Easter Egg Hunts 2011

This was Keira's first year being able to hunt in the city egg hunt. It was so much fun watching her!! She decided before the horn went off that she wanted a purple egg. She went and picked up several eggs but if they were not purple she just put them back down and kept looking. She did end up getting one egg . . . and it was purple :). The boys ran right out to the middle and picked up as many eggs as they could. I love this picture of Keira looking at Austin's basket. I can just see her thought bubble . ~Oh, that's what you're supposed to do!~ Sunday morning before church our kids got to see what the Easter Bunny hid for them. This time, with a little help from dad, Keira got more than one egg.

A Very Harry Birthday

Austin decided he wanted a Harry Potter birthday this year. I started my research early and got a lot of great ideas. I made his invitations look like a Hogwarts letter. We told the kids that they were invited to Hogwarts for special midterm classes for Austin's birthday.
Travis and I were different professors and the kids had to go to classes. They started out in the Great Hall and got their instructions and were sorted into their houses. This was my favorite part because the kids couldn't figure out how the hat was talking to them. I made the hat myself out of brown felt and then I hid a cell phone underneath it. Travis started out upstairs and when they walked up to the hat he would start talking. He then would put them in a house. As soon as everyone was sorted I grabbed the phone and put it away. The kids kept coming up to the hat and asking it things and even checked underneath. But, I told them the hat only comes to life during the sorting. So, after the sorting they had to go to Potions with Prof. Snape, Divination with Prof. Trelawny, Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid, and Transfiguration with Prof. McGonagall. After attending each class and earning (or losing) house points we had the end of term feast. We had butterbeer (cream soda), licorice wands, bertie botts every flavor beans, cockroach clusters (chocolate covered peanuts), acid pops (s0ur candies), lemon drops, and everyone got a cauldron cake (a chocolate cupcake with icing, hot fudge, and caramel) everyone had to cast a spell on their cauldron cake before eating it and then they popped and fizzed in their mouth (poprocks sprinkled on top of each cake). Austin had a blast opening presents and getting a lot of Harry Potter themed items.

Girls in Bikinis, Boys doin' the Twist

Travis and I decided to take a vacation and not take the kiddos. We kept going back and forth on what we were going to do and where we were going to go. We decided to go to Catalina Island and break up our trip in Vegas and Long Beach. I had a store meeting Saturday night so Travis came and picked me up and we made our way down to St. George. We got there about 2 am and crashed at Trav's boss' condo. We were up again by 8 am and made our way to Cali. We stayed in Long Beach Sunday night ready to take the ferry over to Catalina Monday morning. We got to the port and the winds were too high to go out. They told us to come back later in the afternoon and see if it had calmed down any. We had a few hours to spare so we decided to go to LA. We went t0 Hollywood Blvd and looked up a few stars. Audrey Hepburn is one of my all time favorite actresses and Travis was nice enough to help me hunt down her star. I don't know what I would do without internet on our phones. We wanted to get some pictures of the Hollywood sign so we typed it in to google and then used navigation to get there. We took this winding road for what seemed like forever and finally we saw the sign. We met a bunch of kids from Utah state and we took their pictures and they took ours.
After taking pictures we made our way back to Long Beach. We ate at this great place called Rock Bottom Brewery. They probably thought we were weird when we didn't order any drinks, the food was great though. We also went through all the little shops on the pier. I loved the hat shop! They also had great pizza at this little pizzeria where they made everything from scratch on site. I think California is big on that in general. Everywhere we went it seemed like everything was made on site.
We also took a few pictures on the beach. The wind was so cold we didn't last very long. The sand felt good between my toes though, I loved it. We checked back at the port and nothing was going out the rest of the day so we decided we better find somewhere to stay for the night. We saw the Queen Mary from our hotel the night before and thought it would be fun to stay there. We pretty much got our room and crashed. I get motion sick and so I had taken Dramamine an hour before we were supposed to get on the ferry. It said it was the non-drowsy kind but it still knocked me out. We got up early on Tuesday to grab something to eat and look around the ship.
This is one of the hallways down by our room. In the room they have plaques that tell you what items are original pieces to the Queen Mary. These are just some pictures from the ship. The phone booth is actually to place reservations for the restaurant on board.


This was a shot Travis took from the Queen Mary, California is beautiful! We made our way to the port again and they said we were good to go. YAY!! Finally we were on our way to Catalina. We went and checked into our hotel and decided to walk around for awhile. We walked through some of the shops and then walked through some of the town. It was so beautiful! Everything is laid back and when they don't have cruise ships there the town shuts down at 6 pm. It reminded me of Germany. This is the first vacation that I can remember that I came home and didn't feel like I needed a vacation after my vacation. We walked up to Lover's Cove and the golf course. We walked on the beach, ate ice cream, and took a nap every day. We were also able to see these little guys. We saw seals and dolphins and Travis drooled over all the fish.




