Easter Parade

We had a wonderful Easter. Gram and Opa brought the Easter treats on Saturday evening. They had candies for Brian and I, a new journal and pen set for Brianna, a new transformer and movie for Thomas and Charles. They loved those surprises.
Sunday morning, the Easter Bunny brought new Sunday shirts for the boys, and a couple of cute striped shirts for Brianna. Everyone got a new movie: Everafter (Brianna,) Over the Hedge (Tom,) and Madagascar 2 ( Charlie.) The boys also got new books and Matchbox airplanes. He also left a ton of candy for everyone.


Here are the kids after our Easter service. They were so good to wait for us to take pictures after church. They also look really cute in their Easter outfits.
Here's Brian and I looking fat-n-happy. I thought we should have our picture taken because it's never just us.

Thomas and Charlie wanted to do a funny face picture too, so here's them in all their funny glory.

When we were taking our Easter pictures, our across the street neighbors were having an Easter surprise as well. If you look really hard, you'll find an Easter goat. I had no idea that's how some celebrate Easter. To each his own.

Another Easter treat was a candy surprise from Charlie's primary teacher. He showed up in sacrament meeting with a ring pop in his mouth. Yikes! He had blue sucker all over. Brian had Brianna clean him up before the meeting started. When we got home, he hadn't finished his treat, so he wanted to finish it before he laid down for a nap. When he woke up this was the face that greeted us.

Happy Easter!

"Egg"-celent Easter Eggs

Tonight we did one of my favorite parts about Easter, we dyed Easter eggs. The boys were so excited and kept asking about when we would color the eggs. It was so fun, they loved to make them deep colors, but Charlie didn't like to leave them in long enough for them to be as dark as he wanted.


Here's our final result. I told them to put their faces down by the eggs and they literally did just that. They are funny boys...they must get it from their dad.

Speaking of their dad, he provided the music for our dying pleasure. I'm sure he doesn't want me to share this picture, but we needed to see his face during our egg coloring adventure.
It was a really good time.

Our Day at the Zoo

Today we went with my work, UTVA, to the zoo.

We had such a good time. We had to wait for my school to figure out what the school deal was, but as soon as we got in we saw animals everywhere. There was a giant turkey that fluffed his feathers and got really close. It was fun to see it up close.

Amanda met us at the Asia Highlands cafe, so when we safely passed the turkey, we headed there to eat lunch with her, Sam, and Mary. We had peanut butter sandwiches and chips with fruit snacks and rice crispy treats. Yummy! The boys scoped out the map to decide what they wanted to see next. They chose the jaguar, but Utah's Hogle Zoo, doesn't have one, so we headed for the cheetah and giraffes.

Everyone loved the giraffe and he even came inside to get a drink. He had to throw his head back to swallow--I've never seen them do that. From there we headed over to the zebra and bears. They were all out so we got to see them. Next came the rhino and elephant.

This carved elephant made funny sounds so Charlie had to get an up close picture with it. We couldn't miss the ape house. We saw the orangutan family--even the new baby. Then we had to find out how we measured up to them.

After the ape house, we stopped by the playground and let the boys go down the snake slide. I told the boys that we were moving on to the next thing and Tom cried. Then Charlie threw a fit when I told him I wouldn't wait in line at the train for three rides. After all of that emotion, I knew it was time for us to go home and take a nap. So, that's what we did and we woke up in such a better mood.

This Week's Favorite Thing

This past week, I bought our family an air popper.

This Presto air popper lets you enjoy healthy popcorn without the added calories from popping in oil. The PopLite hot air corn popper makes up to 18 cups of fresh hot popcorn in less than three minutes. The handy butter melter doubles as a measuring cup, while the chute directs popcorn right into your bowl. (This is a direct quote from the buyers guide. While it is healthier when popped, adding a bunch of butter makes it taste really good, but not as healthy.)

