Utah Easter Egg

So I finally figured out how to steal these photos from our Egg hunt off my brother's website. Isn't he a great photographer?!?! (I need/want a new camera... mother's day?)
Reesa

Cianna Whitney

My dad

Simone with Remy

Me and Reesa

What a fun time we had in Utah! Thanks everyone for helping us feel so loved, welcomed, and missed! I'm sad I couldn't see ALL my friends and extended family while we were there, but know we love and miss you just the same!~

Utah

Welcome to Utah! Since I was so jealous of everyone getting to go to the Draper open house, I made sure I got to go and do a session. I must say, for a small temple it was HUGE!

We had so much fun, running ourselves to DEATH, trying to do everything. But that's what a vacation's about, right? I got to see my Annie, so fun! She is the best, and just took great care of us. This picture isn't great of either of us, but with a three year old photographer, what can you expect?

Reesa, hugging Regan, and THEN my camera dies. So no more pictures, that was just too much to ask. But I got to see Marci and her kids, all my brothers with their families, including Jordan's new twin girls. Grandma Sue and Papa Bill had a Easter egg hunt for the grand kids on Saturday, (maybe Jordan will email me some pictures.) I got to go to paint class with my mom, and got my hair done, (thanks for ALL the babysitting Simone!) Made my own Amy Butler purse, (so cute) Since Jake didn't come with us, I took lots of video instead to make him feel included. Plus I want my kids to remember everything we did... since I will NEVER do that alone again!
AND dear Alex and Shaunna came up to Benson's house our last night there to be sure to see me and the kids! It was so nice because Alex is in the middle of finals, Shaunna's prego and they just got back from a drive to Las Vegas the night before!
Here's our family Easter photo, Reesa is so cute, but of course I don't have a better picture.

Jansen's Easter

I had such big ideas for posting today, but my computer is being CRAZY, and I don't know how to fix it. Let's see if these Easter photos of Jansen work... let me know if you can't see them! Of course he would never look at me. Maybe tomorrow I can post the 4 pictures I took on my trip to Utah. (So hard to remember everything as the mom!)

Camping

Jake REALLY wanted to go camping this week, and being 7 months pregnant, with 2 little kids... I didn't know how that was going to work. But when Jake wants something, he doesn't stop! So he finally convinced me when he said we could rent a two bedroom cabin at Twin Lakes. Chelsey's kids were off for spring break, so we invited them up to share in the fun.
We had the girls stay the first night, and took them on a 2 mile hike the next morning.

They made it most of the way without help.

Brinley was so funny. When Jake set her down she informed me that "Jake is a very strong man!"

We hiked to this fun park! It looks like so much fun for swimming in the summer. We'll have to go back.

Train rides down the slide

And if the hike wasn't enough, when we got back Jake insisted we rented a rowboat to take the kids out on the lake. They LOVED it! We chased a goose all around and saw SIX turtles sitting on the same log. If only I had a camera...
The next night Tyler came and stayed the night.

We put our two kids to bed early (they were so beat!) and stayed up doing a campfire, smores, and banana boats without ANY worries of someone falling in, or running away. HEAVEN!
It really was a fun trip, and I'm glad Jake convinced us to go!

The cleaning mess

Reesa has two leotard dresses that she INSISTS on wearing everyday and night. I make her wash them about every three days, and Tuesday morning was the day. In her prayer over breakfast, she asked that her "pink bow dress could be clean." It was so cute, I told her she could do the laundry with me. I went upstairs to get the basket of clothes, and when I came back down this is what I found...
Soap everywhere, and it looked like she was just playing in it, making a bigger mess! I was so mad, until I asked her what she was doing, and she gave me a frantic look telling me she was cleaning it all up. She already had quite the pile of soap she had scooped up off the floor.
What a sweetheart. She was trying so hard to help, I'm glad this once I held my tongue! Reesa loves to clean and will help me do dishes, sweep, vacuum, clean up ANY room (including my own). She is such a precious girl and I'm so glad that she's MINE!!!

