Happy Easter!

 Holidays get more and more fun the older our children get.  Dying Easter eggs this year involved the whole family and everyone had a great time!  Amelia dominated the pink, as she does with all of our pink plates, cups, and bowls as well.  She loved putting her eggs in over and over again.

 Andrew is a creative kid and had so much fun coloring eggs.  After all of his hard work his most beautiful egg rolled off the able and cracked, he was devastated!

 Here they are all lined up and ready for the big hunt!

 Andrew was a good sport and was kind enough to redistribute six of his eggs with his little sister.  He's just so fast at snatching up the eggs!

 I realize these pictures all look pretty much the same, but it was such a fun moment that I wanted to capture every bit of it.  The kids all piled on the couch to check out their eggs and Mike and I pulled the ottoman up in front of them and we watched their excitement, they shared candy, and we talked about Easter.

 Amelia has a neighbor friend who has a few pairs of sunglasses and will often share a pair with her.  She was so excited to finally get some glasses of her own!  Tanner and Reid got new sun glasses as well.  Andrew got an awesome water bottle with a spiderweb on it, he was so happy!

 We had our good friends, the Petreys, over for Easter dinner.  Thank you Stacey for sending these pics, I always forget to capture the tables.

 The boys taught the adults about the last week of Christ's life.  They did a great job and were so respectful and reverent with their pictures.  It was a lovely evening with friends, celebrating Easter, and eating yummy food.  I rarely make Mom C.'s dinner rolls and my family loves them!  The boys (including Mike) were so excited to have lots of rolls with our Easter dinner.

I hope you all had a great Easter as well.  I love taking the week before Easter to really talk about the last week of Christ's life and his Atonement, death, and then His resurrection.  As our kids get older, they understand more and ask thoughtful questions.  It's fun to see them get it.  Andrew wrote a talk for primary that he gave on Easter Sunday.  He wrote it by himself and his first line was, "Easter isn't just a day of candy, it's really a day about Jesus."  Andrew gave a great talk about how Christ made good choices, most importantly, to follow Heavenly Father's plan.  Andrew talked about how he can make good choices too and shared how he had given six of his Easter eggs to his sister.  I loved hearing his talk!

Our church recently made a series of videos about Christ's life.  Our family has really enjoyed watching the videos, check them out here, they're definitely worth your time.  Happy Easter

Love being home

After being gone for what felt like two weeks (I was only home 1 1/2 days between both trips) it was so nice to be at home with my kiddies again!  Here's a glimpse of why I was excited to come home, I love our little family!

 Boy band!  It all started with Andrew creating a guitar from a Kellogg cereal box.  He then helped Tanner and Reid create guitars as well.  They practiced a few songs, my favorite "I Love My White Shoes".  The boys sang and Amelia danced, so cute!

 We love walking the loop, it's almost a daily ritual.  I think this was conference Sunday, taking a loop between sessions.  The boys love to fly down the "big hill" and sometimes end in the vineyard for a little exploration.

 That night we grilled and had corn on the cob.  Andrew had this great idea to set a trap for a raccoon by leaving a trail of corn from the woods all the way to the back door.  What he didn't know was that Amelia was following behind him eating the corn kernels!  Ha!  He finally figured it out and wasn't too happy with sis.

 One day Tanner sat in Amelia's booster for lunch.  She quickly capitalized on his choice of seats and put the tray on and brought him a bib, just like she does with her babies!  She was so happy to have a real "baby" to take care of.

 Over spring break we spent a day in Grand Rapids and visited the children's museum.  The kids had a great time and it was fun that Mike was able to join us as well.

 After the museum, we had a glorious trip to Costco and then headed over to the Conrans for an impromptu MBA dinner.  I love these families!!  It totally made my day to see the Conrans, Fors, and Vachs!

This was the drive home, Amelia's wind up before she crashed.  Check out Reid in the back seat wearing his goggles all the way home!

Girls Weekend 2012

 Girls Weekend!!  One of my favorite times of the year!  This year April planned our awesome GW in Carmel, CA, one of the most beautiful, quaint, and relaxing places in the world!  I love it! We started our first day off with a trip to this lovely Mediterranean restaurant.  The owner is from Syria and it felt like he welcomed us into his home and we were dear friends by the end of our stay.

 We had awesome walks on the beach each day.

 One thing I love about getting together with my sisters...the food!  Look at all those fresh vegetables!  It was a weekend with people who appreciate good food and we definitely made good food!  Our roasted veggies and feta sandwiches, mango quinoa salad, goldrush brownies, sourdough bread, hot chocolate, etc. really hit the spot.

 Glenns' grandmother allowed us to stay in her vacation home for the "weekend" (we actually played together for five days!), which is on the 14th hole of Pebble Beach.  I love walking the golf course after the golfers have gone home, it's so beautiful and peaceful!

 I love running with April!  I think we became runners together while undergrads in Provo.  We've run many a races together and I love when I get to run with April, especially in Carmel.  When we were in Carmel last, we were training for the Provo half and were supposed to run nine or ten miles.  Unfortunately, we missed a turn on our route and we were so happy with how fast we finished our run.  "Must be because we're at sea level!"  It was kind of funny when we realized what we'd done.  We ran part of that route again, so fun!

 Meanwhile, there was a serious yoga workout happening in the courtyard/backyard.  April joined the girls when we got back, over achiever!

 Hiking Point Lobos.  Doesn't Whit look amazing, she's 35 weeks pregnant!

 I love how dad crashed GW on occasion.  We can't blame him, who wouldn't want to crash the weekend?

 We went to Monterey for lunch, a little shopping, and a little rain.

 Here's everyone cleaned up and heading to church.

 After church we sat on the patio for hours watching the migrating whales and the golfers, taking naps, and basking in the sun.  Such a relaxing weekend!

I love Girls Weekend!  I'm so grateful my mom started this when we were in high school and that we've continued it over the years.  We really don't have to plan much.  We love the time to visit with each other, be together in the kitchen, and just hang out.  We missed Catie this year, hopefully she can make it next time.

Thanks to my sweetie and good friends in MI who watched my kiddies while I was gone.  It was a great trip, lovely to be with my family!