Mood swings

Dear Mother Nature,

In case you forgot, tomorrow is May 1st--the beginning of my favorite month of the whole year! May is a time for flip flops, shorts, tshirts, playing outside (without a coat), tulips, daffodils, trees and flowers in full bloom, and NO SNOW! It is not a time for parkas, snow boots, any item of clothing made of wool, snow shovels, or high heat bills. So, PLEASE get your hormones under control and make it look like May outside so you don't ruin my favorite month of the year!

WARM regards,

Rachel

Late bloomers

I have the slowest-blooming tulips in the world! I'm pretty sure it's because I have transplanted the bulbs about 6 different times since we moved in. Whatever the reason, every year I wonder if they will bloom at all. Ironically, today it snowed. As I was watching the snow fall (and cursing it at the same time), I noticed that my tulips decided to bloom today! I guess they wanted to wait for a day when I would appreciate them more.

Spring has sprung!

I think it's official--the REAL Spring is here. Time for flying kites, wearing flip flops, putting away parkas and rotating summer clothes to the front of the closet, enjoying the tulips and budding trees, and listening to the birds sing. We are enjoying EVERY minute of it. Yes, it has been raining quite a bit, but it's not snow, so I'm ok with it. Last week we bought $1 kites at Walmart and had a fun evening flying kites. Stockton's wasn't such a great flyer, but Anistyn's did great. I guess you get what you pay for. Kevin and I are thrilled that all of our new landscaping from last year has come back to life and it gets prettier every day. We go on at least one walk and/or bike ride every day (when it isn't raining) and are just so glad to not be cooped up inside anymore!

Helping hands

**Disclaimer: No children were harmed in the taking of this picture...and child was promptly removed from ladder and saw was confiscated after above picture was taken** ( :

Our kids LOVE to help in the yard! Kevin and I have learned that their "helping" isn't always helping, but we can usually find something for them to do that keeps them busy and makes them feel productive. Kevin has had the ladder out a lot the last few days as he has been pruning trees. Stockton has discovered that ladders are super fun, while Kevin and I have discovered that ladders cannot be left unattended in Stockton's presence. We are so excited that Spring is FINALLY here and we are enjoying working in the yard (for now).

Hot dog roast

Every year in the early Spring, we have a hot dog roast at Grandma's house. The whole extended family comes (except this year we were missing a few) and we have a GREAT time! We roast hot dogs, ride horses, make Smores, and just have a great time talking and catching up. This year we were able to talk Stockton into riding the horse. Annie has loved it since before she could walk, but Stockton has been a little stand-offish for some reason. He did agree to ride with Annie this year. He held onto her for dear life, but he did smile, so maybe we'll be able to get him on again next time. Thanks to Grandma for putting on another great hot dog roast. We look forward to it every year and already can't wait for next years!

Walking the dogs....

Stockton LOVES helping Daddy walk the dogs. Although, the dogs are usually walking him, he does "bark" out some pretty stern commands!

Post-Easter photo shoot

Every year I MUST have a family photo shoot on Easter with all of us in our cute new Easter clothes. However, since Easter was on Conference Sunday this year, that didn't happen. I didn't quite have my act together yet the Sunday before Easter, so it didn't happen then either. So, yesterday it finally happened. However, I never made it out to get my new Easter outfit and neither did Kevin (not that he cares about that any other year either). Oh well--I had the kids' outfits about 6 weeks ago and I was so excited to get them all dressed up. They are just too cute!

Can hardly wait!!!

Over the weekend we took the kids to see "How to Train Your Dragon". Way cute movie--I highly recommend it! One of the previews shown was for Toy Story 3. We are HUGE Toy Story fans at our house and can hardly wait until the latest installment! Especially Stockton--after we left the movie he wasn't talking about dragons--only that he "saw Buzz & Woody". On our way out we saw this display and the kids had to have a picture of it. So, patiently we wait until June 18th. Coincidentally, that is my Dad's birthday. So, how about a trip to the movies for your birthday, Dad???

SOOOOO EXCITED!!!

What's your favorite color?

This is a conversation I overheard this morning while the kids were eating breakfast:

Anistyn: Stockton, what is your favorite color? Is it Pink?

Stockton: Uh-huh!

Anistyn: Are you sure? Isn't it blue?

Stockton: Uh-huh!

Anistyn: My favorite color is all of the colors of the rainbow!

Stockton: What?!?!

Anistyn: It's true! I love ALL of the colors of the rainbow!

Stockton: Huh????

*Sometimes big sister can be a little hard to follow*

Happy Easter!!!

We had a GREAT Easter this year! We absolutely loved that Easter weekend fell on the same weekend as General Conference. I know it has happened before, but not in my recent memory. I loved having a day just to focus on our Savior and our family. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!

On Saturday, we were lucky enough to have a visit from Grandpa Ralph and Grandma Joyce (who I didn't get any pics of---ugh!). We went to dinner and then they came over to our house to watch the kids color eggs while Daddy attended the Priesthood Session. We came out with a few cracked eggs (Stockton), but still had a great time.

Sunday morning before Conference started, the kids went on an Easter Egg hunt in the basement since we had too much snow outside for a real one (that darn Utah Spring reared it's ugly head!). Every other year there has been an Easter egg hunt somewhere in the neighborhood, but the weather was too yucky this year. So, this was the first year that we had our own and I loved it! It was nice to not have a million other kids fighting for all of the eggs. After the hunt was over, Daddy made us pancakes and bacon and we settled down to watch Conference. After a very relaxing afternoon, we headed to Kevin's parents for dinner. It was nice to see some other family and also squeeze in a visit to my mom, who lives one street over! All in all it was a WONDERFUL day. Happy Easter everyone!!!