This past week

This past week, my Dad came out on a business trip. When the kids and I picked him up at O'hare, he was very pumped and excited to play monster with the kids. The kids and he were telling each other that they were going to win. Dad has apparently been thinking about this monster game and planning his strategy for months now. His time paid off because he won each game they played. This is a game that my siblings and I used to play with him when we were younger. Dad would be the monster and have to catch everyone to win. Each person is put in jail unless a free agent tags them free. My Dad thinks that part of his winning streak this time was the shoe choice he selected. Well Dad, the kids are already planning a come-back game! We enjoyed showing him Chicago-style hospitality ie Chicago deep dish pizza and Portillo's hot dogs. We were sad when his trip was cut short due to coming down with bronchitis during his visit. We had fun while he was here. We love you, G-pa/Dad!

Our kids in action

We had the kids help pick up the house yesterday. Ryan and I want our kids to be a part of the cleaning process....so we had them mop all the wood floors. It wasn't the easiest to get them to be excited about it to begin with, but as they got into it, they were having a good time. Evan Eva can be seen here with Maile, scrubbing the floors. Fun to see everyone working together. Now if we could get this to happen all the time AND with good attitudes to boot! :-)

Pinewood derby day and what not

Regan had an amazing racing day yesterday. Here he is winning his prize. They had the audience vote for the best looking car by numbers. When they were announcing this coveted prize, the announcer told us all that this was a landslide of a vote. That over 90% of the audience voted for Regan Batchelor's car.

Here is Regan with his car. The boys designed it like a corvette. We had headlights that blinked. You can see them on in this picture. We also had music playing on the car. We had "Kung Fu Fighting" playing. There were also lightening bolts on the side. It was a sweet looking car.

Regan and Kyla waiting for the sweetest looking ride to take off down the tracks. It was really cute when they had Regan as one of the 4 racers, the boys from his troop all chanted, "Regan, Regan, Regan..." Regan didn't care that his car was not the fastest, but really enjoyed hearing all the boys cheer him on. We were glad that his car didn't make it last for every single race. Just wait till next year's car!!! We will have an amazing looking car AND the fastest!

Here is Regan and Ryan weighing in. Ryan really got into this car thing. It was really cute to see Regan and him working on it the night before, giving each other high fives and what not.

Not only did we have a busy week packed with concerts, races, activity days, scouts, lessons, etc....we also had Michael's University of Chicago interview to think about. After dinner one night, we were talking about strategy for Moochie as well as mock interview questions. We joked about how he is so young...so he came up with a brilliant plan of a more "mature" look. He grabbed our electrical tape and fashioned a moustache and long side burns. We were laughing as he was sporting this look...and laughed even harder when I said jokingly that it would be funny if he had an allergic reaction to the tape for his interview the next day...he of course ripped of his new look and asked us if there was any signs of an allergic reaction to the tape. :-) By the way...he came straight to the pinewood derby from his interview and it went well. Let's cross our fingers for him to be accepted into their MBA program.

More of this and that

On Friday, Maile had her piano recital. She did quite well. Her teacher has told me that she is really quite gifted and is a fast learner. We aren't surprised as she has always been like this throughout her life. Here she is after the whole group did a final bow.

Here she is performing one of her five pieces during the night. One of the pieces that she plays is one of Kyla's favorite. Kyla hums it all the time.

This is kind of random, but made us laugh. At dinner the other night, we were eating chicken soft tacos. Ryan went to reach for some lettuce for his taco and accidentally brushed his shirt across the salsa bottle. We told him he got something on his shirt and no lies, when he stretched out his arm to see the damage, he found this, a happy smile face out of his salsa. This is not a doctored picture...truly and really. this is what we saw. Chelsea, Moochie, and I laughed.

Ana our forever poser. I was taking pictures of the boys and she said, "Mama, will you take my picture too?" So I did and she of course did a pose of her own. :-)

The men went practice shooting at our local shooting range. The funny thing about this picture is that is should include Michael, but we were waiting forever for him to get things ready ie: stop eating in the kitchen, washing his hands, looking at things, etc. So we took the picture without him. The boys had a ton of fun being boys. The came back laughing and telling stories from the range.

A little of our week

Regan had his pinewood derby yesterday. In prep for the his race, he enlisted the help of Dan, Ryan, and Michael to fashion the car of his dreams.

We were glad that Dan happened to be here at the same time that we were making the car this week. The boys had fun thinking up ideas for the car as well as sanding and designing it. It was cute to see all of them together with glee in their eyes. Wait till you see the finished product!

Maile had a two musical concerts this week. The first was her violin concert at school. She is our amazingly talented girl...the best of the strings, best looking, best all-around!!! :-)

It was good to have Moochie and Chelsea back from China. We missed having them with us!

