April 8, 2018

  The Easter bunny has a secret talent that I never knew about until a few years ago.  He's really good at coming up with rhymes.  This note to the kids would have taken me a few days to get right, but he did it in about 10 minutes.  

  I went to my bedroom to shut the blinds and found this.  I asked Jeff how much longer he thinks we have until we don't come upon random messes in the house.  He figures 3-5 years.  Then it changes from random to neglectful messes.

Before and after phase 1 of braces for this boy.

"Look! I'm wearing a clip!"

  Wearing their Easter finest, a week late.  Ryan has really mastered his picture pose, whereas Erik still doesn't even look at the camera.  

April 1, 2018

  Spring has officially arrived when it's time to trim all of our decorative grasses for new growth. Incidentally, last year we were doing this with my Mom two days before Brynn was born.  It was just Jeff and I this year.

 These are the bags from the front yard trimmings.  The back yard took about four bags.  Jeff's in the picture to make up for his absence in the Spring Break pictures.  This is just as good.

  It sprinkled rain all day and finished with a proper rain shower in the evening.  I'd take a month straight of these days in the Spring.  Especially this year when we haven't had measurable rain for over 6 months.

  Bailey's teacher took this cute picture of her on cowboy day.  They ate chili and cornbread and played cowboy games.  I love 1st grade.

  Yearly Easter egg dyeing.  The kids pooped out on us again, leaving before all the eggs were colored.

  My neighbors hold an Easter party every year on Easter weekend. The first year it was mainly just our cul de sac and a few extra friends.  This year it was bigger than ever.  She had a food truck come and park in the cul de sac.  Everyone ordered what they wanted for dinner, the kids played on the grass and on bikes and the adults stood around and chatted. It was my favorite year. We live right in the middle of everything, so we just put a blanket out on our lawn and friends would come and sit by us for a while.  I'm a pretty lazy socializer.  

  Later in the evening all the kids hunted for eggs at the golf course and then did confetti eggs at the elementary school playground.  

 Easter/General Conference weekend did not disappoint.  We got to lounge around all Sunday, eating Easter treats, listening to conference and doing new puzzles.  We might be nerds.

  This was probably my favorite part of Easter.  Jeff went out to get the paper and found this on our doorstep Easter morning. I have no idea who it's from.

March 25, 2018

Ry-Guy's 10th birthday

Because we think we're funny, we gave him a Barbie

  I feel like I've been thinking of nothing else but balloons for the last week.  But I think these decorations for the Relief Society dinner turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

 Jeff and I go out to lunch often.  Sometimes I taunt my girls by texting them pictures of what we're having for lunch.  These are the best breadsticks in the world.  Sydney was the recipient of this picture.

She's off to the church formal dance.  Gorgeous!

March 18, 2018

   About two months ago we started planning a Spring Break trip to Scottsdale, Arizona, our favorite hot spot.  We poured over listings for house rentals, looking for the coolest pool, knowing that our kids would only want to swim all week.  We looked forward to shopping and eating at different places than our boring Amarillo usuals.  Many times leading up to the trip we'd ask each other, "Is it Spring Break yet??"  Last year we stayed home because of Brynn, which made us anticipate this trip even more.  Finally it was time. 

Our first night, waiting for our table at a most delicious pizza restaurant we discovered a couple of years ago.

  Our second day there we celebrated Brynn's 1st Birthday.  She celebrated by throwing up at 5:00 A.M., but was actually fine the rest of the day.

Enjoying her birthday dinner at Cheesecake Factory

   Although Brynn wasn't able to enjoy the pool on her birthday, the rest of us sure did.  Prepare yourself.  I took a lot of pictures that day.

 Fighting over Cheryl, the unicorn.  Sydney named her.

 Sadly, the only picture I got of Jeff.  Look how good his leg and arms look!  Shelbi's not hiding from the camera.  She had chlorine in her eyes.

Erik loves a good trick-shot

Walking on water

The putting green behind the pool

  I know that's a lot of pictures to post for one day.  Remember when I said that Brynn woke up vomitting on her birthday?  That was just the beginning.  We dropped like flies after that, the boys being the only ones who were spared.  I needed to see all those pictures to try to fool myself into remembering it as the awesome vacation we were hoping for.  Truthfully, I don't remember ever being sicker. 

We had another half day of pool fun before the storm hit.

  See that sunken kitchen at the end of the pool?  I was going to grill hamburgers in there one day for lunch so the kids could swim up to the bar and eat. The bridge is where we planned to pose as a family for a great picture commemorating our trip.  It would have been like "Weekend at Bernie's" trying to pose Bailey for a picture.

 Our view of poor Bailey for the last three days of the trip.  She was pretty much unconscious, except when we'd force sips of water into her.

Brynn made herself right at home.

  I feel the worst for Shelbi.  She didn't get sick until the ride home. So she had to hang out with all of us sick-o's, missing out on the hoped for shopping trips and eating out.

  Saturday evening, it was just nice to be home.  We were mostly better by then and happy to have our own space back.  We're already thinking we need a make-up vacation.

  Sunday was part two of Brynn's birthday celebration.  We didn't take any of her gifts with us to Arizona because that would be ridiculous.   Also ridiculous: trying to wrap awkwardly shaped gifts for a one year old.  We covered them with blankets and let her pull them off.

Happy Birthday, sweet baby girl!