Pittsburgh

So last week the kids and I drove to Penn Hills, Pennsylvania to visit my friend Julie and her family. It's a 6 hour drive and I've never attempted anything that far alone. We bought 2 new movies for the car ride and packed LOTS of food. I wasn't even sure we would make it and left thinking I just might have to turn around and call Julie and tell her we weren't coming after all. However the kids did great and we made good time, stopping only once for 20 minutes. We had a BLAST on our mini vacation as "healthy chef" Julie spoiled us with her amazing cooking skills and hospitality. EVERY meal we ate was picture worthy, and I wish I would have taken photos of every meal. Here's a few highlights... (okay really it's the menu as best as I can remember, but I LOVE food so just skip reading this part if you don't care.)

So we arrived to fresh baked zucchini bread. Dinner we ate chicken shish-kabobs, and seasoned rice with strawberry icecream sugar cones for dessert!

The next morning we had oatmeal for breakfast with a buffet for toppings! It tasted more like a delicious granola bar. We had walnuts, coconuts, brown sugar, and orange slices. Salmon wraps with lettuce and cucumbers for lunch. Black bean nachos for dinner. (Which Nick seasoned spicy for us, so yummy!) We spent the day at the zoo and saw so many "baby" animals.

The tigers

The rhinos

The elephants... look at that adorable baby elephant!
Look at that amazing shark! We were so close to it, scary!
So cute to see Reesa and Anika holding hands.

Sunday Nick fixed us a peanut-butter banana smoothie we ate with a bowl of homemade granola and fruit. Lunch we had chips and salsa, veggie platter, tomato soup and fresh baked sourdough wheat bread with butter. Dinner we ate cornish game hen spiced indian with masala spices, baked sweet potatoes, and green salad. Nick seasoned the chicken and was asking Julie for cinnamon because they had run out of "masala" spice. So impressive he even knew what to do without a particular spice??? Julie and Nick are quite the team! At the last minute we realized dinner wasn't going to be ready until 7:30 and the kids NEEDED to go to bed, so we quickly whipped up somewhole wheat pancakes, and fresh fruit salad, put the kids to bed and enjoyed dinner without them! I finally remembered I had a camera and took a photo.

Me flipping pancakes

Julie with her yummy fruit salad

Nick and Julie

Monday morning we made crepes with ice cream, and blueberries. We went to Ikea and the kids ate homemade granola bars, annie's bunny crackers, string cheese, veggies, apples, and pb & j roll-ups on whole wheat tortillas (which Jansen is in lOVE with!) we ate when we returned home: Taco Salad with Nick's spicy black beans, brown rice, lettuce, and shredded cheese with a little yogurt ranch. It was so yummy Reesa came and asked for a bite of mine. I fixed her a plate because she was liking it so much and she ate 3 plates full!!!

The kids playing at Ikea... we got all 4 together!

Me and Reesa

Julie and Anika

Monday night we took the girls to a princess party at the library. They got to dress up like a princess.
They read stories to the girls, then fed them PBJ's in triangles with the crusts cut off. They had drinks and cupcakes, then got to decorate a sugar cookie. No MOM's allowed! But of course we ALL stood at the window and watched these girls feel so special. They were on their best behavior!

They gave each girl a tiara to wear and took their picture.

The decorations were seriously amazing. I took pictures as we left, so most things were gone and already eaten, but still SO CUTE!!! Especially for a free event.

For a late dinner we ate:
A bed of baby spinach, seasoned cous cous, smoked salmon, and golden raisins with lemon zest for the "kick" of a dressing. This was probably my favorite meal. It was really simple to put together, but just the right combinate of everything!!! Too bad I didn't make it, I can never repeat things on my own!

Tuesday breakfast we ate homemade orange zest, crasin whole wheat sour dough bread baked french toast, & grapefruit. Julie sliced the grapefruit in slices and I think this was the first time my kids had tried it. Jansen kept SCREAMING for more grapefruit. He would be so jealous whenever anyone picked up a slice. I thought it was so funny.

Here's everyone saying goodbye. Issac gave Jansen a toy car he LOVES to hold. He'll even take his naps with it!

So I didn't feel sick ONCE at Julie's house. I can't decide if it was because I ate so well... or Julie took care of my kids most of the time... Thanks Julie for a wonderful week I feel so spoiled and lucky to have you as my friend!!!