Easter

Since we moved over Easter weekend, our Easter was a little haphazard. The Easter bunny almost forgot there are 3 kids in the family now and he showed up a little late Easter morning. Luckily the kids didn't notice and they had a great day! It all started at Grandma and Grandpa Weaver's then moved to Great Grandpa Astle's house.









The kids all had cute new Easter clothes but because of conference we decided to wear Easter outfits to church the week before to Wells' blessing but somebody forgot her camera.

It turned out to be a great Easter especially comparing it to the cold and wind while we were moving! The weather got nice just in time for the Easter egg hunt!

The obnoxious little sister

Since Jared and I have been married he's really only seen my siblings a couple of days out of the year for the past 7 years (which also means I've only seen my siblings for a couple of days out of the year for the past 7 years!!). The other day I realized he doesn't really know them that well, yet they shaped a lot of who I am.

I've always been the obnoxious little sister. My sister is 6 years older than me and growing up I know I got on her nerves a lot. We used to share a room and I distinctly remember literally holding my breath every time she came into the room because I thought people didn't breath in their sleep and I always pretended to be asleep so she wouldn't get mad at me for one reason or another. I think one of her main complaints was how I always stole her clothes but that really didn't last very long since I outgrew her clothes by the time I was 8. I also remember she got a HUGE Hershey's Kiss from a boy in JR High and I would sneak a couple of bites every day hoping she'd never notice. When she went to open her "brand new" gift to find only a nibble left, well, lets just say I was ready to say good-bye to my dear loved ones. Even though she's half a foot shorter than me I've always looked up to her. I always thought she was so beautiful and super cool and I figured if I tried to be like her maybe someone would give me my very own giant Hershy Kiss. Because of her I would say stuff like "Oh, Robert Redford is sooo good looking" while I was thinking "yuck, he's sooo old." and why "Last of the Mohicans" was my favorite movie too even though I had to cover my eyes through half of it. I was only 12 when she moved out of the house so we really didn't get a lot of time together at home but I still find myself trying to be like her. I think when I realized we are more similar than I ever imagined was when I first got married and my father-in-law said to me "has anyone ever told you you're stubborn as hell??" I just had to smile.

Now John, the perfect child, was not always perfect. I'm pretty sure he has nail marks still scarred onto his arms from several of our many fights we had. He used to tease me all the time and I tried to get him in trouble. This was no easy feat since he tricked everyone into thinking he was such an angel. I've never been much of a crier so I had to put on my best acting skills to try and cry so I could get him in trouble. It never worked. I didn't think we had a lot in common especially when on one of my first days in Jr High my TLC teacher said "oh, you're John Astle's little sister? Man, he was a good kid. What happened to you?" But once we got through the rough years I found myself imitating him too. I even joined the track team because I thought he was so awesome for being such a great runner, after my first (and only) race I learned running well is not genetic. His favorite band was U2 (so obviously they were mine too) and he even took me with him and all of his U2 worshiping friends to their concert and didn't even complain when I sang every single word to every song insanely loud. My mom told me that when we lived in Japan (John was roughly 6) he tried to learn how to jump rope. He sat outside and tried and tried with tears in his eyes until he finally learned how to do it. I've learned through watching him that with a lot of determination and consistency you can accomplish anything you set your mind to.

Both of them have given me advice and helped me countless times without even realizing the impact they had on me. So, I guess I like my siblings and I wish they were closer.

Annie Turns 2 Months

I can't believe Annie is already 2 months old!! I've already had to pack up her newborn clothes and she's even fitting into some of her 3 month clothes :( Here are a few of her poses. It was hard to narrow it down since there were so many to choose from...

Here's Magnum

Blue Steel

Still working on the name for this one.

Apline Wyoming

Last weekend our friends the Stoddards invited us to their family cabin up by Jackson. We went with them and our other friends the Saunders. We always have fun when we get together with them and it's always nice to get back in touch with some friends we made in Virginia!!

I think Jackson and Tanner had more fun slamming their heads together with helmets on than on the actual snow mobile.



Here are Andy, Ryan, and Jared going for their big ride



These boys were all born right about the same time. Tanner had so much fun having his own friends. He usually tags along with Jackson everywhere he goes.


These girls new how to entertain a crowd!


