Easter 2011

I look at this picture and just smile.  I love these kids!  They make life good.  Hard sometimes, but good.

 The Saturday before Easter I was out shopping for some last minute little things, and I just couldn't resist the clearance, and J-boy needed some new church clothes anyway (justify justify justify), so we ended up with a little Easter outfit coordination. :)

 I made J-boy's bow tie using the directions here - he wasn't sure what to do with it (the only bows he'd seen belong in girls hair), and asked if he had to wear it, 'cause the kids might laugh at him.  But we convinced him it was cool, and he submitted - the Primary chorister complimented his bow tie, and he said, "Thanks, but it's a bow."  :)

Baby A insisted on wearing clunky black Mary Janes that are a size too big for her.  And she also insisted on taking her little Easter goodie basket to church.  Sweet after-church snacks!  Though it made it hard to get pictures of her since her mouth was FULL of chocolate for half an hour or so.

 K-lady was worn out w/ the picture taking and wouldn't let me take one of just her, and only agreed to another group shot if it was silly faces.  The dress has some tulle peeking out there @ the hem, and K-lady says it's horribly itchy, and hasn't worn the dress since then, so this is probably going to be the only photo I have of her in her Easter dress where you can actually see the dress.  So there you have it. :)  Cute dress, though, right?  (curse itchy tulle)

After church we made the drive up to Grandma & Grandpa's for a family dinner and Easter Egg Hunt - these kids LOVE their cousins!

 And we got to meet this sweet baby - she was only 3 days old at the time, our newest little neice (destined to look kinda like Baby A, since her Daddy is Joseph's twin, and her sister looks kinda like K-lady and her brother looks kinda like J-boy).  :)

 And because we didn't get to it before Easter, we dyed eggs for Family Night on Monday AFTER Easter Sunday.  What do dyed eggs have to do with the Resurrection, anyway????  I was a little worried about Joseph dying his fingers - kinda gross if your dentist comes @ your mouth with green and red fingertips, right??  But he turned out okay.  Baby A, on the other hand, was pink for a week. :)

Spring Break

 Back in March we decided to go camping.  I am not a big fan of midwest camping at the height of summer - 104 degrees + 95% humidity = very unhappy momma from the Northwest!  So we went in March!  And we went south, hoping to catch a little more warmth than we were getting here.  We landed in Devil's Den State Park where we enjoyed hikes, crawdad chasing, paddle boats, and a ginormous new tent (car camping just got way more comfy).  Spring was just around the corner - there may not have been many leaves on the trees, but the grass was green, and there were no mosquitoes, no ticks, and no humidity!  And there were beautiful hills and valleys and rivers and lakes.  Here are a handful of pictures from our little adventure.

 Baby A is such a big kid (she needs a new blog alias - "Baby" is just wishful thinking @ this point) - she tore off her shoes and socks and followed K-lady and J-boy right out into the stream.  Joseph tried to get them to herd some crawdads into captivity, but it didn't quite work. :)  They still loved it.  This was the evening of the first day - right after we took these photos, we hopped back into the car and drove a half hour to the nearest town w/ a sports bar - we watched the last BYU March Madness game over dinner.  :)

That's Joseph' pop can stove on the top left, and J-boy looking for fossils on the bottom right. :) We went to one of the park ranger classes at the visitors center on fossils.  5 minutes into the 1/2 hr. presentation, the ranger asked if any of us had any questions up to that point.  J-boy raised his hand politely, and asked, "When is this going to be over?"  :)  Love it.

"I haven't had anything yet, so how can I have some more of nothing?"  "You're killin' me, Smalls!"

 Baby A was in HEAVEN when it was finally her turn on the paddle boat.

 Cheese whiz & crackers, granola bars & lemonade for lunch.  All the essential food groups, right?  K-lady was thoroughly grossed out by the cheese whiz texture.  Can't say that I blame her.

