Easter Week!

Because every holiday should be at least a week long celebration, we've been calling the last week "Easter Week". We've done a lot of celebrating and had a ton of fun!

Thursday night (a week ago) we had Mike, Alison, Andrea, and Sara over to play. Really Dave was showing Mike his Dancing Robots images, and I wanted an excuse for the cousins to have fun. They played in every room of the house while the Dads got to work in the office downstairs. Alison and I got to talk as well, and it was fun.

A week ago Friday we got busy in the yard! In the morning we weeded our million flower beds and laid 3 square yards of wood chips. Dave mowed the lawn, and Logan and I tidied the house. Later that night Sheila, Scott, and Max stopped by to pick up some compost/dirt that Dave had purchased. So we helped them load it up and got slushies!!! Logan LOVES slushies more than anything.

Last Saturday we worked in the yard more (planed 5 tomatoes in the garden and planted some pansies). The tomatoes have surprisingly done really well, and the pansies have died (opposite of what I expected). So we'll have tomatoes early this year, and no pretty flowers. That night we had a new family from the ward over for a BBQ. It was fun to get to know them and their son better.

Monday for FHE we started an Easter advent I found in the friend. It was 7 days worth of scriptures and simple stories about Christ. It included a little picture that we let Logan "find" to match the story and stick on the day's number. I wanted to do an advent of Christ's last week, but never got around to it, so this was an easy solution. Next year I'll probably do something like this with the actual last week of Christ's Life.

The rest of the week was busy with Easter prep. I didn't want to do any cooking on Easter, so I prepared everything in advance and froze most of it. It was crazy busy during the week, but so nice to get to relax on the holiday. I'll probably do this again.

Friday Dave held down the fort so I could get my hair cut. Dustin has been chewing on it lately, and Logan thought that was pretty cool, so he started chewing on it too. I HATE wet hair, so after trying to keep my hair pulled back for a week (Logan HATES my hair pulled back, so he would mess it up every chance he got), I decided it was time to go short. It ended up shorter than I requested (it's about an inch above my chin), but it's still cute. I'm happy with it. Logan keeps telling me he wants my hair longer again.

Dave also has been reformatting our computer for the past week (thus the lack of last week's blog post). He removed the hard drive and replaced it with one with more capacity. I didn't think this would make a difference, but holy cow! The computer runs so much faster now. He also upgraded two softwares. Don't really know what that did, but my icons are now more pretty. He's almost done (the Microsoft Suite is no longer working, so I can't access my word and excel documents).

Saturday morning we headed to my parent's house to do some serious egg hunting and eating. Logan had a blast finding eggs and opening them up to see what was inside. My parents filled them with pennies and nickels. At first Logan wasn't sure what to think (we haven't ever given him money, so he didn't know what it was). But now he wants to count his pennies constantly. He's hid them a few times and I have to convince him to show me where his stash is. I can't wait to teach him about tithing for FHE tonight and then take him to the store to show him how you can buy stuff.

That evening we had Dave's family over for their monthly family dinner. The weather was so nice we ate soups and salads outside on the gazebo and enjoyed another egg hunt! Because Logan's cousins are allergic to yellow dye, Logan ended up with the majority of the candy from the hunt! He is in HEAVEN! I have put a lot of the candy in the pantry and will slowly take it out when we run out of what we have. Aaron and Lucinda also brought over some big bubble blowers and the kids had a blast with those! Logan has used them several times a day since then.

Sunday we had a great Easter! Logan got up and asked if the Easter Bunny had come. "Did he bring me jelly beans? What about a chocolate bunny?" We showed him to his basket and he went crazy opening eggs. Logan got a few dollar toys (a tape measure and some glow in the dark lizards). In mom & dad's basket there was a veggie tail's movie (Rack, Shack, and Benny). Call me mean, but I wanted Logan to understand we don't want to eat all our candy at once (the story of Shadrack, Mishack, and Abendigo).

After church we had our main meal (ham, funeral potatoes - for Christ's death, green beans, and salad). Logan didn't eat much, but we did get him to have some apples and strawberries. After lunch we watched the veggie tail and went on a walk. Dave wanted some pictures of him and the boys, so I snapped as many as I could before they got fussy. Next year I'll find a tie for Dave, then make the boys ties match. I had no idea Dave would want to match as well, and I'm not making him one!

Today we've just been cleaning up and getting the house back together. Well, and doing laundry. I've decided it's officially warm enough to start using the clothes line again. So we took our Monday load out and are waiting for it to dry.

Getting Ready for Easter

We've been getting ready for Easter around our house! I finally finished Logan and Dustin's Easter ties! I love how they turned out. I wish Dave had one to match, but I can't see making him a home made tie. Dave requested the pictures be taken in jeans instead of slacks.

This is the very first picture I took. After this one, I opened the door to get more light, and the camera battery died. Then I pulled out the other camera and Dustin was done sitting still. So he started wiggling and Logan got mad, so he pushed Dustin away from him. I dove to catch Dustin from falling down the stairs, and Logan started falling down the other side of the stairs... Tears were had by all. Photo Shoot over.

