Easter Weekend

On Friday when Caleb got home from work we were able to drive up to Midway and meet Caleb's Mom and brother and sisters at his Aunt and Uncle's condo. We played Bananagrams and Corbin learned how to make little crossword puzzles out of the game tiles.

They had a fun little Easter egg hunt for the kids. I helped Makelle fend off big kids and get a couple of eggs, but Corbin went out there all by himself this year and ran around the mini golf course collecting his own eggs. He is getting big!





The resort that we stayed on also has a carousel that kids can ride whenever they want, so we took the kids on that. We asked Makelle what animal she wanted to ride on and she said, "pink." So Caleb helped her find the bunny, which had some pink on it :)



Right before we headed home we got to go swimming, which was fun with all the cousins and got us excited for next month when our pool will open and we can swim as often as we want.



On Saturday night we drove home and got ready for Easter Sunday. Corbin and Makelle woke up and had a little Easter egg hunt before church and then spent the afternoon playing with their new goodies that the Easter bunny left them. Corbin got his first set of official Legos and Makelle, whom you'd think was a 12-year-old girl based on her gifts, got a little backpack, some make-up and a new hat.




At church the primary kids got to go up on the stand and sing "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and "He Sent his Son." Corbin worked really hard all week to learn the words so that he could actually sing along and did a great job participating... now we just need to work on keeping our hands away from our noses while standing in front of a crowd :)

After church we were asking the kids what they talked about in their classes and Corbin told us he learned about when Jesus died and was resurrected. Then he asked us what we talked about and thought it was so cool to learn that we had all talked about the same thing as him! What a coincidence!

My favorite thing about talking about being resurrected with Corbin is that he will always tell you that his resurrected body can't get sick or hurt and that he won't be allergic to things anymore, how precious is his little testimony?

Blog Overload!

I finally uploaded pictures to go with all the posts I have been saving, so if you have a lot of down time feel free to read through our happenings of the past month.

Egg-cellent Little Monsters

On Sunday we dyed Easter eggs together.

First the kids stuck the eggs into the good old cups of colored dye then after they had dried we let them accessorize their eggs and make little monsters.

However, it turns out most glue cannot adhere pipe cleaners to an egg shell, despite having come in a kit that claimed otherwise. So after attempting and then failing to get three different types of glue to work we had to bust out the hot glue gun.

At which point Caleb makes my favorite comment of the night and declares, Alright this is where I draw the line. Once you pull out a hot glue gun it is no longer a fun holiday tradition, but rather becomes a full on craft project, and I don't do crafts! :)

But the kids loved it and we had fun making our little egg monsters.

Home Improvement Projects

Neither Caleb nor I have any interest in home decor or interior design of any kind. Thus our house has remained exactly how it was when we bought it. But with hopes to try and sell sometime in the next year we decided we should start to put a little effort into making it look nice.

Then, while Caleb was in Logan I had a lot of down time in the evenings by myself and must be getting that whole "nesting" sensation because I decided to just do it and ended up painting two rooms, re-framing and hanging doors on the kids' closet and redoing our fireplace.


There is no before picture but imagine the walls a brown color and nothing but the black fire frame sitting in the middle of the wall. For having no experience with tiling I think it turned out pretty well... it's amazing the things you can learn on the Internet!

When it was all done Corbin announced that we needed some Easter decorations, so we dug through our boxes and found some cheap grass and plastic eggs to put up, along with a few other random, brightly colored, 'springish' things... like I said, we have no sense of decor! But if Bean is happy, then we're happy, and hopefully sometime in the near future someone will want to buy that nice looking fireplace surround :)

Logan

The past 3 weeks Caleb was working with a client up in Logan. It only took one night of driving the hour and half commute at 10:30 at night just to wake back up and leave again at 6:30 to decide that he needed to just get a hotel room and stay overnight.

Let's be honest--the kids really didn't even notice that he was gone as they are used to him not getting home until after they are in bed and already being gone before they wake up, but it was hard on Caleb to not even see his family all week so we took a couple of days and went up and visited him.

The kids got to swim in the hotel pool, which was good because Corbin was able to "swim" on his own by the end of last summer, but seemed to have sort of forgotten over the winter so our trip was a chance for him to relearn how to swim.

