Easter

We had a nice Easter this year at my parents house. Ivan flew down to Utah on Friday night so that he could drive home with me and the kids. Of course he had SEVERAL issues with his flight, he always does, so he didn't get in until really late. On Saturday we just hung out at home and then went to visit Grandmother. It really is so nice to have her close by. I feel like we really missed out on that for a lot of years. She is such an amazing lady and she makes me laugh every single time I see her. When I am 90 I hope that I get to have an entire closet devoted to pajamas. :)
After we visited with Grandmother, my parents took the kids so that Ivan and I could go car shopping! We have been looking at getting a new car for a while now but it's tough to shop with two little ones. We ended up buying a car that night! It was kinda spur of the moment...but it seems like that's how we roll. We got a 2008 Chrysler Aspen. It is basically the same as a Durango...only better. It is the perfect color and is so much nicer than anything else we looked at. We were happy to get to drive home in it. The kids have more wiggle room and we have more room for "stuff."
Sunday morning was a little crazy. The Easter bunny forgot that she left the stuff for the kids baskets in my parents closet...and since I was out late cruisin' in my new car with Ashley...it had to wait 'til morning. I told Emma that the Easter bunny hid the baskets for them to find AFTER breakfast so that they didn't spoil their appetites. A little distraction with bathtime for the kids was just enough time for the Easter bunny to get the job done. They got some candy, bubbles, kites, pez dispensers, side walk chalk and a few other little things. I also bought each of them soccer balls for Easter. I found a pink and purple SPARKLE one at Old Navy and knew that Emma had to have it...just in time to start soccer the next week.
My mom made a wonderful breakfast and Jake and Jamie and Skylar came over to eat with us. I had been wanting to take Sky's pictures while I was there and that was our last chance. Here are a couple. She is so super cute! And they just found out that she is going to have a little sister!




Then we went to church. It was a missionary farewell that day and the place was packed. I always love church on Easter sunday. I am grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ and for the knowledge I have about the gospel. I am grateful for the resurrection and that we can live again with our families. Emma drew a picture in primary and I didn't even look at it until we got all the way home to Washington. In my mom's ward her teacher is Gina. Gina is my mom's next door neighbor and is a really good friend. She was my teacher MANY times growing up and I love that Emma gets to learn from her on occasion as well. I still remember last Easter when Emma came home from church and told us the entire resurrection story. She is a smart little girl and I am grateful that she has such great teachers in her life. When we got home from Utah I had a comment on facebook from Gina. She said that she wished she could have visited with us while we were there and asked if I had seen the picture Emma had drawn in church. My mom had made sure that we got it out of her car before we left but I hadn't looked at it. They were told to draw a picture of someone that had died that they would see again. Gina said she got tears in her eyes as she saw Emma write the letters JOE. Emma doesn't remember Uncle Joey but I try to talk about him as much as possible. He was such a huge part of my life and I love and miss him so much. When Joey passed away, Maryn asked if there was anything of his that I wanted. I couldn't think of anything for a long time and then remembered the huge bird book that he had. He kept it in his truck with him so that he could look up different kinds of birds when he came across them. A couple weeks ago when it finally started warming up, I took the book outside and Emma and I looked through it. She loves animals and we have so many birds at our house. She had wanted me to look up pictures of birds on the internet for her, but I told her I had something way better. I really enjoyed looking through the book with her and telling her about her Uncle Joe. Here is the picture. I love the backwards "J".

After church I went back to my Mom's house to take more pictures. This time it was of sweet little Paityn. She is Jared and Maryn's new baby girl. She is so cute and I am grateful that Maryn and Jared found eachother and were blessed with this special little spirit in their home. They are going to be wonderful parents. Paityn had been sick that week, the doctor thinks she had the flu, so we ended pictures pretty early. I think we got a few good ones though! I wish I lived closer and could take cute pictures of my nieces and nephews every day.




