::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.