::easter::

Easter...

Our Easter was fun. We did our usual coloring of the eggs at Grandma Snowman's house on Friday night.

This year, we tried using Kool-Aid for the dye (pinterest) instead of the usual food coloring and vinegar or the kits from the store. It turned out pretty great! The smell was great! It smelled fruity instead of vinegar-y and the colors were pretty bright.

Saturday, we had our Easter party with most of Matt's family on his mom's side. We usually get together at his Grandpa Halling's house (which is now his Aunt Lynette's), and cook out. Sometimes it's too cold, though, so we have to move the party to the church. Not this year! Well, it was still cold. There was even snow on the ground in some spots, but we had it outside (I wore my winter coat), and it was fun!

(Looking for candy in the grass. Even Avie found some! She loves candy!!

Then Sunday morning, we woke up to find that the Easter bunny hid about a billion eggs all over the house. He also left a note...

So they found most of the eggs (we actually found a few that they'd missed a few days later), and we hurried to get ready for church at 9. We got all dressed in our Easter clothes, and I should've gotten a photo before church, but in the rush, I didn't. So when we got home, before the little boys were completely naked, I said "WAIT!!! I GOTTA GET A PICTURE!!!" They thought it was so funny that they were half dressed and I was taking a picture. They just can't stand to wear church clothes any longer than is absolutely necessary. :) Us girls stayed in our dresses though ;)

So we headed down to Grandma & Papa Kitty's house for an Easter lunch. We had some fancy chicken salads and lots of side salads. It was all SO good! Here's her beautiful table (as always), and also their Easter bunny. She gave us and Billy's family an Easter basket.

We had such a fun Easter. It's always fun to do our normal traditions that we love so much. The kids have so much fun with the Easter eggs and all that. We had a really great fast and testimony meeting. One guys testimony was particularly touching to me. It was about standing as a witness of God at all times and in all things and in all places. He told a story about reading his Ensign on the plane. It was a great story. We watched Testaments on the way down to my parents' house. The kids were pretty interested in it (well, Chloe and Port-Bubb wanted to watch Diego). Chloe kept asking why the people didn't believe He was the Son of God when they could SEE his miracles right in front of them. I told her I didn't know, and that wasn't it sad. And here we are, going completely by faith, and we believe in him. They understand the basics of the atonement and resurrection, and I love that.

Happy (late) Easter!

::Avie's party::

Last Saturday (the 31st) we celebrated Ava's first birthday with the rest of the family.

We sent out some invitations...

We put up a few decorations...

She opened some presents...

She "blew out" her candle (a pink sparkly "1" candle), and she didn't cry! She's our only one (out of 4!!) who didn't cry! All of the others cried with all the singing and clapping after the blowing out of the candle, but not Ave. Nice job, Baby Girl!!

We had some cupcakes, ice-cream, and cookies. Ave got lots of fun presents. It was a cute little party. Very Ava-ish, as Chloe would say.

We appreciate so much all the family who came to celebrate Ava (and those who couldn't). We are so thankful for such supportive, loving family. We are truly blessed.

Love you all!

::cITy creek::

A couple of weeks ago (I'm a little behind) a new mall opened downtown.  I knew it was going to be CRAZY busy, so I wasn't really planning on going right away.   But the more I heard about it and how amazing it is (!!) the more I HAD to go.  I knew Mom would be up for it, and I happened to mention it to my friend, Robyn, and she sad she wanted to go too, so we made it a girl's day.  It was so fun!

We got there early (about 9:45-it opens at 10), so we had a little time to look at the fountain, have some juice and a muffin,  and grab a few pictures (like dorks!!).  We had to get there early before the crowd was too crazy.  We just wanted to see it really, we weren't planning on staying too long.

Laney & Chloe.  Scrabble @ Restoration Hardware.

This photo doesn't do justice to the size of the crowd.  It was HUGE!  They were gathered around to watch this group sing and dance.  This was right before we left.

So we walked around a bit, shopped a bit, had lunch at Cheesecake (a new one at this mall!), and ended up leaving somewhere around 5.  We didn't stay too long.  It was so fun!  The girls were so great!  They shopped for somewhere around 8 hours!  8 year olds!!  Awesome!  They got a couple of things, which always makes it easier :]  Plus they had each other, which is just plain fun.  It's the nicest mall ever!  There were live statues, live music everywhere, a creek running through the whole thing, some parts of it even had fish in it.  Some of the mall was indoors, some was out, and you're right downtown, which was so neat.  You could look out from the mall and see any major downtown landmark. I can't wait to go back!  Would you believe I've had dreams about it?  Yup.

