Easter

Easter this year was a bit crazy, but lots of fun!  I worked a little deal with the Easter Bunny so that the kids wake up to their baskets on Saturday morning in stead of Sunday, which works out especially nice with a 9:00 a.m. church schedule!  A couple of years ago they came up with the tradition of sleeping down in the family room to try to catch him (or her), but it hasn't happened yet.  This year that sneaky Bunny hid their baskets and then strung different colored yarn (one color per kid) all over the place.  The kids had to follow the color of yarn that coordinated with their baskets to find them.  Scott wasn't too thrilled with the mess that Bunny made.  He might stay up next year to supervise! :)

These pictures don't do the job justice, but it was pretty hard to walk through the house.  You had to be pretty limber to get around with all of that ducking and maneuvering in the maze of yarn.

Ryan (and the other kids) thought it was pretty cool, though!

Yay!  Everyone found their baskets!

We had to hurry and get cleaned up because we were hosting a "surprise going-away party" for Anna's friend, Brooke, who was moving to Utah:

That led to a full day of playing with friends, which was great because I got all kinds of things done for Easter dinner while they entertained each other!  Finally we got down to business coloring eggs:

As you can see, we are very serious about our egg decorating around here:

Well...most of the time...

....and on to Easter Sunday!  We were feeling "pink" this year:

Ryan happened to find one of his old binkies (that he would never take as a baby) and thought it was the greatest thing ever.  I let him play with it for the afternoon, but after that it was outta here!

Cute Aimee:

Cute Nathan:

(he was a little concerned about wearing a pink tie until I told him that I'd seen the other Nathan (Nathan D.) at church with a pink tie before too.) Phew! Thanks, Sarah!

Anna, keeping Ryan happy during pictures:

And finally, after several attempts, one shot with everyone smiling and looking in the general direction of the camera at the same time....amazing! :)

I found a great recipe for cinnamon roll dough that you make the night before, so I had a piping hot, delicious breakfast to use as an incentive to get everyone ready for church on time.  Hey, I know what works!  I also got to teach an Easter lesson in YW (I love teaching, and I love those girls), and we had a yummy dinner with my favorite...Strawberry Shortcake....for dessert.  And, of course, I was grateful to reflect on our Savior, the number one reason that Easter is my favorite holiday of the year.  Happy Easter 2011!

"Nathan-isms"

Nathan has been cracking us up lately....he is the funniest kid.  I'm sure a lot of it is his age.  Aren't Kindergarteners notorious for saying cute things?  He's always quoting movies, and does some pretty hilarous impersonations.  My favorite is when he imitates "Charlotte" from the Princess and the Frog.  I know, it doesn't sound that funny, but let me tell you, when he says those lines with a southern accent and that whatever she does in her throat ("I thought wishin' on stars was for babies n' craaaazy people..."), he has us rolling on the floor!

The other day I bought him some Scooby Snacks (graham crackers shaped like dog treats) and he was worried that someone might get confused and think they were really dog food.  So, he made a sign:

 "Scooby Snacks, actually"

Here are a few things he's said recently that have made me smile:

Nathan had been begging for cherries, so we bought some, brought them home and washed them for a snack.  After he ate one he said, "That's it!  I'm buying seeds for a cherry tree in our back yard!"

He has a little friend who always shares her fruit roll up with him at snack time.  On his birthday she tore it apart and gave him the bigger piece because of his special day.  As he was telling me about it he said, "In my mind I was thinking, 'It's not that big of a deal.  It's only a birthday!'"

I had asked Nathan to check the mail for me when we got home from school.  Ryan and I waited on the porch as he ran down a couple of houses to the mail box.  He was taking longer than usual and I was about to walk down and see if he was okay when I heard him yell, "Mom, I'm not lost!  There's just SO MUCH mail!"

When I was steaming broccoli for dinner one night, Nathan was wondering what the horrible smell was.  I told him that broccoli kind of smells funny when you cook it, so when Scott walked in from work Nathan called to him, "Dad, don't breathe the air!  You'll get broccoli in your nose!"

From the bathroom one afternoon:  "Don't worry, Mom!  It's just me in the bathroom, not a robber!"

Good to know!

We were going out for a walk the other day and Scott asked Nathan if he wanted to ride his scooter or walk.  Nathan said, "Dad, I can ride my roller blades.  I'm pretty much a professional."

A little while back I had organized all of Nathan's things into different baskets on his shelves.  I told him what I had done he asked what organizing was.  I explained that it was making a special place for your things so that you always knew where they were and where to put them when you needed to clean them up.  A few days later I noticed him unloading the baskets and putting everything in a different place.  When I asked what he was doing, he said he was "UN-organizing" his room.  *Sigh.*  Everything made it back into a basket though, and the room looked clean, so I figured we'd deal with it later.  The next day Ryan got one of the baskets and dumped it all over to play with the toys.  Nathan said, in an exasperated tone (which I'm sure he's never heard from me!), "Ryan...I just spent a long time unorganizing all of this!"  Welcome to my world, Nathan. :)

I sure love this kid, and I'm so thankful that he is in our family.  He definitely keeps us laughing!

