Utah-Part 1

We've been here for a week now and my kids are in heaven. They have been playing with grandparents, cousins, and friends non-stop. We went to the Alpine Fire Station the other day because my brother works up there...


Mitchell wouldn't have anything to do with the fire truck or the ambulance, I had to drag him to the top of the truck.


The boys got to dress up in all of Dustin's gear.
Above: Ben and Drew


Ben, Cambrie, Tanzynn, and Gabi in the ambulance.


Cambrie and Tanzynn have had so much fun catching up...they've missed each other terribly.

Mitchell was terrified of the trucks, but had a strange fascination with the dummies. He loved them.


Drew in Dustin's gear, which by the way, is VERY heavy. I have a whole new respect for fire fighters after putting all this on.


Mitchell entertained by the buckle in the ambulance.


Max struggling to stay standing with all the equipment on.


Mitchell making faces in Julianne's camera.


Mitchell and Emma. Their time together mainly consists of Emma chasing Mitchell around trying to hug him, and Mitchell running away yelling "No!" Super cute.


My dad turned 56 last Thursday. Here is a picture of him and all his grandchildren at his party on Sunday.

Today we all went up to the cemetery to put flowers on Joel's grave. It was cold and rainy, but the kids had fun running around anyway. I love this cemetery, it has the most beautiful view and has always been a pleasant, peaceful place for me to be.

Other activities this week have included visits to great-grandparents, sleepovers with cousins, playing on the farm, trapping gophers, walks in our old neighborhood, baseball games, and outings with my nieces. It's been a fun, very full week.

We miss George and can't wait to see him in two weeks!!!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow afternoon we'll be here, to spend time with...


But we have to leave...


for six weeks.

I can't wait to spend time with family and friends, but today, I'm physically ill because I don't like to be away from my lover :) Good thing he's coming to see me mid trip!

A Little Bit of Everything...

George's parents came in April for a few days. Simon was "Bob the Builder" while he was here, he fixed everything in our house. Above, George and Simon are putting up gutters on the back of our house.


I worked my fanny off trying to make General Conference meaningful for my kids. It's debatable whether or not it was worth the effort, but it was fun. In the picture above, there are a variety of snacks with a topic printed on each label. They only got the snack if they heard someone talking about that particular topic.


This is our "Conference Wall." We put up pictures of the person who spoke about each topic so we could remember who talked about what. They didn't like this one so much :)


This is my dryer the day after St. Patrick's Day.

Note to self... DON'T leave the green food coloring in your pocket after turning everything green for the kids. Nightmare.



We hiked up Stone Mountain with three other families a few weeks ago. The hike is just over a mile and it's fairly steep. As you can see, there were a lot of little ones and they did awesome. After the hike, we had a picnic on the grass in Stone Mountain Park and then watched the lazer show. It was a blast until after the lazer Show, when Max got lost and we had the whole staff at Stone Mountain looking for him. Don't ask, it was awful! It wasn't the first time for him and won't be the last...he wanders off ALL THE TIME!


Drew FINALLY lost his first tooth at school the other day.


We had such a good Easter this year. We emailed the Easter Bunny and asked him to come on Saturday instead of Sunday...best idea EVER! The week before Easter we had a devotional each night talking about what happened in Christ's life those last few days. We had a passover dinner on Thursday, which was the highlight for the kids. We're looking forward to doing in again next year.

Here are the kids' Easter baskets. I had fun doing them this year and tried to give them practical things. Brie's baskets were pots and she also got seeds to plant flowers in them. Drew and Max's baskets were soccer backpacks, and Mitchell's was a sand bucket. We had a delightful Easter with WARM weather...so nice :)



This is a picture of the kids on Easter Sunday...it's as good as it gets ;)


Cambrie just turned in this science project yesterday. This girl is addicted to chocolate so it was no surprise when she came up with this idea.


Max's teacher gave each of her students a seed the week of Easter. We planted it and have named it "the plant on steroids..." It's HUGE! I don't even know what kind of a plant it is but Max has had so much fun watching it grow.



This is Drew's "Litter Bug." They had to make a bug out of recyclable material and he came up with this idea for a Dragonfly. I wasn't so sure, but it all came together really well. He was so proud.

Heading to Utah in two weeks and six days...can't wait :)

Kids' Rooms

We finally have our kids' rooms mostly done, minus a few last details.

Cambrie's Room...

George's brother, Richard, painted these canvases for Brie. She has her own plum tree in Utah on my dad's farm and wanted to do something that reminded her of the orchard...



Drew's room...


Max's room...


I'm so happy with the way the paint turned out in these rooms. Max's room will have all different types of maps on the walls when we're done.



Drew's room will be all sports of course...

It only took us 9 months but we finally made some decisions and got it done. It was fun because the kids got to design their own rooms...I think they did a pretty good job :)