Happy Easter

We had to do cousin pictures with all of our matching easter outfits. Needless to say, it's almost impossible to get a good group picture with 7 children (especially when 3 are one year old, one is two years old, you get the drift). So, here's what we got! Happy Easter!

Belt Test

The whole family (except Max) has been taking Taekwondo since January. Pearl and Sam started last June, then the grownups joined. We go to class 2 nights a week, and I must say that I LOVE it. I had to talk Jared into it initially (by the time we pay for 3, he's free), but he likes it now too. I think my favorite part is that we see him earlier on class days (5:45) than we ever do at home. Sam takes a kid class, then Pearl, Jared, Sherry, and I are in family class together.

Saturday was our first belt test (except for Pearl, she's done it 4 times now). It was fun to all be together, and it was fun to get a new belt! Sam is pretty much a goof off in class, I was sure he was pretty much never going to be invited to test, but Master Yi took pity on him. He was excited all week, and tried really hard in class. Of course, during the test, he had an audience and had to be a clown, but that's only to be expected from Sam, right?

Sam is still pretty much a wet noodle. I think he's gotten better, but it's pretty obvious in class who the Hulbert kids are... the ones with no coordination!!!
He was SO PROUD that his board broke into THREE!!!!
See the amazement!
His best friend Evan takes class too. Evan is much more coordinated. As they grow up, I'm worried about these two sparring. I'm pretty sure Evan is going to cream him, especially after Master Yi matched them up to Promise Fight (promise not to touch each other) and Evan slapped his fist in his hand like a threatening gangster. I hope Sam gets good enough to match him at some point!
Pearl has definitely shown the most improvement. She works really hard, it's not easy for her. But just look at her, she looks pretty good. It's still hard for me to take her seriously with those cute pigtails, though!
She graduated to a grownup board thickness this time, MUCH harder! She was a champ, and she's getting stronger all the time. Good thing Master Yi was there to help!
Sherry and Jared doing their oral exam. I must say, Sherry is quite impressive during class. Master Yi even once said (in surprise?) that she has really strong legs. Thus is the Madsen legacy.
Jared still had a big piece of board left after kicking, so Master Yi had him break the rest with his knife hand. Jared's really strong, he pretty much demolished it. I'm pretty sure I don't have the power to punch a board.
Amazing for a grandma, huh?!
My friend Kevin got this shot of me doing my forms. As we can see, by the size of my belly and the shortness of my belt, it was time for a new one. My new one is bigger than Jared's, hopefully it will last a while!
I did a roundhouse kick to break my board. Got it on the first try, Yes!!
Isn't she beautiful? She's so proud of her color belt - she's still one belt ahead of the grownups. It's amusing when she gives us pointers or tells us to listen in class:)

Go Elite!!!

Tadpoles

We caught tadpoles tonight. Maybe they'll live this year... we have Auntie Maryann who is experienced with such things:) I should have taken pictures, but was TOO TIRED to go get the camera... I know... I'll get some tomorrow... or the next day... or at least before they turn into frogs... (the tadpoles, not the children)

I have a sister.

We have some stick on gems. They have been popular lately as face decorations. I'm not sure who put the first one on Max, but he leaves them on ALL DAY. This day, he totally picked out the huge purple butterfly and decided it went on his head. When you ask him about it, he'll show it to you:) I think the next day it was a big red heart, and it stayed on through errands... can we tell he has a sister?

Vacation

I took a vacation. From blogging. Oh, and we went to Disneyland too.

I didn't take a single picture. Not even with my cell phone.

Shocked? I made a command decision that I wanted to have hands free to enjoy Max without wrestling with a camera. Maybe I should be sad, but I'm not. We had the most fun ever. We got to hang with Aunt Crystal, eat a live (well, it was until we picked it out of the tank and the guy threw it into the steamer) crab, visit my grandpa, go to the beach (where Pearl got wet in the waves for the FIRST TIME EVER), attend the singles ward (Pearl was so nervous Jared and I were going to get kicked out, because we were married... I didn't have the heart to tell her that kids weren't allowed either!) and have days of fun at Disneyland. Max loved Small World (of course), Casey Jr (train man) and the forever favorite Astro Blasters. His version of that ride was to hold the gun and continuously shoot the laser into his eye... one time he even ended up with 1000 points, I have no idea how! He also loved the Jungle Cruise... his favorite part was the piranhas, he kept signing more and saying "ish, ish" when we passed. He also liked to point out things and say "uh" until finally he was too overwhelmed and just waved his pointer around saying "ahhhhhhh!" Sam was super brave and tried new rides like Space Mountain (after which he exclaimed to me "Pearl was REALLY RIGHT!!!! That ride is TOO SCARY!!!!"), Thunder Mountain, and Tower of Terror (both of the kids were angry at Crystal for taking them on that one. Jared and I laughed the whole time). Pearl really enjoyed her time with Crystal, especially the last hour of the day when they got to go off by themselves without stinky boys, how cool is that?

It really was a fun vacation. It's funny how now we are a big enough family to make quite the vacation on our own... we loved it. Goodbye, Disneyland! See you in a few years!