::a little birthday::

She did it.  She turned 1.  I was kinda hoping she wouldn't, but she did!  She's 1!!  We had a little family party with her on her birthday (Wednesday).  A few presents, some singing, a candle, some cake, and that was it!

Bubb, Avie, and I picked up her cake in the morning, and ALL.DAY.LONG  Bubb begged (begged!) me for a piece of it!  It kinda made me mad!  Then Port came home and asked for a piece!  Really?  You think we're going to cut up her birthday cake and hand out pieces before she even has her party and blows out her candle and gets "happy birthday" sung to her?!?  Jeez!  Hungry boys.

So she opened her presents first 

(before she got all cake-y).

Then she had her cake.

...and she liked it 

:]

She's not walking on her own yet.  I guess she's kinda close.  She loves to walk around like this...

...and along the furniture.  Sometimes she'll get brave and let go of the couch for a second to switch to walking along the table.  She stands all by herself for a few seconds at a time, but not too often.  She pushes stuff (her lion walker, laundry baskets, big toys, etc).  She's super busy!!  Always taking stuff apart, pulling stuff out, putting stuff in, pushing buttons, switches.  She "talks" a lot.  It's baby babble.  But it's lots of questions.  Blegliglooglih??? And then she'll say almost the exact same thing again.  It's funny.  She says "uh oh"  A LOT, and she seems to know what it means.  She says it when she drops stuff, or throws something on the floor (which she does a lot!!), or when other people drop things, or when something/body falls.  She waves bye, and claps when we do or when we all say "yea.". She is super smiley! She laughs alllll the time!! She gets the hiccups when she laughs too hard (just like Chloe), and when we keep going after her she squeals this really loud cute, happy little squeal. She's really demanding. She lets you know when she's not happy, or when she wants something-usually she squeals. She's pretty attached to her mama. She likes to be held, and she always has to see what's going on. She likes to play peek a boo, and she likes when I hold her facing out and chase the other kids around the house. She puts her hands up when we hide stuff and say "where'd it go?" She dances any time she hears music.

Her one year stats...

weight:  18lbs 12 oz (14th)

height:  30" (77th)

head circ.:  44.7cm (38th)

Happy Birthday to our Teeny Moo!  We love her so much!  She's such a sweet baby sister.  She's so much fun, and we're so glad to have her in our family.  

::drawer cleaner-outer::

This is Ave's new favorite pastime.

PS

She'll be 1 tomorrow.

::long time, no post. right??::

It says on my dashboard that my last post was something like 3 weeks ago. I almost don't believe it. I don't think I've ever gone that long without posting! I don't know what the deal is. I guess it's due in part to life just not being that interesting, and partly to some computer program switcheroos.

A couple of Fridays ago, Chloe had a lip sync concert at her school. It was smack in the middle of the day. I thought I'd get there about 10 minutes early so we could get a seat up front. Pshah!! Try maybe if you get there 10 minutes early you can park within walking distance of the school!! So, Avie, Bubb, Portie, and I walked a little ways to the school (Ave in her stroller, Port and I on foot, and Bubb on my back-piggy style). It was fun. Lots of fun. It was standing room only in the auditorium. I found Robyn (my besest girlfriend (if that's allowed as an adult)) and stood kind of by her. I caught Chloe just before she went on stage, and grabbed a quick photo of her in her Hawaiian get up. We did the best we could. I swear, one of these days I'm just going to buy a dang grass skirt one summer day because inevitably there will be a beach/Hawaiian day at school in the middle of winter and we will need it and no store will have one! Anyway, she wore a little Hawaiian-ish print dress and a bow that Grandma & Papa Kitty brought back from Hawaii and a Hawaiian bracelet along with a lei and a shell necklace.

So they sang "Love Train." The costumes had to do with that part "people all over the world..." so that tried to get kids to dress up. She was on stage for about 2 minutes. It was fun to watch her. She was glad we were there.