 Devil's Den was built by the CCC back in the 30's - beautiful trails, cool old caves (closed down so the bats don't all die of some weird bat disease spreading across America that makes them wake up from hibernation early, then starve to death because there aren't enough bugs around to eat), amazing stone shelters & dams.  In the Visitor's Center they had some of the old original CCC newsletters from the camp titled The Voice of Satan.  HA!  Cheeky little Depression boys, right?  :)

The day we got there was beautiful - sunny, about 70 degrees or so.  The next day dropped down to the 50's-60's and drizzled a bit, and that last night we had a HUGE thunderstorm - the kids slept through it alright (amazingly enough!), but Joseph and I stared at each other wide eyed for a couple hours.  It cleared up enough in the morning for us to get up and make breakfast and pack up camp.  The temperature kept dropping and by the time we got home, it was just cold (that's frost on the window on the way home - she was very protective of her junk food even in her sleep :).  That night we slept snug in our beds while it flurried outside. 

Yay for the first camping trip of the year! :)

Back in May...

Yes, back in May...

 I went w/ the 2nd grade classes on a field trip to the park - water balloons, many variations of tag, sidewalk chalk, bubbles and playgrounds.  Good old fashioned fun, and the kids LOVED it.

 This sassy little miss also had a piano recital and a piano festival.  She was mildly (okay, completely) terrified at the festival, but she did wonderfully well -- she got a I+!  And got to play at the Honor's Recital that afternoon, which she considered punishment rather than honor, but it's all good.  :)  I put off blogging about it because I wanted to upload the video, but technical difficulties abound and I'm about ready to swap out the computer anyway, so we'll just make do with photos and imagine the lovely music, 'kay?

 K-lady's group lessons were taught by two teachers and a student teacher, and her 2nd grade teacher came to her recital to cheer her on - so sweet!

 We enjoyed a much-too-short visit from Heather and Ryan & their beautiful kiddos - oh my goodness I love those guys!!!  We stayed up WAY too late eating yummy Quinoa lettuce wraps and making s'mores and reading 'one last story' and just soaking in the good company.  It kind of broke my heart all over again watching them drive away.  WHY is my family so darn spread out?!  As soon as we pay off the dental practice and house and student loans I'm going to buy an airplane!!!!!!!!

 We went up to Omaha for an overnight stay and a visit to the Winter Quarters Temple.  So beautiful, and peaceful and wonderful.  Then on the way home we looped over to see my in-laws and visit a cousin who was in town and drove right past the still-under-construction Kansas City Temple!  It was the first time I've seen it in person, and it quite literally took my breath away!  I'm so excited to have a temple in Kansas City. It is amazing the peace and perspective and comfort that comes from attending the temple.  I could always use a little more of that in my life!

 The elementary school had a family cook out on what was supposed to be field day, but it got rained out and we had to eat in the cafeteria.  But foot long hot dogs are fun no matter the weather, right?

And then a visit to Wichita to see Tiff and Matt and their beautiful kiddos.  Tiff and I were roommates for almost 3 years in college.  She's from KS and married a boy from WA and I'm from WA and married a boy from KS.  Makes for good visiting every couple of years! :)

 Fun was had by all (running water and horse troughs and pioneer games and rope swings @ Old Cowtown Museum)

 We played on the little reconstructed railroad and in the school house - the kids actually sat for a good 10 minutes listening to the re-enactment of a graduation ceremony.  It was like they were in a trance.  I wish I could do that to my Sunday School kids.  :)  And the bowling in the alley was a big hit!

 Then back to Tiff's mom's place for some time in the field of daisies. :)  And a little movie to hypnotize the kids while Tiff/Matt and Joseph/I snuck away for a quick little dinner date (Tiff's wonderful mom/step dad/sister watched the kiddos for us)

 We had to pry Matt away from Curious George.  :)

 Back at the home front Joseph persevered (in spite of a murmuring wife) and planted a garden.  And made a strawberry planter that never got it's strawberry plants.  But the garden did produce peppers, zucchini, several cantaloupe and a handful of tomatoes, and we enjoyed fresh basil, parsley, rosemary and peppermint from my little contribution: the herb pot.  :)  We grew food!!!  Yay!  We're excited to try a non-tilling/lasagna layering/mega-mulching sort of garden next Spring if we can get it started this Fall.

 A lovely Memorial Day campout @ Jake and Jen's, complete with rides on the new lawnmower, fishing, canoe rides, and a pancake breakfast @ the park.

And we ended out the month w/ a kid-swap w/ our friends the Bill's - they took K-lady, and we got Sarah for a few days.  J-boy and Sarah had a grand time together - they are such good little buddies!

