Florida and Fun!

I love a weekend with laughter, sleeping in, and not being the one in charge! I arrived in Florida as an aunt with no children in tow and... a bag of jelly beans. I know, jelly beans? I need to get better at this aunt thing. It was fun to play "hair dresser" with the girls (I loved playing that when I was little, but for some reason it isn't played much in my home of all boys!), checking out all of Nate's many airplanes, and cute Jesse who let me use their silverware while I was there!

My brother-in-law, Jarin, has been deployed to Iraq since January and Sarah has been doing an incredible and amazing job of being a single mom to four children since he left! I hope this was a weekend that she didn't feel quite like a single mom. Maybe like a single mom with a wing man!

Thursday night, we put the kids to bed and Sarah's wonderful neighbor came over so we could go for a walk "around the neighborhood"; however, we found $5 at the end of Sarah's driveway and decided to walk to the grocery store for ice cream! Three miles later we enjoyed big bowls of ice cream and mint brownies!!

We left the kids behind on Friday and had a great time seeing an amazing exhibit called Body Worlds. The human body is fascinating and the exhibit uses real bodies to help the public get a comprehensive view of various systems of the body. Amazing!
Then of course we had to ride the bicycle on the high wire. Sarah's always wanted to do it, but you can't leave four kids standing on the ledge while you live your bicycle dream!The best part of the weekend....the beach! Perhaps I live in a land-locked state and am underprivileged when it comes to beach life, but this was seriously perfect! We spent the afternoon and evening playing, building sand castles, boogie boarding, collecting shells, and eating a sandy dinner. We ended the fun by showering the kids after the sun had set and jammied them up. When we got home, we tossed them in bed and then Sarah and I enjoyed painting our toenails. I could have used a few more days of this life!

Isn't this castle cool?! No, we didn't actually make it, ours was much more primitive, but still very cool!

Thanks for a great weekend, Sarah! You amaze me and I love you!

Boys having fun!

I feel like there are so many things I'd like to do before we leave Nebraska and I'm trying to squeeze it all in during our last month here. It sounds crazy to say that we only have a month left!

The Omaha zoo is one of the best in the nation and I took the boys up for an all day visit (we even tossed nap schedules out the window-very unlike me!). Andrew is such a lover of animals, it was truly a magical day!

On our drive to Omaha, he kept saying he wanted to see a hippo. I haven't been to this zoo since he was a baby and wasn't quite sure where the hippos were. When we got in the zoo, he walked up to a zoo worker and said, "Excuse me, do you have a hippo?" He was so darn cute and so excited when she told him it was in the jungle! After she pointed us in the right direction he literally bounced the whole way there!

We've also been seriously enjoying our backyard, and will miss it terribly when we move! The other day I put this plastic box on the deck with a couple inches of water in it, as well as all our plastic animals. My boys played happily for over an hour! By the end, everyone was stripped down and wet, but it was so much fun!

Lastly, we had a little car switch-a-roo the other day and for some reason it made me laugh to see these three lined up in the back of the Camry. I only did this for 1/2 a day and it was fun, but thank goodness for the minivan!

Big News!!

This picture is not Mike's idea of announcing our big news, but I just thought he looked so cute in is BYU MBA T-shirt! The words "Class of 2011" somehow make it very real that we're forfeiting our salary, selling our home, moving to Provo and GOING BACK TO SCHOOL!! The only thing that makes it more real is that we sold our home last Saturday! We were surprised and grateful to be on the market for only two weeks. I can now return to being a nice mommy! We'll spend a couple of months apart this summer, but are excited for the adventure that awaits us! Go Cougars!! Note: I'm not sure why I post pictures of myself when I haven't done my hair or makeup, but you have to have a family picture in front of the sold sign! Please excuse the uglies.

A Week in Minneapolis!

I love this picture because I seem to remember many cousin lineups just like this when I was a child! Maria, you know what I mean?!

This week the kids and I made a spontaneous trip to Minneapolis and we've had great fun with our cousins! We've played at multiple parks, made a trip to the zoo, felt like we were living in the zoo, taste tested Betty Crocker brownies, hit the outlet malls, and have had lots of fun! Camie is due in less than three weeks with her third child and was a gem to host us for this week. Hopefully we didn't wear her out too much!

We're headed home tomorrow (after a trip to IKEA) to reunite with our lonely daddy, but we've had such a great time with our favorite twin family! Thanks for having us!

Happy Easter

We have loved emphasizing Jesus Christ and his life this week with our little family as we have prepared for Easter. We are grateful for his life, his Atonement, and his love for each of us. From our family to yours, Happy Easter!

Life at our house

I haven't posted in a while. I guess I didn't want to see my roommate weekend move further down the page, but I suppose it's now time to move on. Here's a glimpse of what we've been up to.

General Conference was great, but a bit of a joke at times. I kept reminding myself that I all the talks will be printed and delivered to my door (I love when things arrive at my door- see previous posts about Amazon.com) and that I can read each talk in peace at a later date. Although it was a little crazy with my boys, it was wonderful to hear from a living prophet of God and his apostles. It was sweet to see Andrew's enthusiasm when President Monson, Eyring, and of course Pres. Uchtdorf came on the screen. Pres. Uchtdorf is his favorite! Here are a few quiet moments I captured.

Did you notice their new haircuts? I've always wanted to try the buzz cut, but I've never been able to go for it. Last weekend I finally got the guts to buzz my boys! They all needed cuts and after dinner I just buzzed them all while they were still strapped in their chairs. I think it looks so cute on them!

By the way, today at the gym I watched a mother lovingly blow her daughter's hair dry and then comb it and braid it. I realized why Heavenly Father sent my boys. I couldn't imagine trying to do three heads of hair on top of everything else, especially at this stage!

Reid is so into shoes right now. Even tonight he was trying on Andrew' s new Nikes and was in heaven!Mealtime can get a little funny at our house. Tanner and Reid are now at the table with us, which is so fun! They love being with us, rather than off to the side in their high chairs; however, you can also see that it sometimes gets a little out of control!

Andrew also started swim lessons! He's a bit of a dare devil in the water, so I'm excited to get him going with lessons. He's loving it and does very well!