Easter

Easter started bright (not bright, actually - it was still dark outside) and early for us on Saturday morning. The boys woke up a little before 6:30 and I had to go in their room while the "Easter bunny" finished hiding the real dyed eggs around our house. The kids loved finding the eggs, and then finding their baskets. It was a fun morning full of sugar.Doesn't this pictures just say it all? I Love it!

Miles checking out his basket. It just had to be green.

Jonas finding his basket.And here he is with his mouth full of chocolates and with his cute new slippers on. Do you see how tightly he is holding on to his chocolates??? I had to bribe him to let go of them.

We got Emmy up afterwards and she enjoyed holding an empty egg.

And here are our cute kids on Easter Sunday:

The Boys.

The Kids. (It was pretty impossible to get a good shot of the 3 of them.)

The Babe. This dress was a dress my parents had bought in the Phillipines - one that my sister and I wore when we were babes. How special.

We are also lucky enough to have Ben's parents here with us - so they were able to enjoy the fun weekend with us as well.

The holidays are truly much more fun with little kids around. Every little thing is so neat and so fun and so exciting to them. I love it.

the 411

So my friend tagged me, but I already did the top part of it in another tag a few weeks ago. So I'll do the last 1/2 of her tag:

10 years ago...

Gosh, so long ago! I was living in Taylor hall at BYU, finishing up my first year. I was getting ready to go to the Tetons and work that summer at Jackson Lake Lodge. I think I had decided to give Social Work a try as my major. I think. It was a long time ago.

5 things on my to due list. . .
1. Fold laundry
2. Put other laundry in dryer
3. Pick up all the little toys on the floor so Emmy won't put them in her mouth and choke on them
4. Place the eggs in cold water in 6 minutes
5. Dye easter eggs with kiddos

What I would do if I were suddenly a millionaire. . .
Pay off our car, buy a bigger house with a few acres of land, save the rest pretty much.

Six places I have lived. . .
1. Hawaii
2. Florida
3. Virginia
4. Utah
5. New York
6. Wyoming

5 jobs I have had. . .
1. Newspaper deliverer
2. Golden Spoon frozen yogurt gal?
3. Oh yeah, a "server" at Boston Market
4. Personal aide for a quadraplegic lady
5. Home health nurse - for 3 weeks, ha.

5 things people don't know about me. . .
(this is hard)
1. I didn't take pre-natal (including folate) vitamins with my last 2 pregnancies.
2. If it weren't for contacts, I would not be able to tell what time it was even if the clock was 3 feet in front of my face.
3. We're going to try and grow peanuts in our garden this year - ha!
4. I've been a regular exerciser (as in at least 5 days/week) pretty much for the last 15 years of my life
5. I love to listen to NPR. In fact, I would say it has been years (yes, years) since I've listened to music on the radio.

We Went Green

I wish I were speaking environmentally green. But I'm not. I can't afford to go environmentally green. Sure, it will probably save me money 10-20 years down the road, but, ummmm my kids are really growing fast and will need food and clothes before 10 years from now. So anyways. The kids went green by eating green pretty much all day yesterday. I honestly did not plan it - well I did do green milk the night before and I thought that was going to be it. But it wasn't. See for yourself:

Breakfast

Yummy green milk with bran flakes. Turns out green milk is the perfect antidote for a 2-year old's tantrum fit. Thank goodness - 6:45am is a little early for me to have to start dealing with tantrums.

Lunch

(I didn't do green for morning snack- just yellow bananas). But for lunch I dyed their yogurt green. How fun for them.

Afternoon Snack

Green apples with peanut butter.

Dinner

Green pesto pizza (honestly I had prepared to do this a week ago - not even thinking it was St. Patrick's Day) and then I dyed some cottage cheese.

FHE Treat

Green sugar cookie frogs. Turns out frogs were the closest cookie-cutter I had for St. Patrick's Day. It worked.

And you know what? It tuned out to be Jonas' Best Eating Day Ever. Huh. Maybe I'll have to stock up on lots and lots of green food color. . .

Quote of the Week

"I don't want Jesus to bite my toes off."

~Jonas

We really have no idea where this came from. He's just a funny, goofy kid. . .

Not much happenin' around here

So I haven't posted anything new since Miles b-day because, really, nothing has gone on this week. Of course "nothing" doesn't mean I just got to sit around all day and do. . . nothing. Just nothing other than doctor's appointments; playing; eating; schooling; reading books; getting breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks prepared; playing; planning out the grocery list; playing; organzing and attending Cub Scouts; a little bit of sewing; playing; and going grocery shopping. Oh wait, nix the last one - Ben and Emmy went grocery shopping for me! How great is that? Very great, indeed. I HATE grocery shopping because for some reason I just don't like going to Walmart.