Kyla always makes us laugh with her clothing selection. I saw her running around wearing some shorts that I have not seen before. I realized that she was not wearing shorts at all, but was wearing a shirt that she decided to wear as shorts by putting her legs into the arm holes. I never would have thought of that one.... :-) She is our future fashion designer with her fierce designs.

Ella the great!

Let me set this scene for you....It was a bright and sunny, clear morning. The air had a hint of crispness in it. We could tell it was going to be a beautiful day. As kids were running around getting ready for their bus, I was thinking about our day's schedule. It already was a crazy morning as the kids had been fighting with one another. As my head was swimming, I hear one of the kids say, "Mom! It's that huge opossum in the back yard! LOOK!" I had hoped that yesterday's sighting of the ugly beast would be the last sight that I would see of his huge, long, thick tail. This this reminds me of the ROUS from the Princess Bride movie. So disgusting! Dan and I were sitting in the kitchen, yesterday morning, when he saw the huge beast in our yard, running along our fence. It ran away through our neighbor's side of the fence. I truly hoped that I wouldn't see it again. So when I saw it again this am, I had a flood of images run through me of my kids both older and younger playing in our backyard and having this beast bite them. It was right next to their play set. A little TOO close for my likings! So Maile said, "Mom, should we let Ella out?" I told her that would be great. So she released Ella to our yard. Our dalmatian is super fast. She reminds me of a greyhound with spots. She bolted for the beast and it ran. The chase ended behind some large rocks in the corner of our yard. All we could see was Ella's tail darting back and forth. She emerged from the rocks with something hanging from her mouth. I'm not sure if it was hair or saliva or what. The kids all shouted with joy and ran to get her. They looked behind the rock and saw no sight of the beast. Ella then ran to our neighbor's fence and barked. We were so proud of her for scaring away that awful thing. I had the kids call Ryan at work. Regan said, "Dad...you know that bow and arrow that you used to hunt with...." Ryan laughed. We could see the idea forming in Regan's head. All thoughts of fighting with the siblings were left in the dust as the kids dashed to the bus together, smiling and feeling overjoyed that their Ella had protected the yard from danger. I love that dog...especially this morning!!!

Easter

We have had a busy weekend. It is hard to believe that Easter has come and gone! Here are the kids finding their baskets. The Easter Bunny included coupons for the kids as well as chocolates. The kids were excited about both of these items!!!

Eva was two-fisting her chocolate. In one hand she held the bunny chocolate and in the other she was holding m&ms. Who says you can't have too much of a good thing?! Ariana chose to sit down and enjoy her chocolate in a relaxing way.

Maile was being silly when I told her to smile, she did this to show her crazy love for chocolate.

We took several family pictures. I believe this is the best one. We had our camera on a timer and tried our best with it. It started out with Kyla jumping out of the picture to get candy just as the camera snapped. Then we tried a plethora of other times to get a good one of us all. This is the best we could get. It actually depicts us quite well with the way that our life is definitely not perfect, but we love our craziness just the same. Michael and Chelsea's plane from China ended up coming in much later, but we were super excited to pick them up and be with them. We had a great dinner and played one of our new games brought to us by the Easter Bunny, called I spy. We had a ton of fun playing it! Though things weren't exactly picture perfect throughout the day, it was perfect to us in the sense that we were together. To us, that is one of the most perfect things we can get....family time!!!

A little of our weekend

Our family wanted to grow a garden in our backyard, so we made our way to Lowes with all the kids and picked out lumber, seeds, and soil to make a raised garden. It was fun to see what seeds the kids wanted to pick out as their own special thing to grow. I don't know if we will have enough room for everything, but lets just say that you may be calling us Farmer Batchelor from here on out. I realize as I type, that I didn't get a picture of the finished product, but will do so when we plant our first crop of food. Ryan did an AMAZING job at making the best ever raised garden bed!!!

Eva found another way to use the "Elephun" game net as a hat. She would run all around the house saying, "Do you like my hat?!"

Ryan and the kids made homemade pizzas for lunch. If you are wondering why Ryan is posing like that it is because he is trying to be like Ariana in pictures. Whenever we grab out the camera, she will do a pose...so here is Ryan doing his pose for this shot.

Kyla's lesson to Eva

I was downstairs on our email when Kyla came down to me and said, "Mom, I'm teaching Eva a new trick!!!" She was really proud of herself. I said, "Oh, that's wonderful!" I finished up with emails and went upstairs to see what trick she was teaching her. I found Eva on Regan's bed and Kyla climbing up the ladder and then scooting over and hanging from the bar. She would also make monkey sounds as well. I then would hear Eva say, "Up, down. OK!" When Kyla would drop, Eva would say, "Are you alright?" Kyla would then tell her she was great and do it all over again. It made me laugh. The voice on the post is Eva talking to Kyla.

