Cinco De Mayo

We had fun with Cinco De Mayo this year. I went to the Dollar store and found these fun plates, bowl and the holder the cheese, lettuce and tomato are in and decorations. For dinner I made tacos refried beans and Spanish rice. The rice recipe ROCKS if any one wants it. :)Fun decorations
The things that hung from the kitchen light
The banner I hung at the back of the table above the sliding glass door

Introducing Torino the Turtle

This is Torino the Turtle our new family pet. A friend of ours here in the ward asked if we wanted a turtle. I said sure thinking it was going to be a small box turtle. Tell its not a box turtle and it's not small. ;)Maddy loves to watch Torino swim around
Swimming
Getting on her rock to sun
Torino

Allergies

we have decided to start James on Allergy shots. This picture was taken one Saturday in early April. We were out side at the soccer field for 45 min and this is what James came home looking like. Ughhh A close up
We went to the Dr and they sent us to a specialist. Here James had to have a prick test done on his back. This is were they do a small prick into the back and put a small dose of allergens on the pricked area.

This is what his back looked like right after the test was over
5 min. after the test was over
15 min after the test was over
2 of the pricks before the Dr came in to look at them
Then he had to do another test on his arm a week later. Here is James getting the injections for the arm test
Left arm
Right arm
I received a letter in the mail about 2 weeks after the tests were done telling me what James is allergic to. This is what it said....James is allergic to

Trees. Ash, American Elm, Cedar, Virginia Live Oak, Pecan, Hackberry, Cottonwood, Mt. Cedar, Privet, Box Elder, Maple, Mesquite, Red Mulberry, Eastern Sycamore, Sweet gum and River Burch

Grasses. Johnson, Bermuda, and Bahia

Weeds. Ragweed, Marsh Elder, English Plantation, Dock/sorrel mix, Dog Fennel, Sagebrush, Mugwart, Cocklebur, Lamb's quarters, Russian Thistle, Kochia, Water Hemp, and Baccharis

Miscellaneous. D. Farinae, D, Pteronyssinus (a form of Dust mites), Dog, Aspergillus fumigatus, Penicillium notatum, Drechslera (Curvularia), Auerobasidium (Pulluria) Rhizopus Solonifer, Phoma Betae, Epicoccum migrum, and Bernuta grass smut. ( all forms of mold)

So there ya go. This is why his eyes went crazy and why he is now on shots. Not the best of traits to have passed on to my kid.

Mothers Day 2010

When I woke up this morning I was kinda dreading the day. Mothers day hasn't been one of my favorite days. :( Ben is not the gift giving type. So naturally I don't usually get much for Mothers day. Then I went to church and came home with a whole different attitude. Here is what I learned... Mothers day is not about the gifts and all the fluffy stuff, it's about the love Heavenly Father has for us and allowing us the gift of our sweet children. Rather they are ours or our neighbors, we are all mother in one way or another. I did get great gift form the kids and love everyone of them.

My 5 sweet kids
The roses are form Church and the carnations are from the baseball game yesterday. Every year the ward gives all the ladies a rose and then yesterday after the game the boys gave their moms carnations. Very sweet.
Kaycee's gifts. A card she made with her P.A.L. A hand print card she made in church, a pop up card she made this morning on her own and a list of the family's names and a list she came up with of all my friends.
Here are the lists. She had everyone sign there names and the she named off all my friends she could think of and had Ben write them down
Matthew's pop up book he made in school. It said stuff like, my mom loves me because she takes care of me, my favorite time together is family night, If I could give my mom one thing it would be flowers. Very sweet.
Cole cute cut outs. It is a flag and a mountain. Just in case you couldn't tell. :)
James book he made in school. He says he isn't done yet. But it says stuff like I taught him how to read, I am a magician because I can find his watch. I am a chauffeur because I always drive him to baseball. And so on.

Maddy's Mothers day gift that was made in Nursery. Too cute
But here is the BEST gift of all, and I guess you can say its from Ben, My kids.

Bike Ramp

One Saturday in April James and Matthew were at sleepover. That just left the younger 3 at home. When they woke up that morning they asked Ben to make them a bike ramp. Here is the front of the rampThe side of the ramp
And the back of the ramp
Cole going off the ramp
He was having so much fun. Some jumps were harder to watch then other. Some jumps he would land perfectly and other he landed a little wobbly. But he never feel
Kaycee. Check out that air!
She loved it! :)

Teacher appreciation

Teacher appreciation week feel on the week of Easter so I decided to do something fun and along the lines of Easter for the kids teachers this year.
I went out and found these two kids at HEB. Chocolate marshmallow bunnies Chocolate marbled eggs

The ingredients

The finished bunnies

James making an egg. We put several colors of chocolate in the mold then closed it together and shock it until the chocolate was mixed together

The final results

Packaged and ready to go. I think they tuned out great. And we got a lot of complements form the teachers. :)

Coloring Easter Eggs

The egg coloring supplies Matthew hard at work

James working on a egg Cole and Kaycee

Maddy. Right at I was taking this picture Maddy got a hold of the cup and decided to take a drink. It was pretty funny. To bad my camera wasn't fast enough to catch all the action

I think Cole and Kaycee colored themselves more then the eggs

the final product.