Easter!!

Easter was so wonderful! The Sunday before Easter was when Carolyn sang for the first time in Sacrament Meeting. Watching my own little cute child sing has been something I have been looking forward to just about my whole life :) And it exceeded my expectations. I loved watching her sing up there to say the least.
The girls got Easter dresses for Easter (well, Angela "got" a hand-me-down dress from Carolyn and I got an adorable dress for Carolyn at the thrift store for $3), but the week before they wore their dresses from the year before. They looked beautiful. Here they are in last-year's dresses...

The day before Easter, we went to a community center for an Easter Egg Hunt and a chance to meet Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny. It was so much fun.


Angela wasn't sure what to think of the huge bunnies. Can you tell from her face? She just stared nervously and pointed...wouldn't go anywhere close :)







Decorating Easter eggs...

Andrew started a great family tradition that before we find our Easter baskets, eggs, and treats that the bunny brings, we sit together as a family and talk about our Savior. We read of Christ’s resurrection in the scriptures and talked about all that our Redeemer has done for us. It was a wonderful start to our Easter Sunday.
The Easter Bunny was good to us. He must have received Carolyn’s letter because he brought her some chocolate- which she was quite thrilled about.

The Easter bunny also brought the girls some baseball bats and baseballs. We've been playing a lot of baseball lately and have had to be creative in how we play it because we didn't have any bats or baseballs...so we were quite excited about what the Easter Bunny brought us.

Easter egg hunt...





We went to Chris and Janeil's home for Easter. So kind of them to host our holiday celebration! We had a blast! Thanks!! Does any one have a whole wheat roll recipe that you like? I can't find one that rises very well...so I had to settle for these.
The Egg Roll!

Andrew was the big winner this year...but that wasn't the exciting part of the event. No, no. For five long years, I have never been able to defeat Andrew's "Jannie Killer" egg...he makes it every year and spends a lot of time making it look as ugly as possible. My beautiful eggs have never been able to crack that ugly egg in our big egg rolling contests. Well, this year was different! My "Andrew Beater" won!! Great day!

Randomness

Don't you just love it when fruit is in season and sooo delicious? Angela does :) So does Carolyn...this was her lunch the other day.
Blurry picture...but they are so cute together.
My friend, Lisa, introduced me to amazing place to purchase clips and material to make your own clips. They have such cute selection and the products are so inexpensive (some are $1.90 for a dozen flowers). Anyways, last night I had a great bow making session. Here are some of my favorite bows we have (some where given to me by sweet people, some were purchased, and some I've made):

Little Mama

There’s no denying that our little Angela has some feistiness in her. There’s also no denying that she is a little mama. Not only does she love taking care of her baby dolls all day long, she also likes taking care of her mom. Throughout the day, she’ll look at me and say, “Mama!” and run to me with her arms wide open and give me the biggest bear hugs. Going shopping with her sitting in the front by me is one of my favorites because as we’re shopping, she’ll often look at me and say, “Mama” and give me big hugs while I’m pushing the cart around. The other day Carolyn, Angela, and I were playing baseball together in the yard. I didn’t have my shoes on and stepped on a prick in the grass. Angela saw that I got hurt and I can’t even explain the face that girl made when she realized I was hurt. She was so concerned about me and ran over saying, “Mama! Mama!” and gave me the biggest hugs. It made me realize that I need to get hurt more often.

Dear Easter Bunny

I already posted this on my preschool blog, but I just love this letter Carolyn wrote to the Easter Bunny today. It makes me laugh :) “I love Chocolate. I love you.” We all know what Carolyn is hoping the bunny will bring her.

We’ve been keeping busy and happy here. The weather here has been so beautiful and we’ve just been loving it. Last week I also started a new morning schedule that has been going so fantastic for us. Some of us know how much I love making schedules and so this is exciting for my dorky self. Of course with kids schedules aren't really meant to be kept - but it's a great tentative schedule that we sometimes get done/attempt to get done. Part of our new schedule is having preschool time together right when the girls wake up and then doing a whole lot of reading together! It's been a great way to start the day with the girls.