The only time that we could get everyone together for an Easter egg hunt was that afternoon. I was so glad that Matt and Jacky and the kids were able to come. We got to see them for Emma's birthday party too...just not Matt. It is hard to live so far away and then not get to see everyone when we visit...so we were happy that Matt was able to come. The kids had lots of fun searching for eggs in Grandma's back yard. My parents made our traditional ham and new potatoes for dinner. It was yummy! We were in the middle of packing up to leave and I wish I could have relaxed a little more to enjoy dinner with the family. Apparently I really like to take pictures of Skylar...can you blame me though? That little girl has some serious cuteness goin' on. The picture of Levi with the happiest face in the world is when he discovered there was an egg on each step of the slide. He just laughed and laughed.

After we got all packed up we headed to Corinne to spend the night. Butch and Marjie had gone up and spent the day with Dusty and Brandee and the kids and had gotten home just before we got there. Emma loves to snuggle with Grandpa Butch. She was also excited that Grandma had a birthday present for her. Grandma and Grandpa gave her the movie, "the velveteen rabbit." She loved it and watched it all the way home the next day in the car.

The next morning Marjie rescheduled a few things so she could spend some time with us. She made a nice breakfast and we just hung out for a while. Before we left we went out to see Grandpa's new calf only to find out he was missing! Grandpa was sure someone had stole him. :) We looked all around the corrals for a while and I finally spotted him as I was walking back to the car. He was just snuggled up taking a nap on some soft grass. If I had the chance to get out of a poop filled corral with BIG bulls to have a nap on soft, clean grass, I would do it too. He was super cute so I snapped a few pictures.

We also got to say hello to Pedro...Grandma's colt. We were glad we got to spend a little time in Corinne. Grandpa's truck was in the shop so we got to give him a ride out to Promontory as well. It was a little out of the way, but it is always nice to drive out there. It was a long drive home after we left so late...and we had to stop at the airport to pick up Ivan's truck. I am surprised Emma did as well as she did the next day at school and at soccer for the first time!

Soccer

Emma started soccer a couple of weeks ago. The first day was pretty rough because she was soooooo nervous! She mostly just stood on the field with her arms folded and her head down. On the day of her second practice she saw one of the little boys on her team at school. He asked her if she was excited for soccer that night and if she was going to play this time. She told me that she had told him, "yes," and I said that she better do it then. It went so much better! She was still nervous but she ran out and did most of what the couch told her to. She has a husband and wife team for coaches. They are the McCorkle's and are so good with the kids. They also have a little boy on the team...the same little boy Emma saw at school. :) This past Saturday they had their first game. I was at Time Out For Women and wasn't able to be there, but Daddy took her and Tanner was there too! Ivan said she was put in the game after half time and was basically a statue on the field, until she started crying. Poor thing. She really has a hard time with that much attention and pressure on her. I think this will be a really good thing for her and I am sure she will do better at the next game, now that she knows what to expect. She had pictures taken today at soccer and I was sad that I didn't have my camera to get a picture of how cute she was...which is silly since I paid 15 bucks to have them take the pictures. haha I will post those pictures when we get them back. For now you will just have to look at these we have taken so far. I am glad that Emma is in soccer and that she is having fun.

Family Home Evening weenie roast.