Then Logan wanted to take a picture and got this one (great job kiddo!)

Then I snapped this picture of Logan and called it a day. My photo skills have their limit. I'll get more when we're hunting for Eggs on Easter.

I finally finished my table runner! It turned out well. I don't love applique, but it turns out so well for things like this.

We've been having some pet problems lately. Not that we currently have any pets, but we've had some begging for our attention. A black cat moved into our gazebo some time in the past month. With the rain and snow last week, he has taken to meowing at our door when he's cold/wants in. It's was so pitiful it was breaking all our hearts, so I coaxed the cat into our bathroom with a can of tuna and called animal control. A few hours later they called back telling me they couldn't pick the cat up unless it was in a cat carrier.

So I let the cat go and found a lady in the ward that let me borrow her cat carrier. I caught the cat again and we were able to send it to the shelter. It was such a friendly cat, I know (s)he will be adopted quickly. I'm so glad (s)he isn't out in the cold anymore!

The next day we found a dog barking, locked up in our back yard. It was weird, because there's no way (s)he could have gotten into our yard without help. (S)he looked pretty mangy, but I tried to read what was on his collar. I couldn't without letting him out of the yard, and when I opened the gate, he bolted. So we are now without two pets.

Conference

Conference weekend went by so fast! We were supposed to go to my parents like we usually do, but Dustin is still sick. We didn't want to get everyone sick, but it was sad to miss out.

Last week I bought a new crock pot so we would have a second one. It was only $10! I had no idea you could get a new one that cheap. It's oval shaped, so you can fit corn on the cob in it, even a whole chicken. Ever since I mentioned the chicken to Dave, he has wanted to cook a chicken in it. So when we decided we weren't going to my parents, Dave decided we should cook a chicken in it. We made a Lemon & Herb chicken, and it turned out well.

For both sessions Saturday Logan played quietly on the ground in front of the TV. We would stop the play whenever the Prophet spoke, and he would listen for a little while. Dave was disappointed to have to go to Priesthood by himself, but I promised to go out to ice cream with him after. My friend Tenille dropped in during Priesthood, and I helped her work on her first quilt.

Ice cream was tons of fun! We got dipped cones and let Dustin enjoy it too. He got really good at licking the cone. He was so excited he would dive right into it. He got a little sugar high (giggling at everything), but it was all in good fun.

Saturday was a little harder. Logan was so done watching TV. So I bribed him with puzzles I had bought at the Dollar Tree a few weeks ago and had been saving. By second session Dave and I were sick of the puzzles, so I pulled out some easter stamps to keep him busy. We didn't get a whole lot of listening done between his asking for help and Dustin demanding attention.

After Conference was over Dave and I were discussing our favorite talks, and I was telling a story that Dave had missed. After Logan asked for another "Conference Story" so we told him all the conference stories we could remember. He thought that was pretty neat, so I think we'll start it as a tradition. It's so hard to pay attention with two little people in the house, but it's a good habit to have them in.

Today we've been cleaning up the house and trying to pull everything back together from our crazy weekend. I threw some soup into the crock pot and we made it over to the school to play. I also was able to schedule some wood chips to be delivered so we can fill in our flower beds.

New Clothes and More Sickness!

The boys are sick again. Well, Logan just got better! We're still waiting for Dustin to get better. He's got a cough and a runny/stuffy nose. I've started using some essential oils for Dustin. I'm not 100% sold on them, but I was pretty desperate to have anything help him feel better. If I reapply the oils every 2 to 3 hours, his stuffy nose clears up and he can breathe.

So he's a little happier, even if he's still trying to heal! Even sick he's all smiles. We had to move him up to size 6 to 9 month clothes! I can't believe how fast he is growing.

I moved Logan up to 3 year clothes too. He was less than happy to move up. The first day, we went to get dressed and I got "AAAH! Where is my tigger shirt? I want my stripedy shirt. Not these shirts!"He ran around without a shirt until Lunch. But he's used to the new ones now and has his favorites.

I've been desperate to keep Logan busy, since we haven't left the house much, we've been trying all kinds of things to keep us busy. Sunday we used 3 of our 9 easter egg dies. We had fun with the white crayon, and trying different colors. Most of them ended up a muddy brown-ish green.

Friday my parents held down the fort while Dave and I went on our $100 date night. Every year Dave's work pays for a birthday date. They will reimburse us up to $100. So we went out to sushi and a movie. It was a nice little break! 

Sunday I also taught Relief Society, so Dave held down the fort with the two sick-ies while I went to church. It went well, the lesson was Elder Holland's "Broken Vessel" from last Conference. Fabulous talk, although it was hard to keep everyone on topic.

Monday we had a "Book of Mormon Stories" FHE given by Dave. He pulled out the Book of Mormon and we looked at the pictures in the front and he told Logan and Dustin the stories that went with the pictures. Since then, Logan's been requesting "tell me book of mormon stories!"

So for now we're hanging in there, hoping Dustin will get better for Conference this weekend!