duds. I love them!












After church we headed up to my Mom & dad's for Easter dinner. We had a tiny group since both my brother's and sister's families had gone out of town for Spring Break. We had a nice evening with my parents, Grandma Henricksen, and Aunts Yvonne & Mary Jo. Needless to say, by the time this weekend was over we were exhausted! I love Easter weekend and this was a great one!!

Sweet Baby Girl

So I got these taken awhile back when Alexis was about 4 months and have forgotten to post them. Poor Alexis is already getting the brunt of being on the tail end of the family.

Our Handsome Little Devil

April Fools

I wasn't totally on my game this year with the whole April Fool's thing. I taught Joy School this week and just have been busy and just didn't have time to plan anything spectacular. Then I had a migraine this morning and well, Mother Nature played a cruel enough prank with all the snow and such that I just wasn't in the mood. I started thinking I wouldn't do anything but Skylar mentioned the lack of excitement around our abode and I decided I should do some last minute planning.
The kids all had dentist appointments today. The dentist was excited to tell Skylar that she had "a million cavities! April Fools!" She was laughing like crazy. In reality, no one had any cavities (yeah!!) but I thought we could use the dentist appointments to play a trick on Ben. I told the kids to tell their dad that they all had a cavity and that Nick had three! The kids were so good. When he came home, Nick was so serious and acted all sad when he told Ben. Ben was shocked and kind of stressed out about the financial aspect of this news. The kids all did pretty good for a few minutes keeping up the joke and then Skylar started laughing and blurted out "April Fool's!" Ben and I were pretty impressed that the kids did such a good job fooling him.








I told the kids that since they didn't have any cavities that I would make them something special for dinner. I told them to stay downstairs so it would be a surprise. When they came up for dinner, there were cupcakes on the table. The kids were so confused. I gave everyone a cupcake and told them that was their dinner. They looked at me like I was crazy and then Skylar took a swipe at the pink frosting. I wish I would have filmed it because the kids were not too pleased after they found out the "cupcakes" were actually meatloaf with pink potatoes on top. They whined about how it wasn't funny and so not fair but I think deep down they thought it was a pretty good joke.

Little

Little Lex hit the big 6 month mark last week. Seriously, a half a year already? I'm so bummed how quickly it has flown by. I honestly wish there was a way they could just stay little! In actuality, she is pretty little. Tiny even. My girls have lucked out in getting the tiny Jordan genes. I took Alexis to the Dr. yesterday and she is only 12 lbs. 4 oz. which is like the 3rd percentile for her age. Teeny! She is still able to fit in a lot of 0-3 month clothes so we're getting good use out of those. I'd be a little more concerned about how little she is but Skylar was exactly the same way. Kade, on the other hand, has the Jensen genes and is close to needing a diet! It's so crazy how we can have such extremes in our little family! Look how tiny she is in her jumper:








Cute little Lexi has totally changed her looks since she was born. I could have sworn that she'd have brown eyes when she was born but now they are the bluest blue and they are always open wide! She's taking everything in! She also is totally going blonde. Her hair is still pretty dark for the most part but has a lot of golden highlights and I'm pretty sure that as soon as the sun hits it when it warms up outside, the dark will be replaced. Pictures don't do it justice. I guess she's a mini-me after all.
Alexis is doing all the fun things that 6 month olds do: rolling all over, babbling, playing with toys, putting everything in her mouth, grabbing for everything that comes in sight, and drooling like crazy. She loves the whole solid food thing and would prefer that she was in charge of it so that she could eat everything we have. She is extremely ticklish, especially on her neck (Grandpa Bruce gives the best nuzzies!). Her laugh is adorable. She really hates tummy time and gets so frusterated at it so I'm guessing she's got awhile until she likes it enough to try crawling. She is still pretty calm and happy most of the time but she has a crazy temper if things don't go her way. It's really kind of cute how mad she gets. She is so fun to have in our house and everyone loves her so much. We're so blessed to have her in our family. The only thing I wish is that the rest of this year will go much slower!!