Spring Break

I know a lot of parents, particularly moms, dread school breaks. I'm not one of them - at least right now. One of our adventures was heading up to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden. We first discovered this awesome place last summer and I just need a little bit of an excuse to head up again and again. We took some friends and had a great day out! Topped it off with smart cookies. Yum.


Fire(wo)men for a day.

Beating on the drums in the instrument room.

Easter

Happy Easter

One of the tables at the Easter feast

One of the kids' tables

Another darling table

Easter egg hunting

Cute little chicks :)

Lauren's newest obsession

Hats.

The girl loves them.

During the day.

And during the night.

When I finally realized that this wasn't just a passing phase, I figured I'd better get some pictures of this little sleeping beauty and her new love.

Disclaimer: This is in no way staged. No persuasion involved on what hat to wear for sake of pictures. This is just a sampling of the types of hats she chooses to wear. For reasons that must only make sense to her.

(I think she started catching on to me by this time...)

If Life Gives You Lemons...

Or, if a friend gives you fresh lemons from her mother's tree in California...

You enjoy them in however many ways you can!!

We loved lemon bars, lemon chicken, lemon blueberry bread,

lemon cupcakes, guacamole (hint hint on those avocados...), and more that I can't recall.

Thank you, Cynthia!!!

March

Both Lauren and Barry have March birthdays, so that's always fun. We're still hoping that Lauren will be blessed with hair one of these birthdays...

blowin' out the candles

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We celebrated with green eggs and ham.

It sounds better than it looks.

Barry got to experience the thrill of racing a pimped out Mustang on a real racetrack for his birthday. He now thinks he needs to own some kind of sports car ("I deserve it").

Cute girls

Cute Lauren

We made some new hair bows/flowers.

Addy, with some friend help, tried them all on. At once.

Indoor Campout

Working with the scouts, Barry is required now and then to endure exciting campouts in all kinds of weather. So, while he was freezing his booty off outdoors sometime in January or February, the girls and I decided to have a cozy campout in the warmth of our living room.

complete with s'mores (chocolate-flavored cookies and mini marshmallows)

(loved the marshmallows...)

and a princess tent!

And like true scouts, we even got up early... argh

January

We had our kitchen renovated!! Other than the tattiness of that fridge, it was really fine, and functional. People always seem to redo their kitchens before they sell their homes, in hopes of upping the price or something. Well, we plan to be here for a long time, so we wanted to LIVE in a kitchen that we LOVE. With money and space constraints, you see the (nearly) final product. We like.

Before...

During...

After!

And more after!

December

We had plenty of December fun...visits with Santa(s), new jammies, the nativity play (Lauren as Mary, Addy as a shepherd), and adventure in the snow!

6 Months in Review...

I mean, what do you even say? And who cares, really, right? So, we'll skip it all and just hit the highlights of the last SEVERAL months. (And since I can't get this *bleepity bleep* thing to let me move pictures, this will be backwards. Argh. Which would be one of the reasons this blog has not been updated.)

NOVEMBER

Barry took a 10-day-or-so trip to England to visit the family. Here he is with his older brothers, Marlon and Lee. Enjoyed time: with family, with food (i.e. Gregg's bakery; fish, chips 'n mushy peas, Indian), with football (aka soccer). Pretty much it.

Golfing with Lee.

Marlon, Mum (Heather), Dad (Rob), Baz, Lee at sis-in-law Jo's baptism (awesome highlight).