Spring Break

Knowing it might be my last chance before we move, I decided to head out to Utah with the kids for Spring Break. Emmy spent the morning preparing to go to "Nutah." As she was washing her hands and arms, she told me she was getting ready to go to grandma's. 

Our plan was to leave after school on Friday. The last couple hours of school that day were spent at the Walkathon that the PTO had planned to raise money for assemblies and other activities for the kids. Luckily it wasn't a hot day. Although we did have the most delicious shaved ice you can imagine.

We left on schedule, and for some reason I will never understand, the drive wasn't bad. We only stop once to gas up and use the restroom every time we make the drive. But this is what awaited us in Utah.

Little did I know this also awaited us. I think Emmy was the first to get sick, but I was slow to recognize it because she never has much of an appetite even when she is well, and I figured her diarrhea was from drinking lots of milk. Then one night in the wee hours Natalie came to me telling me her tummy hurt. Luckily I grabbed something to catch the throw up because a few minutes later she needed it. This is how she spent the next day.

There were some really great times as well of course. Kami treated me to lunch and a pedicure for my birthday. It was SO fun to spend a couple hours with her. We met up with the rest of the family and went to a trampoline place that afternoon.

I love my family. My cousins are like sisters. And my mom has a great sense of humor as you can see.

That night Emmy woke up many many times. I had a stomach ache and I thought it might be from all the up and down when I needed to be sleeping. Turns out I caught what Natalie had. It was one of those days that I let the kids eat and watch whatever they wanted all day. I felt so crummy, and I was so sad because we were supposed to be in Salt Lake with family. We had to miss it all. Luckily the sickness was a 12-24 hour thing.

We loved spending time with Addi.

And had a yummy snack at Einstein's one morning. I love that place.

We were so excited to see Amy and Quentin's new sweet little boy Taft. 

More happy moments. :) Family picture in the basement on the love sac.

We drove home Wednesday morning, and the sickness hit Jansen a day or two later. Happy to say we are well now and missing Utah.

Easterly Things

The Saturday morning before Easter there was a church egg hunt at a nearby park. There were 3 separate egg hunts for different age groups. I love watching the nursery age kids as they slowly collect eggs and open them as they go. Here's Emmy spotting an egg.

Obviously thrilled with the contents.

As you can see, Natalie was hard core with her overflowing basket. I had a couple adults come hand me a few eggs they were holding for her because she couldn't fit them all in her basket. 

And here we are Easter morning. The Easter bunny brought hats for all the kids. He's going to have to stop by again though because Natalie's was a little small.

Emmy loved her hat.

Happy Easter faces...

I was asked to teach the lesson in Young Women's on Sunday. I do not enjoy teaching lessons at all, and it kind of hung over my head all month. As is always the case, I ended up being very grateful that I was forced to do a lot of extra reading and pondering about the resurrection. What an amazing gift it is. I love to think that death has been conquered. We had a delicious Easter dinner with friends that evening...good friends make the world go round in my book. :)

Adult Easter Egg Hunt

I think this is our 5th time doing an adult Easter egg hunt. I am usually not one that likes to host parties, but I love doing this egg hunt every year. Starting a couple of months before Easter, I look for cheap gag gifts and pretty much anything I think is strange or hilarious to use as prizes. There are some "good prizes" as well like gift cards and money. The Scows are our partners in crime, and they are the perfect co-hosts. This year we gave a prize to the couple wearing the most pastel. 

Nate and Brad (dressed in their best pastels) left about an hour before the party started  to "hide" the eggs in a nearby park. This is about half of the eggs we hid. It's about a 3 minute walk to the park, and it was nicknamed the "Walk of Shame" as 20+ adults dressed in pinks and purples made their way to the starting area.

You will notice upon further inspection that I am wearing Peeps as earrings. In this home we do not eat Peeps, we wear them.

After the couples returned from collecting eggs, the party really started. Some of the eggs had slips of paper in them that said things like "If you died, which couple would you choose to raise your children? Give them 2 eggs." Or "Put an egg in your mouth and shoot it out. Anyone willing to touch it can have it." Other eggs had papers in them marked "prize B." Julie and I had over 40 fun prizes to hand out. One important rule at the party is you have to wear anything you find in your eggs or receive as a prize.

Here are the Kelleys as fine examples of this.

This year we had a lot of awesome stuff. Orange mohawks are considered awesome in my book anyway.

Julie and I could not believe our luck with this find at the local thrift store. Bowling bag, bowling ball, and shoes. SOOOOOO cool. Creepy Hilary lurks in the background.

Long live Mitt Romney!

The sauna suit was a prize brought by another couple. It was awesome.

Our dear bishop always seems to get some really special prizes. Like the cat head bodice with the addition of a nasty pink bra.

Our faces hurt from laughing so much.

I love seeing the crazy side of people come out at the adult egg hunts. It's definitely one of the most memorable nights of our whole year. I'm so grateful for these fun friends.

Birthday

It was definitely a happy birthday. One week ago already! Sweet gifts, texts, and phone calls from friends and family. Kiki even stopped by for a quick visit, and I was sadly reminded this will be the last time we wish each other happy birthday in person for a long time. This was one of the cute things she brought with her.

Jansen had a church baseball game that night. I drove home alone from the fields and stopped to get Chipotle for dinner. Nate took the kids and stopped at Smith's (unbeknowst to me) and picked up a cake and some flowers and we did some celebrating at home.

