Cadbury Creme Eggs

The title of this post has absolutely nothing to do with anything, except for the fact that I bought my favorite Easter candy a month ago, a 4-pack of Cadbury Creme Eggs. I vowed to save them until Easter morning, when I would splurge and enjoy all 4 as my gift to myself for waiting out so long. I am sitting here laughing as I remember how I made it only a couple of days. In fact, I think there were only 3 left thirty minutes after we got home from Target. I have no self control when it comes to this. Junk food is hard to find in our house these days, not because I am withholding it from my family, but because I CANNOT keep my hands off.

Sooooo...tangent done. Easter morning was a wonderful time, filled with sugar overload, mouths dripping with chocolate. I loved Nolan's look when he saw that he had all that candy to himself.

Easter Bunny hid the kids basket of course. They were easy, Reagan found both within seconds. I guess next year we will upgrade the hiding spots.
We went to church and had such a great service. Our Young Women's lesson was an Easter lesson where we highlighted the last week of the Savior's life. It was so touching. We had a small sampling of what was the last Supper. I spoke about the parables and His teaching, particularly the Ten Virgins. I was moved to tears when another leader spoke about His trial, those who betrayed Him and then His crucifixion. To know in detail what Christ went through makes me so much more grateful.

We had Easter dinner with 2 other families that are good friends of ours. The kids had a small egg hunt in the backyard. Trying to get them to put the candy down for just one photo was a small miracle.

We decided to buy Discovery Kingdom season passes this year. They are worth the money if you go just twice, meaning we can get quite our money's worth all year long. Reagan and Nolan are at great ages for this. We went as a family for the first time last Saturday. The jeeps were Nolan's favorite ride, which surprised me! But he really liked most of the rides. Reagan wanted to ride everything and she was so much more brave this year! That's my girl, next year you be cruisin' Magic Mountain sweets!


We went to Jelly Belly before Easter and waited in a long line to go through the tour. My kids were not in good moods. Reagan cried most of the time because Nolan had poked her in the eye that morning and it still hurt. Nolan kept running away from the tour. I am pretty sure our photos are displayed somewhere as banned forever from Jelly Belly Free Tour. On the upside, the kids had a wonderful lunch of jelly beans and french fries. Nolan's lunch was especially healthy, it included jelly beans from underneath the table....still not sure if they were ours or not.
We finally purchased our fire pit, a gift from the parental units for Christmas. They love doing this! I stocked up on smore stuff and bought some skewers. It is perfect for this time of year. I am so glad that we don't have our enclosed porch, this is much more open for the fire. Reagan can never remember the word "smore" so she asks for those marshmallows we cook thingies. She has awesome lingo skills! I am looking forward to some more fire pits, we will have to invite friends next time! It is staying light longer... :):)
Our home has been filled with the sound of music. A family in our ward is moving to Manhattan and got rid of most of their belongings, especially big furniture. We went up there a few weeks ago to see if they maybe had some furniture we needed (dresser) and when I saw the piano, I had to have it!! Luckily, we got a great deal because the family knew us and we had the perfect spot at home for it. This is my Mother's Day gift. Best one ever, really. I have been wanting my own for so long. It is fun to play, although Nolan bugs bugs bugs me! I can't really play when he is sleeping and when he is awake, he just wants to bang on it while I play. And he tries to steal my books while I play. My skills are rusty. I look forward to fine-tuning my Sonatas and Sonatinas. When Matt saw me playing from my Backstreet Boys music book, he decided it might be time for some new music :)

We also found a Thomas blow up sleeping bag at the garage sale, which Nolan LOVES! Not to be outdone, we busted out one for sister that Matt found at Target back in January on clearance. We might have to put them to use this summer. Camping, anyone? Anyone?

It is Spring Break this week here. We have fun things planned! I have thoroughly enjoyed being lazy with the kids. The weather is beautiful and so we just play and ride bikes and play some more. We have no where to go and be at a certain time or anything. It's nice. I hope summer if more like this! Love to you all :)

Great Vids

Here are some great videos of the comedic relief that Nolan (and Reagan) provide in the house. Nolan has a huge belly laugh, we hear it all day long. The last 2 videos showcase his ability to "raise the roof." That is how he dances :) Cute kid--we LOVE him so much!