The continental breakfast was a highlight, of course because they got to eat sugary cereal and endless amounts of apple juice for breakfast... what a treat!

We also went out to eat a late dinner with Caleb one night at a local restaurant where they had vegan spaghetti on the kids' menu. I honestly think that it was the first time that we have ever ordered a full meal off a regular menu at a restaurant for Corbin. It made me so happy when his food arrived and he looked at it all weird and asked in a completely perplexed tone, "but why is the spaghetti white?" It took a minute for us to realize what he was talking about and then Caleb attempted to explain that Mommy is weird and only buys whole wheat pasta when she makes spaghetti at home. It was cute.

While we were there we stopped at the mall and let the kids pick out a pair of flip-flops. They have never picked out their own clothes off the rack at a store before... partly because Corbin doesn't really care, but also because they usually get whatever is on sale, rather than whatever they like. So I found a cute pair that was sort of neutral colored and I thought would be good for Makelle, but from the moment we arrived at the shoe rack she got her sights set on a pink pair, and starts squealing at the top of her lungs, "I want pink sannals!" Despite my efforts she could not be convinced to go with any other color and now owns some bright pink flip-flops.

On our way out of town I was able to drive a little ways out to Richmond to meet an old college roommate. It was fun to see her and her girls and get to catch up a little bit.

It was a short trip, but the kids thought it was so fun to sleep in a hotel and get to stay up late going to dinner with Dad and we all enjoyed our little semi-vacation.

Soccer Mom

Well it is official. We have the SUV, the 2.5 children and now the kid in little league soccer--there is no denying that I have become a true stereotypical soccer mom.

This spring we signed Corbin up through the rec center for a Real Salt Lake Junior league. He is on the Raptors and ever since his first practice last week has been wandering around the house randomly shouting, "Gooo Raptors!" Last night was his first official game. His team met 30 minutes before the game started for a little practice session, but it wasn't looking good.

He appeared moderately bored and disinterested in the little drills they were making up. It was freezing cold and super windy and he and Makelle both seemed to just want to go home. But then the game started and he was in love! I guess the boy just needed some competitive motivation, because as soon as the other team showed up and they began playing an actual game he got so into it!

He scored the first goal of the game, another one later in the second half and got off a couple of decent shots in between. As long as his own teammates didn't get in his way, he actually did a good job of breaking out of the "bunch ball" group and taking it down field to shoot at the goal.


Afterwards he immediately asked when he gets to play another game, but said that he didn't really want to go to practice. We might have to work on that attitude a bit.

It was fun watching the kid play... his first extra-curricular activity, he is getting so big!

Sunday Best

On Sunday after church Makelle comes wandering out and tells me, "Mommy, I got too much make-up, too much."



Hmmm... maybe just a tad bit too much sweetheart :)

Out of the Mouth of Babes

We love conference weekend. Nothing like laying around the house in your pajamas listening to the prophet and apostles.

We have carried on Caleb's family tradition of eating a big pancake breakfast on Sunday morning, complete with strawberries and whip cream. (So basically the exact same ingredients that went into Makelle's birthday cake last month, is now our nutritious breakfast :)



We played conference bingo and got rewarded with a haagen dazs ice cream bar or popsicle when we got a bingo. (Good motivation to listen, no matter what age you are :)

This year we decided to have Corbin try to pay attention and take some notes. They were well worth saving... you may notice his recurring theme of swords which somehow seemed to appear in about half the drawings he made. Here are a few good ones:

Faith. Reading the scriptures will help me do hard things, like fight a ghost monster.


On Sunday we need to pick good things to do, like ask Mommy to turn on a church movie.


The prophet talked about temples.


Families. Mom, with the baby in her belly, Dad, me and Makelle, with her curly hair. Mom and Dad are showing Makelle how to sword fight since she doesn't know how yet and the parents are suppose to teach the kids.

Revelation. I am praying to ask Heavenly Father if the scriptures are true.


Wives support their husbands. Mom is helping Dad because he is getting bombed and his gun broke so she has to get the bombs with her sword before they hit him.

Kids are so awesome!