Rain Boots and Crazy Long Eyelashes

Ryan has a pair of boots.  They are green froggie rain boots, and he is in love with them.  He wears them around the house, in the back yard, to and from the school (we have lots of to's and from's every day...), to Trader Joe's, and wherever else we will let him.  He wears them with onesies, diapers, church clothes, jammies....he isn't picky.  We think it's pretty cute:

Here is his "I crack myself up" face:

Oh, and here it is again....we see that face often:

Awww...and here is his 'just plain cute' face:

And in other news, Anna and I were talking make-up while getting ready the other morning and somehow got on the subject of Ryan's eyelashes.  He seriously has the longest I've ever seen.  You have to catch the light just right to get the full effect though because they are so blonde.  We wondered how long they'd look with mascara, so we did the unthinkable (don't tell Daddy...he would NOT be happy with us!)  Here are some pictures (don't be jealous ladies...) 

(click on the picture for a closer view)

Okay, I'm jealous....I guess it's true that the longest eyelashes go to the boys! 

Wicked

A few months ago I found out that "Wicked" was coming to Orange County.  The girls and I have been wanting to see it for a while now, and I couldn't resist getting tickets.  We don't do things like this very often, so it was a special treat.  The show was last Saturday, and we were not disappointed!  It was pretty fabulous.  The best part was going to see it with my girls....just the three of us out for a "Mom-Daughter Date."  I loved every minute of it!

Needless to say, I've been walking around with the songs in my head all week long. :)

And, Crystal....when it comes to Salt Lake, we'll make a trip up to see it with you guys!!!

Meanwhile, the boys spent the afternoon with Daddy....playing basketball, the Wii, watching Jimmer (we got home just in time for the second half of the BYU-Gonzaga game...whew! We've got Jimmer fever around here...despite what Uncle Marc says!)

Throw in the church clean-up we had that morning (the kids love cleaning the church) and we had a pretty great Saturday....fun for everyone! :)

St. Patrick's Day and Back to the Land of the Living

Wow, what a year so far.  We've spent the majority of it sick, which hasn't really been fun.  Everything from strep throat, to the stomach flu, to several different colds, to a bad sinus infection (that I'm still trying to fight off) has gone through this house.  I have been lucky enough to catch just about everything, which has completely thrown me for a loop.  I'm usually a pretty healthy person...but apparently I let myself get completely worn out and I crashed.  So, I'm turning over a 'new leaf' full of lots of water, healthy food (no brownies for breakfast), vitamins, as much rest as I can get, and slowly nursing myself back to health. :) 

In the meantime, life has not slowed down one bit.  We had a fun visit from cousins Bella, Ava, and Lexi in February and had some good times at Disneyland with them.  Before we knew it, March was here!  And already half-way done?!?  Nathan was excited to wake up to green milk again this year (that darn leprechaun!)  I thought maybe it was the leprechaun who left our house so messy, but he told me it was already like that.  Hmmm...two months of having a sick mommy?  We'll use that excuse.  It also happened to be twin day at school, so the moms of the boys in his class coordinated and they all looked pretty much like this:

I was in his class later that day for their "Potato Tasting" and the substitute teacher said that the Principal had announced over the louspeaker that anyone with green hair color needed to wash it out.  She called the office and told them that her entire Kindergarten class had green hair!  They decided to let it slide.....this time.  Oops! 

Here are the kids in their St. Patrick's Day gear:

Happy St. Patty's Day!

....and hoping for a healthy spring!

Eighteen Months!!!

A couple of years ago I was spending day after day in bed, ridiculously sick.  It was all for a good cause though.  I distinctly remember the tangerines on our tree (which produces the yummiest tangerines...but only every other year) started to ripen in the middle of February, and I was so sad.  One of my favorite things to eat in the whole world, and they smelled and tasted horrible in my pregnant state.  My mind fast-fowarded two years to when we would have another new crop, and I thought to myself, "This baby will be eighteen months by the time I can enjoy those tangerines again!"  That seemed like forever into the future, and I was in denial that my baby would ever be eighteen months, so I tried to forget about my beloved citrus and pretended that the day would never come.  Well, I looked out my window a few weeks ago and saw a tree full of those delicious, juicy, almost-ripe tangerines and knew what was coming.  I am really not very good at letting my kids grow up.  Shouldn't they come with a pause button?  I have to say, I think I'm handling it all pretty well.  It's hard to be sad that Ryan is growing up when more of his cute personality emerges every day.  He is SO FUN!  And so cute, and smart, and funny, and talkative, and flirty with the girls, and energetic, and sweet, and happy, and independent, and did I mention cute?  We are so lucky!  So, the good news is that I can enjoy my tangerines and my eighteen-month old.  Because I really do love this age.

The other day I had the camera out taking pictures of Nathan and Ryan came out and started posing for me!

It was hilarious.  Eighteen months of mom taking pictures...he's got it down.

He got a little carried away...

Ry-guy loves the sandbox.  He and Nathan spend lots of time out there!

One of Ryan's favorite things to do is to pretend to cook in the kitchen.  Here he is mixing candy hearts and flour.  He'll take whatever he can get his hands on!

This is very serious stuff:

It was cold and rainy on his "big day"...you know, when he turned eighteen months...so we built a fire (another one of his favorites) and spent the evening around it.

Nothing like a fire in the fireplace and a good book to read:

Ryan loves watching Nathan shoot hoops in the backyard.  Here he is enjoying the view from the safety of the supply box:

Oh, another favorite is "Elefun."  I heart this game (so does Ryan!)

Ah, yes, cooking again...I had to banish the bar stools from the kitchen for his own safety.  He climbs like you wouldn't believe.  We call him our little monkey. :)

Love you, Ryan....you know you'll be my baby forever, no matter how big you get! :)