Happy 9th birthday to my trio!

It is hard to believe that 9 years ago today, three little angels entered our lives. Life is not as frantic as when we brought these bundles of joy home but with the different stages comes different kinds of busy. So glad for the times when we are just sitting and talking or playing games as a family. Sometimes hard to find with violin, piano, sports (when in season), gymanastics, guitar, scouts, Young Men, achievement day, and (soon) singing lessons but they exsist and they are my favorite times.

This year was a "non-friend" birthday party. We don't do birthday party's every year. Just at certain ages. Chase, however, will have one next weekend because last year none of his friends could come because they had a baseball game to go to:-(. He will be taking 7 friends laser tagging next weekend.

Although it was just family we had party boxes, ballons and noise makers (what was I thinking?!?!).

Aunt Marge came and WHAT A NEAT SUPRISE! The day before she picked up the girls and took them fabric shopping to make them skirts. They each picked out their fabric and viola!--Marge had whipped them out in one day so she could give them to the girls on their birthday. WOW, Aunt Marge! You are awesome! The girls were SO excited. They wore the skirts to school the next day. How cute are they!?!!!

Tyler and Ryan mowed the yard on Saturday to earn money to get a game for Chase that he wanted. Don't you like how I taught my kids to take the price tag off the gift...LOL!

Chase loves soccer so we got him another ball with some cones for goals.....

and are taking him to a SL REAL soccer game. He was very excited to get binoculars so he can see better when he goes...although we hear there isn't a bad seat in the soccer staduim here.

We were even more excited to give the girls their gift. Look at their faces as they both realized what it was......

We are flying them to San Fransisco to see Wicked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were SO EXCITED! They haven't seen it but know the story and have listen to the cd so many times they know every word to every song.

These are fake tickets. We are waiting to see if the price of the tickets go any lower. We will be taking them in either May or June. Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!

Try lighting 27 candles on a cake before the wax melts the first...ha! I am one talented women:-). This is the traditional choclate cake with pepperment icing....a Boden Family tradition.

I am one lucky mom to have such loving children. They are truly my life! Happy birthday, sweeties!

Zions National Park

The kids were off track for 3 weeks and the weather was in the low to mid 70's in Southern Utah so what a great time to take off for a 3 day camping trip with the kids!

Ryan was very excited to use his new skills that he learned from scouts. He lit the chimey and helped make the dinner.

On the menu; Hobbo Dinners

Meagan never likes to be left out of anything and gets bored really easy. She has to keep herself busy all the time. I am constantly hearing, "can I help you with that", "can I organize the pantry", "can I make dinner". She is a busy little (cute) bee!

Chase, on the other hand, was up in a tree, down by the creek, wondering around the campground all by himself and he has always been like this. He is a very independant child. I am constantly looking for him when we go places because he just likes to wander off by himself. "Where's Chase?" is a common question in our house.

Isn't it funny how everything taste so much better when you are camping out? Is it nature? Is it the taste of cooking it in the dutch oven? Is it because the dutch oven takes so long that you are starving by the time it is done? Is it just the peace and joy you feel when you are out spending quality time with your kids? Probably all the above. All I know is the only time I have tasted better meals is when I end my fast on Fast Sundays:-).

We had bisquits to go with our dinner one night and cinnamon pull-aparts to go with them the second. Again, so dang tasty!

And of coarse you can't go camping without the traditional smores. I limited myself to just 2 1/2....didn't want to seem like a pig or anything.

I commented to Ryan on how we needed to take his jeans in to Sears and exchange them (Sears will exchange jeans that get rips or holes in them so I don't go anywhere else to buy my boys jeans. All you moms with boys know exactly what I mean). Ryan says, "No mom! I love these jeans. Jeans with holes in them are 'man jeans' ". LOL! He is my only boy who cares about how is hair looks, what he's wearing, if his teeth are white, ect. He even saves his money to get highlights in his hair and will comment when Dave or I are "dressed cool". Couldn't live without this little ball of fire.

This was on our first of 4 hikes. This was Shelf Cannon....off the beaten path and not one of the more popular ones people hike or the shuttle bus takes you to.