I love this new kitchen gadget. We got it on Monday afternoon and after nap time, the boys and I made some popcorn for snack time. I think I've used it about every other day since then. It's so quick and tastes really good too. I keep trying to get everyone to buy one, but I don't know how that's coming.

Tom's Kindergarten Program

Today was Thomas' Kindergarten program. He has been so excited about it this whole week. He kept inviting everyone to come to his second birthday (he forgot it was called a program.)

We dropped him off at regular time and they practiced for the program and waited for us to arrive. Charlie and I got there at 9:45 and the program started at 10 am. I thought that would be plenty of time to get a good seat, but I guess I should have stayed when I dropped him off at 8:30. It was packed with parents and family that wanted to see their little sweeties perform.

The Kindergarten class did an excellent job. They sang some really great songs and did fun actions. I wish the camera would take better pictures because during the program all the ones I got from far away were so dark (as you can tell from the first picture.) My favorite part was a song that they sang lots of verses and each time they would add a different part of the actions like "thumbs up, elbows back, feet apart, knees together, bottoms up, tongue out, eyes closed..." The eyes closed part was so funny because Tom's little faces was scrunched up so tight and singing the words it was great.

They had the whole activity room decorated with paintings the students had done. Of course Thomas' is of transformers. He's friend James O. is the black transformer, he is the red and blue one, Alexa is next to him, and the one of the far left is Katelynn. It was fun to see everyones pictures.

We--Sam, Charlie, Mary, my mom, and I--loved watching him perform. I sure love this boy, he's so funny. As a side note he did tell me the other morning when I was wearing my shorts and sharing a blanket with him that I could really use the "smooth away" for my hairy legs. I told him he watches too much TV.

After the program, Tom got to pick were we went to lunch. He chose to go to Dee's family restaurant. Very white trash of him. Our waiter even had no teeth, but was very nice. Tom ate two pancakes that were as big as his plate, bacon, sausage, and scrambled eggs. Charlie had a funny face pancake plate with whipped cream. I have never seen them eat so much, we had a great time.

Dentist Report

Here's our dentist report from this past week.

Monday: Brianna did well. She had two cavities to be filled. I had forgotten that she hadn't gotten any before, so for a first timer, she did great.

Tuesday: I went in today. I had three that needed to be done one in each corner so I had a lot of drugs and my mouth was numb for a long time. I called Brian after and he had a good laugh at my expense. He thought I was lisping more than usual, but this time I had an excuse.

Wednesday: Thomas' turn today. He also had three cavities. I had gotten a perscription for some heavy duty drugs that were supposed to knock him out and have him act like the boy in this youtube clip. Watch this to see what was supposed to happen. This was not Tom's reaction to the medicine. He was a little carefree, but was aware of what was happening. I gave the two medicines to him a little after lunch and then let him hang out with me for a while before we went to his appointment. He did really well when we were there and even shut his eyes in the chair for a few minutes. He also had a lot of numbing drugs and his little mouth was asleep for a long time. He didn't really like that part, but got over it fast enough.

I hoped that he would be tired after his appointment and so I rented Bolt for him to watch when we got home. We brought up the sleeping bags and about an hour or so into the movie this is what happened.

and this is his brother All in all we had a pretty good week at the dentist.

Spring Break

Last week was my Spring Break. I loved every minute of it! I still answered the phone and my students emails, but I was able to spend the rest of the time with the kids. We were busy with dentists appointments, swimming lessons, and track practice (Brianna's doing track, but that's another blog post.)

Friday I took Tom and Charlie to the dollar movie to see Bolt--the Disney movie about a TV super hero dog that thinks he really has the super powers. It was a cute movie and the boys loved it. I loved that the three of us could go and get popcorn, drinks, and candy for less than $12.

We were celebrating Tom's excellent report card and the good boys they had been by going to the movie and then we went out to eat at Hires, a burger place that's a family favorite. We went and met my mom and sister, Emily, for a late lunch.I love being able to spend time with the boys and I hope they know I love them.