Birthday Party in Utah

We got to go to Utah this last weekend for a combined birthday party for both of my nieces and my nephew on the Loftus side. All three of their birthdays are within 3 weeks of each other so Roberta (their mom) decided to just rent out a roller skating rink and celebrate all of them together. And we've learned that Brazillians really know how to throw parties!!! It was so much fun! Nate always has just as much fun as the kids!!

Nikosha showing off her prizes she one playing games: Wipe-out, Skate to the dice, hokey-pokey, etc. (So much fun for all ages!)

Austin and Kyler were buds at the party. They were so cute just sitting there watching and eating.

The roller skating rink allowed the kids to bring scooters, which was absolutely wonderful!! But the girls each wanted to try out the roller skates and each lasted about 5 minutes on them.

Caleb will be turning 4, but he doesn't really like to have his picture taken much.

Tatyana turned 7 on Monday. She's missing her 3 front teeth, but still a blue-eyed model. The girls LOVE to get together to play with her.

Alyssa turned 2 today. Happy Birthday, Alyssa!! Isn't she a doll?!!

Roberta's mom made three cakes for each of the kids. The bear cake was Alyssa's and the racetrack was Caleb's but I guess I didn't get a picture of Tatyana's, which was a Spongebob cake. (I was taking pictures with Roberta's camera some of the time and forgot which things I had taken pictures with and with which camerca.) Not only were the cakes absolutely adorable, but they were each a different fancy, yummy inside too. Plus, the entire table around all the cakes was covered in homemade Brazillian candy!! And on top of that they had like 200 sandwiches, chips/dip, punch, etc. (Did I mention that Brazillian's throw awesome parties!?!)

We stayed in a hotel while we were down there because we didn't want to overload Roman and Roberta. Our hotel had a pool, so the night before the big party (while Roberta was slaving away at home) we took all the kids swimming.

On Sunday, we all went to the park and had a picnic. It was such beautiful weather! About 75 degrees...just perfect.

Easter

We got a great idea last year from one of our good friends. They do all the Easter bunny and egg hunts and everything on Saturday so that Sunday can be all about Christ's Resurrection. This is the second year we've done it now and it's definitely the way to go. Our good friends, the Bakers hosted a grest Easter egg hunt and had a brunch. We had a great time, but I forgot my camera. Dang it! Not only are the Bakers excellent hosts, but they e-mailed me pictures just a couple of days later. Wow, that's great service! Thanks guys! Shelby put numbers on some of the eggs and the kids got to go in order according to their numbers to pick out a prize. Check out that prize table. It was great! Afterwards the big boys all got their "toys" out, so Karri and I decided to join in the fun. They told us it was safer to start out on the smaller bikes so we didn't hurt ourselves. I look like I'm going to squish my motorcycle. lol

General Conference

We just had another wonderful session of General Conference. (It's when the prophet and apostles of our church speak to everyone.) We are so blessed to be able to watch it on t.v. in our own home. I remember growing up in Colorado, where we'd have to go to the church. With 6 kids, my mom and dad would only take us to one two-hour session and then they would switch off going to the other sessions. I was so naive back then. I thought it was the same thing repeated over and over again and I thought it was pretty weird that my parents wanted to go listen to it again. lol Now that I'm older and have kids of my own, I appreciate the opportunity to listen to conference so much more. Our Primary leaders gave all the kids Activity packets to do during conference. My kids were soooo excited. (I wish I would have taken a picture of them working on them.) We bought little candies for their bingo page and Nate and I also had a lot of fun playing bingo with them during conference. But the most important thing that we got from listening to the General Authorities was that we are wonderful people and we just need to continue to be the best we can be and the Atonement of our Savior will make up for the rest. There's no way to come away from Conference without wanting to be a better person, so that's my goal in life!

Spring Break?

We were lucky enough to get a whole week for "Spring" Break this year, but I would call the weather anything but "spring". I think it snowed two days and the days it wasn't snowing either the wind was blowing really hard (typical Idaho wind) or it was like 25 degrees outside. At first I still attempted to brave the weather and try to do something outside. Kenzi was the only one I could talk into going to the park with me and this is the one and only time she went down the slide: Poor girl was just freezing, but trying to make the most of it since it was like a date with mom: (This little excursion lasted about 15 minutes.) The rest of our break was spent indoors with sleepovers in the living room every night and lots and lots of movies! We also took a little expedition with their cousins to Blastoff, an indoor play area, which was a huge hit and totally wore them out: Kyler's been quite the mommy's boy lately. He thinks he needs to be held all the time and can throw quite the fit if it doesn't happen right away or if the wrong person dares to pick him up. So Nate figured out a way to get him to stop crying...

My Junk Food Eater

Kenzi is my junk food eater. She would eat nothing but junk all day long. This is her at a typical dinner at our house. I should have zoomed out on the camera so you could know that she's the only one at the table. This is probably about an hour after everyone else has finished eating and Kenzi's still at the table not eating her food. If you'll notice her plate looks like it's almost empty, but that's just because I only give her a very small portion for dinner to try to get her to finish everything on her plate. I've tried everything I can think of to get her to eat her meals. Any suggestions for my little junk food junkie? This is what happens when I force her to take a bite. She'll just leave the food in her mouth for another hour and maybe every once in a while chew it. It's a good thing she's so darn cute, right?!! Kyler obviously doesn't have the same problem. He'll eat almost anything put in front of him and LOVES every second of it. I just wanted to tell everyone thanks for such an awesome birthday! It makes getting older feel so much better when I feel all the love from you! This is a little surprise party Nate put together on the night of my birthday:

Cheerleaders & Welcome Home Tyler

Nate was so excited that his girls can now do their cheers for his high school! This is the girls at cheerleading camp!! My baby brother got home last Wednesday from his mission! I can't believe it's already been two years!! We are so happy to have him home! This is most of the family (minus one brother-in-law, a nephew, and a niece). It grew by 3 people while he was gone:

Still deciding...

I don't know why I'm having such a hard time deciding whether to go private or not. I guess most of it is not really understanding, so I'm asking for some help understanding: Tell me why you have decided to or not to have a private blog. Thanks for your help!