Anyways, I thought I'd share some photos of Jonas and Emmy (Miles had enough attention with all his b-day stuff, right?). But I think I'm going to do a "Jonas-quote" for next week's Quote and so I'll post some Jonas pics with that. So here are some more of Emmy. . .

She is getting much better at sitting up. She loves it, too. She just can't stay upright for too long (as in, more than 2 minutes). . .

Hehe.

Silly. Cutie. Beauty. Lovie.

I love this picture for 2 reasons: 1. Emmy's face. She is such a happy gal. She loves life. And she loves her pre-crawling/scooting adventures. 2. Jonas is in the background. Pretty much wherever either Emmy is or where I am, there you will find Jonas. Unless he's outside playing. Other than that, he likes being near The Girls.

Happy Birthday

Dear Miles,

Well your birthday came and went yesterday and it was an great day celebrating such a neat boy, You. The fun started Saturday evening when Grandpa G and Grandma Dixie arrived - complete with Chilis dinner. That nite we watched Cars - yes, the same movie you had watched on your 3rd birthday. I had tried to prepare you for the tractor-tipping scene so that you wouldn't have to run out like you had on your 3rd birthday. You were brave and stayed during that scene - but did have to convince yourself, and others watching the movie, that the tractors liked it and were having fun and that Frank the Combine was just playing chase with Lightning and Mater. You repeated this quite a few times to reassure yourself that all was okay. I'm not quite sure you convinced yourself.

You got to sleep in the Igloo Tent inside your room on your Birthday Eve. Dad slept there with you; Jonas choose to sleep in his crib. Dad is pretty sure that he fell asleep a lot sooner than you.

In the morning your dad, still on his baking-kick, made some delicious cinnamon rolls and they were enjoyed by us all. Grandma Dixie fixed up some yummy orange julius - without "bonus" blend-ins like blender parts or plants, which have become a typical occurence in her orange juliuses lately.

Church was great for you. The primary sang "Happy Birthday" to you and, as you exclaimed to me when church was over, "I did great!" Which your teacher verified. I was so happy because you have been telling me for the past few weeks how good of a boy you'll be when you turn four. I've been hearing so much of "When I am four I'll ____________" (be good in church, be nice to Jonas, share my toys, clean my mess, etc.). And it was true! Yesssss.

We came home and the birthday celebrations continued all afternoon and evening long. We started by knocking down the pinata. And, so like you, you didn't want any part of hitting the pinata. Because you don't like breaking things that you think are neat (you still haven't taken a bite of your V-day chocolate dump-truck). You were all for Jonas going at it, and Jonas was all for going at it, so it worked quite well. But Jonas just doesn't have quite the muscles to knock it down and so you wanted me to do it. Well I wouldn't do it until you at least tried. So you got down and said you didn't want to use the bat, just your hand. And then you just swatted at the air! I said no and gave you the bat. Then you went at it! You created some great dents in the pinata and then handed over the task to me. I knocked it down and tootsie rolls were enjoyed by you and Jonas.

We came back in and opened presents. You got a piggy bank, a wallet, clothes, a kid-piano with music, gum, a cape that you didn't want to wear, a Cars book. All fun things and you were thanking the people who gave them to you. Then you got the Big Spoiler Present. A "bike" front-end loader with a trailer attachment. How excited you - and Jonas - were! You did your giddy laugh and then hopped on. You even got to take it outside for a test run. Perhaps this will motivate you to learn how to push the pedals forward- you've nailed going backwards on a bike, but have yet to really go forward. We'll see.

After that we had dinner - Mac 'N Cheese. But not by good ol' Kraft. Auntie had a great recipe and that's what I made and my Krafty Kids and Dad loved it. Then of course was the birthday cake. I've been told ever since Jonas' birthday in December that you wanted to have a Track Excavator Cake. This is what I could come up with (it wasn't my original idea, I copied it from the internet). You, of course, loved it and didn't want to eat it -nor let anyone else eat it. But your dad let you choose what part you wanted to eat and you opted for the "Miles" part. Whoa. It was huge. By the time you had eaten all but the "s," I told you you had had enough and we'll save the rest.

The birthday ended with 3 overtired (darn Sundays) kids, including you of course, crying in their beds for 45 minutes. But for some reason I don't think that's what you'll remember. You'll remember the sleeping in the tent, eating cinnamon rolls, having grandparents there, the neat pinata you helped me make, the cake. . . . . .

All the good stuff. Life is funny that way. I've known you for four years - through the good, the bad, and the ugly - and my most precious, cherished, and vivid memory of you is seeing you for the first time ever, holding you in my arms, and telling your dad, "He is perfect."

