Ultimate Rejuvenation

I just got back from the annual girls weekend. It was wonderful! I am so blessed to have such amazing women in my life. Never in my life have I known another group of girls to be so supportive of everyone; I always come away feeling better about myself. Aren't they just so beautiful?!
I was really glad that we decided to make it longer this year. It gave us much more time to rejuvenate. Multiple trips to the hot tub were part of that rejuvenation!
Another part was all the amazing food - Caffe Molise, PF Changs and our traditional Loco Lizard. We had such a good time while out that we often chased away our neighbors in the restaurant. But, we always tip well!
We also got in tons of shopping. Retail therapy is good for the soul I got lots of good stuff on great deals for the girls. I loved being able to get Keri outfitted for a new season. I also confirmed my suspiscion that Andrea is the best shopping partner in the world! But the best part of it all was all the chatting, laughing, being goofy and playing of games that we did. That rejuvenates me in a way that nothing else can. You girls are good for my soul!

Easter

We started something new this year and had Easter span two days. Saturday is now "Easter Bunny Day" at our house and Sunday is all about the Resurrection.

Easter began on Friday with lots of fun at preschool. We made Easter door hangers and painted little suncatchers. Blessed be the Dollar Store that supplied me with such lovely crafts. We also hopped around like bunnies and read several Easter stories in addition to our normal preschool activities.

That night we also dyed easter eggs. Thank you to my mom who ran over her spiffy egg cooker so we could have lots of hard-boiled eggs to dye. It was piles of fun and was over much too quickly.

Saturday morning the Easter Bunny had come and much hunting and squeals ensued.

Laura loved the scriptures that were in her basket the very most. She has been wanting her own set for quite a while now. Amazing how the bunny knows such things!

Sara just liked playing with all the colored things around. I think her favorite item from her basket was the cool bendy bunny. It eats well.

Sunday brought a very strange, and also very good, Easter. The girls looked adorable in their Easter dresses and we talked a lot about the Resurrection. And Laura was very proud to be taking her own scriptures to church.

Tragically, a darling little boy in our ward (one primary class above Laura - only 5 years old) had passed away very suddenly the night before. It hit home very hard for all of us parents and the grief was terrible in our meetings. There was also much explaining to do to the children. It was incredibly difficult and my heart goes out to this wonderful family.

That evening was wonderful when we had dinner with my parents and nephew. We had lots of fun playing and eating yummy food. (Suggestion: try cooking a turkey ###### in the crock pot.) And afterwards, my brother Steve and some of his family stopped by for a little while. Laura and Kiki loved playing in the Rocket and popping out the most.

Have I mentioned that holidays are so much better with kids?!

Catch Up

There are quite a few things that I have not posted about lately. So, here they all are in one big post.

Dinners

We had Jason's brother Todd and his family over for dinner the other night. Laura is great friends with his daughter, Rylie and they had a BLAST together. The meal was good and simple (recipe at bottom) and we all had a good time catching up.

We also had my nephew Mark (in college) and my parents over for Easter dinner. Laura enjoyed the experience of having a big guy around (I loved growing up with big brothers!) and they had a blast playing together.

Pictures

I got Sara's 9 month professional pictures taken . I was going to get pictures of Laura in her Ballet clothes at the same time, but she decided to run her face into the couch the day before, so we didn't do those. Next time for Laura. It was a good thing too, because the experience with Sara was not so fun. She is in Mommy mode and didn't do well when I set her down to take the pictures. But at least we got a couple decent ones.

Home Improvements

We have made some major progress on the house lately. We finished all the paint prep (SO MUCH CAULK) in the basement. So, we (or rather, Jason) used the paint sprayer this weekend and got all the primer and trim done. Wahoo...it's finally starting to look like a house down there. The next task will be to roll the ceilings and walls.

We also finished decorating our Master Bedroom. My goodness, dressy navy curtains were difficult to find. I love how the room turned out despite the delays. My favorite features are having a couch, my Japanese umbrella, and the huge picture frame filled with pictures of the girls.

Super Simple Ham Tetrazzini

1 lb spaghetti

2 Cups leftover ham (cut into bite-sized pieces)

1 Jar (16 oz) alfredo sauce

1 Cup milk

1 Tbsp Flour

1 Tbsp Cooking Sherry

1/3 Cup Parmesan Chesse (grated or shredded)

Preheat oven to 350. Cook spaghetti according to package minus 1 minute. Drain. Pour alfredo into pasta pot over medium heat. Dump flour then milk and sherry into alfredo jar, shake to combine and add to sauce. Once sauce is bubbling add meat and noodles. Mix to combine. Pour Mixture into casserole dish and top with Parmesan. Bake for 20 minutes.

Backwards Activities

Laura got to do two fun things in the last month. She just had to do them with the opposite than normal parent because I was sick.

She went to the ballet Cinderella with her Daddy. She loved watching the funny stepsisters (played by men) and finding all the moves she knows from her own ballet classes. Laura got to dress up beautifully in her easter dress and loved being a big, beautiful girl. They had a great night!
Laura went to the Jazz/Sonics game with me. Though she loved being with me and I with her, we didn't have such a great experience. The tall stairs were scary. The jerk who was on the end and wouldn't let us sit in our assigned seats (so we ended up having to relocate 3 times) and the loud fans weren't fun. We were far away and Laura had a hard time seeing. But, she loved smacking her cheer stix, holding my hand and yelling "Go, Jazz, Go."
Laura told me that she definitely likes the ballet better. But, we think we'll try a Utah Flash game and hopefully have a better basketball experience.

Warm Day

We seem to have been stuck in the house with the girls' sniffles and my kidney stone, so when the weather was warm today we had to go outside. And I thought the warm weather would be good for Sara's nose. Karyn also thought the park would be a good idea so we spend some time enjoying the sunshine today. Aren't the kids just adorable?!

Sniffles Suck

Normally the sniffles are not a terrible thing around our house. But this week, they are. Why, you may ask?! Because we can't go meet any of the new beautiful baby boys that came into our life this week.

We are now getting better and should be able to meet Ephraim, James and Garrett (in order of arrival) soon.
Congratulations Deb and Joe, Brian and Steph, and Jordan and Heather! They are beautiful! And yes, this makes me a "Great Aunt". Don't make fun!

Kiss Me, I'm Irish

With my maiden name being VERY Irish (though my heritage isn't very Irish at all, ironically) we love to celebrate St. Patrick's Day around here. Laura and I did lots of crafts this morning to celebrate the day. I'm not sure if she liked the gluing of the shamrock or personalizing her bowler hat more. Isn't she adorable all decked out?! I also like the garland we put around the kitchen chandelier. Holidays are better with kids.
Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

How We'd Like to Spend ALL Our Time

I'm pretty sure that all of us would agree that one of the best times we spend as a family is when we all pile on Jason's and my bed and just play, laugh, hug, kiss and tickle. It is pure heaven. Look at these faces.

Finished Family Room

Even though we have been spending a ridiculous amount of time working on the basement (which we will finally be starting to paint this weekend) we got the upstairs family room completed. It feels great to have the room we spend the most time in all decorated.

It turned out very cozy. We got a few accessories from this store and we must give a Thank You to Brian and Steph for the plant and my parents for the help at JC Penney while we picked out our curtains!