A Good Weekend

Today is a prelude to a really crazy week for me, so when I started losing it before 8am this morning, I knew I needed some extra juice. I said a really big fat prayer and actually, the day hasn't been too bad. We did our usual Costco shopping and I blew off music time and the park to save my sanity. This weather is awesome. I love my house 100% more than I ever did before and if you read, you will see the reason why.

This actually isn't the reason below, but I remembered that I never posted pics of our update to the master (*cough*closet) bath, so I thought I would post some. Here is what it looked like before. Yes, I do wonder if someone barfed up blue everywhere. (These pics are from when we did our inspection, so this isn't our stuff!):



Here is the after. We used a shade darker than our bedroom. You can see our new window in this pic. I love that I can open it!
We put in new floor. The cheap tile stuff, but it looks nice. I also repainted our vanity to an espresso color. I love it. So worth the headache. But it wasn't too bad actually, cuz I spray painted it!
New fixtures. No new mirror though, too expensive. Since space is small, we got a double rod towel hanger, you can see it peeking on the side and in the mirror.
So we really did have a great weekend. I took a small break from callings and laundry to enjoy my family and conference. The weather was fabulous and earlier in the week, the kids played in the sprinklers. Around Wednesday afternoon, Matt started making small talk about taking out the porch thing that has plagued us since we have lived here. "Functional" is what we call it, but that is code for "beat-down UGLY." It was just too confining and I was sick of the blue outdoor carpet with white cat hair in it.

So Matt started tearing it out....and tearing it out...and kept going! For 3 days he worked on it tirelessly, ripping, unscrewing, hammering it all out. The end result was phenomenal. We couldn't believe our eyes when it was gone what a huge difference it has made. Our front rooms are MUCH lighter. Our kids literally open the door and go straight outside to play, instead of just kind of walking around the porch, feeling confined. I love it. Did I already say that? Is there an echo? :)

Here is Nolan helping out with Matt's tools. Yeah, I totally took it away after the pic, he was bawling.
The trash pile waiting to be taken out.
Oh wait, random picture! We also planted a vegetable garden this year. Matt built me these planter boxes and we used leftover humus as the soil. The kids went with me to pick out veggie plants and we planted them on Saturday. We are trying our hand at cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, green red and yellow bell peppers and green beans. Zucchini and summer squash and we left some space for pumpkins in a few months. We will see how we do. Not many high expectations, but I am sure we will learn a lot :)
Allright, back to the porch garbage. Here is Matt taking it all apart. In case you are confused, the previous owners took the original porch and extended it to make a "florida room" (common in the south, NOT so much in California). It was screened in, with 3 screen doors on each side. Blue carpet on the inside. Rain shutters as the roof. You get the idea, right? Totally ghetto.
We took a break to play outside, soaking up sunshine in between conference talks. Since we listen on the internet, we take turns listening to the talks. Matt takes an hour while I play with the kids, then we switch. Much more efficient. Although this year Reagan was attentive to President Monson and she totally remembered President Uchtdorf when I explained to her that he was the good looking man with the funny voice :)
Okay, so here is what the porch looked like before...again, it is from our inspection, so all of the previous plants, rocks and stuff is where our grass is now. And that is not our patio furniture.This is how it stands now. The blue carpet will come up when we haul away the garbage. Obviously touch ups are needed, such as painting where the boards were, but all in all, SUCH a huge transition. Like I said, I have a much better relationship with my home now.
Oh and lastly, Reagan really wanted to make a chain to her birthday. Her birthday is in June, like 80 days away. Sigh, REALLY? But she begged so much that eventually I obliged. We spent Sunday evening making her a countdown chain till she turns 5. Every night for the next 80 days, she gets to cut one off. Fun!
Happy Spring!