Easter and Spring Break

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. It was pretty laid back and we got to enjoy General Conference. On Sunday after conference, we did an Easter egg hunt, which of course was a big hit with the kids. 

Then we had the missionaries who are serving in our ward right now over for Easter dinner. Yum!

This week has been spring break and I wasn't sure how it would go, especially since we really can't go anywhere public. But it has been a great week! The kids have really enjoyed playing together. They pretend a lot and usually the stories have to do with princesses and dragons and monsters. Somehow, everyone is happy. To break up the week a bit, we went on a couple of road trips. We didn't ever get out of the car, we just drove around. But the kids were excited about those, especially with a smoothie or shake off of the dollar menu in hand! We had a great time driving up and down the waterfront, just 15-20 minutes away from our house. It was a beautiful, sunny day!

Dylan has started smiling this week, which has been so fun, but it is really hard to catch on camera. Here are my feeble attempts.

And I think it is safe to say that he really isn't
a big fan of tummy time.

But I think it is a little more fun to do it with a friend.

We have had fun making chocolate suckers and delivering them to a new family in our ward,

We've tried to fly kites in the back yard,

We've done lots of dancing and playing,

and we have discovered that bright red pumps do in fact go with any kind of outfit.

Happy Spring Time!

Dylan

For an update on our little Dylan, please see the post I just put up on his blog:

A New Perspective

Thanks! We're looking forward to Easter weekend and General Conference!

Happy Birthday to Us

Justin and I celebrated our birthdays this last week. We kept it simple and had good days. It's always nice to have a reason to party!

After Justin's birthday dinner we took a minute to snap a few family pictures out in our backyard since it was light outside and we hadn't taken any together since Dylan was born. It was surprising how nicely a couple of them turned out taking them with the timer.

These were both the first ones of the bunch that we took. It all went downhill after that! :)

I also had a nice birthday. One year older, and maybe a little wiser.

To finish the week off, Justin and I went on a date without any kids. We had a lady in the ward come over to watch all 4 kids for us. It was so nice to be together and to talk and eat ice cream! Thanks for a fun evening Justin!

2 month comparison

I don't think my kids look a whole lot alike. But here are all of their pictures at around 2 months of age. Can you guess who is who? Dylan hasn't quite achieved the level of chub that the other kids had, but he's getting there!

Answer:

1. Katelyn

2. Dylan

3. Lindsey

4. Brandon

Then again, maybe some of them look a little like me. I'm the baby on the left.

Little Dylan

The ladies in the ward threw us a shower this last weekend and it was so fun to celebrate Dylan's arrival. One of the gifts was this Bumbo. We've never had one and I'm so excited to have it! I put Dylan in it today to see just how he fit. Looks like he still has a little bit to grow!

Lindsey is sure a big helper. She does a great job holding Dylan.

Dylan is getting bigger, but he still fits in her lap perfectly!

Post-Bath Pictures

We took some pretty cute pictures after Dylan's bath this week.

He's getting some cheeks!

Katelyn really wanted to give Dylan a hug. 

This little girl loves to show him lots of love, and sometimes it is a little too much!

What a big girl! She's learning how to be a great big sister.

Love Warm Days!

A perfect thing to do on a warm day: 

PICNIC!

Little toes getting some sun

Progress on the house

A definite sign that life is getting more normal is that we are starting back up on the long to-do list of home improvements that we'd like to do. I know that it probably does not interest most, but since this is our family blog and I get to post what I want, I'm going to document our progress! :) Maybe it is because this is our first house, but each little thing is exciting to me and worth documenting. 

We finally took down the towel rack in the half bath downstairs and hung these pretty wall hangings I picked out a few months ago.

Please take note of the new towel ring Justin installed next to the sink. No more dripping all over the floor to get to the towels on the other side of the bathroom!

All of the new elements in one picture, thanks to the mirror and some pretty good camera skills! :)

Then we took the towel rack from the downstairs half bath and Justin installed it in the kids' bathroom upstairs behind the door. It fits there just perfectly and will allow us to have 4 full size towels in there, once I buy some new ones that is. 

Finally, we bought these two cabinets and a hutch before Christmas but it took a couple of months for it to ship here from China. Justin surprised me by picking them up from the furniture store while I was still in Utah. I am still figuring out how I want to decorate with them, but they look so nice and will give us the storage we need for the electronics and DVDs. Thanks Honey!!

And please take note of the clock we finally got hung on the wall. It fills the space on the wall nicely! 

That is all for now....

Just Do It

Every few months Amazon.com has an "all hands meeting" where all 1,800 employees here in Seattle meet in a big auditorium for a presentation. As part of this meeting they give a few employees an award to recognize their hard work or accomplishments. Justin was one of two people to receive the "Just Do It" award. He got to go up on stage with CEO Jeff Bezos while Jeff read a spiel about what Justin had done (creating a great application that he has shared with several other teams) with his picture on the big screen. {I'm so proud of you Justin! I'm glad that all of your hard work is paying off.}

And for the big prize, Jeff handed Justin a Nike shoe to take home as a memento of this award. But it wasn't just any Nike shoe. It is a used, size 21 Nike shoe. I have never seen such a big shoe in my whole life! This is just one of the many ways Amazon.com is a quirky company. 

Just for fun, some pictures to compare its size:

No Dylan, I don't think you will ever fit into it,
your foot that is.

Bigger to hold than my baby

And Brandon thinks it is great fun to stick both of his feet inside and hop around like a bunny rabbit.

But it is a used shoe and kind of smells like one. Unless we find out that it belonged to some famous NBA athlete, it may find its way into the DI pile one of these days.....  :). Thanks for the nice shoe Jeff!

Happy Birthday Lindsey!

Hard to believe this little lady is 5 years old!

We had a pretty laid back day cleaning and getting ready for Lindsey's party. She was so excited all day long. What a cutie!

Lots of goodies!

Trying out her new beanbag

Dylan slept through the party, but fell asleep like this. Yes Dylan??

We sure do love our Lindsey! Happy birthday sweetie!