Last Monday we decided it would be fun to try out the fire pit in the backyard for family home evening. This really is such a beautiful home we have to live in right now. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. It was so peaceful outside...we could hear tons of frogs croaking and hundreds of birds chirping in the trees. The back yard is flooded now into a big pond full of geese and ducks. The only creature we feel we could really live without is the mosquitos! Luckily mosquitos don't really like smoke, so it wasn't a problem that night. Tonight as I am working on updating my blog and am waiting for pictures to upload, I am reading the talk "Forget Me Not," by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. I remember sitting in the chapel in Williston, North Dakota, last September and listening to President Uchtdorf as he gave this amazing, uplifting, and inspiring talk. As I think of our simple family home evening with our two little children gathered around the campfire, listening to their mom and dad bear testimony of Joseph Smith and the restoration of the church, I am reminded of a part of President Uchtdorf's talk. The first thing he talks about is, "forget not to be patient with yourself." It reads, "Dear sisters, many of you are endlessly compassionate and patient with the weaknesses of others. Please remember also to be compassionate and patient with yourself. In the meantime, be thankful for all the small successes in your home, your family relationships, your education and livelihood, your Church participation and personal improvement. Like the forget-me-nots, these successes may seem tiny to you and they may go unnoticed by others, but God notices them and they are not small to Him. If you consider success to be only the most perfect rose or dazzling orchid, you may miss some of life's sweetest experiences. For example, insisting that you have a picture-perfect family home evening each week-even though doing so makes you and everyone around you miserable-may not be the best choice. Instead, ask yourself, "What could we do as a family that would be enjoyable and spiritual and bring us closer together?" That family home evening-though it may be modest in scope and execution-may have far more positive long term results. Our journey toward perfection is long, but we can find wonder and delight in even the tiniest steps in that journey." So, for today, I am going to delight in that one picture perfect, simple, family home evening we had gathered around the campfire and try to get over the fact that until my sweet daughter mentioned it tonight...I had totally forgotten that yesterday was Monday, family night.

Levi's 2 year old pictures

It took me a while, but I finally got around to taking Levi's 2 year old pictures. He was being so funny the whole time and we really had a lot of fun. I figure while I'm at it I will write down a few things about Levi at two years old.

He is a little monster! He loves to terrorize his sister. We have a major pinching problem going on right now. I guess we will see how many time outs it takes to break him of this habit. After he pinches Emma I will tell him to go and say sorry and he will walk over and hug her forever. It usually makes her feel better anyway. :)

He loves to snuggle. He likes to curl up with me at night to fall asleep. We haven't had a whole lot of luck getting him to fall asleep in his own bed. We do move him to his bed once he has fallen asleep and he usually stays there all night. When he decides to be, he is really sweet.

He no longer takes naps! :( After he decided to "superman" himself out of his crib, we got him a big boy bed. Levi has always been great at going right to sleep. I would just put him in his crib and he would roll over and go to sleep. Things have changed A LOT! On a rare occasion he will lay down on my bed and have a nap, but for the most part he wants nothing to do with it. He almost always falls asleep in the car though.

He loves to dance and sing! Levi doesn't really talk a lot yet, but he jabbers and jabbers and loves to sing. He waves his arms in the air and twirls and twirls. He gets embarrassed if you say anything to acknowledge his dancing and singing though...unless he is on the table, then you know he wants attention. haha He also really likes to play dress up with his sister. I am totally fine with that and I think he is so cute, his daddy has a different opinion.

He has decided that he loves salad, which I find odd and amazing. He doesn't like to eat the carrots in the salad, however he will eat them plain, but he loves the spinach and lettuce...and balsamic dressing.

He can really jump! When he was a baby he would jump and jump and sometimes fall asleep in his jumper. Now he just hops around the house, he hops on two feet really high!

He loves to wrestle. When Daddy gets home from work he will sit on the floor and Levi will run and just tackle him. He really likes to play rough...must be a boy thing.

He loves bubbles! They do bubbles in nursery at church and it's his favorite thing. He likes to pop the bubbles with his tongue! The first couple of weeks at our new ward he would cry when we took him to nursery...but just for a minute. Now he just runs in and doesn't look back.

He loves his sister. When we drive to go get Emma from the bus he will just squeal and wave and jumps up and down. Everyone on the bus knows who Levi is. He loves to run around the house chasing Emma too. They play really well together for the most part...until he decides to pinch.

He loves to play angry birds on our cell phones. He knows just how to get onto it on both of our phones. It's amazing how fast they learn things.

He likes to pretend to play the piano. Emma has been taking lessons and he has a hard time letting her practice without his help.

He has a funny little sense of humor and the cutest laugh ever. He still has that belly laugh that he had as a baby. He likes to hide from me and giggles while I look for him.

Levi is a sweet little boy who is so full of energy. We are so thankful he is part of our family.