Beginning of April/Birthday Weekend

I celebrated my 29th birthday the beginning of April and didn't want to do anything too major to celebrate. I had been working quite a bit and been gone and just wanted to spend some time at home finishing some uncompleted projects. Luckily my husband realized that putting up molding on my birthday was not going to be too much fun and took me to Spokane instead. We stayed at the Davenport and had a very relaxing time wandering around the city without children.

We also tried the new Venezuelan take-out place in town and ate some Arrepas. They were super delicious and I think we will have to go back, especially considering the limited options we have in our tiny town.

My parents were awesome and took my kids over night and when we returned on Saturday my mom had brought me this delicious cake. The only candle I had was the left over "4" from Lucy's birthday so I stuck that on top. My mom also took me shopping (again, without kids) for my birthday and bought me new clothes. It was really fun and I got coral pants which are pretty much the coolest pants I have ever owned. Lucy tells me how pretty they are every time I wear them so I know they have to be awesome.

 I had the whole weekend of my birthday off and it was also General Conference so I got to spend tons of time with my kids and watching conference.  We took the kids to the park, each in their own preferred mode of transportation.

For conference again this year I did the pictures and names of various gospel topics with bowls of different snacks under each one. When the kids heard a word that matched, they could put that treat in their bag. They were so excited for conference just so we could do this game again. Isak also enjoyed coloring the packet I printed out for him of the different apostles and Lucy really enjoyed stealing candy from the bowls when I wasn't looking...

 Edyn didn't want to go to bed that night for some reason so we let her stay up with us a few extra minutes. And she also tried her first Oreo, which she really, really excited about.

 We drove out and tried to find the Sandhill Cranes which migrate this time of year to places around our town. We saw a few but it was really windy and they were pretty far away.  One of these years we will actually participate in the festivities that everyone else travels here to do. I think they make crane masks for the kids and do tours which would be really helpful when trying to find the stupid birds. Anyway, all in all it was a great birthday and enough distractions to help me forget that I'm now in the last year of my twenties.

Family Pictures Spring 2013

 My friend Wendy took these great pictures for us this week and I LOVE how they turned out. She just started her own photography business and I think she's incredibly talented. And her prices are super reasonable too! I couldn't decide on which ones to post so I put up a lot of them. I want them all in my blog book in like 2 years when I get around to printing it. My kids were suprisingly cooperative which is unusual and besides being their normal wiggly selves did realy well.

 One of Edyn's favorite things to do is to climb up into our brown chair when Isak is sitting there and sit by him. She does it almost every morning before he leaves for school and whenever else she discovers him there. She is obsessed with every book recently and will have us read them to her over and over. Since Isak can read now, he will sometimes read to her for us which is awesome but he usually doesn't have the patience for her repeat requests.

 It was in the 70's the end of last week and beginning of this week and my kids have spent every spare moment outside. Mostly making mud holes and getting really dirty. We planted some flowers in my pots and also got the carrots and peas planted in our garden. Isak has been home for spring break and he has loved going for bike rides in the morning while I pull Edyn and Lucy in the wagon. Lucy could probably ride her scooter but that would mean letting go of her turtle or some other object in her hands and that's just not her style! And Edyn really loves the company in the wagon, even if she does spend most of her time trying to climb out.

Edyn was born with an umbilical hernia. They are fairly common I believe and usually pretty benign. They almost always go away on their own, usually once the abdominal muscles develop and can pull it in. They are painless and the worry is that they will bump the exposed intestine and do some kind of damage. So far she has been fine and it hasn't been a worry but we recently got a referral to Sacred Heart Children's Hospital just to double check. I'm sure all will go well and hopefully she won't need surgery.   And my mom bought her the cutest ruffle swimsuit today so that no one will be able to see it through the material. It does bring some stares from people if they're not prepared for it!

Easter

I didn't get home from work till 7:30 Sunday morning so I covered all the kids Easter Baskets with a sheet until I could see them. They didn't even notice. I even put out some cotton balls in a trail from the door in a half hearted attempt to make it appear that the Easter Bunny came. Isak discovered my bag of cotton balls though like two hours later and was like, "Hey, isn't this what the Easter Bunny used?". Yea, nothing gets by that kid. I'm just not too worried if my kids believe in the Easter Bunny. Its a fun idea but quite frankly, the idea of a giant rabbit sneaking into your house at night and hiding eggs is kind of terrifying. I'll go along with it as long as they are little though I just don't plan on feeding the fantasy more than I have too.  Now Santa I'm much more a fan of!

 My amazing visiting teachers dropped off an Easter Basket for me Friday afternoon while I was at work and it was FULL of awesome candy, oranges, and eggs. I used all the candy for my kids Easter baskets which meant I didn't eat it all and my kids didn't get an insane amount. It was a win win!

And as I imagined, there were no pictures before church in their Easter wear which really was for the best. Pretty sure none of them had socks and Edyn had drooled M&M juice all down her dress. Oh and Isak was wearing his tennis shoes. It was kind of blur with my two hours of sleep but pretty sure that's what I observed before I came home from church and dove back into my slumber.

Egg Hunt

Saturday before Easter we had two Easter egg hunts. The first one was a large community egg hunt that was across the street at Isak's school. It was completely free and so it had a huge crowd and as a result, there were not many eggs to find. Isak managed to get three and Lucy didn't get any. Luckily she did not mind too much and I went home and let her find a few eggs in the yard and she was perfectly happy with that. It was gorgeous weather though and warm enough for our kids to play in the sprinkler afterwards.

In the afternoon we had a big Easter egg hung for some friends and family at Kevin's parents house. This is the second year we have done this and it has worked out really well. We have everyone who participates bring a dozen eggs per kid then everyone finds about a dozen eggs. We always have a lot of extra and let the kids go find more after we know everyone has found at least twelve. 

 I was scheduled to work Saturday night and knew I wasn't going to be up to taking pictures Sunday morning so I put the kids in their clothes Saturday before the egg hunt and tried to make them cooperate.

They were pretty good, although Lucy had just drenched herself in the sprinkler so all I could do with her hair was a top knot on her head. And they are all wiggly and never want to all look in my direction at the same time so I think I got two maybe three decent ones. Good thing I'm paying someone else to do all this for me next week!

 We had a great turnout with about ten families that participated. It took me about 20 minutes to hide all the eggs and towards the end I just started throwing them randomly all over the grass.

 We let the little kids go first, followed by the older kids who had to run and touch the mailbox before they could start hunting. We caught Isak about three minutes in with about 25 eggs in his bucket so we made him go run and rehide some of them.

 Kids got quite the haul and I'm pretty sure they ate the majority of it as they opened the eggs. Talk about a sugar overload.

 Edyn wandered around and picked up a few eggs and would eat the chocolate out of them if she could find any.

We had really warm weather and finished up the day by getting ice cream at our super awesome Fruiteletas store.