Playing outside:

Fun Facts

Carolyn, Angela, and I are huge Andrew Fans. I was talking to Carolyn the other day and said, “I am the luckiest girl in the world, you know. I just get to hang out with you all day. And what’s better than hanging out with Carolyn all day long?” Carolyn quickly replied with much enthusiasm, “DADDY!” Yes, she wishes she could be with daddy all day long (so do the rest of us). But, he’s off working hard.

Also proof of us being Andrew Fans: At the end of each day during dinner, we talk about our “highs” and “lows” of the day (or, in Carolyn’s terms “happy part of the day and sad part of the day”). Almost every night, Carolyn’s sad part of the day was when Andrew left for work.

We were watching basketball together as a family the other night and talking about what was going on in the game. The opposing team had a player shooting some foul shots and made a basket. I said to Carolyn, "Oh no! The bad guys got another point!" Carolyn studied the TV for awhile and says, "He looks nice to me." I guess I should be careful what I call the opposing team.

I love how Carolyn and Angela are best buds. One of my favorite times to watch them together is during story time and music makers at the library. I don't know what it is - maybe it's just fun to see them being such good buds in public? Anyways, it's cute. During story time, they’ll hug a lot and snuggle and give each other kisses. It always melts my heart to see them. Carolyn is such a good helper for Angela. For instance, a few weeks ago they were marching around the room so Carolyn held Angela’s hand the whole time and tried to teach her how to march and follow the leader. It was adorable.

Carolyn is still belting out her songs. Usually she sings of princesses and her Prince Micah. For example, at the park the other day - she was belting out a song that went something like this, "Micah is my Prince. He's my Prince. I love him." The other day Andrew came home singing "It's too Late to Apologize" (He must have heard it on the radio...not sure who sings it, but I know Chris sang it on American Idol last year). Anyways, Carolyn has put that song in her princess mix of songs. It makes me laugh every time I hear that girl belting out, "It's too late to apologize. It's too late!! It's too late!!"

Often times after Carolyn introduces herself to a new friend at the park or something,she'll introduce Angela by saying something like this, "This is Angela. She loves me."

Angela is getting to be such a big girl. Now whenever I go out, I frequently (usually I get asked at least one time while I'm out), get asked if the girls are twins.

Angela is our little artist. I really think she could spend half of her day coloring and drawing. The other day her hair was up in a crazy pony tail and every time I looked over at her drawing and coloring like crazy it made me laugh...she just looked like a mad artist. What a cutie. Haha

Nana's Visit!

Andrew's mom came to visit Colorado this past week! It was so fun to see her!! Come back soon, Nana! We miss you!

Great Deal = Happy Jannie

I love a great deal and I feel that I hit two big jackpots this week past week! First of all, last week I went to my most favorite Thrift Store. On Saturdays, they have "half days" - so they have amazing deals...cute shoes, shirts, pants, jackets, etc. for all a dollarish! For the girls I got church shoes, princess light-up running shoes, tap shoes (yay! I've been looking for cheap tap shoes in Carolyn's size for a long time now!), a beautiful Easter dress, shorts for this summer, an adorable jean skirt, pants for next winter, princess pjs, a princess jacket, very cute belts, an adorable summer dress, and t-shirts ALL for $27.30! And I think they are cute - I am picky about only choosing the "highest quality" of used clothes/shoes at the store :) They all look pretty new and adorable to me (except the running shoes looked worn - but we just couldn't turn those down - they are pefect for Carolyn)! Anyways, I was excited about it.

And yesterday was wonderful because I bought a treadmill for $25!! It’s nothing fancy – it’s a manual treadmill. I don’t know if I’d really recommend buying a manual treadmill to anyone because it’s not as fun and it’s much harder to run on it. However, there are three great things about it. One, it was 25 bucks. Two, it’s small…which means it can fit in my coat closet and I can pull it out in front of the TV and watch something while I run (that’s my favorite part of it). Last, it’s a great workout because it really is quite difficult to use. Anyways, I may or may not have cried when I got it. I love running and love my new toy.

It's a tight fit in the closet - but I'm so happy it works out in there.