Boys Monthly Letters

The boys have posted their monthly letters to their blogs. Just click on their pictures to the right.

Family Fun Run

This morning was the Hawthorn Academy Family Fun Run. We opted to run the 1 mile race and the boys were looking forward to it. Then we woke up this morning with at least 3 inches of snow on the ground. ?? Nice "spring" weather.

But that didn't stop us and we still had lots of fun. Any being that Brandon & Eric are Barnhisel's ... mildly competitive :) ... they were the first two to finish the race.

Dave ran with Kyle who was able to finish the race in very good time as well ... great job Kyle!!

They had lots of fun activities in the school gym after. We found out Eric has a real knack for Yoga.

They had the Chick-Fil-A Cow, the mascot for the Salt Lake Bees and the Griz Bear there which was fun for the kids.

Maybe next year we can actually run without snow. :)

Our "Best Pets"

Each spring we have a dozen or more baby ducks hatch in our yard. The ducks lay their eggs somewhere in our yard and then in the spring they hatch and we have to catch the baby ducks and get them over the fence to the canal. This morning the baby ducks finally emerged ... 14 baby ducks!! We love having no back neighbors except the ducks which Kyle calls his "Best Pets".

Pine Wood Derby

Tonight Brandon participated in his very first Pine Wood Derby. While he didn't have the fastest car he did win "Best in Show" for his very "HOT" car!

Unfortunately, Dave wasn't able to be there with us tonight because he is in Portland spending time with his father who is very ill. But, neverfear, we have 8 more years of Pine Wood Derby's ahead of us. :)

Easter Sunday

Easter Egg Hunt #2

Today we had an Easter BBQ at our house with Grandma Norberg, Ryan & Alisa and their boys, my cousin Shelley and her family and my cousin Lisa and her husband Alex. It was so much fun! Dave manned the BBQ (of course) and grilled up some fantastic burgers ... it's been a long time since I had a real burger and not a turkey burger ... yumm!!

Then we hid over 200 Easter eggs (I know, I am totally over the top about Easter egg hunts) and the kids got to go wild. It was so fun to watch them. I was so glad that grandma Norberg could come. She got to hang out with 9 of her 28 great-grandkids! (I think I counted right. Plus she has two more on the way.)

Afterwards the kids took to sorting their candy. :)

Then the kids all went down to the theatre room to watch "Tangled". The women hung out in the kitchen talking and after a little while we realized that the NBA playoffs were on in the family room but none of the guys were there. Turns out, they had all gone downstairs to watch "Tangled" with the kids. Don't think they are going to live that one down. :)

Kyle's 3rd Birthday & Easter Egg Hunt

Kyle turns three tomorrow but we had a family Easter party today and so we celebrated it today. Thanks to Aunt Melissa who put on the party, it was the easiest birthday celebration I have done. :)

I didn't even have to make a cake. Aunt Amy made her famous bunny cake which Kyle thought was very cool. Thanks Aim!

I can't believe my baby is 3. Crazy!! We got him a new booster seat and retired the "throne" carseat that has gone through all our boys. I looked in the van afterwards and without the throne it looked so weird, just three boosters. I told Dave "we're growing up!"

After the birthday stuff, the kids all went outside to hunt for Easter eggs which is almost as big as Christmas morning for my boys.

Easter Craft

My friend Rachel told me the other day that she wanted to do a craft. I saw this project on Studio 5 and told her I found us a good one. She was afraid of this one because you have to use a drill but that is easy part for me, I am scared of anything that involved toll painting or sewing. :) So I did the drilling and voila! Here it is:

The original inspiration for this project came from a pricey, Pottery Barn centerpiece that costs $149. We made this version for about $25. You can check out the original and the instructions on how to create this at this Brassy Apple post.

Spring Soccer Season

Spring Soccer season is upon us. Brandon had his first practise yesterday and tonight, he had his first game. He is finally in the age group where they play on a larger field, have real goalies, real positions ... I LOVE IT!!!! Finally REAL SOCCER!! And Brandon is loving it. He is so much happier with the faster moving game and loves rotating between the positions. He loves playing goalie and he is also super good on offense. He has a really good little team and it is just so much fun to watch him play. :)

Eric had his first practise tonight and weather permitting, will have his first game tomorrow. His team is called the Sharks and he has so much fun out there. He is such a joy to watch. The weather turned really cold and windy during the second half of the practise tonight but there is our little happy boy, with the biting cold wind in his face, playing his heart out chasing after that ball with the hugest grin on his face. :) What a happy child, he is such a joy!

Arches National Park

Murphy's Law: We had our 4-wheelers all loaded up to bring down here to Moab to play but the weather forecast showed horrible weather, rain every day, so we decided not to bother hauling them all the way down here. And of course ... the weather has been so nice today. Oh well, at least we had beautiful weather for hiking.

And the boys even got to do some swimming which they were super excited about. So even without the 4-wheelers, we have had a great time. And if it rains the next two days, then that's okay too. :)