What a crazy month!

Time has been FLYING by lately! Don't get me wrong - the spring weather is SO much better, but it's been getting pretty hectic around the house! I have to explain the picture above - no, it's not Jake's Easter basket. It's just a random Easter basket that he has been using to carry around all of his most cherished toys (Lightening McQueen cars, buffaloes, horses, etc.). It's been going on for at least a month now and he has to take his basket EVERYWHERE! I have learned how to buckle him up in the car with it attached, how to get it just right in front of him when he's eating and he even has to have it in his bed when he goes to sleep. Can we say, "A little obsessive-compulsive?" Oh, well - at least he's cute!
I finally got the mat I've been obsessing over for pictures! I was at my wits end trying figure out where these other photographers got this adorable barnwood, and how in the heck they can feel good about putting a naked newborn baby on it! I seriously thought it was real wood and I was ready to hire someone to build me it! Thank goodness I got it figured out! Chloe is always so great to model for me - so we tested it out.

Always the little dancer with her pointed toes! She can actually put her entire foot on top of her head with no trouble at all!

She got a little bit mad at me by the end of the session, but I thought her pout was so cute!
Since it snowed hard every single day of spring break, I took the kids down to Ogden to the Treehouse Museum. It was so adorable and fun that I bought the family pass! I took about a thousand pictures of the kids there, so that's why this post is so enormous! Colten's first love was the teepee. We're thinking maybe we need to get one for the kids to camp-out in!
Chloe thought it was so gross, but kind of funny when Sam "milked" the cow! I'm hoping that was just liquified hand-sanitizer or something!
Sam is such a stud rodeo-dude!


Jake's favorite part was all the big horses to ride on. I almost couldn't get him off of them! He would have been happy just to stay there riding one horse after another for the whole visit.
This is Colten and one of his best friends, Bowen. They are so great together!
Seriously . . . . . . . .
Jake couldn't get enough of the "yee-haw" thing!
There was a cute fire truck that kids could play in and wear the outfits and stuff.
This is Jake's buddy, Bracken, who is also Bowen's little brother.
Chloe put together a train to climb in!
Colten even found an area that had paper and pencils and desks so he could draw whatever pictures he wanted. He's IN LOVE with drawing things - especially war scenes, and I really don't know how I feel about the war stuff. At least he loves it and he's really talented, too!
Bowen's other little brother, Branson, is Sam's best friend, too! We love their family!!!
The old school house was probably my favorite. It's was made to look like a school out of "Tom Sawyer."
Chloe loves writing all of her letters. She's write out a crazy word like - kfjrusnvle, and ask me to tell her what it says.

The room-sized map was fun. Jake instantly found the "gu-gu" (buffalo)!



Jake does a fabulous naked-buffalo impression, but it requires him to be naked, of course! So, he really wanted to take off all of his clothes right then and there, but I to try to be "responsible-mom" and say, "no".

I think Chloe's favorite thing was all the puppet shows she could do for me! It was so fun to watch!

Colten, Sam and Branson tried their hand at chess, while Jake played with the giant-sized chess pieces. There was even instructions on the wall to teach kids how to play chess!


Seriously . . . . no shortage of puppet shows!






Chloe put together what her husband is going to look like! Nice - looking guy!

The music room was awesome! There were drums and xylophones everywhere! It was a little hard to stay in this room too long since I had a headache by then, but it was still cool!


Colten isn't a huge fan of President Obama, and . . . .
apparently neither is Jake since he tried to hit Chloe on the head with Obama!


EASTER
Chloe is always posing for me whenever I have my camera out!

Easter was great! It was nice to do Easter morning and then just go over to Joe's parent's house to watch conference and have a big lunch. Joe doubted the conference bingo sheets I brought with us, but the kids had a great time with them! I didn't really get a big prize for when they'd get 5 in a row, so I just made up the "5-in-a-row" dance. I was so awesome and coordinated.
Chloe kept getting 25 in a row! Imagine that!

We brought Geddy - so he could make friends again with the other dogs, but they don't remember the giant 105 pound dog. They were all great friends when he was only 40 pounds, but now that he'd kind of grown up, he was "the enemy." Gus, a golden retriever and the leader of the "Heber Pack" was not thrilled to have Geddy back. So, he and the border collie ganged up on him and there was an all-out dog fight! One dog was biting his nose while the other dog was on his back and biting his neck! I don't always think things through all the way, but when I saw that Geddy had no real experience in the "dog-fighting" arena, I had to act. I started grabbing dog and flinging them off of him and holding them down, but in the process of my super-woman-hero-enacting, I got bit. SO rude! Anyway, by the end of the day and a little "playdate supervising" Geddy was able to get along with the other dogs a little better! Whew!
After lunch, the kids got to all go on a big easter-egg hunt in the living room. It was quite a mad dash, but in the end I was really, really proud of Colten for giving away most of his loot to the little kids (Sam even did a little sharing, too!!).





It's so much fun getting all the cousins together!!! We're really going to miss Hank, and Charlie, and Tyler when they have to move away for a while!

So, all in all, it's been a wild month, but it's so good to be together and to be welcoming spring!