Easter and Spring Break

We had a very fun spring break and Easter.  We stayed in town this year and stayed very busy with outings, cousins and friends.  These are some of the exciting things we did:  going to the zoo in a large group of 22 children, eating at Crown Burger, getting frozen yogurt, visiting Jono at the bank and drinking hot chocolate, going to the library (Coleman got his own library card and said it was "the best day ever"), working in the yard, playing golf (twice), going bowling and playing at the arcade, going to the aquarium, meeting the Easter Bunny at the mall, and dyeing and decorating 6 dozen eggs!   


On Easter, we had a wonderfully fun party at Laura and JD's house.  They had us play this hilarious game where you take turns breaking an egg on someone's head.  It could have confetti in it or glitter, which means you were the lucky one for the day.  (Rosie got the glitter egg.)  Laura spent hours hollowing out eggs, dyeing them and filling them with confetti or glitter.  It was so funny watching everyone smash eggs on each other's heads.  Jono added a twist to the game and broke a real egg on an unsuspecting Bud's head.  We laughed so hard!  It was a very fun party with delicous desserts.

Here are some random pictures of our family:  playing in the snow on Conference weekend, Bud finished all seven Harry Potter books and is planning on seeing the last movie with Grampy this summer, another Oettli poker match with Coleman coming out as the big winner, and wearing our Master's shirts on Master's Sunday.

Read more...

Rosie is Ten!

Rosie turned ten on April 16th!  She loves her birthday and this was an extra special birthday because she is now in the double-digits.  She decided to forget about the big friend party and we spent the day with our family celebrating from morning to night.

In the morning (in front of the fire, is spring ever going to get here?), Rosie opened her presents.  She got skinny pink jeans, sandals, Tron Legacy DVD, other things that I can't remember because I am so late writing this post, and pink Callaway golf clubs.  She was very happy!

We then put on our Utah red and went to the Spring Football game.  Some of us had a great time and others of us were starving, bored and wiggly.  Rosie and Coleman definitely will not be invited to any games this fall!  After the game we went to Rosie's favorite restaurant The Spaghetti Factory.  She was so happy when the waiters sang Happy Birthday to her and brought her ice cream at the end of the meal.

Then our celebration continued at the golf course so Rosie could try out her new clubs.  (I have no desire to play golf, but I love to watch my kids play golf!)  It's a great sight to see the three of them hitting bucket after bucket of balls on the range and playing a round. Coleman is old enough to play on the course this year and we have played quite a few times this spring.  Rosie recently shot her best score for 9 holes on a par 3 course, in the low 50's. Rosie loves her pink golf balls so much that when she gets to hole with water on in, she pulls out an old white ball, just in case!

 Our sweet Rosie has had an exciting year!  She still loves school and gets very good grades.  (The only time she ever had a "B" she cried for hours.)  She has become a good babysitter to Coleman and is getting much more responsible.  I pay her one dollar an hour for tending and she saved up enough money to buy a Smurfette stuffed doll.  Rosie loves to read and has read many books this year.

Rosie got her own library card recently and has her own library bag.  She loves to check out books and DVD's.  She is excited about all her extra-curricular activites like jazz, ballet, basketball, activity days and she loves to play with friends.  Rosie is still sometimes very messy, but is learning that cleaning your room means putting things away, not stuffing them in the back of your closet or under your bed.

As a baby and preschooler Rosie ate everything, now she is quite picky.  She refuses to eat school lunch, but doesn't like sandwiches from home.  For lunch I pack her a slice of white bread with nothing on it, yogurt (which she mostly doesn't eat, but I keep hoping she will eat it so I keep packing it), strawberries (she will no longer eat grapes) and a cookie.  It's pathetic!  At Sunday dinner she declares she is a "carnivore" and tries to get away with not eating her veggies.  On the flip side, Bud was such a fussy eater as a toddler, but will now eat everything!

Rosie is still very much a free-spirit.  She is delightful to be around, but sometimes I watch her and think to myself "Where did she come from?"  She has no inhibitions and does crazy things at crazy times.  She wants to be race car driver or an author when she grows up.  We are encouraging the latter.  Last week Jono was opening the mail and said, "Another bill".  It was his life insurance bill for the year.  Rosie then wrote this letter:

Dear NWM,
     My name is K Rosie Oettli.  I am the daughter of Jennifer S Oettli and Jonathan R Oettli.  I am ten years old and my birthdate is 4/16/2001.
     I am pleased to imform that my mom, if my Dad dies, she will have enough money.  She will have my Dad's checking and bank account money.  That's over 1,000 dollors.  This is the same with my Dad.
     My parents will not put up with any more bills.  My parents are building a house for our family to live in.  We need money to build it.
     Nice doing business with you.  Thank you.
                                                                Sincerly,
                                                                   K Rosie Oettli


Isn't that the best letter?  There is no question about her creativity.  Happy Birthday Rosie, we love you with all our hearts!!

Read more...

Basketball

We had the busiest winter of our lives, so far.  Bud had skiing lessons, scouts, debate, and started Jr. Jazz.  Rosie had dance two days a week, Activity Days, and also started Jr. Jazz.  With two basketball practices and two games a week, on top of our other activities, we were always coming or going!

Bud was so excited to play basketball again, and had a great season.  (I already blogged about him in an earlier post).  Rosie really wanted to play and her best friend's mom found an all-girls league.  Rosie took it very seriously and practiced whenever she could.  She also learned the names of all the Jazz players and started watching Jazz games with Jono and Bud.  Rosie scored a basket in the first game of the year and the last game of the year.  She could rebound and steal the ball a few times each game, but the ball got away from her on the fast break.  She vows to practice dribbling in the off-season.

We promised Coleman he can play next year, and he can often be found practicing on our hoop, on days when there is no snow on the court, with Bud and friends.  Coleman has always been scared of bees, but this year he is absolutely terrified.  There are no bees in  SLC yet, but he is on the look out.  Let's hope he conquers his fear, so it doesn't interfere with practice!

Rosie scored in the picture above and you can see how happy she is in the picture below!

Bud is a good shooter, I wrote earlier that one game he scored 20 points!  Our coaches take the game very seriously, and being a good teammate is part of that.  A sizeable portion of practice each week was spent talking about being a team.  Sometimes Book of Mormon quotes were used, which I'm sure were a bit confusing for some of the boys!

We also play basketball as a family.  Sometimes tears are involved and sometimes not.  Here are more pictures from the Mother-Son match.  I could poke the ball away from Bud, but he stole it from me almost everytime I had possession.  (You can tell it's a Sunday afternoon because Coleman is the "Red Man".  He wears his red sweats, red shoes and red Utah sweatshirt every Sunday after changing out of his church clothes.  I wonder where my kids get their stange, obsessive tendancies?)

Read more...

Knock Knock

You'll never guess who knocked on our door the other day... it was a 7 foot 6 inch tall basketball player wearing a Mavericks sweatshirt!  He had our house confused with our neighbor's house, where his kids were playing.  Of course I wanted to take a picture and I invited him in.  He had to duck to walk in the tall front door!

Later, I told Jono about our unexpected visitor.  He scoffed, "I can't believe you took a picture of that Cougar.  Did you ask him how he felt when Josh Grant dunked on him in the Huntsman Center?"

Read more...