Family Night - Jammin'

I love family night.  My kids love it too.  I try to do something fun so that they'll want to love it!  We had a great lesson on the Resurrection (just to make sure we all really understood Easter's meaning) and then we made jam.

I've had some normal white sugar and a box of pectin that I've been hauling around for a year or so; it was time to use it up! We made the real deal, sweet as pie fresh strawberry jam.  It tastes like childhood.

Henry loved measuring.

 Macey was great at picking of the stems, smashing fruit, measuring, and stirring.  And there Henry is... still dumping out that empty bag of sugar!

 In fact, we could get him to let go of the sugar and spoon.  He measured all of the house...

 The delish end product... recipe straight off the Surgel box!

 The belly... so very big!

We then took baths and ate some of our hard earned jam on fresh wheat bread... it was heaven on a plate!  I think I'll find the less sugar box of pectin and try that out... this batch will be gone in no time!

Easter 2011

 Easter was so much fun this year!  This was the first year that we've had kids that we could spend the weekend with family.  The previous 3 years we had to stay in Provo to manage the apartments!  

Hurray for retirement!!

I had a lot of fun getting baskets ready.  The kids got unders, socks, swimming gear, new shoes, and two little marshmallow rabbits.  It was stuff that we'd been needing and wanting for a while, so it was a great excuse to get it all.  Baby Willoe (Thomas' brother's new baby!) got her first basket too, a new little outfit!  Our new baby got some new clothes too, sans that basket.

 Thomas wasn't as excited about the baskets as I was for some reason...

 Willoe and TJ - I think she liked it!

Macey and Henry then met up with cousin Jane for the town egg hunt.

 This turned out to be one of the most fun parts of the day.

Thomas noticed a little girl who showed up late for the hunt, which meant it was over.  After a quick explanation to Macey, Jane, and cousin Lena they picked some of their goods, restuffed eggs, and quickly hid them for the girl.  It was fun to watch as a mom and a good learning experience for Macey.

We were so proud of her for giving some of her new found treasure to someone who didn't have any.

She also found a fancy gold egg!  She got an awesome hardback book about a bunny for the egg!  Great idea city of Orderville!  More books please...

 This is what her nap looked like that day!

 After a delish family pitch-in, we went up to White Sands to "roll eggs".

What is rolling eggs someone from anywhere but Southern Utah might ask?

Well, rolling eggs envolves lots boiled dyed eggs, sand dunes, tracks, trails, and tunnels, and then a boiled egg fight when you get tired of digging in the sand.  

It's a pretty awesome tradition.

Thomas, of course, is a master.  He builds jumps and tunnels in his trail... nothing boring.  He trail went all the way up to the rocks at the top!  It was huge and the eggs came flying down.  The kids loved his creation.

 Marla kept Jane, Henry, and Bogie off the track... she's a good auntie!

 After we rolled eggs we went on a little hike to Red Hollow.  It is a pretty little walk that turns into a narrow little something pretty.

 Check out the chunk of snow/ice that hadn't melted yet/served as stairs.  I was pretty proud of myself for shimming up the rocks like I did... good thing there was lots of help around!

 Macey and Jane then finished off their day in their new camp chairs that Grandma got them!  They ate lots of candy and cheetos while sorting through their egg hunt treasures.

A full and rewarding day indeed!

 Happy Easter to all and to all a good night!

A whole new world

Richfield and Provo are very different places.  We were well established and had lots of friends in Provo... after living there for almost 7 years that was bound to happen!

When I wasn't going to aerobics, play dates, girls night out, or church things, there was still a bunch to do.  I'll be honest, we had a packed social calendar (just the way I like it).

Macey had a million kids her age to play with and I always had a bestie to chat with.

Richfield isn't the same yet.  We don't know anyone.

I think the kids are liking lot and lots of one on one mommy time.  I don't think I've ever played so much with my kids.  It's a lot of fun and I'm sure it's good for them before the baby gets here.

Anywho, we do get out of the house or I'd be a crazy person.  

Richfield has an awesome indoor pool, and I'm told in the summer the roof opens up to let the warm and sun in!  It was only $1 for Thomas and I each and the kids were free!

 I'm pretty organized about kids clothes.  I had all of Macey's clothes sorted by size and season.  They were in boxes in her room waiting to be put away.  Well, she found them and made a giant "nest" from all of the mess.  She loved looking through the clothes, finding new to her and forgotten things!  She played in the nest for days until I could no longer stand the mess.

 Henry likes Richfield because everyone and their mom drives a huge loud truck.  He thinks it's his dad's truck all day long though because Thomas used to be the only one with a loud truck.  He LOVED when the internet people came and had install a wire on the telephone pole.  He's such a boy...

 Macey and her dad dyed eggs Sunday while I made dinner and Henry slept.  They had a lot of fun.  Macey carried the boiled eggs around in her basket for days.  I could not for the life of me convince her to put them in the fridge... eggs are cheap right?  So 5 days after the dying, Henry found and ate one of the eggs!  EEWW!  So I convinced her we would dye more if she let me throw them all away.  Don't worry, he didn't get sick.

We are excited to make some friends and have a playdate, but until then... we'll keep busy as bees here!

Hey look-  this is the last hilly billy load for us!  We loaded up late Friday night, packed the babies in, said good bye to Provo (again) and went on our merry way.  

Do you notice anything funny about this picture?

 Why yes!  That is a chain connecting the truck the the car... why is it there you ask?  Well around midnight we were 30ish miles from Richfield when the truck died.  Awesome.  I didn't want to abandon ship with all of my things in the back and there was no cell service where we were.  Double awesome.  So after a lot of Thomas under the truck this and that he decided that we should tow the truck to the Richfield house via our car.  I had to drive the car, he kept the truck from hitting me.

I'll have you know that towing something is a lot more difficult than it looks... WAY harder.  I almost ripped the bumper off the car the first try.  Good thing Thomas is a good teacher.

We finally arrived to our new home around 2 am.  We put the babies in bed and talked about how lucky we were that things worked out so well and our things were right where we wanted them.  Ideal evening, no, but it could have been a lot worse!

 I had high hopes for today.  I planned on having all of my honey-do list completed!  We were tired though.

 But then the day was through I was not disappointed.  Thomas works very quickly you know!  I also worked like a dog to get things where I like them to be.  All of the "pretties" aren't done, but here's a little glimpse of the new place!

The big ole kitchen with the very red cabinets.

 The front room, right inside the front door.  It felt like home once my Minerva was on the wall again!

And the easiest room to unpack... the tiny bathroom!

Well we made a lovely dent in things.  I think it's a bad sign though when you've been sitting for 15 minutes and are already sore!  We'll see if I can walk tomorrow!

Goodbye Mr. Mole

So our lives are a mess... we are in Richfield a few days, come up to Provo for a few, repeat repeat repeat.  

The kids have no real home, they are tired, I'm tired... one day things will be normalish.

This is the only picture I have to post.  Macey got a mole removed and was so brave a few weeks ago. 

Well I suppose this post is to let you know we are alive, more blogging later when the dust settles a little :)

Also pretty gross...

Henry discovered a new little way to say hello through the kitchen window... The stairs down to our apartment go right past this window.  I seem to be a the sink a lot, so he often comes the the window to say hello.  Yuck.

Well I decided to take the kids down to Richfield on Tuesday instead of waiting here in Provo for Thomas to came back for the big move tomorrow. We are in Provo again for the night to finsih packing and cleaning.  It was strange and new, but the kids needed to see there dad at night and have him play and sing songs.  

There is a lot of change in the air and they know it...