Annabelle started smiling like crazy lately. She seems to save most of her smiles for her Daddy. He's the one who can get her to put on the cheese.

Notice her nice chubby cheeks!! She's growing sooooo fast!


The last time Jackson watched Pinocchio he went around calling people "Jack &$$" This time the kids were watching Pinocchio and Jackson decided to warm his tush by the fire and learned a lesson about why we don't pull our pants down and stick our bare bums on a burning gas oven stove. Sooo, here is Jackson with a pack of ice down his pants cooling off his britches.


I think one of the highlights of the trip was when we were all relaxing on the couch and visiting when Andy rested his arm on the back of the couch and pulled out a dead mouse. Nothing like grabbing a dead mouse and throwing it up in the air. We all got a pretty good laugh out of that one!

Thanks for the good time guys!! Now back to reality...

Happy Birthday Tanner!!

I decided that this year the kids wouldn't have birthday parties and we would just do something fun with our own family. It didn't turn out the way I planned. It just always seems like a lot more fun for the kids to have a few kids their age to celebrate their own birthday with. Sooo, Saturday we had some pizza, cake and ice cream with the Weavers. We've been looking at houses up in Davis county so Sharidee was nice enough to watch the boys in the morning then let us have the party at her house. (We assigned someone else to be in charge of the camera)

A really yummy cake from Costco

Baby Ben giving Annabelle a big old smooch

Here's the picture of Jared you've all been waiting for!!


Saturday night we went to Hollywood connections. Our original plan for Tanner's birthday. Jackson and Tanner had a blast. It was really fun to see them have so much fun together. Today Jackson came and said "you know who my best friend is?" I said "who?" and he said "TANNER!!" that made me smile.

They TRIED rollerskating. I think Jared and I may have had too much fun watching them fall down.

They loved the bumper cars. It was really fun watching them giggle the entire time!




Sunday Jared, Jackson and Tanner headed up to Jared's oldest brother Cole's house for a Superbowl party. Tanner was very very very excited to go to Cole's house! I stayed home and slept for a couple of hours so there are no pictures of that.

Monday we had cake and ice cream with the Astle side. Tanner was really happy to have his Spiderman cake and have his (second) cousins over. He thought the Penguin pinata was awesome so it was a Spiderman/Penguin party.
Giving birthday wishes after a bump on the head

Addy is always the only girl. She seems to hang just fine with the boys. I thought she was the best at hitting the pinata!

Tanner stared at his cake for a looong time. It took a while for him to leave his cake and go join his party. He wanted to cut the cake first thing.

Giving some hugs after getting some really nice presents from everyone that came.

Sledding

Jared and My dad were going to take the kids sledding last Saturday to give me a little break but after being cooped up in the house for a while I decided I wanted to go along for the ride. It turned out to be a gorgeous day once we drove out of the inversion!

Surprisingly, unlike a lot of our friends and family outside Utah, snow was hard to come by so we drove up toward Huntsville and found a perfect spot that actually had enough snow to sled down. We got everyone seriously bundled up but a couple times of running up a mountain makes you hot pretty darn fast. The coats, hats, and gloves came off pretty quick.

We didn't take many pics but you can check my dad's blog if you interested to see more.

Jackson suffocating


Tanner after a good run.


Me and little miss nice and cozy in the car. I did end up going down the hill a few times too. You just can't get that close and sit back and watch the whole time.


As far as little Annabelle, we still like having her. She's growing REALLY fast! The boys still fight over who gets to hold her but I usually win :)

Jackson wins a lot too. It's amazing how I can convince Jackson to do anything if the reward is to hold the baby.


Jared called baby Annie "crazy" the other day and Tanner said "She's NOT crazy, she's beautiful!" He loves his little sis.


I haven't gotten around to taking many more pictures or doing much of anything other than feed, clean, feed and clean some more. It's amazing how the time to accomplish anything is multiplied by ten when there's a new baby in the mix. She makes it worth it though!!!


I don't have any pictures of Jared. I guess he's been behind the camera a lot lately. Next time we'll get some great pictures of the old handsome lad.

5 days old and growing fast!

Little Annabelle is doing well at home! She pretty much eats, sleeps, and poops all day. Takes after her daddy.