Random Coldness

A week before we went to the Splash Pad for the first time (incidentally, the day the splash pads throughout the city opened) the temperature dropped into the 50s. It was freezing! My kids got all bundled up and we had some soup. Brr. Glad that was just a freak of nature.

I Love Kids That Talk

Sunday...
Hannah: James will give his tithing to the bishop. And the bishop will put it in his pocket so the turtle doesn't get it. (our bishop has a giant turtle in his back yard as a pet).


Today...
Matthias: The dad is smaller than the mom because the mom had faster birthdays than the dad. (when we were playing house...he was the dad, I was the mom)

Splash Pad

Finally the splash pads are open even though it's been plenty warm enough for weeks. But with temps hitting upper 90s we're grateful for some water! Pools have two weeks to go and then we'll be fish!

Mother's Day

Hannah and I wore coordinating outfits on Mother's day and it was awesome. I had thought about doing it a few months ago, but with gardens, chicken coops, increased bedding sales, life in general it never happened. The day before I saw a scrap in my closet from a skirt I had made for myself a year ago so I drew up a pattern and sewed a dress for Hannah. She was beside herself with excitement when she saw the two matching dresses. We had fun and everyone at church was laughing. Great times.




The whole day was lovely with waffles for breakfast, quiche for lunch, pita chips and smoothie for dinner. My family is great and Taylor is always good about helping cook and clean. The kids made cards for me. Oh, and Taylor bought Tangled. Love that movie.

Hannah Babble

Hannah: I slept all night with no binkie!
Me: You're all grown up.
Hannah: I will have a baby in my tummy and I will be the mom.

(Whoa, not that grown up!)


"I am scared from the dump truck. When daddy comes home he will hold me in his lap and I won't be afraid from the dump truck."


The other day the boys were shouting out what they will be when they grow up, "archeologist", "paleontologist", "scientist", etc. Hannah yelled, "I am going to have a baby in my tummy and be the mom."

(we have several pregnant friends, she's really into babies in tummies)

Magic Birthday!

We had lots of fun celebrations. Special dinner of meatballs from wild boar (not the road kill near our house though, don't worry) the night before with two presents opened. The rest were opened on birthday morning over banana pancakes. The afternoon was spent playing together as Taylor came home early. Then we went on a date to our favorite restaurant here followed by a movie at home, don't worry it was Food, Inc, we didn't get too overly crazy. I made a poppy seed cake on Saturday and we had the Spencers over. Taylor is wearing 4 different shirts in these pictures so you can tell the celebrations went on and on!

I asked the kids what they wanted to get for Dad and I bought just what they told me, a rubber duck from Hannah, balls from Matthias, James gave him a fish shirt which I picked because I never got an answer from him.

The day/weekend was magical.

Easter

This year for Easter we did an advent of sorts starting the Sunday before. Taylor and I had talked about it way back in February as I wanted a meaningful Easter this year focused on Christ and His resurrection. We created a chart with symbols for each day and read scriptures from Jesus' life. We had a small palm tree we presented on the first day for Palm Sunday. During the week we did several service opportunities as a family (one of which was jam we took to some ladies as you can see the boys prepping the strawberries), we celebrated Passover. We made Easter rolls that you put a marshmellow in and then bake (with guards watching over the oven), when the rolls come out of the oven they are hollow inside symbolizing the empty tomb. Friday we barely remembered to leave the baskets out as we'd not spent any time thinking about a bunny or candy. It was a great year and I really feel that we all developed a closer relationship with our Savior and truly enjoyed celebrating what He did for us.

The kids also got new Easter attire for Sunday and they looked lovely! We also had a little egg hunt in the backyard with our friend Jack. And I made cake balls for a new try...real cake balls made from real cake not Oreo and cream cheese or some box cake. It was more difficult then with the fake stuff, but I have a better idea of how to make them next time. We also dyed eggs to which Hannah screamed like a maniac because Taylor took her pink egg out of the dye after like 20 minutes. She was beside herself with grief. Taylor decided no egg dying in the future for children under 4. We also had an egg derby. It was a great, fun filled, Spirit filled, family happiness of a week.