And now I'm only 4 months behind. :)

J-boys Birthday

Long overdue, but it must be posted all the same!  I found this album of pictures in picasa, all set to blog, but somehow I got sidetracked 3 months ago, and it never happened.  Can't imagine how that happened. :)
Back in February, J-boy turned 6!  Here's a little J-boy through the years (because on my blog I specialize in self-indulgence)

We had cupcakes at school on the special day, then we had his party and good times the next night.

 I found a picture online, printed out 18 on a piece of paper and used a circle punch to make the little flags - J-boy was so excited.  I didn't really think about how dangerous it would be to give a bunch of kindergarteners  little flags made our of very sharp little toothpicks.  :)  Live and learn, right?

 Baby A got to join in the fun.  J-boy was so excited to have her there - it was really darling.

The next day, Joseph helped me throw together an awesome birthday party.  We made light sabers out of pvc pipe and pipe insulation and colorful duct tape, then the kids did a little Jedi training -- they shot dart guns at paper-plate-Darth Vadar targets, swung across a 'giant chasm' on a rope swing from the tree in the front yard, beat on a hokey little homemade 'Deathstar' pinata w/ their light sabers, did 'light-sabre training trying to hit a ball blindfolded (use the force!) and were generally awesome. :)  I didn't take many pictures because I was running around crazy w/ a bunch of nutso padawans swinging sticks at each other.  But I did make everyone pose individually w/ their pretend light sabers and took pictures to edit for the thank you cards.  Here are my favorites:

 He was so serious - I loved it!

Mrs. L Goes to Utah

Way back half a year ago in April, I went out to Utah for a quick little siblings weekend.  My little brother, Scott, had just gotten home from his mission a few weeks earlier, and it was the first time we'd all been together in about 5 years - that is WAY too long!!  It was a little cost prohibitive to fly all of us out just for an extended weekend, so I ended up going alone.

We had such a grand time!!!  We stayed one night down in Utah valley and got to see my aunt and her kids, including meeting my cousins baby for the first time.  We ate dinner together at a yummy pizza buffet in Provo - I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Provo!

We stayed the night in a hotel - what is it about hotels that makes kids (and teenagers, apparently) super hyper???  It was fun watching them wrestle/leap/play.  And I'm still adolescent enough to think that the sign in the hallway was amusing.  :)

 The next morning our wonderful parents watched the grandkids so we could all ski together.  *Sigh*  I love skiing with my family.  The boys are really good skiers, but they slow down enough for us ladies and we all have a wonderful time.  All 8 of us squished into the gondola - so happy!!!

 The snow was pretty slushy down lower, but not bad (considering it was mid-April!)  We wore ourselves out!

 We tried to set up the skis as a tripod to take a group picture - the timer went off right as it started to fall - Dave rescued it just in time! :)  Then a nice stranger came by and offered assistance.  No clue who the dude is in the back. :)

 We left the slopes a little early to make it back to Provo for a baby shower for another cousins first baby - it was so fun to see these folks - just icing on the cake, I tell ya!

The night before Mindy left I made us all take thousands of pictures (it took about that many to get the one good jumping picture).  :)  I love this one below of the 6 of us:  

I found the same angle in my scrapbook from Christmas 1999, just after Dave got back from his mission (Scott and Kendra were so little!  Curse the paper-scrapping-relentless-cropping!)

We got to do a few of our favorite things while we were there.  Dad and I are slowly making headway on a music stand we designed - we got a little work done on the desk.  It's one of those work-4-hours-every-6-months kinds of projects.  :)  It's so fun to work with him in his huge new shop.  And Dave decided it was time to slap the shingles on that shop's roof, so Ryan jumped right in with him.  The boys also fed their gear addiction with online window shopping, and the girls had a few rounds of riotous singing at the piano.   And we took some more pictures -- my mom asked for some pictures of Scott and Kendra, and Angela and Heather and I were happy to play photo-shoot. :)

the smolder :)

 I missed my kiddos, and so wished they could have been there to play with their cousins!!!!  These kids are wonderful.  It is amazing to me how much I love my nieces and nephews.  There's something special about having that family tie to these particular kids.  It was so lovely to be with my family - every time we get together I just feel life get better.  I'm really looking forward to that part of forever!