Life's pretty normal. School's still going-but only for about 2 more months! Isn't that crazy?? They get out on May 31! Winter officially ended yesterday. There's still snow on the ground, but that's a new thing-we've had great weather lately. Bubba's driving me COMPLETELY nuts lately! It's over such dumb things too. Like he'll want to shut the door, and if I shut it, he loses it! He's scream and cry and tell me he hates me (or he says he hates Ava, when she didn't even do anything!), and it'll completely ruin his day. He's hungry all.day.long. He likes to come in about every hour and tell me he's hungry, and if I don't hop to it and give him something to eat he gets very upset. I don't mean to sound like I hate him or anything-because I love him SO much! He's so fun and so funny and makes us all laugh and he's so sweet, but some days... I guess we all have our moments. Portie's a sweet boy. He likes to play with Jaken-his BFF (but I'm sure that's not what he calls him. Dude! That's what he calls him!). Port and Jaken play about every other day. His mom and I are trying to see if we can get them in the same class again next year. We hope it'll work out. Avie has 2 teeth. They came out at about 11 months old. She also had her first ear infection a few weeks ago. It was so sad! Poor Teeny! She liked her medicine though, so that made it a little easier. She's trying to walk. She pushes her little walker around until it hits a wall or a piece of furniture, then chirps at us to turn her around.

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Well, so there is one major thing that happened this last week. Our cousin/nephew, Jordan left on his mission on Wednesday. He'll be serving in the Argentina, Salta mission for 2 years.

We got to hear him speak in his home ward on Sunday before he left on Wednesday. Oh, what a great talk! It was darling! And very Jordan! I loved what he said about the temple. He said how special of a place it is, and that you don't even have to be inside to feel the spirit, that just being on the grounds allows you to feel the love of Heavenly Father and feel at peace and forget the world. What a lovely thing to say.

I met him when he was 9. He's grown up a lot, and grown up well. Chloe made him a card she forgot it, so we went back home to get it. He got a little teary when he read it. It said something about her going to miss him but being glad for his example. I agree.

I'm so happy and excited for him! We'll miss him, but we'll be here when he gets back :]

(Matt, Ava-almost 1, Me, Porter-5 1/2, Cooper-3, Chloe-8, & Jordan)

The end.

::snow::

On March 1st...


We're having the biggest snowstorm of the season. Nice.

A little late, don't ya think??

4ish inches so far, and it's still snowing.

Where was this in December/January??

We've moved on. We're ready for Spring!

Sheesh!!

::leap day::

Happy Leap Day!!!







We celebrated (inspiration here) with some froggy cupcakes, reading a little history on leap day, and writing down a few things about ourselves to put into a time capsule (most likely a shoebox) to open on the next leap day (in 2016), oh and also taking a little group photo to stick in there too. It was a little crazy to think of how old we will all be in 4 years. Avie will be 4 (almost 5!), Bubb will be 7, Port will be 9 (going on 10!), and Chloe will be 12. How crazy is that?? We won't even talk about how old Matt and I will be.

::Coopish::

Coopish is almost exactly like Portish, but with a few differences. It's SO funny! A lot of it he doesn't even say anymore because the big kids have corrected him, or he's corrected himself. But I thought I better get it down before I forget.

oil: "boil"

shelf: "shelth"
myself: "meself" then "myselth"

flip-flops: "fliplops"

use: "nuse"

computer: "greepeetuh"

iron: "ireen"

Chloe: "Kiss"

Baby Ava: "BeeAva" then "BeeBeeAva"

kitchen: "chicken"

belly button: "boodinah"

tootie: "toodilah"

four wheeler: "whidiloo"

chocolate milk: "hot chockameeo" then just "hot chocolate mile"

chocolate chips: "hot chocolate chips"

dinosaur: "dine-wih-suh"

Diego: "Digeigo"

Max and Ruby: "Woobymac"

Cheerios: "Chuh-yoes"
Cookie Monster: "kihkie wizzin"
marshmallows: "smahmullows"
fingers: "fuhguhns"
your: "zuh"
use: "nuse"
picture: "picki-chah"
Tahoe: "Hahoe"
iPod: called it the "tiny bit iPad"
Amberlee: "Amblee"
diapers: "da-buhs" then "die-puhs"
camera: "cramma"
pancakes: "pampakes"
Woody: "Woodity"
Mario: "Mahdio"
Luigi: "Leegie"

He calls his blue and brown blanket a "mummah."

He calls his little slip-on skimmers "big boy shoes."
He didn't (and on some words still doesn't) say his "r's", so those words end in "uh" sounds.

Some of this he said, some he still says. I hope I'll add to the list as he says new words. I love (LOVE) how he talks! It's so funny, and so then we all say things the same way he does. It makes me a little sad when he starts to say things the right way, or when the big kids correct him.

We love him. He's so much fun.