Hoppy Easter

We had a great Easter Weekend and were so grateful for the reason to celebrate. So please make sure you're nice and comfortable I've just added over 20 pictures to take you on our Easter EGG-STAVAGANZA! (corny?? yes but extremely appropriate)





Saturday we were able to get together with one of our Uncles and some of our favorite cousins.
We had an Easter Egg hunt close to Michael's house and oh boy were the kids excited!! Are you kidding me people leaving candy around for kids to find. Ya Will was a little overwhelmed by it all. Right after finding his little baggie of candy he came over and started jabbering to me all about it then he noticed the kids were still gathering candies and he took off for more.

Color camouflage eggs. Really it's the only way to go.

Some of the kids posing on the bench. Seriously someday we'll get a picture with everyone smiling nicely.

He's so handsome and oh so dashing in his cute little leather bomber jacket.

Ok eating SAND not so dashing or handsome but cute and a valuable lesson learned.

I love this pic of Leah she is such a camera bug. Seriously I have tons of great pictures of her chubby cheeks and sparkly eyes.

Ethan is for sure a ham and growing up so fast! I can't believe he'll be 8 before the end of the year.
Once again an attempt ot have 5 kids under the age of 7 to smile at the camera at the same time. Positive point they all stayed seated in the same place for 15 seconds.

I loved that Leah and Abby were playing more and more a mere 7 months seperate them and they followed each other around the entire time at the park. We told them to hug for the camera and they both chose to hug themselves first.
But they finally got it and Abby showed Leah how we hug it out at our house.


We ran back to Michael's house before the rain started pouring down and had a great evening chatting it up and listening to our kids play together. We rushed home so we could get the kids in bed by 10 o'clock and so we could get to our Easter Bunny Business. So please picture 10:30 at night Me, Jeremy and a box filled with aluminum pipes, a mat and 56 springs. It was cold, drizzling and we couldn't find a flashlight that worked but after two hours and some seriously good laughs at Chinese translations we had put together our Easter Bunny Surprise........................

The kids woke up at a quarter to 7..but I was mean and made them play in their room till 8.....They found their Easter Baskets, We had a small devotional and then let them go outside to find some of this..............................................................................................................................................







And a little more of this...


and some of this....(seriously isn't Abby so adorable)

Some more..(yes there are tons of these shots)
Yes Joy and Hoppyiness abounded in our home

Side note 9 o'clock am sunlight is awesome to shoot in. After some sufficient jumping we went in and finished our Easter Egg decorating.. We had to add some sparkler to them.

We zipped off to church. I didn't get a pic of the kids in their adorableness but trust me they were on the adorable side of cute, well until church started and then all cuteness disappeared and insanity ensued. But somehow we let them survive to come home and do some of this.
My family always found Easter Eggs Sunday after church so we could make deviled eggs to go with our Sunday meal. And thus the tradtion continues.

The girls helped each other out finding eggs and were so cute in their matchy overalls that I did not dress them in.

More tramp stuff. I have a feeling I'm going to love this thing!

I'm pretty sure she is in total love with this thing. The kids slept so well that night and we were so thankful the next day was sunny so they could play on it again. Nastily enough it's supposed to be stormy the rest of the week so we are missing sunshine and bounciness deeply. But we'll be out there the second the sun shows it's beautiful rays.

Joy

Conference Sunday we were able to meet together with some of the Rawlings family and have a little dinner and see Grandma and Grandpa Rawlings who have recently moved to Colorado. It was so good to see them and be able to bask in the after spirit glow of conference.



Jeremy was able to snag this adorable picture of Abby. Doesn't she look so grown-up. I can't believe she turns three in May.

Lizzie was so good to talk with Great Grandpa Rawlings. She remembers so much about him she was able to keep a good conversation with him for quite awhile.


This is really why Lizzie loves family events. She loves loves loves her cousin Savanah and these two really know how to have fun in the most meschivious ways.

Great Grandma and Grandpa telling everyone about their new home in Colorado.
My favorite picture of the night. Will and his Grandpa Rawlings who shares Will's middle name. Truly there is no greater JOY than that found inside of family.

There are two more posts after this one please read on and leave comments. I'll try to be better of updating my blog I'm afraid weekly is a little too long for all our many adventures.

