::classic::

I captured some classic brother behavior the other day while trying to catch a cute moment.

"Oh! You boys are so cute riding on the plasma car together! Hold on, let me grab the camera and take your picture!" "No wait, Sandy, stay on the car." "Sandy, wait!"

"Oh no Max, don't squeeze him." "I know you're trying to help me get a picture but..."

"I know you're tickling him Max, but he's screaming. Can you stop?" "Smile Sandy so I can take your picture!"

"Oh dear."

"OK Max, thanks for trying but we'd better stop now."

"Awww, brothers. You two are cute." Sandy "LET ME OUT!!!!!!!"
OK now looking at this I'm thinking it's more of a classic Mom & boys interaction. But also brothers too. Sandy is easily annoyed with Max because Max is so much bigger and stronger. It stinks to be forced to do things you're not in the mood for--even if you were in the mood for those things 10 seconds ago and just suddenly aren't feeling it anymore. But they are wearing matching shirts, and as far as I'm concerned that covereth a multitude of sins.

::picture window::

This particular window in our living room shows us the most amazing sunsets. If we can bear to keep the shade up through the part when the sun is drilling right into our eyes, we are often richly rewarded.

::cub scouts::

Cub scouts, Oy.

This is Max with a huge bag of garbage we picked up right around our house-for scouts. Who knew there were so many bud light cans and bottles hiding in the desert.

Unfortunately for me I found out that the ability to earn Cub Scout awards is based on age. Such as, if you turn 9 and haven't yet finished earning your Wolf, you're out of luck.

Max was turning 9 and I found this out, so I had to abjectly beg the young guy that's in charge of the program at church to give me a month extension. Not being someone with two children and two plus businesses to run he was not impressed, but grudgingly let me have it.

Anyway, we worked our buns off. BUNS OFF. And then the pack meeting he was supposed to get the awards at got postponed and we were out of town. So he still doesn't have the dang-nabbed patch. Anyway, it's a good thing he loves Cubs and had a great Wolf leader because it's been a source of great frustration and stress to me!
We'll do better with his Bear. I won't let him lose the book for six months this time.

I just keep thinking that if Cubs is this hard, how's it going to be when he needs to get his Eagle? 

Whatever, at least he's cute. I love the garbage bag photo.  He was so proud of himself.  And I guess that's the point of all this, is getting the kids to do things they wouldn't normally do.  And to make them want to do it again.  Which he did, the crazy kid.

::easters 2::

On Easter afternoon we had a little get together for a shared Easter dinner. I was pretty proud of myself because we cooked a ham and cheesy potatoes. I haven't cooked much lately because we're just so busy. So we fed friends.
And of course we had to have an Easter egg hunt for the kiddos. It's just too fun. Some of my fondest memories from my childhood are the big egg hunts my mom would throw for us. SO so fun. So any Easter that goes by without a kid egg hunt is a wasted year.
Dads hiding eggs.



The kids were having such a hard time waiting, and we have so many windows out to the yards that they could see the dads' every move. It was torture.


At one point Sandy escaped, basket in hand and went running into the courtyard. He got two eggs before I caught him. "Why does Sandy get to go out!??"

And, GO! And in the searching of course I followed Sandy the most. I can't help it. He almost had it all figured out, though he was so slow at picking up the eggs he was lucky that there were any left to find after the first one!



Helpful brother.

I think the kids were having lots of fun.





Watch out for the tulips Sandy!
And what is little Molly looking up at in the previous photo?

Oh of course, it's just Brother Wilson, up where he's not supposed to be, defying rules as usual.

And finally, success. All eggs were found.

It was a really fun get together and I was so glad we did it. The weekend was so busy that I really hesitated to add more, but it's so nice to spend time with friends. We just don't get to do enough hanging out with nice people.
And plus, when you can't have your family come over, gotta have ward family instead.
Last photo--I just really liked this one. I love dad and kid in the foreground and the moms in the background.

We're just so lucky to have great people as friends out here. Happy Easter!

::easters 1::

Boys had to wait until after church for their goodies because they slept in. It was torture. We were all glad to get home. Luckily Sultan didn't get in and eat everything while we were gone!

::the easter portraits::

There are a zillion of these, but some of them are too funny not to post! Enjoy and don't get worn out of looking at us!























THE END!!

::::

Sandy running away from Easter pictures last year:

Sandy running away from Easter pictures this year:

Yeah, he's bigger. BIGGER.