More egg hunts

 This past week has been really fun for us. It was spring break for Molly, so she didn't have school all week. We got home from WY on Monday night. Tuesday we had some good friends come and play from out of town. Tuesday night my brother came with his two girls. My girls always ask when they get to see these cousins. We have had so much fun playing with them! They left yesterday and it was sad to see them go. And we missed Becky, my sil, and the new baby, but we understand why they couldn't make it! Besides Becky and Romy, we missed my sister Emily and her family who are in WI.

We had a fun Easter party Friday. My mom got them all a present in these cute bags. (They are from Micahel's, in case anyone wanted to know) They each opened an outfit.

Then of course we had an easter egg hunt. We were so glad the weather was nice so we could do it outside in the back yard.

Jackson found some eggs and enjoys the candy!

 Molly was victorious finding eggs!

And of course, so was Ali.

I promised a Princess Sofia party for the girls while Lexie and Shay were visiting. Here they are wearing their crowns, watching the sleepover party episode. They were so cute! They were all glued to the TV.

We also celebrated Justin's birthday with this side of the family.

Saturday morning we hit our 2nd easter egg hunt. It was a free one that we did last year too, in Cottonwood Heights. Wow. Can you see all the people? Molly and Ali were in different age groups, so we had to split up to go with them. I wish I would've taken a picture of Ali because you would have seen how successful this was. Molly got scared about 10 seconds before the siren went off for them to go and ended up with about 3 eggs. Ali had her eye on an egg that another kid took and from there she lost it. I'm not sure if we will go back again next year...

But, our neighbor called who's friends with my mom and invited them to her easter egg hunt since some of their neighbors were out of town. How nice! A time for my girls to try again! This one was much more successful for both of them.

Here we all are by their pond in the back. They were smart and had kids 0-2 start first, then added each year from there one at a time. I thought it was genius. My kiddos were super spoiled. I almost wondered if the Easter bunny wouldn't bother since they already had gotten so many eggs already!

Birthday dinner

For Justin's birthday I surprised him and took him to the Roof restaurant downtown for dinner. We sat right next to the window and this was our view! It was so beautiful.

When I made the reservation they asked if we were celebrating a special occasion. I said it was my husband's birthday but he probably didn't want to make a big deal of it. She asked if they could have a sign and I thought that would be perfect!

The food was delicious and I have to say that the desserts may have been the best part of the meal. Our server informed us that there are 25 choices! Can't go wrong there! The whole thing is a buffet, but it's a really nice, fancy buffet. I have only eaten here a couple of other times, but one thing I really love is that they have someone playing the piano while you eat. The lady who was playing played a fancy arrangement of Happy Birthday once or twice while we were there and some other fun songs from memorable movies, musicals, etc. We had a really fun time!

Jackson at 10 months

This little boy is now 10 months old. Time continues to fly and I can't believe my baby is almost 1! He has 3 teeth and I can see a 4th coming in on the bottom and it looks like 3 up top have just poked through or are just about to. So lots of drool, snot and teary eyes unfortunately.

But he still is a very happy boy! Last week in church he was passed around in class and a sweet widow in our ward (LaRae) called me after church to tell me that she thinks he's the happiest baby she's ever seen and she thought he was so cute! She was so sweet to call and tell me.

Like I already mentioned, he is crawling now (about a week) and he loves to play a game where he lifts his feet up while sitting and holds his arms out and balances himself. It's pretty funny! He used to do the same thing on his back. He really wants a 6 pack at an early age ;) He LOVES balls. He loves to throw everything on the floor and say, "Uh oh." He loves his sisters and is thrilled to see his daddy come home from work. He is very vocal and is a screamer, but that seems to fit the mold of our children. Everyone still says he looks just like his dad. And he does look an awful lot like Molly when she was a baby.

A couple of weeks ago I put him down for a nap and I came in to find this:

He fell asleep sitting! Ha ha. It was so cute I had to take a few pics of it with my phone. He has gotten really good at sitting himself up and we learned that it was time for the mattress to be moved down in the crib!

Justin turns 30

This past weekend we went to Wyoming for a little r&r. Sunday was Justin's 30th birthday and he was able to get Friday and Monday off of work. Molly has this week off for spring break and so we left last Friday after Molly's preschool was over. 

We hid some eggs and had an easter egg hunt.

We let the girls go first and started with the youngest, Reese and Ali.

Then we let Molly and Laney join. 

Ali had a little bit of help from her daddy.

Molly found an egg buried in the chair and a half.

Pretty excited about all their eggs!

Getting all the candy out of the eggs.

Everyone was able to come except Justin's sister Sunny and her family. So we are 3 grandkids short in this picture.

 Then we did a little egg hunt for the two little boys, Jackson and Paxton.

Jackson started to crawl while we were there!!

 And Paxton started walking! It was quite the eventful weekend for the little boys :) Paxton is about 5 months older than Jackson. Aren't they cute?

We celebrated Justin's birthday and here is my "hole in one" rice krispy "cake" for Justin.

All of the family singing to Justin.

 Someone needed a haircut. This is Justin's brother Mark.

 Check out the mohawk!

Don't worry, it didn't last long. Poor Mark! Nice and short again.

We also went and saw the mountain goats on the way to Jackson as you start to drive up the canyon and looked at all the elk off the highway at the elk refuge. The girls loved playing with their cousins it was nice for all of us to get away for a few days.

