May Flowers

It has been a busy few weeks in our household! Life has started to settle somewhat, at least for me, as I have been able to check major things one by one off my checklist. One of the main things was the Stake 5K that we held the first weekend in May. My new calling is the Stake Young Women's Athletic Director. To put it in more understandable terms, I am in charge of the YW sports. But my calling also includes the 5K in May, which the previous director began 5 years ago. It was a lot of work to put together, but the race was FUN! I had almost 80 participants, several handy volunteers and the weather was great! It was a blast and because I now have done one, I think next year will be a lot easier. I've already made a note of things I will do differently.

Here is a shot of the start.
Reagan has been taking swim lessons everyday since early April. She started out LOVING it! As her comfort level increased, the coaches started having her put her face in the water. This otter pop below is her reward the first day she did it. I was so proud!
Things have sort of gone downhill since then, though. She started not wanting to go because she was scared to put her face in. She usually cries and I have to coax her into the pool, making sure I tell her coach that day that she is scared. I am making her see through this one, though.31 cent scoop night was at Baskin Robbins back in April during spring break. We went and found some friends down there waiting in line.
Nolan is a handful, that little devil. He bites, pulls hair, throws everything he can get his hands on and has the mischievous smile to back it all up. I have to be careful what I leave out on the counter because he will push a chair over and explore. I loved this find the other day. Lesson learned: put cheese away after use.
Playing on our new piano. I don't get to play it much right now, unless the kids are asleep. Nolan is right there next to me, tickling the ivories the minute he sees me sit down. He will scoot me off the bench best he can.
Mothers Day was the best! You know all I really wanted was to sleep in and some good food and boy, Matt delivered!! I woke up to a french toast breakfast and then he made lasagna, asparagus, corn and garlic bread for dinner. It was so tasty!

Here is the chef, broken finger and all. He broke it playing basketball one night. I didn't even know he had done it until he came home from work the next day, his finger in a splint. He looks like he is giving us the bird all day long!
Crazy weather this month (it is supposed to rain all week!) but we had a week of really warm temperatures. We made sure to bust out the slip n slide. The kids loved it!
Nolan doing his air jordan. He loves to do this in the bath tub, too. I'm like, doesn't that hurt your knees???
Nolan rocking his Thomas jammies. He loves trains so much! He wanted to wear these jammies several nights in a row. We also recently bought him a Thomas t-shirt, which he wishes to wear every day too. He will go pull it out of the dirty laundry and bring it to me. I now have to hide it :)
Reagan loves to read! Our neighbor is constantly bringing books over to the kids and a bunch of them are Clifford. She has memorized several of them. Here is a cute shot of her reading to Matt.
and Nolan listening and slurping leche.
One day while Reagan was at school and I had had it up to HERE with her messy room, we got to work cleaning it. Well I cleaned it. Nolan helped for about 30 seconds. But in order to show Reagan that her brother loves her, he left her a note :)

Reagan also graduated from preschool! Matt was able to go into work late to attend the ceremony. Here is Reagan with Katie and Katie's sister Anne.
Reagan with Miss Rachel.
Reagan with her diploma!
Waiting to graduate! I can't believe she is going to be in kindergarten next year!!
Reagan with Mrs. Sonya and Katie.
So the veggie garden is doing pretty good. I have harvested quite a few green beans and my veggies are growing, but they need some hot sun to ripen! Where is that dang sun???

We planted some pumpkin plants! Hopefully they grow and give us a few to carve this fall.
I pray that I get some red peppers, sweet ones. We shall see. They are growing and since taking this picture, they have actually turned into a small green pepper, maybe turning red some day.
My yellow squash. They are really tiny, like this one is probably the size of my palm.
We have tons of cherry tomatoes. Tons. If you want some, stop by...not right now, they still have to turn red, but soon. I should have only planted one plant. These tomato plants have exploded, they are the size of a small tree.
My green beans a couple of weeks ago.
And here is the half of our garden that gets full sun :) The other half is just starting to get full sun, so it isn't doing as well.
We removed my yellow pepper plant that didn't make it and placed some strawberries there. I hope they grow! And that we get to them before other animals :) Happy May.

