"Let's get down to the Nitty Gritty"

Whidden blog~ written by the mother
about the children
the dad
and a lot of ramblings about life here in Utah.

A few things we love
Traveling
Camping
Fishing and Eating Nachos

4.18.2012

photo overload

 Like I said before, it takes a lot of convincing for me to sit down and blog. 
Some of our life in photos with short captions.
 Easter Egg hunt in Grandma's backyard.








 Easter festivities, my Mother in law sent me this really cute scavenger hunt to find their Easter baskets.





 Their Easter baskets were hidden in the garage.

 Easter pictures before church, kids cooperating as usual.



 Ben thought he was funny, I put the camera on a timer and it would take 10 pictures all in a row. He was doing some crazy poses, this was just one of the frames.
 Spring break in Las Vegas






 View from the hotel balcony, taken with my fish eye adapter.

 Our walk to the Bellagio to see the fountains.
 Once we got there and waited 10 or so minutes, an announcement came over and said due to high winds no fountain show.
 Waiting for the show to start.

Ben thinks he is funny when I am trying to take his picture.

Kids are back to school this week, from a nice spring break. 
Ben is deeply involved in hockey playoffs.
Alivia is starting piano lessons next week, she also passed off all of her times tables, onto division.
Cooper is getting Baptized this Saturday, more blogging to come about that (not sure how timely it will be)
He has been surprising me the last few days/weeks, he sat down to do his homework and I didn't have to be by his side the whole time and he also said that he was going to finish it before he went out to play.
He also hung up his church pants without me asking him.....say what?
Bauer is such a easy going little dude, not much in his little kindergarten world.
Kessler is also growing up and becoming more and more independent. He will now FINALLY put his own seatbelt on, he also has been saying, basically after everything you say "that's a good idea" it was very comical for a while.

4.02.2012

April Update

Sneak peak of Cooper and his Easter/Baptism outfit. Easter pics to come.
Ben is at it again, not to mention the gardening and cleaning up the yard. He started a new playhouse for the kids. He copied the plans from a brochure we picked up.  We'll see how it turns out. 


Alivia posing her baby to takes some picture of her, she has recently started her blog. But is somewhat embarrassed to publish it . I hope she changes her mind the picture that she takes of things and her comment about them is pretty funny.
Ben's version of watching Conference. Multi-tasking:)
This is a picture of the base of the playhouse (picture taken through the window while it was raining)
Kids and their chores.
Cooper is doing good in school. He tries really hard to be a good boy. He gets really good comments about his behavior but still struggles to not feel overwhelmed when he has a lot (he thinks) placed before him. We have tried and tried to help him approach things in different ways. He is getting better slowly.
Alivia is doing well, she still does choir and has been working on her spring musical. Her part is a Cavarello (sp?) 
She loves to play outside with her friends, and has some really great friends, they sometimes disagree like sisters but then love each other again like sisters. 

Bauer and Kessler are doing well, Bauer came home from school today and said that he didn't want to go to school tomorrow. FIRST time ever he has said that, I questioned him, and he finally said that someone was being mean to him at recess and pushing him down. It broke my heart....we talked about what was ok and what was not. He then commented he would try and go to school again and not let that person do that anymore.
Kessler is so easy going he hangs with mom all day and just does his thing, he latest thing he likes to make his own breakfast and lunch, he tries to pour himself a bowl of cereal and sometimes is a disaster. Lunch is usually a little easier. 2 pieces of bread one slice of cheese. He puts the 2 slices of bread on top of each other and then the cheese on top. Whatever works right?
Getting egg-cited for Easter and Spring break, we are taking a quick trip south and are luckily found out some neighbors will be there at the same time. So we joined up and stayed at the same hotel. Hopefully we have some good weather so we can hang at the pool most of the stay.

Things coming up.
Meeting a new little baby, Keri-Ann (family friend)
Kindergarten Spring Party
Easter Egg hunt
Easter
Bauer's primary talk
Spring break
Andrea's birthday (hence the picture spotlight at the top) yes from high school:)

3.28.2012

Happy Birthday to the Baby!


Kessler had a birthday and it is so CRAZY that he is 4, a couple times thought it was his second birthday. Where has the time gone?
He was so excited the morning of his birthday, it was Saturday and so everyone was home and they were all so excited to see what his presents were.


 Excited brothers


 We love transformers at this house!





 We took him Friday to choose a cake for his birthday, that had all the cool boy cakes available, Spiderman, Transformers, Iron man, Mickey Mouse, Sponge bob, you name it they had it, and he chose....Angry Birds.They did such a cute job, I didn't want a big sheet cake so we changed it up and did a little 7" cake and put all the fun things on it for him.


 A few pictures before church.
 Lots of fun things going on in the next little bit, General Conference, Easter, CANDY, Spring Break (hopefully somewhere warm we will go for a few days anyway) Cooper's Baptism, My birthday!!
Ben has been in crazy yard, garden mode again. I can't complain I do love the fact he likes to work outside and we can "try" and keep up on our yard. LOTS to do still but we made a major dent today and are getting ready to start some of our seeds for the garden, a few changes this year......Ben made some planter boxes and I dedicated one that is called the Salsa box, tomatoes, jalapenos,  cilantro, onions, peppers....we will see how it turns out.
He also splurged with some tax money this year and bought a roto-tiller. It is very nice to not have to rent one or borrow one. We bought the display model, our usual M.O. and got it for a great price let's hope it lasts us for a while.