Find

The day started out as any other day. Another bowl of Cheerios when Lizzie noticed something in the box of Cheerios. She opened up the little envelope and inside was this 5 dollar cash card. Lizzie was so excited and to be honest I was thrilled. I told Lizzie she could have it and could pick anything out in the store with her very own money. All day long she contemplated what she should buy. What wonderful toy would 5 dollars bring her. When we finally got to the store we went up and down every isle until Lizzie settled on a new math book with erasable pages and a new set of washable markers. I was slightly shocked but when we got home and Lizzie devoured her new math book from cover to cover all I could think was she really is her father's daughter.


A couple of days later Lizzie's preschool had an Easter egg hunt in a blinding blizzard (ok so it wasn't that bad but to be honest I'm sick of pulling the winter coats out and would love to pull the flip flops out instead). We all went to the park and watched as the madness ensued.

I have to warn you. Me, my camera and Lizzie were all in love. I couldn't help but take tons of pix of Lizzie. There was something about the way her eyes were sparkling that day that made me just want to take tons of pictures of her.

We threw in a few eggs for Will and Abby to find. Will wasn't quite sure what to do with the egg but had a fun time shaking it.


There I can't bear to post any more pictures of her. I'm afraid your eyes may suffer from over exposure to major cuteness. (I talked to my optometrist it's a real thing ;) )

Discover

A couple weeks ago Lizzie's Preschool had a field trip to the discovery museum. We were super stoked especially where as Adults got in free and kids were like 3 bucks! So we called a few of our friends to enjoy the time with us and watched as the Kids DISCOVERED so much about the things around them.


This is Ms. Tara, Lizzie's preschool teacher. We love her dearly and she's been so good to Lizzie and has helped her progress so far in her education. She's pretty much AWESOME!

Lizzie was super excited that her friend Hannah was able to make the trip down from Logan to hang out with us. Lizzie and Hannah have been friends since before Lizzie turned TWO and even though we left Logan nearly three years ago whenever they get together you would think they had never spent any time apart. It also works out super well so that I can hang out with Hannah's mom, Brooke, who has been just one of those amazing spirits that you feel so blessed to have in your life. Love you guys!

Will has been to the Discovery Museum before but I think this is his first trip as a functioning toddler. He was enthralled with the helicopter but as soon as he got inside he decided some things are better observed from a distance.

Abby hated the helicopter last year and I thought that this year was different. She went on the helicopter just fine but when I went to take her picture in it I couldn't find her anywhere. I began to frantically search the surrounding area when I saw this picture. It was so sad yet so precious.
I walked over to her and asked her if she was OK. She said she was fine.
I reminded her that there was more inside and she seemed to perk up a little bit more.

She found her friend the horse and had a great time feeding him delicious carrots.

This tall guy here was so awesome. He was our "tour guide" (although how can you tour 50 plus kids running around in a toyland.) But he was awesome playing with the kids and teaching them things. This was my favorite he helped them make a skyscraper only to have the sponge blocks fall down on them. He did it like three times in a row and the kids squealed with delight each time it happened.
Luckily Lizzie was wearing her hard hat. She had so much fun. Her little mind is like a giant sponge she remembers everything.



Abby was perfectly content to play in the little people house and even found another small dollhouse and was completely entertained the entire time.

After being traumatized by the helicopter Will discovered the water area. He was in heaven. There he was standing at a flowing water pool splashing to his hearts greatest content. Pulling him away was probably THE most painful moment in his life.

Fare Thee Well, Winter

Oh how my heart longed for those days of white
Bringing to my mind warm cocoa and Christmas Lights
And as the flakes fell from the smoldering clouds
Children's laughter could be heard all around
The fluffy new blankets of glistening gleam
The sleds and snowmen and long winter's dream
We joyed in the newness and held it neatly to our pleasant delight

And thus winter came and oh how it stayed
Taking the sunlight on it's relentless tirade
Of COLD winter winds and blizzarding skies
And red frozen noses and watering eyes
When finally the newness dies
And the laughter turns into whimpering cries

Enough Winter!
Let it be done.
You have become the infected splinter
In my soul's search of fun

My love has faded and is fading more still
Please leave me before you can kill
The good memories we have made
And the desire I'll need
To call for you when my heart bleeds
To make the big trade
From cold autumn breezes
To winter induced sneezes

Fare thee well, Winter
I hope you'll forgive me
For my poor fickle heart
Please don't come back Bitter

Fare thee well, Winter. Farewell.

random MOdgE pODGEDY

Jeremy is out at a scout camp tonight...Poor guy it's supposed to drop to like 29 degrees tonight. So here I am on a Friday night completely dateless thus you the internet public get my randomness and boredom. (Please contain your excitement.) I was just going through my picture files and decided to post the things I thought were important enough to take pictures of. Although this really isn't a fluid post at least you'll get to see what we've been up to.

