A Busy Easter Weekend

We had a great, busy Easter weekend.
Friday morning Snowflake had its annual Easter Egg Hunt. I read about it in the paper and everyone was talking about it so my kids insisted we go. It was really windy (when isn't it?). The event was held at the golf course where they divided it up by age group. I took Mason over to the 1-2yr old section. They blew the whistle and they were off! More like the moms were off. You wouldn't believe the site, moms and dads pulling their 2 year olds by the arm trying to get as many eggs for their tots as they could. I spotted one pre-teen boy gathering as many as he could in his shirt to give to his little sister. It took all of my will not to yell at him. Meanwhile Mason is hunting at his slow, 2 year old pace. I wanted him to be able to hunt on his own and find his own eggs, to be a "big boy". Well, he didn't get very many because of it. My feelings, parents shouldn't be allowed past the "go" line. Let the kids hunt. Not the parents for their kids. Ok, that's the end of that rant. They need to put me in charge of this event next year. ;)

Here he is with his 5 glorious eggs! (I'm not bitter)



Saturday, April 11th was Parker's birthday! He's 5! He's been telling averyone he's 5 for the past 3 months so its now official! He figured he was as tall as his 5 year old friends, so it only makes sense that he is 5 too. We made him a tire cake. LOL! I say we because Josh actually helped me on this one. While I was putting the layers together part of the cake broke. I was really frustrated and ready to throw it all away but Josh insisted he could fix it. So I let him. He grabbed his putty knife (he cleaned it off first of course) and treated the cake like it was drywall. At it worked! Remember I said a while back that I'm sick of the fact that he can do almost anything?? Well, he pretty much can. But I will never let him touch my hair again.



Sunday morning the Easter bunny came leaving the kids great baskets of treats and toys. The bunny made a HUGE mess, leaving a trail of grass all over the floor. I'm still vaccuming it up. I think next year I'll lock the door. Sunday night we had dinner at a friends house and had an Easter Egg hunt there with their kids. Fewer kids+more eggs equals better luck. Some of the plastic eggs were camo colored so those were a little harder to find.


So thats our weekend! Hope yours was a happy one!

Knock on wood, Liz!

I forgot to knock on wood last week when I told Josh's step dad that our family hasn't been sick in a long time. Guess what? Yep, Mason is sick! He has a horrible cough, runny nose and fever. Poor little guy! He is napping now. Has been for more than 3 hours. On the bright side, he's very mellow so there's a lot less cleaning up to do around the house.

A Funeral and an arch

We got back home last night from a quick trip to Utah. A good friend of ours, Susann Allred (Suzie) passed away on Wednedsay. We've known her and her husband Les for almost 10 years. They have 10 kids together and they were such an awesome couple. During their last few years together, the two were inseperable. If you saw Les, you saw Suzie. Little did they know that sharks were swimming around in her brain. She died of a brain anurism. Suzie was great. She reminded me a lot of my mom. Her kids and grandkids were her joy. Always tending her grandkids and just as sweet as can be.
Les asked Josh to sing at the funeral and he did. He sang "In this Life" by Collin Raye. He did an amazing job. I was astounded at how much better he sounded in a microphone. I didn't think he could ever sound better. He played his guitar along with it and missed a cord, that bothered Josh but it really didn't matter. People came up to him afterwards and asked him if he was famous. LOL! That made Josh's day.

Our route home took us right through Moab. We couldn't just drive by without going to the Arches National Park. Josh and I have been there before when Kenzie was just a baby but you can never see too much of this beauty. The scenery is absolutey amazing!

Here we are with the Delicate Arch in the distance. We couldn't hike up to it because it was a little chilly for the kids. Plus, we had the dogs with us and pets are not allowed on the trails.


Delicate Arch


More photos in the park:
I think they call these "windows".


These are the La Sal Mountains in the distance.

Gotta Go To Work

So Parker's new phrase is, "I gotta go to work.'' He and a few other little boys in the neighborhood are building a "club house" 2 doors down at his friends' house. They're gathering old wood, breaking down wood pallets and they even found tons of nails down in the wash behind our house. (Even though he's not allowed to go down there). Its crazy how much they've built! I'm a little worried because they're building a roof over it too and I'm so afraid its going to cave in on them. So here's my dilama...Do I let boys be boys and just let him have his fun -I mean work- or do I put my foot down because its a little dangerous?
Yesterday he came home looking like Pig Pen, even with dirt in his nose! I say, let him just have fun. Josh says, no its dangerous. What a switch, right?? Josh and his brothers were hellians doing things 10 times worse! You'd think he'd think different.
Hopefully Parker will lose interst and move onto something else soon.

Chidester family Update

Its been a while since I updated our blog. Lets see...whats new. Well today is Kenzie's birthay. She's 10! I CANNOT BELIEVE I am old enough to have a 10 year old. This morning I sent her to school with a giant choc chip cookie to share with her class. She was so excited!



She requested a basketball cake so I made her that too. (That did not turn out so super amazing so I won't show you that)

Some of you know we got a couple horses. A family in our ward gave them to us. We have a fenced corral next to our house anyway. They are so beautiful.
This one is Blaze. He's 2 years old and a bit of a knot head, we just need to work with him more.


And this is Oopsy. She is 11 and Blaze's mom. She's really sweet and really easy going. She'd even let you hop on her back and ride bare back if you wanted. She's also REALLY pregnant. Probably ready to give birth next month. That'll be interesting for us!!



A family of 6, two dogs and 2 horses. We're just one BIG happy family!

Fun's Over

Well the fun of a puppy is over. The kids no longer do their duties to help. No cleaning messes, no carrying it around, no playing with her! The puppy has started nipping at their feet so all they do is run from her. She still yaps each night, and she prefers to pee on the carpet instead of the dirty outdoors. Oh what to do!

Puppy Love

Meet our new puppy Oreo. I don't know what breed she is, a mixture of a few I think. She's a really sweet dog and the kids love her. It's a little difficult having a puppy. We are working on potty training and she cries at night. But I think she's getting comfortable here. Even Sunny has stopped growling at her.
Look at how cute she is:



Mason even held her for a while. Yes, he likes to touch animal's eyes and he squeezed her a little too hard but the puppy's fine. She loves to be held. Sidney carries her around all day like she's a baby. She even puts her Build-a-Bear clothes on her. Its really cute.




Its hard work to have a puppy but I'm making sure the kids help out. They put Oreo down for her "nap", they clean up the messes and take her out to go potty.