Easter 2016

Easter was in March this year, which always feels too early. But maybe I should back track to earlier in the month.

Layla was off track for 3 weeks. At first I was excited because I feel like she's gone too much, but after having her home for one week, I realized that she NEEDS to be gone to keep her sanity and her energy levels in check! As long as the school day may seem, she certainly needs the time away to use up her energy and mind! We did manage to do lots of fun things while she was home: we went to the children's museum, rode TRAX to Farmington Station and played at the park there (her one request for and off track activity), went to lunch, played with friends, etc. I think she had a good break but was definitely ready to go back to school.

Layla's excited face while riding TRAX.

Some of her friends from her class.
LtoR: Leah, Layla, Sophie, Halle, and Elsie.

The crappy part of her being off track was that we all got the flu! Only it wasn't horrible and we didn't even realize it was the flu until it hit poor Marcus! First Layla got sick. She laid low for a day or two, but never threw up and never had a fever, just generally didn't feel good. Then it hit Mitch. He didn't feel good, especially at night, but again, no fever, no vomiting, and he didn't miss work. Then it hit me. I felt like crap and was seriously considering getting checked for mono because I did have a fever for four days and was SO tired. I really didn't feel good. Then it hit poor Marcus. He didn't have  a fever, but threw up several times and was MISERABLE. I finally took him to the doctor on Monday, where I was told he had a mild stomach bug and to give him a few days. I took him back on Saturday because he had been lethargic all week and I was really worried. That's when they tested him for the flu and it came back positive and I realized that we had ALL had the flu! Ahhh! At least it wasn't horrible and we all built up some immunity, right? It was rough, but not as bad as I would have thought having the flu to be (we must have had a mild case!), and now we're doing great.

It was warm enough to eat Popsicles
and jump on the trampoline.
Then the next day it snowed! Typical Utah spring.

My goofballs.

Layla had another piano recital. She played Chante Arab and did a great job! I was so proud of her! I know she is nervous before she gets up there, but once she standing up there, announcing her name and piece, you would never know she was nervous at all! The next recital is in June and she will graduate from Level one. She did that in one year and three months. When we started the teacher told me that most kids take two years to graduate Level one. Layla amazes me. (And I'm a pretty awesome coach who helps her practice every day!)

Piano recital.

We celebrated Mitch's birthday! He's 35 now, an old man. ;) My parents kept the kids overnight and Mitch and I spent the night in downtown Salt Lake. We went to dinner at Tuscano's and got dessert at Cheesecake Factory. The next morning we test drove a few of Mitch's ridiculously expensive dream cars and I'm pretty sure it made his whole day to drive those fast cars! We saw a movie, test drove some more cars, and then picked up the kids. I think he had a great birthday and hopefully knew how loved his is! He's pretty great. I should have taken a pic of us together that weekend! :/

St Patrick's day was fun, even if I do think it's overrated (mostly since I'm not Irish). I did make the kids green pancakes, which they also requested the next day. We wore green and spent the day at the children's museum where they had a St Patty's day play, games, and treats. It was fun and afterwards we stopped by at Kevin and Kathy's for a quick dinner. They even served green jello. :)

At the museum on the fire truck.
I love their guts.

Just wanted to note on here that Marcus currently has a serious obsession with notebooks, brochures, pamphlets, etc. He loves to "draw" in them and when you ask what he's drawing he always says the most random things like a rhinoceros or a submarine. It cracks me up. Mitch loves it when Marcus says he's drawing something, but instead of looking at the paper, he looks at you while he's drawing. He has the most serious expression on his face while he's drawing too. It would be hilarious to remember all of this if he really does grow up to be an artist. He's always stealing my notebooks and I find it frustrating sometimes, but it is also pretty comical.

The kids were in a "participlay" at the museum.
Marcus didn't do a great job at following directions, but he had fun.
Layla loved it, of course!

Marcus really impressed me the other day when he built this rocket out of Legos. You can't really tell in the pic, but it is really good and he did it completely on his own! Mitch has built Lego rockets with him in the past, but it's been a while. Maybe Marcus will be a rocket engineer like his daddy when he grows up.

Or the President of the United States. You never know.

Children's Museum.

Apparently we have way to much fun at the museum, based on the pics on my phone!

We celebrated Evelyn's first birthday! I can't believe she's already one! She is just so cute and has the longest eyelashes of any baby I've ever known! It was fun to watch her open her presents and eat her cake. I liked watching a niece do that, since all I've known so far is with my own kids.

She kept just shoving her face right into the cake and it made me laugh every time!

Finally, we had Easter. The night before Layla said to us, "I know that you and dad are really the Easter bunny." We looked at each other and didn't know what to say, but we did tell her the truth. You know, I'm not sure Layla has ever fully believed in Santa or other such things. It's just not really her personality. And we don't play it up as much as we could. She's too smart and logical and I think she's always kind of known that those things couldn't be true. She wasn't disappointed and we told her that the Easter Bunny is really just a fun thing to keep the spirit of Easter alive, but the real meaning of Easter is the resurrection of Jesus. She was totally fine with it and still had fun the next morning finding eggs and her basket. She's a good kid, just too much of a thinker sometimes! ;) Now I'm kind of dreading Christmas because I don't want to have to actually spell that one out to her, but I'm sure it's coming. The funny thing is that I feel like she TOTALLY believes in the Tooth Fairy. Isn't that funny? I would think the Tooth Fairy is the most unbelievable of all! Maybe because it involves money ...


Anyways, on Easter morning the kids woke up and found a bunch of eggs filled with candy. Their baskets had fun little toys, a coloring book, a book about the resurrection, and of course, more candy. They were pleased and we had a fun morning dying Easter eggs and playing with their new toys. Then we got ready and went to church. We only stayed for the sacrament and then headed over to Mitch's grandma's house for lunch. Oh, and I tried in vain all morning to get a pic of the kids together in their Easter outfits, but it was hard. Marcus will not sit still for very long! For some reason, whenever I upload pics from my photo editing software to my blog, the blog processor can't handle the format and they end up looking horrible! Oh well, at least you get the idea, even if the quality suffers.



The highlight of my Easter was when Mitch's aunts gave all the kids a can of silly string. Marcus could not for the life of him figure out how to aim his, so he kept spraying himself in the face. It was SO funny and we were all waiting for him to keep trying so we could get a good laugh! Marcus is so good natured that he didn't get mad, he just wiped it off and kept trying. Eventually he did turn it enough that it sprayed sideways and he chased people down, laughing his "I got you!" laugh every time he sprayed them. It was pretty awesome! I should have taken a video or at least a picture, but I was too busy laughing and enjoying the moment! :)






I'm grateful for the celebration of Easter. The Monday before Easter the four of us had a special family home evening where we read from the Bible about the events leading up to the resurrection and had little objects to go along with each verse (thanks, Pinterest!). It was neat to teach the kids about the things that I believe so strongly, and I hope that someday they will come to believe it for themselves as well. I know that Jesus lives and the He loves us!