Happy Easter

The kids woke up (Sawyer sneaked in looking around 6 am, I sent him back to bed).  When I woke up at 8:00 they were ready to go.  We grabbed Josh and let the kids have their baskets and gather plastic eggs.  They got their traditional Easter fare- some candy, a book, and Sunday clothes.
Josh was grumpy and wanted nothing to do with it.  Not even when we kept showing him that there was candy inside the eggs!  Oh well.

After crepes and getting ready, we went to church, after our compulsory Easter pictures.  McKinley gave a lovely talk she wrote by herself in Primary.

Egg Hunt

We took the kids to the city Easter egg hunt at the park.  Each age group had it's own area.  Kent took Hayden and I took Josh, and the older kids were on their own.
Josh was not interested in the idea at all.  I put him on the ground to pick up some candy and he screamed.  So I picked up 2 pieces of candy and put them in his hand and left the 1-2 year old area.  By the time Josh had 2 pieces of candy, Sawyer's age group was already done!  Yikes, they must have been fast. 
The kids had fun.
When we went home we changed where the mailbox was and now we are much more satisfied with it. 

Park

Today I took the kids and Sadie to the park. The weather was perfect! I did my cross train for 30 minutes per my Hal Higdon schedule around the park track while the kids played. McKinley joined me for the exercise station they have set up around the track...I need more work on that, it was soooo hard!
Then by coincidence a few of my old neighborhood friends were there so I got to catch up with them for a couple of hours. It was good.
Then back to our house for baby's nap, Sawyer played with an old friend, and McKinley and I dug the hole for our mailbox. I don't like where it is, so we'll see.

Spring break

Today was the first day of our spring break. We started with a movie, The Croods. It went surprisingly well with Josh.
We came home and let Josh sleep for a couple of hours before we had to wake him up to take McKinley to the dentist. Josh had a fever so he stayed close to me. The boys were enthralled with the video games at the dentist and stayed occupied the entire time.
Poor McKinley, on the other hand, had two teeth removed per the orthodontist's recommendation.
I got her a smoothie and a Redbox afterwards. After dinner we ended with our Easter week Thursday lesson.
It was a good start to Spring break (except for McKinley's teeth I suppose).

Easter Week

This year we are following an idea I saw on pinterest for Easter week.
We do a quick little lesson on what Jesus was doing each day during the last week of his life.  Tonight for FHE we went to the temple and learned that on Monday of Easter week, Jesus cast out the vendors from the temple.  Then we enjoyed our family night treat of Dunford donuts...yum!

Sunday Mountains

We carried on the tradition of our Sunday mountain drive today.  Hayden has been fascinated with the mountains and has been trying to figure out a way to touch the clouds he always sees on the tops of the mountains.  Today he got to :) 

Touching the 'clouds'

We visited both Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons today.  We can't wait until we can actually get out of the car and walk around. 

For the next two years...

...I will be sporting these.

I have joined the ranks of adults wearing braces, and it is just as horrible as I remember it being the first time.

My teeth hurt. I'm going to take a nap.

FHE

For FHE tonight we went to the nursery to pick up some vegetable seeds for our garden this year. I am letting each kid be "in charge" of a few veggies in the garden, hoping they'll try new foods. Then we grabbed Little Caesars for dinner.
Each night at the dinner table we have a ritual of telling one moment of happiness from their day. Here's tonight's:
M- being on the flipping team at school. (A newly formed swing flipping group. She's making trophies and everything.)
S- Dinner! Little Caesars is at the top of his favorite Utah things.
H- staring at the clouds. "That one looks like a man with no face."
Me- gardening again.
Kent- is still at work because it's busy season. We'll have to help him think of a happy thing for his day.

Real mountains

Yesterday was stake conference.  Kent had a bad migraine so I hauled all 4 kids to stake conference (a little late).  Josh is not interested in sitting still for 20 minutes let alone 2 hours.  So after he gashed open his head on the corner of a wall, I decided we had done our duty, and left.  I tried to buy Kent a little more time in quiet solitude, so I drove up the canyon to Snowbird.
McKinley asked if we could do this every Sunday.  It was only 20 minutes to get there!  Everyone wanted to get out and hike around.  I said no.  Apparently they didn't notice the skiers, or snow.

View from our front door

I have been admiring the mountains ever since we got back.  I am glad there is a view of them from every spot in the valley.  They are beautiful!

Lemonade stand

Wow, time flies when your life is turned upside down.  It's been over a week since we've moved in.  I think we've unpacked our most necessary boxes, but with each opened pandora's box lies a mess that takes me days to organize and put away.  I'm still trying to sift out what to get rid of/donate.
In the midst of it all, McKinley wanted to have a lemonade stand.  I usually protest these kinds of things, but I must be too tired now.  I thought somehow it might teach her entrepreneurship and lessons on becoming a smart business woman.  That's how I talked myself into it.  So I made (per her request) cupcakes, cookies, lemonade and bought bottled water for her.  She and her new friend made the signs.  She got $10 out of it ($3 out of her brother).  Even more importantly she socialized (and by default I did too) with our new neighbors and we got to know a few more people in the neighborhood.  Seems like it's going to be a good place for a family to grow up.

Boxing Day

Our stuff was delivered yesterday. Hayden has been having a blast with the boxes. Today I finished putting the kitchen together. Yay! Just 400 more boxes to go :)

First day of Utah school

We got assigned to C track, so the kids have been off track these last two weeks we've been in Utah.  They were anxious about today.  McKinley tossed and turned all night.  Believe me, I  know, I slept with her last night.  I drove them to school and walked them to their classes.  It's now 10:30 am and Hayden is chomping at the bits to get to afternoon kindergarten.  I hope they have a great time!

Hot tubbin'

Today Josh went on his first hot tubbin' adventure. He was loving it! Eventually he felt like my holding him was a hindrance and that he could jump across to the other side of the hot tub just like the big kids. He kept trying to wriggle past me to launch himself in the middle. I'd better keep my eye on this one.