Let's go fly a kite!

The last couple of weeks have been pretty breezy here, and it was the perfect time to pull out the kites that Grandpa Joe brought the girls from China. They had a blast helping Jason fly them, and they ask all the time to fly the kites. Here are a few pictures.

This is the giant squid. He is HUGE! I bet he is probably as long as Jason's truck. His tentacles kind of got tangled in this picture, but it is pretty impressive to see this kite flying.

Jason and Megan flying the giant squid.
Jason and both girls flying the squid.

Megan helping fly the kite.

Lindsey helping to fly a smaller kite.

Jason and Lindsey flying the smaller kite.

Happy birthday to Megan!

Saturday, April 10th was Megan's second birthday. It's hard to believe that my little baby is growing up. She is such a sweet, good-natured little girl. She is a very good helper, and loves to help me pick up the toys and books at night. She loves her big sister very much and wants to do everything that Lindsey does. It is so fun to hear Megan say, "Linsy, I lub you!" She must say that a dozen times a day.

To celebrate Megan's birthday, we took the girls to the new movie "How to Train Your Dragon". Two weeks later they are still talking about it, so the movie was a sucess. If you haven't seen it, it is a very cute movie and one that I think we will buy when it comes out on dvd. I was a slacker for the rest of the day and wasn't able to make Megan's birthday cake until Sunday. It turned out okay though because the girls really enjoyed celebrating two days instead of just one.

So happy birthday to my sweet little Megan! I love you so very much!

Megan opening her gifts from Grandma Sherry and Grandpa Lyle.

Figuring out the wrapping paper.
Waiting for birthday cupcakes.

Here they come!

Not yet. Don't blow the candles out yet!

Okay, now!

Got it done.

Hooray for Meggie!

Lindsey waiting her turn.

Enjoying the cupcake.

Lindsey loved hers too.

An Easter camping trip

We spent Easter weekend with a couple of Jason's old mission companions and their families in Island Park. We weren't exactly "roughing it" as we were able to rent a very nice cabin with cable t.v. and just about anything else we needed. It was fun getting to know everyone and letting the kids play. It snowed on us the whole weekend, so we didn't get out much except for Saturday afternoon when we took the kids to the Imax theater in West Yellowstone. All in all, a great weekend with great company!

This is the main floor of the cabin. Upstairs were two bedrooms, one bathroom and a balcony with two extra beds.

Another view of the main floor.
Front view of the cabin. See all the snow?

Lindsey painting Easter eggs.

She had a great time painting those eggs.

A few of our eggs.

Easter morning and all the loot.

Lindsey checking out her Easter basket.

Megan and her Easter basket.

Megan taking a good nap.

Lindsey and Carter playing Lincoln Logs. I am so glad that we brought those. The kids had a blast and I couldn't believe some of their creations.

Showing off their "ship".

Carter was pretty proud of this one.

Shyanne and Megan. I couldn't believe how well these two got along. One time I caught them in bed, reading, just giggling like crazy. It was so cute.

Megan and Shyanne.

The girls. Autumn Jensen, Megan, Shyanne Ricks, and Lindsey.

All the kids. Autumn, Megan, Shyann, Lindsey and Carter Ricks.

The kids again. Carter was done taking pictures.

Presten Jensen, Jason and Jason Ricks. Jason's mission companions.

Amy Jensen, Britney Ricks, and me.

French braids and Easter dresses

Grandma JoAnn bought the girls some very cute Easter dresses. Today was the first day that I was able to have the girls wear them. I was able to french braid both Lindsey and Megan's hair. I can't believe that Megan's hair is long enough to braid AND that she sat still long enough for me to do it. Okay, almost sat still long enough. She had to have a little help from Daddy right at the end. The girls looked so cute, so I just had to share some of the pictures.

This is their "Pretty Princess Smile".

Megan's teeth are looking so much better now that we have taken the paci away during the day. She is also talking a lot more, which is so fun.

Hair cuts

Here are the pictures from Lindsey's hair cutting adventure a couple of weeks ago.

The before.

Lindsey's before.
Megan's before.

Lindsey's after. I acutally think it looks pretty cute. But I think that we are going to let her bangs grow for a while!

Megan's after. They just trimmed her hair up a bit, but you can't even tell that it was cut.

Hair disaster

A couple of days ago, we bought Lindsey some children's scissors so she could learn how to cut paper. We pulled them out last night and she was so excited. I gave her a few warnings about not cutting anything but the paper and away we went. Today she was still pretty excited about cutting, so I gave them to her while I paid a few bills. The next thing that I know, she comes up to me saying, "Look at my pretty hair, Mommy. Now it looks just like yours!" She was very proud of herself because her bangs were now out of her face. I calmly asked her if she had done that with the scissors, and she said that she had. I then tried to explain to her that we don't cut our own hair. Mommy does that or we go to someone special to cut our hair for us. She got really upset when I told her that I was going to have to take the scissor away because she cut her hair. She also thought that Daddy might cry and be upset when he saw what she had done. Of course, I snapped a few pictures. I swore up and down that MY child would never ever be the one to cut her own hair. I guess I was wrong. Please tell me that every child has to experiment with scissors and their own hair at some point. I am just really thankful that she didn't get ahold of Megan's hair!

P.S. Any ideas on how to fix this? It is cut almost down to the scalp.

Happy birthday, Jason!

Slacker that I am, I am a little late on getting this posted. Jason had a birthday a few weeks ago. His parents came up to celebrate with us. He didn't want me to do anything extravagant, so I didn't even buy him a birthday present. I did want to do something a little special to celebrate, so we made T-bones and an extra fancy chocolate cake.

Yummy, yummy steaks! I think between four adults and two kids we only ate one and a half of these huge steaks.

Showing off the chocolate cake.
I am pretty proud of this little cake. It is the first one that I have ever done from scratch. It was three layers with chocolate filling and a chocolate frosting.

The cake was a huge hit!

Mmmm!

So happy belated birthday to my wonderful husband! We love you so very much!