Easter

 

My kids always get plenty of practice finding Easter eggs every year. On Friday, one of the women that I used to work with, did an Easter egg hunt at her house.

That night, we dyed Easter eggs at my parents' house. Saturday morning, my parents did their Easter egg hunt.

 Going through Grant's Easter basket with him was pretty awesome. He was SO excited about EVERYTHING!!!

 Then we headed on to Honeyville for a third Easter egg hunt in 24 hours.

 These pictures are from Easter morning....

It looks like the kids weren't quite ready to wake up.

Sleepover at Grandma's

Since my sisters and I all had Spring Break at the same time- which rarely happens, we decided we needed to get together. Then we invited ourselves to my mom's house for a sleepover.

 There were cupcakes with mounds of treats...

 ...And a play written and directed by Chloe and Audrey. As near as I could tell, it mostly consisted of them arguing and laughing at each other.

 Costumes, courtesy of a road show from when I was growing up. My mom kept the costumes so that kids could use them to dress up. Now that they have used them a few times, she decided it is time to get rid of them. (As if that will stop Audrey and Chloe from making up plays.)

Don't adjust your screen, there really are 11 kids laying in that room to sleep. It took awhile, but they did eventually all fall asleep just like that.

March stuff

 Who says that after 11 years of marriage, the romance is gone? I loved that we understood each other perfectly!

 When I spent hours and hours making these throw pillows, this is exactly what I had in mind...

 I don't remember what they were pretending. Good thing they have each other to shenanigan with.

 We built temples for Family Home Evening

 This is our first banana from the banana tree Jake got us YEARS ago. This is what I wrote on facebook when Josh posted the picture of it...
"I would bet 6 years ago (not 4 as Josh said) Josh's brother, Jake, dropped off a tiny banana plant at our house with no explanation, and he promised me that we would one day get bananas from it; to which, I told him he was crazy. (We live in Utah, where bananas don't grow.) So for 6 years, I have watered the plant weekly which has become another member of our family. (Trust me, it's in more pictures than I am, I guarantee.) I actually thought the plant was pretty for a few years, but now it is a full blown tree, in our semi-small house. We have moved it to every spot in the front room, hoping to find a less-awkward spot, and have to relocate it to the kitchen every December to make room for a Christmas tree. But it is literally Josh's pride and joy. Somewhere along the way it became a competition he and his brother Jared, who was also gifted a tree, and because Josh's was bigger... you get the point. If I forget to water the tree, he feels as if I've neglected one of his children.
So yes, here we are, 6 years later, enjoying the fruit of our labors.
It tastes just like a banana you'd buy from the store, except 6 years more labor-intensive.
And the icing on the cake of the whole story...
Josh doesn't like bananas.

 Here is the little chub-chub in the bath, because I couldn't resist.

Cam 8 Months

These were Grant's 8 month pictures.

 Josh's mom saved this outfit from when he was young. Josh's mom has a picture of Josh from when he was 9 months old. I thought she must have been confused, because Grant fit in this outfit when he was 4 months old. But sure, here is Cam at 8 months-so I guess Grant was just THAT big.

 Cam was actually getting over being sick when I took these, but you can't even tell from the pictures because he is such a happy little boy.

 If I remember right, he was almost crawling at this point, but not quite.

 He sits with his feet like this all the time. Grant did too. I love it! When he gets excited, he rubs his feet together. So cute!

St. Patricks Day

I do not take Pinterest-worthy pictures. I have come to accept that. But we still enjoyed our rainbow pancakes.

Snowmageddon

The snow this year has been bonkers to say the least. And these pictures are actually just the beginning. I had no idea at the time what we were headed for.

 We ended up having 3 snow days in Cache Valley in January, which is almost unheard of. To get one snow day in Utah is quite the blessed event, but to get three... yeah, nuts. One of the days, school was cancelled because the temperature was close to -20. WHAT??? Yeah, crazy! When temperatures are that cold, it's almost hard to enjoy having a day off. But my kids did take an advantage on this particular day, when it was warmer, but just tons of snow.

 I tried a tried to get a picture that would do it justice, but still, the pictures don't really capture it. Although this picture does look like a little slice of heaven to me.

 Several times, I felt like I was shoveling the snow into this pile by the street, and then the snow plow was plowing it all back onto my driveway, in a constant battle, because there was just not enough room for all the snow.

At this point, I would be okay with not seeing anymore snow again for awhile. But, I tell you what, there was a winter a few years ago that we got one snowstorm, in April, where snow was on the ground for less than a day; and I keep saying that I would take this winter over that year any day. (Although there have been quite a few people who have had to deal with flood damage, which I don't envy.) Maybe we could find a happy medium.