St. Patty's day
I have since learned that I was not very creative in my approach to St. Patrick's day and there is so much more than just green but nonetheless Green we did have.

Will was able to demolish a scrumptious green doughnut and felt oh so good about it in his adorable green frog bib.

Macey's had green french bread and I couldn't think of anything more fun than green french bread pizza. It was yummy although Lizzie commented that after the pizza sauce cooked into the bread it looked a little bit like slime but delicious slime.

This has to be my favorite. Abby has decided to be a ballerina for the past month so on St. Patty's day she had to wear her tutu with her green. It was priceless.

She is quite the dancer and had just finished a beautiful pirouette when I snagged this photo.

Randomness #2

After watching the Oscars and repeating a tutorial on Jennifer Anistons Hair do for the Oscars I've since copied it on my girls heads. Lizzie looks so adorable in it and it's so easy to do and stays put all day long it has now become the hair-do of choice for my girlies. I think it really complements Lizzies face and lets her hair be down without it all over in her face. ( I can't stand hair in peoples eyes and I have issues that when my girls have hair in their eyes they look homeless and unkempt.) So this is how my baby girls have been looking lately,


I didn't get a very good shot of the top of her head so I had to redo the shot while she was eating.


Yes Lizzie your mom is way messed up. It's better that you learn this now then when you're 42 and in counseling.

Abby sports the hair-do as well but she's not too cool with the curling iron so we just have to blow dry her hair. Still she is quite adorable.

Final Randomness

We sold our kitchen table on KSL in just a matter of hours. Jeremy had picked out an awesome new table with matching chairs (for the past 3 years we've been using metal folding chairs, super cool right?) And we simply didn't have room for another table in our house. We were kind of sad to see this first real kitchen table of our go but we'll always have our memories. (K this maybe really dumb to some of you but I'm really that pathetic I get attached to everything in my house.)

I'd give you a title but all the ones I think of Make me CRY!

So you see this Little guy? He is seriously why I got into the whole mothering thing (ok maybe an exaggeration I have two other reasons why I got into it but this post is about this particular reason). I'm not sure if it's because he's a boy. Maybe it's because he's my third child. Maybe it's a combo of the two but this boy is so incredibly busy. He's learned how to climb onto everything and anything. He runs all around the house constantly. But my favorite Will past time is trying on shoes. Mostly because the shoes in this household tend to be on the more womanly side and thus my mini man has learned how to look oh so fetching in my best pair of high heels. But when he found my running shoes I figured I could take pics of him and not worry about the shame it would cause his manly state.


He's perfected the sit down method for shoes but my shoes were still tied and so he had to change his approach.

He's getting a good step into it.

And now he's realizing that i'm taking his picture and gets his best manly face on.

And now he's getting his run on. I hope and pray he has his Dad's natural running form but at least I'll be able to say that it all started in my shoes.

But as I looked at these pictures Something was bothering me and finally I was able to pin point it.
His hair has been driving me bonkers. After having two adorable little girls once the hair starts getting like this it starts getting braided and pulled back into adorable pigtails and other such girly nonsense. I would comb it in the morning while I was doing the girls hair but Will really likes to comb his own hair so about 2 seconds after I comb it you can't tell that the effort was even made.

And thus the decision to go from Baby Boy to all Boy was made. I pulled out the clippers and Jeremy pulled out the camera. He was all smiles to begin with. Afterall he loves to have his hair combed.


Then he heard the buzzing of the clippers and all was not so smiley any more.


And then we ended with this......
And some of this.....
As soon as we were done I grabbed a sucker and he was contented for a moment or two. His sisters were more than willing to smile for the camera but Will I think felt a little side swiped.
I probably would feel confused to. I combed his hair all the time and gave him great attention too. Why on earth would I ever do something so drastic as cut his hair. To be honest I'm sad but at the same time his facial expresions have increased a whole bunch and he's getting away with a lot more because darn it he's just so cute.

This is goofy face. I caught him just before he was about to climb on top of our kitchen table.

See if he smiles he knows he'll get out of it with nothing more than a hidden smile from me.

I love his super long eyelashes and they seem to stand out even more now that they're not fighting his hair for attention. (Is it wrong to be jealous of your baby boys eyelashes and covet them deep in your heart?)

And POP you can't fight with his eyes now. Ahh man I feel sorry for teenage girls they are all going to get into major fists full of hair and nails all over just to get a date with this one. SNAP!