This hike made me a little nervous because it had rained recently and the sand on the bottom of our shoes made it very slick. I was sure someone was going to get hurt but I was wrong (thank goodness).

One of the many beautiful scenes we saw in Zions. This was on our second hike up to the middle falls at Emerald Pools.

This is the upper falls at the Emerald pools. The kids loved this hike the most. If we would have let them they would have jumped in the water....the freezing cold water. At what age do you start feeling heat and cold?...cause kids seriously seem to not feel it as well. The temperature here in Utah as been in the low to mid 60's a few times over the last week and the kids keep asking me if I will turn on the sprinkles so they can get their swimsuits on and run through them. What?!?!

This is beneath/under the middle falls at Emerald Pools. Tyler got soaked as he was walking underneath on the trail. A good breeze came in and got him good. He wanted to wait until another breeze kicked in again but it was past lunch and some of us (especially mom who hadn't been snacking on the hike) were getting hungry.

Dave and I are both self conscience about having a "double chin" in our pics so when Tyler asked if he could take some pictures as we were enjoying the sun on the lawn of Zions Park for lunch I promised Dave that I would make sure he didn't have a double chin for the picture. We were cracking up trying to make it look normal. SO, here's our "no double chins" picture. :-)

The girls have been taking Gymnastics since shortly after we moved back to Utah. They had fun in the big open grass space doing their cartwheels, front walk-overs, back walk-overs, and round-offs. Here I am helping Jenna with her back handspring (which she almost has).

Now that lunch is done and we are rejuvinated we decided to do 2 more hikes. But first....time to get the old man up. ;-P

It takes a family to raise a....Dad!

The squirels were very friendly here. It was fun because they weren't afraid of people so they would come right up to you.

Quick picture with my honey at the start of the Narrows. We couldn't go up because of the water level but we want to come back in 2 or 3 years and go up with the kids and camp over night.

The last hike we went on was a short 20 minute hike into the Weeping Gardens. We all had fun but were ready to go back and start dinner, relax and play some games.

This is a random picture of the girls I threw in here. They had just had their haircut and wanted to take pictures. Aren't they the sweetest things!!

The Triplets first 5K....

This was a 5K to raise money for the South Jordan School District. Tyler missed out cause he thought mowing a half acre of land sounded more fun. Dave and Ryan missed out because they went to pick up the boat at Lake Powell.

Cosmo made an appearance and the kids were pretty excited to get a piece of wood that he had karate chopped and then signed for them.

The picture above is at about 2 1/2 miles into the race. By that point they were tired of running and mom was trying her hardest to not listen to the compaints. Some of the complaints were annoying (there I said it) and some were funny. My favorite one was when we were going downhill and I said, "let the hill carry you down". One of them says, "I wish it were an escalator carrying us down". The one under that was at the 3 mile marker. That's when they realized they had done it!


Tah Dah! We made it! I asked them if they wanted to run in May for "The Cure" race and they said, "yes"....so, I guess it wasn't THAT bad:). Meagan even said, "I feel like I accomplished something". I was very proud of them. They were excited that they got free ice cream at the end and I was excited that I didn't loose it with them when they started complaining:-).

The rest of Easter Day....

On the menu for breakfast was bunny shaped pancakes. I think I am rubbing off on my kids as Ryan, my 11 year old BOY, said, "mom, you should sprinkle powdered sugar on top to make the bunnies look white". LOL!

Yummy! I think they were too excited to worry about breakfast though. They usually have 2 or 3 pancakes each but all claimed they were full after one pancake. I guess they wanted to get back to their toys...

For dinner, the master chef (AKA-Dave) barbequed some asparagus. This is one of my FAVORITE dishes. It is SO good. He loves his new grill. This 40th b-day gift just keeps on giving...and hey, I must admit I've benefitted too:-).

Oh yes! It IS as good as it looks here. My mouth waters just looking at the picture!

