easter 2014

I love that Easter is in the springtime. It's so fresh, happy, bright, new. I really do love that part of the holiday. A couple of days before Easter, Justin asked each boy separately what they loved about Easter and what it was about. Each one of them said something referring to easter eggs and bunnies. Even after Corbin gave a great Family Home Evening the Monday before...  


I thought I had failed, but Easter wasn't over. I stayed up Saturday night after the kids went to bed and got some Easter eggs ready for them. Each had a scripture and an item that had to do with the days leading up to Christ's resurrection. (source here) We then watched Finding Faith in Christ. That bright Easter morning we felt the spirit. And that made me happy.

It really was a happy Easter. 

This was taken at our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. Justin really was there...he was just off talking when they grabbed us to take this picture. 

spring break 2014

The biggest goal for spring break was to relax, sleep in, and enjoy.  

Sometimes we look back on school breaks that we have had and the boys can't even remember what we did exactly OR ELSE, as we look forward to the break, they want to know what every single plan is going to be. To help with this we sat down and wrote out a list so that they knew what some of the plans were AND so that at the end of the weekend they would see that we did do something.

We had a kickoff spring break party at Aunt Mandi's house. We ended up staying into the late evening, daddy met us there, we had pizza, watched some shows and it was great.

 We made one bow tie. And the only one willing to wear it was this guy. But luckily, Levi now wants one.

 This cyclops tooth hung by a thread all weekend, and by the end of the break it finally came out.

 With Conference coming up the following weekend, I wanted to take the boys to see Temple Square and to tour where Conference used to be held and where it is now held. They were amazed by the difference. Especially all the columns that were holding up the balcony at the Tabernacle and how uncomfortable the seats were. The Conference Center is quite an amazing building and Temple Square was incredibly beautiful.

At this point Corbin was not feeling so well, but he was still such a trooper. 

We ended the break with some sickness, extreme laziness, and even sqeezed in some swimming and three seconds of rock climbing.

It was a good break and according to Corbin's school planner, he only has to turn the paper seven more times until school is out! Boo Ya.

changes in the neighborhood

The first family we met when we moved into this neighborhood was the Allen family. They lived just diagonally from us. Their four kids are really close to the age of our kids. We clicked pretty instantly. So many hours were spent with the kids playing together; they played school, jumped on the tramp, played in the sandbox, played harry potter and percy jackson, had lemonade stands, lined up dinosaurs, coloring and spy games are just a few of those fun times. When I needed a missing ingredient I knew who to call and vice versa, I ground cups and cups of wheat at their house, we shared plants and seeds, we had so many laughs and conversations in our front yards. Our kids knew where to go if for some reason I was not home. We just love this family. 

On top of that we are blessed with some other awesome families in the neighborhood. All of us had to say goodbye to the Allen family this last week.

Some of us in the neighborhood and some of us that served together in young womens threw a luncheon party for mommy Allen, who is in polka dots. We had a great time.

The next day the weather was just so perfect. We had to have a going away party for the kids. One last time that all these kiddos in the neighborhood could play at the same time. It made me both happy and kind of sad to see this sight. That's a whole lot of awesomeness in those photos.  

Perhaps the saddest one to see them move is Rudger. He completely adores Emma. He looks out his window and points to their house and says Em..ma. And every time she comes to our house he gets so excited and follows her around the house so he can be right where she is. It's tender. 

Lucky for us they are just moving across town, so it's really not the end. I just hate seeing that empty house across the street.

simple bath

Rudger has a pretty good morning routine that almost everyday is about the same. It usually involves a bath. I took this picture this morning because I wanted to try out the lighting in our bright bathroom with the new lens I have been wanting for a few years now. It doesn't really look like our Rudger because his hair is not up and it looks quite red. Which plenty of people have commented that he has red in his hair. With the right lighting, it's true.

For some reason this bath made me think about how much our other kids are growing up. Their morning routine is completely different than Rudger's. They have to rush to get ready, eat breakfast, empty the dishwasher, get their lunches, make sure they have their homework and more often than not they are running as fast as they can to catch the bus. Life is hectic for them sometimes. It makes me long for those days when they got to spend the morning splashing in the tub and then playing and reading with me. But instead, in the evenings we are rushing through homework and reading, eating dinner as a family (which I am so thankful for), trying to actually squeeze in showers and baths before heading to bed (which I am realizing needs to be happening more often for those growing little men). 

I am ready for a break from their school schedules. I am ready to have some low key playing summer days. I want them all to myself again. I can't let them know this too much because I don't want them to give up the last two months of school. We are so so close to those summer days. And luckily at the end of this week it is spring break, so we can get just a small, teeny dose of what is to come. I can't wait!

Funny what a simple bath can make me think of.

st. patty's day

It's so funny how once the kids start going to school they start hearing what all of their friend's moms are doing and the pressure on all of us other moms grows. As tempting as it was to do those things, I'm happy that I stuck with our few simple traditions. Even though, Taylor was a little let down that the leprechaun did not leave gold, I think it was a good afternoon. 

Corbin was not into wearing the green. He just figures he has green eyes, he's good. Well, when he came home yesterday he said he wished this holiday wasn't real because so many kids said they were going to pinch him because he wasn't wearing green. Poor guy. I think he still enjoyed having lucky charms, building a lego leprechaun trap, water-color painting, and eating rainbow pancakes (with red-dye...gasp)

how we weekend - march

Rudger and I made some chocolate chip cookies just because it felt like it had been so long since we made some, and then we shared them with some family members. We also made animal envelopes to give to some cousins. Taylor had a late nighter birthday party, the rest of us watched The Princess Bride. The boys have a tradition of sleeping on the couch on Friday nights. I tried writing a list of what needs to be done in the yard this spring, Taylor took over that list. We pruned trees and dug up weeds. We had a nerf gun war (and when I say we, I did actually participate and it was so fun to play like a kid again). Justin and I went on a date to a ward progressive dinner and for the very first time Corbin did the babysitting for 1 1/2 hours and he did awesome! We got to go to our sweet nephews blessing. It was a full good weekend. 

breakfast that we (mostly I) love

steel cut oats + almond milk + unsweetened coconut + chia seeds + pistachios (almonds) + bananas (craisins)

In attempt to make our family healthier we have been cutting out most sugaring cereals and adding more real foods...starting with breakfast. I haven't completely convinced the boys of the spinach smoothie, but when there are no other options that I give them, I'm almost certain they will grow to love it. (However, dad won't go for it. He would rather have a plain fruit smoothie and then eat his spinach by the handfuls along with it)

greek yogurt + almond milk (apple juice) + fruit + chia seeds + spinach

 Also, it made me happy to look out the kitchen window this morning and see the alfalfa growing into a field of beautiful green. And it makes me happy to see our firepit which is slowly making progress and I'm really hoping we can work on it tomorrow. And I'm getting spring fever like crazy and want nothing more than to dig through the dirt planting things...like spinach...so that I can put them in the smoothie that our boys will love.