Day 2

Day 2 was hang out with Mike's family.

Isabelle made a cake with Grandpa (started on Thursday).  It took a few days to make.  They did a bunch of layers with ice cream.  It was yummy!


Luke loved this toy.  He was happy for this trip.  I kept my watch on Spokane time and I think that helped.  He also seems to be outgrowing his anti-adaptability, slightly.


Tyler made Michael's week by giving him his Lightning McQueen.  He has to tuck it in next to him at night.  Pretty hilarious.


Trains with grandpa.  Always a highlight.  At one point, one of the trains "got" derailed by Michael. He immediately said, "Dider did it." and she wasn't even in the room.  Ha!  What a tattle tail.


We went to Trafalga to go miniature golfing and play. Isabelle's first "real" roller coaster.  She was SO excited for this.  It was all she wanted to do while we waited in line to get in.  She jumped right on....


Then the panic started to set in....

And the video....HILARIOUS!  She started frieking out. The longer the ride went, the more she squeezed Mike's hand.  She was screaming so loud it was echoing and everyone that was watching was laughing her.  Poor thing was terrified.

Isabelle and Sarah are best friends.  They played like crazy the whole trip. How about Isabelle's outfit today?

Pre-Easter

The day before Easter started at this special girl's special day!  We made it to Madison's baptism. This is one of Mike's cousin's daughters. We used to hang out with them all the time from the time she was born.  I was glad we got to go.  Mike's mom offered to watch Michael for us.  When I went to wake Isabelle up to go (it was 8:00am)  she said, "Excuse you, I'm sleepin' here mom!" She was pretty grouchy, so we left her too.  It was nice to just take Luke.  We took Mike's grandma with us.


After a nice lunch and visiting at Madison's house, we headed back for Mike's mom's "Grandma Easter Party."  They made bird nests.


and colored eggs.


You can always find my baby, with Jonathan.  He's loved all three of my kiddos as babies.  I love it!


Mom made her Easter dinner Saturday since we were all going to be split up for dinner on Sunday. Isabelle was bummed she didn't get more fruit.


And then we had an egg hunt.  The parents fill a dozen for each kid (they all have a color) and then Grandma puts money in some from her. The dads did a great job hiding the eggs for the bigger boys. There were some tricky ones!


It was great Mike's grandma got to come and join us for the festivities. We love spending time with her!

Happy Easter

So Easter was my worst picture taking day.  In attempt to not repeat Christmas and not getting a picture of Luke, he ended up with the best Easter picture.  This time I don't have a picture of Michael.  Ha ha! See? It all evens out. :)  He did get "Cars" stuff and the second he grabbed his stuff, he was gone. Sharon and Joe's family had spent the night so we got to spend Easter together until the afternoon when they had to leave.





Easter afternoon, I headed to Provo to see my sister and family one last time (They got home late Saturday night from a trip, so I only got to see them once).  Her husband is graduating with his masters and has accepted a job with Proctor and Gamble in OHIO....LAME!  I'm excited for them, really.  It will be great.  But it means now both my sisters are so far away, and I will hardly get to see them.

Luke and Bradley were so funny this time.  They laid there and tried interacting with each other and had a little baby noise conversation complete with some face grabbing.  Bradley definitely has enough chunk for the both of them. :)  

Jill and I compared photo books.  We've both been a little obsessed working on them lately.  It was fun to look through them together and show off our finished products.  So hard to say goodbye.

A Sister Get Together!

There is a new Natural History Museum in Salt Lake.  It just so happened Monday was opening/free day.  Mike's family had gotten tickets for a sister get together (definitely something I really miss).  It was so fun to get to go and see all the cousins and aunts. I also really liked the museum.  It had lots for the kids to do. I'd love to go back with just Isabelle.  Michael was his normal mile a minute crazy self.  Normally, I don't mind it, but I wanted to visit and had lots of half finished conversations with the cousins.




Michael loved the dinosaur bones.  "BIG dinosaurs!"


Hidden stuff, kitty litter, and paint brushes.  So much fun.


The kids spent forever in this pit thing, twice. It was a big hit.


A view of what still feels like home.


We saw so many friends and family. It felt almost like a normal week when we lived there.  I was so sad to come home.  We left Monday afternoon and finally got home around 3am.

"Singin' in the Rain!"

Our little puddle from last year has turned into a giant and deep puddle this spring.  My kids have always used their snow boots even to play in the water.  This year they went out and the water was too deep for their snow boots.  I have almost bought galoshes every year since Isabelle was little but have never found them cheap enough. I found some galoshes on clearance last week and couldn't pass them up for a much better summer.  The kids ran around, playing in the rain, with umbrellas and had a blast.  It was too cute.

Two-Faced

Luke has 2 faces.  Open mouth with deer in the headlights eyes or smiling.  He has nothing else.  My other kids were funny face maniacs, not Luke. His smiles are easy to get and I just can't get enough of them!!

Spring!

Spring showed its face for a whole day.  Luke got to swing outside for the first time.  Like everything else, he didn't love it or hate it, he was just there.  He didn't complain but didn't smile.  The kids were excited to put the swings back on.  We played outside for hours, and then it snowed the next day.  We are excited for nice weather to stay.

What's Going On?

As soon as the kids hear Luke, they run in for a bed party.  The look on Luke's face is priceless.  Every day, it is still, "What is going on?!"  Then after a minute the smiles all come out and don't stop.

Conference

Last year for conference, my kids were running around like hooligans and I couldn't hear and I was getting angry and yelling and they were fighting and it was a complete disaster. This year, I was prepared to try something new.

I bought each of the kids a new quiet toy.  I washed a ton of laundry but didn't fold it and piled it up in our living room. I usually bustle around the house and miss quite a bit since we only have it in one spot.  I filled up mason jars with small treats marshmallows, raisins, m&ms, and candy corn and labeled them with conference "buzz words."  I took requests when I went to the grocery store last week and pulled out the picnic blanket so they could eat their popcorn and whatnot in the living room.  It was a huge success.  The kids stayed in hearing distance and I folded laundry.  Next year, I'm going to do sticker charts for the buzz words. We were so sick of candy as were the kids towards the end and we started to lose them.  They were really good for both first sessions, which is my goal for now.

Easter Package

We got an Easter package from my mom this year.  It's always so much fun to get stuff in the mail.  The kids love the game Bingo and we were in desperate need of some new cheap plastic cups.  Not to mention, we LOVED the candy too!  Thanks Grandma!