We left Catalina early Thursday morning and made our way to Vegas. We hit the outlet mall before grabbing a bite to eat at Cafe Rio. BYU basketball had a game earlier that day so there was a ton of blue and Jimmer shirts. We stayed at Bally's which was a first for us. When we went to check in they upgraded our room to a suit. It was so nice! We got a king size bed, a huge tv, and a hot tub in the middle of the room. We walked the strip and did once more did some shopping. On the way down to California Travis got sunglasses, shorts, a new hat, and new shirts. I got a pair of sunglasses. So, on the way home I got a new work shirt and two new pair of jeans at Lucky. I love coming home to my kiddos, they make you feel so loved. Keira ran out to me and gave me the biggest squeeze. The boys ran out and said, " What did you bring us?"

Progress on the Basement

Do you know what happens when you work on something for TWO YEARS? I do, you say to heck with it and finally hire someone to come in and do the work you don't want to do. We got a guy to come in and finish sanding and texture on our basement. He got everything finished up in one day and we got to start painting. We painted the family room and the computer room in the tan color, it's also the same color as our living room and dining area.
We went with this really pretty aqua color for our bathroom and it's going to look great when I get everything put together. We found a black coffee colored vanity that makes the color stand out that much more. Word to the wise don't pick out a paint color after midnight and expect to like it in the morning. I went to pick up more ceiling paint and Travis said that if I wanted to paint the playroom I needed to get the paint right then. I thought that a pale green would make the boys happy but we could add a little girl to it as well. I got home and Travis started painting. It was a complete shock! I didn't expect the color to be that bright. The boys love the color and it is growing on me, I'm sure I will like it more when we have door on and it isn't screaming at me in the family room.

Kangaroo Zoo 2011

My in laws take the kids to Kangaroo Zoo for Valentine's Day every year. This year we decided to go the Saturday before, so the kids had enough time to play and we didn't have to worry about school. On Friday one of Krissi's daycare kids came in the cutest tie-dye heart shirt. So, Carol decided to make them for all of the grandkids. They turned out so cute and it was so easy to spot one of our kids. We tried taking Keira on a couple of the larger slides but she wanted nothing to do with them. Finally, I grabbed her and climbed up and went down with her. She was ok once we got down but she fought me the entire way up that ladder. The boys had fun running around with their cousins and sliding and jumping on everything they could.

Carpet NO MORE!!

For a very long time I wanted to get rid of the carpet in the front room of our house. It was old, gross, and I hated it. Travis kept saying that we would have to finish the basement first. I don't know what changed his mind but it changed and we put in wood floor laminate. Friday night we ripped out everything we could without waking up our kids and finally went to bed about 1 am on Saturday morning. We got up about 7 and finished up what we couldn't do the night before. When Cory got to our house we were pulling nails out of the floor. By the way, that part sucks! After we had a smooth floor we laid down the thin foam paper stuff and started laying out the laminate. I was actually surprised how fast it went down.
It took longer when you had to go around vents or into closets but we got the living room and dining area done in one day. We did the kitchen the next weekend. With new paint and new floor the upstairs is going to look just as new as the downstairs. I just need to get my baseboards back up!

Alex's Birthday Party

Alex decided he wanted a Mario Brothers birthday party this year. Well, at first, he wanted a Luigi party but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find enough of just Luigi so he graciously consented to a Mario and Luigi party. We had his party the Saturday before his birthday. We had games set up for all the kids we had Yoshi egg races (with a fair amount of cheating) and then I made Travis be Mario and the kids got to be the fire shooting plants and try and hit Travis with a ball. I also had blocks and question marks through out the room and when it came time, the kids all ran around and tried to get the most points. I found a website that sold little question mark boxed and star power boxes so that's what the prizes were. We also had our Wii set up for the kids to play Mario Brothers. Alex got to choose the ice cream and he chose play-dough. I had never had it before but it was brightly colored and fit in well with the Mario land we were creating. After having tried the ice cream I don't think I'll be buying that kind again. Alex wasn't really a fan of it either. The cupcakes were super cute though. I made red and green frosting and then topped them off with a few white chocolate chips that were upside down. They looked like "bigs" and "1 ups". On his actual birthday he got to open presents from us and then we took Keira to my parents house and took the boys to Trafalga in Lehi. We played mini golf and went Laser Tagging twice. They also climbed the wall, went on all the rides, and had ice cream. We picked up Keira and on the way home both of the boys fell asleep in the car. I love when we tucker them out!

Christmas 2010

Like everyone else the holidays are super busy for us. We are so lucky to have our families so close so we can see them on Christmas . . . and all the other days. Both of our families have traditions over Christmas so that makes Christmas Eve through the day after Christmas a marathon event. I work Christmas Eve and I've been lucky enough to work the morning the last few years. As soon as work is done I meet Travis and the kids at his mom's Christmas party. This party is a huge deal to our kids. They have lots of cousins to play with, have great food, Santa Claus comes, and we go on a caroling hay ride through Main Street in Lehi. As soon as that party ends we head over to my parents house to watch a movie. We used to go to a theater but with all the little ones it's just easier right now to veg in my parents theater room. After the movie ends my dad reads the Christmas story from the Bible and then we head home. We let the kids open their Christmas Eve presents and then send them off to bed. We are usually up by 6am on Christmas morning so that our kids can see what Santa brought them and open their presents before we head out to our families. We've been going over to my parents house pretty early the last couple of years so that we can talk to Kevin, my brother serving a mission in Peru. This year Trav's parents came out to our house so it let us relax at home a little longer. The next day it's off to work again completely exhausted and ready for a vacation!