Happy Birthday Big Boy.

Love, mom.

Quote of the Week

"Kids are cute, babies are cute, puppies are cute. The little things are cute. See, nature did this on purpose so that we would want to take care of our young. Made them cute. Tricked us. Then gradually they get older and older, until one day your mother sits you down and says, 'You know, I think you're ugly enough to get your own apartment.' "

~ Cathy Ladman

I always say it is so good that God made babies so darn cute. Seriously. It makes those 1 am and 4am feedings - even SIX months after birth - much more tolerable. Sometimes even likable. Here is what my cute baby is up to:

27th

As many of you know the 27th is a big day in our family. Here is why in case you don't know:

March 27 - my birthday

April 27 - our wedding anniversary

May 27- my folks' anniversary

August 27 - emmy's birthday

September 27 - my 1/2 birthday

December 27 - 2 of my SIL's (and BIL's, i guess!) anniversary

Which brings me to today. Today is special for 2 reasons:

My Wonderful and Beautiful Grandma Phyllis (also known as the "jelly bean" Grandma) turns 90 today! Wowzers. Happy Birthday Grandma! She is a very active 90 year-old. If it weren't for macular degeneration she'd be as healthy as a 60-year old and touring the world - oh wait, she still tours the world. She just got back yesterday from a cruise she took with her daughter and son-in-law. She's amazing and we all love her very, very much.

Also, today marks Emmy's 6-month mark. Yea! I'm not sure of her current "stats" since we don't go to the doctor's until a couple more weeks, but I do know a whole bunch of more important things than her weight and height. Like how she makes me Smile every single day. Like how much she Adores her brothers and how much they Adore her. Like how she doesn't stop moving when she's awake and how she so wants to start crawling. Like how she can sit-up for a few seconds and then falls over. Like how she much more prefers to fall over on my bed rather than our floor. Like how beautiful she is. Like how congested she is. Like how she squeals rather than cries at night. Like how she's getting more hair - even in her back bald spot. Like how she Loved eating rice cereal until she got her cold and now won't touch the stuff. Like how the last 6-months have been really and truly wonderful With Her. Like how I Love Her.

What a Ride

So we took the whole family skiing in Telluride. Well the whole family went to Telluride but Miles and Jonas were the only ones who really got to do the skiing. Lucky. It was the first time for both of them. Telluride has a teeny, tiny hill with a "magic carpet" lift (think flat escalator) that kids can learn on for free. So we rented one pair of skis and boots (Miles and Jonas have pretty similar feet sizes) and the kiddos took turns:

MILES

To get from the parking space to the ski place you get to take a gondola. This was Miles' absolute favorite part of the entire day. He loved it. Before he'd even gone skiing he was asking if we could go back to the car - so he could ride the gondola. He was our Most-Improved Skier of the day. He started out fine and ended up pretty good. He really did enjoy it when going down and would giggle, etc. I thought the falling down would discourage him, but thankfully it didn't.

JONAS

Jonas wasn't so sure of the gondolas, but sure enjoyed the skiing aspect. He was the Most Natural Skier of the day. I think in his 15 or so "runs" he fell twice. It was adorable to watch him go down the "mountain."

MISC.

Here are a couple other pictures:

Emmy was such a trooper and did great. She fell asleep when she was tired, ate when hungry, and watched her brothers ski. We all got a little sun - Jonas the most. Emmy got a little color - but only on 1/2 her face since she was snuggled up to me on the other side. She's such a Cutie.

Here we are eating lunch. Brrrrrrrrrrrr. It was so fricking cold. As Ben says: "Telluride doesn't cater to us common folk." He's right. There was no where that we could go inside and eat our PB&Js. It was either eat in a pub or restaurant or sit outside. We sat outside. The sun went behind the clouds. I had to nurse Emmy. It was freezing.

VIDEOS

Here are videos of the kiddos. Sorry for so many pictures and videos! But a "first" of anything has got to be well-documented, right? You might want to turn the volume off for 2 reasons: 1. There is a very annoying alarm going off the whole time. The "magic carpet" was off and I guess it sounds like that when off. 2. There is also a very annoying commentator who says things like, "Right on." (I think that was snow-induced.)

Rice, Rice, Baby

So we started giving Emmy some rice cereal on Saturday night. I've been giving a small amount to her twice a day - "breakfast" and "dinner" time. She actually likes it and actually eats it. It's quite impressive. She made some good faces the first time, but still ate it up and has seem to be enjoying it since. She watches her brothers eat all the time and so I think she's more than ready for this fun stage of introducing food. We'll start some fun, color foods later this week, I think.