I'm 31. :) We were not about to put 31 candles on that cake.

Can you believe I can't even remember what I wished for?! I hope it comes back to me...

I still love birthdays. I actually really love birthday wishes on Facebook. It's so awesome to hear from people that have left a mark in your life at one point or another. 

It makes Natalie and Emmy so happy to see flowers on the tree. I am staying true to my word that I will never live in a home that doesn't have a fenced backyard. March is definitely a great month to live in Vegas. The back door is open, and the kids are in and out all day.

There has been a lot of spilled milk around here lately, and I'm not sure why. Jansen made a real mess a week or so ago, and I was so close to losing it. I kept my cool for the most part...and it was a good thing, because later that afternoon I did this:

I give Natalie 15 kisses on the forehead before she goes to bed every night. I don't know when or how it started. One evening she thought I had forgotten (I DID give her her kisses...she just forgot), and she left this note outside her door for me to see.

I think Natalie will be a great babysitter someday. She seems to have that knack for interacting with little kids, and she seems to enjoy it.

Jansen has been doing poetry units at school. He came up with this "poem" after school one day.

Family Bike Ride

We'd just finished dinner (which was this if you're looking for a yummy meal), and Nate suggested we ride bikes to get ice cream. I didn't really want to. I wanted to get dinner cleaned up and get an early start on bedtime. Nate is so easygoing and agreeable with whatever I suggest we do most of the time. I decided it was my turn to be the carefree one. 

"Okay, let's go."

It was a *near perfect evening. 

*near perfect means the kids fought about who would be the leader, Emmy got ice cream everywhere, I had to get after Jansen a little for not watching out for cars which made him cry, and dinner never got completely cleaned up. :)

Wind

Poor Jansen still has his moments when he is very scared of the wind. Last week he asked me if he could sleep in the guest room because he could hear the wind and some wind chimes through the window in his room. We moved him to the guest room and he fell asleep immediately. It makes me so sad to know that he worries about this and that it affects other parts of life sometimes. On very windy days I am literally sick to my stomach during the 15 minutes I know he is at recess. And yet, I know that being outside and experiencing it is just what he needs. 

It was a little windy one afternoon, but he went in the backyard and climbed on the wall. I watched him for awhile, and it seemed like he was proving to himself that everything was going to be ok. The wind wasn't going to hurt him. We pray with him about the wind a lot. It can be hard because what I (and Jansen) would really like is for the wind to stop blowing. We have to explain to Jansen that Heavenly Father doesn't always make the wind stop, and we usually don't pray for that, but He can give Jansen comfort and help him deal with his fears. This is the case with most trials in life, so it has been a great reminder to me as well that God doesn't remove our hardships, but He can definitely be our constant companion through them.

Snippets

Jansen and Natalie are finally at an age where they can play games together. There's about a 50/50 chance it will end in a fight, but I think it's good for them to learn to play by the rules of a game. We really like this game called Bug Trails. A few other favorites right now are Trouble and Uno.

One morning I went to add to my Costco shopping list and found this sweet little note. I thought it was from Jansen, but Natalie actually wrote it. 

I cannot wait to be a witness to all the craziness Natalie and Emmy cook up over the years. One afternoon Natalie "decorated" Emmy's head with lots and lots and lots of bows. One of my favorite things Emmy says right now is "coca dots," which is her way of saying polka dots. 

Emmy has been begging for some sunglasses. I found some for a dollar at The Children's Place, and they have been worn A LOT already.

I wanted to get a picture of a typical afternoon snack for Natalie. She didn't want to smile; and in case you are wondering, peanut butter toast is not nearly as messy when you eat it with a fork.

If this isn't the face of a little kid, I don't know what is. She's got a bandaid, a very dirty face, a helmet, and a goofy grin. Emmy has started climbing out of her crib. She is my first child to do this, and so far it hasn't turned into a problem, but I think it's only a matter of time. I usually only have to put her back in once...if she only knew the stress she would cause me if this becomes an issue. I really like having my kids in a crib till almost 3 or so.

A sandcastle Natalie built one afternoon. She was very proud of it.

I got a kick out of all Jansen's animals "watching" him read one afternoon.

The Tumbleweed

Usually when there is an adult session of stake conference either Nate goes or I go. Not both of us. We got a babysitter this year, and the session was AMAZING. We have a really incredible stake out here. Having a very talented stake choir at the meeting really makes it an over the top experience. It was a really special meeting. As I was coming home from dropping our babysitter off, I saw a HUGE tumbleweed in the road. Biggest one I have ever seen. I went home and told Nate about it, and we decided we definitely needed to go get it. He loaded it into his truck (this thing practically filled up the whole bed) and we left on the Scow's doorstep. It ended up back on our front steps by morning. :)

We decided it needed to be passed around. You know how sometimes at Halloween someone drops off a treat and a paper that says you've been BOOed? That's where I was going with this. We left this note, some carrot cake, and the tumbleweed at another friend's house. I have no idea where the thing is now, but we had at least a few friends that got as big a kick out of it as we did. 

If you think this tumbleweed is annoying, check out this story we stumbled upon a couple days later:

http://edition.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c2#/video/us/2013/02/26/dnt-tumbleweed-covers-texas-home.kwes