Finale Week(s)

I may have become a skimpy blogger these days, but lest you think that I have forgotten my beloved television shows, I will now blog about them. These last few weeks have been bittersweet, as I have watched some of the most exciting episodes of the season, yet have to say good-bye until the fall. Maybe I will forgo tv this summer and finally read Hunger Games. If not, I may pull a Harry Potter and see all the movies before I read the books :)

Four nights a week (Sun, T, W, Th) I prop myself in front of the boob tube to tune into all the greats, usually with a bowl of cold sugary cereal or graham crackers and milk. I have let go of my late night snack habit the last couple of weeks in an effort to make bathing suit season more pleasant. Matt usually tunes in with me.

To start our week off, The Amazing Race!! We have come to LOVE this show and this season was even more fun with old favorites returning. As always, I was a big fan of the cowboys, but they seemed to kind of give up at the end, or maybe it was their laid-back attitude? The happiest week of my life was when the goths went home. Could that kid be any whinier or babyish? DUDE! Watching him I felt like I was caught in between a Marilyn Manson music video and Richie Simmons workout. I actually didn't mind the pink haired girl. She put up with a lot from him and why she is "dating" him, I do not know. But I am so glad they left when they did.

The final 3 teams were so great! I loved watching it because I didn't have a huge pull towards any of the teams although I would have loved to see Zev and Justin win. Glad the girls won, too though.

My tuesdays ended a while ago with Parenthood finale back in April. I don't want to post too much info in case some readers haven't seen the final episodes. Not too many cliffhangers, but I am anxious to see what direction Adam takes. And see if Amber can change her act for good. And many others. I love this show simply for how real it feels. I can relate so much to the characters, especially Adam. Matt and I always quiz each other on who we think we are most like in the show and who the characters remind us of. I get mad when he says I am like anal Kristina or perfectionist Julia. I see myself as an Adam, though. He is trying to please everyone around him and sometimes it just gets to be too much and he loses it. He is trying to protect his kids and shelter them, but give them some freedom. Some of his choices would not exactly mirror my own, such as how he deals with Haddie and her boyfriend. But I relate to him on so many levels. I think Matt likes to think he is like the stay at home dad. And maybe like Crosby before the cheating.

Wednesday was a definite winner for me. Survivor was my favorite show this season. I started out feeling so dang bad for Matt! But when he chose not to "cross" Rob, I knew he didn't deserve to win anyways. You got to make some moves, buddy. Of the 3 finalists, Rob deserved it the most. The other 2 did nothing. Matt was rooting for Mike and I was just plain rooting for anyone from Zapatera. Probably the feminist Julie ;) Actually I really liked her. Our only beef was that Rob won the 100,000 dollars??? What the? They need to change it so that the million dollar winner does not win the other prize. Let's spread it out some, people. And of course, Modern Family. I only tuned into to see Phil and Claire. They made it worth it for me!

Thursday was my busiest night. I usually tuned into Vampire Diaries, but I have to admit I am a little bored with it right now. We will see what next season holds. Their better be some major Damon/Elena stuff. She and Stefan are so boring. And some Tyler/Caroline stuff. I love them together!! Lots of storylines in this one and that is probably why I keep coming back each week. Right after VD is The Office and Parks and Rec. Michael is gone and thankfully, Deangelo now. Anyone else think Deangelo was the Scranton Strangler? :):) I love Will Ferrell, but this was not a good role for him. It will be interesting to see who ends up as boss. The Creed bit last week was great. Finale tonight. Jim and Pam are boring, yes? And they are so annoying with their baby. Sorry, but true. If I was that annoying with Reagan, someone should have slapped me.

PR was a new favorite of mine. This season was so much better than last. Ron Swanson holds the show and I think they did a good job of developing the Leslie/Ben relationship. I think they actually could have dragged it out another season, though. We will see how next season holds up.

From my tv to yours, this is Lace signing out!!

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!