Rolls, bbqed asparagus, ham, homemade augratin (sp?) potatoes, and a yummy salad with Strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Before the prayer we each read a paper that we had written on at Christmas time. On this paper is written the gift that we will give to Jesus this year. I thought it would be a good time to get them back out so we could read what we were going to do (give) and check to see how we were doing.

As a family, we do not normally have Easter baskets, candy, toys, ect. This year was different, however, because while some friends of mine (Bob and Vivivian-see earlier post) were up visiting they decided to suprise them (and me) with a last minute shopping trip before leaving to return to San Antonio, Texas. They bought each kid an Easter bucket and filled them with toys... and as if that weren't enough they bought pre-made Easter baskets too. They even made me do a little work. They bought empty eggs and candy. I had to fill them with the candy and promised them that I would have an Easter egg hunt for them. So, keeping with my promise this is what they woke up too. They were SO excited! Meagan says, "Mom, can I say the (breakfast) prayer?" Me-"sure". Chase-"But I asked first, Mom". Me-"Oh, sorry I didn't hear you ask. Then Meagan, Chase gets to say the prayer". Meagan, "But I want to say thank you for everything we got today". Mom- "That is so sweet, guys" (BEAMNG WITH DELIGHT). They didn't even want to finish opening their baskets or wait for breakfast to be ready. They just wanted to stop right then to offer a prayer of thanks.

What a fun day! I was completely worn out by the end though. Calgon...take me away!

Easter Story Cookies!

Ingredients; 1 cp. whole pecans, 1 t. vinegar, 3 egg whites, 1 cp. sugar, zipper baggie, wooden spoon, tape and bible.

Our Easter family tradition is making Easter Story Cookies. The night before Easter Sunday we make the cookies and in the morning when they wake up they get to see the hollow cookies all ready to eat. I forget how I found this idea but I love it and it has become something we do with the kids to remind them of the sacrafice the Savior made for us and the miracle of his Resurrection and the gift that He gave to us of Repentance and Eternal Life. For anyone who would like to try this with their children, here is what you do;
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place pecans in zipper baggie and let the children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested he was beaten by the Roman soldiers.
Read John 19:1-3

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp. into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross He was given vinegar to drink.
Read John 19:28-30

Add egg white to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life.
Read John 10:10 and 11

Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers and the bitterness of our own sin.
Read Luke 23:27

So far the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1 cp. sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us and so does Heavenly Father. He wants us to know him and return to Him and His Father.
Read Psalms 34:8 and John 3:16

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 10-12 min. until stiff peaks form (I let each child have a turn with the mixer). Explain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus.
Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons (I let the kids do one or two each) onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid.
Read Matt. 27:57-60

Put the cookie sheet in the oven; close the door and turn oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed.
Read Matt. 27:65-66

GO TO BED! Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed.
Read John 16:20 and 22

On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Easter, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty.
Read Matt. 28:1-9. HE HAS RISEN!

I am so blessed to have the knowledge and a testimony of the Saviors sacrafice and to share it with those I love most. It all boils down to that one day in history where a king, the prince of peace, our Savior, our brother was resurrected. He is risen, He is risen...SHOUT IT OUT TO ALL THE EARTH!

Happy birthday, Aunt Marge!

We are very lucky/fortunate to have Aunt Marge live close to us. I have no family around from my side (closest is 20 hours away in Missouri) and Dave has a few Aunts, Uncles and cousins here in Utah. Aunt Marge always remembers the kids for holidays and birthdays and makes it a point to let them know she is thinking of them in one way or another. She comes over at least twice a month for Sunday dinner and makes it to all of the kids events. She is a very thoughtful Aunt in every respect.
For dinner she chose to have bbqed chicken, steak, oriental green beans (one of her favorites), bbqed sweet potatoes and rolls. We were glad to oblige since we would be eating this feast too:-).
For dessert we had a (lopsided) chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream.
Blowing out the candles. We hope you get all that you wish for. You deserve it! (don't you love how the kids are miming the blowing of the candles with her...heehee).
Often times the kids will come over and snuggle with Marge. This is a frequent occurance that I decided to catch on camera. You are loved, Marge! Thank you for being you!!!