We hope 30 is a great year for Justin! Happy Birthday honey!

St. Patrick's Day 2013

On Sunday morning we found some leprechaun footprints leading a trail to some Lucky Charms cereal. The girls were so excited that Lucky came. He left the note above with the cereal.

Usually we wear green and eat Lucky Charms, but I found a cute treasure hunt on a blog that I thought the girls would like. Found here.

 Here's Molly finding a clue.

 Getting a little help from daddy.

Finding the treasure!

They found the treasure! I love Molly's face! The treasure was little bags with skittles and some chocolate gold coins. Let me say, it doesn't take much to make little kids happy and excited. I laminated the clues so I can use them in years to come. I liked the treasure hunt because it has you go places that pretty much every house will have (the fridge, by books, a window, door, tree, etc.). Now I'm getting my Easter stuff out. Too bad it will only be up for a couple weeks. Oh well.

Irish Dancing

My cousin's daughters are Irish dancers and they are really amazing! We went and saw them perform a few months ago and they are so talented. The news did a story on them last night. They have four daughters who dance and the two oldest are going to World's, which is like the Olympics for them.

Check out the story/video!

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=24420812&nid=148&title=layton-sisters-on-their-way-to-olympics-for-irish-dance&fm=home_page&s_cid=queue-4

Go Mckenna and Danielle!

to be completed...

In addition to many perks here at the house, one big one is that my mom is a magazine hoarder. Yep, she is. But she gets great magazines that I like to read, so lucky me! In the past few weeks she brought home this one pictured above, Quilts and More. They have some really, really cute things in these magazines, but it costs I think $6.99 for one issue! Yikes! I don't have that kind of money for magazines. But my mom does, so I reap the rewards.

See this cute table runner on the front? I love it. I think it's so cute and I've already collected some fabric to make it. I just need to get about 3 more things and then I will have everything I need to make it. Maybe spring will come if I just make it? This week has started to warm up and I think it's around 55 outside right now! Wahoo! We'll take it. I am sooo done with the storms and snow. Luckily most of it has melted away.

Oh, the Places You'll Go

Have you read the Dr. Suess book, Oh the Places You'll Go? It's a really good book and I think it is the last book he wrote while he was alive. Anyway, I feel like we (meaning my little family) are in the part that talks about people waiting. Waiting for this or that or whatever. I try and try not to think of us as waiting for something or anticipating a life change, but lately I feel that way.

Justin is looking for a new job right now so we have put house hunting on hold for now. There are several reasons for this. He doesn't really love the work he is doing and he doesn't see himself there long term. Instead of finding a job later on when we already have a house, we decided he should find something now since it might influence several things with the purchase of a home. The market is definitely better than it has been, but it is still pretty competitive in Utah and add to that the fact that Justin has only had just under a year of "real" experience as an attorney. There are still plenty of attorneys with more experience looking for jobs.

While we definitely feel lucky/blessed that we have the greatest set up here in the basement with my parents, we definitely want to be in our own place. Trust me, I am pretty sure I will cry for a couple weeks after we move because my mom is so helpful to me. But still, I have a hard time not having my kids in real bedrooms with closets and doors. We really don't have many choices of where to put Jackson, so he is with us in our room, but he is the lightest sleeper. We pretty much tiptoe in at night and hope we don't wake him up. I can't wait to get ready for bed with the lights on in our own room!

When we first started looking for a house, we set a deadline for this summer before Molly starts kindergarten, but now I'm not sure if that will happen. I plan on starting her at the elementary school I actually went to. I thought it wouldn't be good for her to start and move schools, but I've since decided that she will be in kindergarten and really it won't be a big deal at all. She makes friends wherever she goes and I don't see her having a hard time making an adjustment. She changed preschools this year after a couple of months and was totally fine, so I'm sure it will be the same if it comes to it.

While I know that owning a home isn't the easiest, I look forward to us learning and growing together as a family and relying on each other to get through the trials while being happy with our successes. I don't consider myself a major planner, but I do like to have some plan for sure and although this isn't exactly how I pictured things, we really do have SO much to be grateful for. I don't want to sound ungrateful. I love that my parents have been a big part of my children's lives so far and that they have such a close relationship with them.  I know we will miss them when we leave.

I know we have accomplished some great things while we've been here. Justin graduated from law school and we've had 2 more children while living here. We've been to some neat places and tried new things.

I do know that things will work out and I might even look back and think how easy or simple things were when we lived here. I sure hope so! Do you ever feel like this? I'm sure you do once in a while too.

P.S. I should probably say that I was up with Jackson 3 times last night as opposed to him sleeping through the night. So please don't judge me too harshly. Since I use this blog as my journal, I decided it was ok to have a more "real" post.

More taggies

I did it again...and I probably will in the future too. I made some more taggie blankies for gifts. This time I used leftover scraps and I am really happy with how they turned out. I have never done a version like this, sewing squares together, so it was fun to mix it up.

I did one that is a 6 patch and the other is a 9 patch.

There is some cotton fabric, flannel and minky, so you can't go wrong. They are soft! Oh and fleece on the back.

Perfect for little hands to grab and rub.

Welcome baby boy(s)!


And a big welcome to my new niece!! My brother Ryan and his wife, Becky, had this beautiful baby girl last week on February 26th! Romy, we are so glad you are here! You are adorable. Look at her cute bow hat! She and Jackson are 9 months apart to the day.