spring break: the beginning

This year spring break was April 7-11 & we enjoyed every minute of having Danny with us! We spent the first few days up in Layton with Danny's family and as always, the drive was exhausting for the kiddos:

Aaron & Missy had their baby Stockton on the 3rd (the day after my birthday!) so we got to meet that cute little guy (with so much hair!!) Graham & Stockton are going to be best buds, just like their dads. (I'm sure there won't be any competition between them at all. Haha!)

Such cute cousins! And they couldn't look any more opposite! 

The weather was absolutely perfect so we spent a lot of time outside. The kids may have found Grandpa's John Deer lawnmower...and while they were out having fun, I was busy getting pooped on by (not a bird!) but my son!! Ha! Graham has got quite the aim :)

Love love these boys of mine. And I know I've said it before, but I just can't get enough of baby yawns. #heartmelter

Natalie set up a fun playdate at the "castle park" and it did not disappoint! The kids had a blast playing with their cousins.

They played frisbee:

And got the first grass stain of the season:

And that night we snuck away (without any kids!) for our free birthday burgers at Red Robin. Yum!!

general conference 2014

I love general conference. It is so wonderful to hear the words of our Prophet & Apostles and to have my testimony strengthened (yet again!) that our leaders know exactly what is going on in the world, and what we need to hear. It's amazing. 

Max & Avery are still quite young (4 & 3) but I hope that they recognize the importance of conference (and don't love it just for the treats!) We do have a lot of fun with our conference bags though (I think this is the 4th conference we've done them!) and the kids were counting down the days until "Uchtdorf Day" (I promise I don't have favorites... :) 

We encountered a few technical difficulties, but the kids were wonderful & it was just the spiritual boost that I was needing. Plus, it's hard not to feel close to heaven with this sweetie around:

unbox love

As one of my birthday surprises, Danny signed us up to try out one of those "boxes." You know the kind? They are all over the place these days. This box, mailed right to our door, is called unbox love & it's all about strengthening relationships and having date nights! Though it was a little pricey, it was sure fun to try out and we had a great night decorating mugs for each other & playing the cutest game of farkel ever.

This was the first box ever so we got an autographed letter from the creators :)

Date night sure gets a bit tricky with a newborn, but we had a great date night in :)

twenty six years young!

April is a busy month for us, and with the addition of sweet baby Graham, it became that much more jam-packed. However, we still managed to celebrate & spent a lot of time together...but wow! It was exhausting.

First up: I turned 26! The kids were so excited to see this "decoration" on the table in the morning :) 

My birthday fell on a Wednesday this year, which meant that Danny spent the evening at his BYU night class (woot woot!!) but my parents were more than happy to throw a party for me :) It was pretty low-key and half of us were asleep almost the entire time:

My mom knows I'm always up for trying out new recipes so the night was full of them! Thanks to Angela Liddon's new cookbook we had a delicious spread of yummy food.

My birthday cake was delicious & the frosting was my favorite part! The main ingredient? Avocados!! Genius.

When Danny got done with class, we played multiple games of hide & seek (Avery is exceptionally good at it :), had cake, and then headed home. Thanks Mom for making my birthday extra special!  Here's to another wonderful year; let's make 26 the best year yet!

graham makes five!

Because our lives revolve around Graham lately (which I'm totally ok with!), the last few weeks have been a slight blur. Because the weeks are all mushing together, this post will be a mish-mash of random moments caught on camera:

1. Avery accompanied Graham & I to his 2 week check-up. He passed with flying colors and although he's too young to tell me, I think he loved having his big sis there :)

 

2. The kids LOVE to hold Graham (and immediately hand him back to me the second he starts crying). It's adorable. I sure love my three kids!! (That is still really crazy to say!)

(Or, instead of handing him back to me...they try to shove his binky in his mouth...and make it worse! Haha)

3. One of the biggest challenges I've faced the last few weeks is figuring out how to contain the other two while Graham nurses. They are quite the pair & have found themselves in lots of mischief while I've been busy. Tearing apart their room (or whatever room they are in) is usually what happens...on this particular day they changed into their swimsuits & got in the tub! All by themselves :)

4. We celebrated April Fools Day by making the traditional "worms & dirt!" The kids loved the worms...and that's about it. But hey! At least we did something festive among the chaos :)

5. Some of our favorite people came down to visit all the way from Boise! Danny's Grandma came down with Danny's parents & Aunt Cindy and Uncle Neil. They fought over who got to hold Graham the most, and Aunt Cindy won over the hearts of Max and Avery by making them very elaborate paper crowns & Batman capes :) We will take visits from them anytime!

6. Oh Graham. We love you so much. You are so cute & tiny (as Avery squeals to you multiple times a day :) and we can't help but smother you in kisses.