Bountiful

We drove back to Syracuse and spent the night with Mom and Dad Batchelor. The next day, we headed to Carrie's for dinner and conference time. Kyla found fun in Carrie's dress up box. Carrie was so good to our family. Ana plugged one of her toilets, sending a flood through out her downstairs bathroom. She was so gracious to us. We had a great time being with everyone. It's hard to believe that we had been away for 1o days! We loved being with everyone and only wish that we all lived a whole lot closer together! Thank you everyone for being so good to us. We love you all!!!!

Orem

After a day of fun with the Bryce Clan, Kyla was wiped out!

Heather and I really loved being together. The day went by way too fast!!! Wish that they lived close to us too! She is one amazing woman, this one! I love my best friend!

The girls had quite the fun times dressing up and playing around.

Princesses reunited...and having fun!

Northern fun

After jumping at the jump it place, we made sugar cookies and had a decorating fest!

Heather and Greta pose for the camera.

This was a big hit! The kids loved this blow up toy.

What could be more fun than a warehouse full of trampolines and blow up toys?! The kids had a ton of fun jumping their hearts out.

Ivins to Orem

After staying with Kim, Dave, and the girls, we drove up to Orem and spent the night with Heather and Dan. While Daddy was translating conference, Heather and I took the kids to a trampoline place called, Jump on it. Here are some of the kids ready for some fun.

Two girls that we rarely saw. Sasha and Maile were inseparable. Maile adored hanging out with Sasha. Wish that they lived near us to enjoy them more....you know you want to move out to Chicago, Kim and Dave!!!

Here we are ready to go. Eva is ready with Pee-low in hand. We had a great time with the Nally crew. They are so wonderful! We are thankful that we have them as our family and friends!!

Master Kim with baby brother, Ryan. Thanks for the fun times, Kim, Dave, and girls!!! We love you!

Ivins 2

The kids enjoying UNO together.

Brooke and Stephanie performed in their dance concert while we were there. I was home with the 3 youngers, but heard from everyone that it was one AMAZING event. We can't get over how grown up the girls are!!! So beautiful and sweet!

The girls jumping outside in the backyard.

Another shot of them jumping. It makes me smile just looking at this picture. Every time that we would look out the window or go outside, Eva would say, "Look, Mom! Mountains!!!" She was in awe of the mountains, especially since we don't have any of them!

Ivins

Regan said that the other thing that was a dream come true would be to go on a hike. So Kim and Dave took us on a hike in their backyard. We were proud of Kyla and Regan for finishing their hike.

If this doesn't capture Kyla's spirit, I don't know what does. She is a mover and a shaker, this one! I love seeing how she has both of her feet off the ground. She makes us smile in so many ways!!!

We rode in the back of Dave's truck to our hike site. Regan was a bit nervous and said that he didn't know how to ride in the back of the truck, something that Ryan and I laugh about because we used to do this as kids, and now a days, kids don't know how to do this in our world of seat belts and booster seats. We had fun.

Eva doesn't let traveling stop her love of Pee-lows. She had 4 of Stephanie's pillows to nap with.

Kim and Dave's

Here we are with Master Kim and "Little Lion," as the girls called Cleo. It was fun just being together. Such great people! We love Kim and Dave and their girls!!!

Enjoying the warmth of Ivins, Ryan and Eva jumped on the trampoline.

Eva and Kyla's favorite thing to do, by far, was chase "Little Lion." Poor Cleo probably got more exercise running for her life for the 2 days we were there than in her entire 7 years of life.

Regan said that one of his dreams come true would be to sleep in a trailer. He was more than thrilled to see that Kim and Dave own one. He and Ariana were going to sleep in the trailer the first night we were there. After Dave showed them everything, we shut the door and headed for the house. Not more than 2 minutes had passed and we had a running Ariana and Regan come into the main house a bit fearful for robbers to come and get them in the trailer.

Syracuse to Ivins

We drove down to St. George area to spend time with the Nally Clan. Kim is a master yoga expert. We now refer to her as, "Master Kim." We went to her class. It was more intense than I expected...especially for beginners. Ryan and I wish that she lived close by so we could take classes for her. She is one flexible chicky!

As we were driving down to St. George, the kids watched a movie. My personal favorite are the Burger King crowns. Regan actually wore this for the rest of the trip including the entire plane ride home to Chicago. :-)

We were playing games when we asked Regan if he was tired. He said no and seriously, no more than 2 minutes passed by and we saw this vision including snoring sounds.

We loved playing games with Mom and Dad Batchelor. We learned how to play 5 crowns as well as play one of our favorites, UNO.