Home

Nothing has made me more homesick than the recent events in Boston. I just want to go home. Yes, I have lived in Utah for a while now, but Boston will always be my home. I like it just fine here in Utah, but it is not Boston. 

Two-thirds of my family was actually in Boston for Marathon Monday- my brother and 2 sisters were visiting with their families. They chose to go to the JFK Library instead of fighting crowds at the marathon. There happened to be a fire at the library that day which was erroneously reported as another bombing. It was very strange to think for a few hours that my family missed a bomb by an hour. Most of the week last week I just felt sad about the bombings and wanted to be in Boston. Then Thursday night I was about to go to sleep when I read an article about the MIT cop shooting and saw that there was a fire fight going on in Watertown, about 2 miles from my parents' house. We turned on the news to see reporters guessing what was going on. In the background a video clip played on a loop of a police officer, who I grew up with, running around with a huge automatic rifle. I stayed up until the middle of the night worrying and hoping they would catch the second guy. Friday was another weird day. While my parents were on lock down all day I called them 3 times. That's more than I normally call them in a month (I am not a talk-on-the-phone person). I wasn't that worried some harm was going to befall them, but it was all completely surreal. That evening we skyped and celebrated the lock down lift/capture of the second guy. I didn't realize how much anxiety I was feeling until they caught him and I felt like I could go out and run 10 miles.

Needless to say, I am planning a trip home in t-minus 2 months. Can't wait! 

Toby

Last week Hillary and Ben gave Elise her birthday present a few weeks early. They rented Toby the puppy. Some BYU students started a business where you can rent puppies by the hour. It was a lot of fun. Elise enjoyed having Hillary hold her and chase Toby. Sadie giggled but then got nervous if Toby came close. Too bad it was a bit chilly so we couldn't just play outside the whole time. When we went inside Toby pooped multiple times on the floor. Sadie was very concerned and asked Hillary if she had a diaper for him. Sadie likes dogs alright, but she gets a little scared.

Here is Sadie feeding Toby some hot dog.

Here is Elise playing with a stuffed animal and ignoring Toby's pleas for more hot dog.

Toby was one adorable little guy. Watching my girls with him was even more adorable. 

But watching him poop all over the floors reminded me how much I don't want to be responsible for cleaning up the poop of any more living things.

Thanks for one sweet present Hillary!

Fun fun fun

1. Park fun

 2. Thanksgiving Point gardens and free ice cream

3. Costco hot dog and lemonade girl's night

4. Crafternoons with Sadie

 *that shirt, unsurprisingly, turned out to be Elise's. That's the one drawback of adorable matching outfits for my girls; occasionally they end up in the wrong one. 

 5. Post-nap snack of pretzels dipped in nutella

6. Admiring the 55+ community's flowers 

Hidden

Kids are awesome at hiding.

 

Another example: today when I got home from work Sadie hid from me by laying face down on the couch. Pure genius.

April Fools

On April 1st Elise got fooled by the ground.

She was coloring at the kitchen table when she knocked her chair backwards and somehow landed directly on her face. Apparently she thought it would be soft because she didn't try to brace her fall at all. I only witnessed the very end of the fall. Her nose and mouth took a beating.

 Elise screamed bloody murder and then her nose gushed blood for a few minutes, which made Sadie cry too. Elise cried for 45 minutes until she finally understood I was offering to let her have whatever she wanted. She chose a couple episodes of Dora and 5 pieces of Easter candy. Her nose swelled up and bruised pretty good within a couple hours. She got lots of little scrapes from the rough indoor/outdoor carpet we have under our table. The carpet is great for spills, but not for cushioning falls. Ouch.

Here's what she looked like 3 days out- scrapes on the end of her nose and upper lip and bruising on the bridge of her nose. She also has scrapes inside the ends of her nostrils. 

Easter Easter Easter Time

Here's what we did to celebrate Easter

1. Made sugar cookie dough the week before. Rolled out cookies and decorated them 3 times throughout the week. Can you spot a few Valentine's themed cookies there? I couldn't convince Sadie that we should just do Easter shapes. 

2.  Attended the Provo Beach Resort Easter party. Not that fun. Packed with people and not a lot to do. We waited in line for 35 minutes to get the girls' faces painted and then called it good.  

Elise sat completely still while her face was painted. I think she liked the feeling of the wet brush. 

But then she wiped her hand on the little duck pretty much immediately after. 

Sadie was happy to oblige a picture request of her sparkly pink butterfly

We ended up at the park instead of the Easter party

3. Got a package from Mimi and Paco. It contained numerous awesome gifts including a Berenstain Bears book about the true meaning of Easter that has actually been a great help in explaining the religious aspect. She has chosen it as a bedtime book for the past week. 

4.  Attended an impromptu egg hunt at the Faucettes. We invited ourselves over with a bribe of pizza and then Kaylie organized the hunt for our 4 kids. I tried to take a picture at the starting line but my camera only caught this.

After the hunt the younger kids sat on the deck eating their candy.

And the big kids sat in the yard, 15 feet apart, eating their candy. Shortly after this Sadie randomly peed her pants. Don't remember the last time that happened. Apparently she was having too much fun with Hunter and couldn't bother to go to the bathroom inside. 

5. Woke up Easter morning to baskets filled with coloring books, Berenstain Bears books, and fruit smoothie packets. I successfully avoided including a single princess item!

6. Had Hillary and Ben over for brunch and another egg hunt. I put pennies in some of the eggs and Sadie painstakingly slid each penny individually into her piggy bank. She got about $.80 in pennies, so it took a while. Elise ate all the jelly beans she could and then spit a few chewed ones out onto the carpet for me to find later.

7. Attended church, as usual. The girls wore new matching dresses. The primary kids sang a song during Sacrament Meeting. Sadie stood at the front and glared at everyone in the congregation. Towards the end of the song she blew me a kiss and then went back to glaring. 

Here's what Sadie gleaned about Easter:

-Jesus prayed in Gethsemane

-there is some sort of "really fast rabbit" involved, but she doesn't get it because we don't talk about the Easter Bunny

-"some bad guys were really mean to Jesus". She wants to "kill those bad guys".

-chocolate bunnies exist but she has never seen one

Airplane Swinging

This is what Sadie calls airplane swinging:

This is what Elise calls airplane swinging: