Costco Bowling!

Nope, we did not go bowling at Costco... but Andrew can't seem to say "Cosmic"... hence the title.

Our first major event in Utah (other than a Friday night trip to Leatherbys for huge ice cream sundaes with my fam), was Cosmic bowling at BYU with the Buskirks & Johnsons (minus Shauna & Randy)!!

Leah loves Baby Caitlin and is adorable with her... but I could never seem to catch her on camera (this was the best that I could get).

The bowling trip was one of the many exciting ways that we celebrated our nephew Brett's 14th birthday! He's the one in the picture "scratching his eye" since he loves pictures oh so very much ;)

Rob was stoked to be playing in the adult lane... since he is almost as tall as Kevin now, it would've looked weird for him to be playing with the little kids... although he's the cousin that is the cutest with Andrew & Leah. They adore him!

I tried and tried to get a glamour shot of Kate (and I loved her poses)... but every single shot ended up with closed eyes. Andrew was the ball keeper (paranoid that someone was going to steel his ball), so he stood next to the ball return for almost the entire game.

My favorite comment of the day was when Ella finished playing and remarked that her hands were filthy from being inside the bowling ball!! She immediately went and washed her hands afterwards. I wish Andrew's brain worked the same way... when you start thinking about it... those bowling balls are pretty gross!

Leah's expression when she knocked several pins down was my favorite of the day. What an adorable little girl!

Catie bug loved hanging out with everyone- especially Grandma Shari!

Spinning around with Cousin Rob

Ball keeper

Caitlin also got some cuddling time in with Liesl, which gave my arms a much needed break!

When things slowed down, the birthday boy kept Andrew happy playing Angry Birds.

Liesl attempted to speed the games along by taking the little people's turns when they weren't watching... unfortunately some of them were a little too smart. :)

These two cracked me up- Andrew was licking the ball return (sick!) and Leah was letting her hair blow.

 

After a great game or two, we headed off to Noodles & Company for a late lunch... and then Village Inn for dessert (to celebrate Brett's birthday). The European truffle pie was AMAZING.

We went back to Liesl & Allen's house to relax, chat, and go into a food coma while the little people played.

So glad Andrew & Caitlin got to spend time hanging out with all eight of their awesome cousins!

A Compromise

After the craziness of remodeling our condo's bathroom when I was 7-9 months pregnant with Andrew (remember all my griping about not having a toilet and having to take only baths for what felt like forever?)... I basically have come to hate remodeling. It always takes longer than planned, especially because life gets in the way. Kevin is awesome at remodeling, very detail oriented, and very handy... but it still stresses me out.

Kev has been wanting to recarpet several rooms in the house for awhile. I protested when I was pregnant because I didn't want to deal with the disaster and messiness that comes from moving furniture and ripping things up. I protested once Caitlin was born because I had just gotten her room (and Andrew's room) somewhat organized. Kevin persisted... and so we finally came up with a compromise. I would go to Utah and visit my family... and while I was gone... he would get the carpets redone and I would come home and everything would be back to normal.

This is how my house looked on Monday (I was in Utah).

Caitlin's closet was in the bathroom

Our master bath was filled with stuff

and our bedroom was a disaster area

Kevin moved all the furniture HIMSELF and then he and our awesome friend Jeremy (who has helped now with every remodel we have done)... both ripped out the carpet and repaired some creaks... in time for the carpet people to arrive bright and early Tuesday morning.

My house was completely back to normal by this afternoon (Wednesday) when I arrived home. You can barely tell that anything is different in this picture... (especially because we put in pretty neutral carpet)... but man is it cozy and soft!

Andrew's reaction when he saw his room, "Whoa! Nice carpet dad!"

The guest room also got recarpeted. The carpet in our bedroom and bathroom feels like sandpaper compared to the new stuff. It is amazing how once you fix one thing... other things start looking terrible in comparison. It is vicious cycle. I just added several more projects to our "to fix" list.

Next project is the garage. Kevin has been getting bids for almost two months now... and we might have finally found a design we like... maybe. We take a long time to make decisions. 

I am mostly excited because they are going to put cubbies in it for me. They won't be as awesome as these, but something similar... at least that is what I am hoping for. 

I am also going to have hooks for my Bob strollers so that they don't take up all of the garage floor space!

Anyways, I think I ended up getting the better end of the deal with our compromise. Kevin is sore, tired, and in bed right now. I am energized and am happily looking through pictures of all of the fun I had in Utah this week with my sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, mother in law, sisters, and parents! 

Reflecting on Easter

We have done a lot of activities this month focused on Easter eggs, egg hunts, the Easter bunny, and candy... so by the time Easter actually rolled around, I think we were kind of done with it... at least the materialistic side.

I have had a hard time figuring out how to talk with Andrew about the real reason for Easter, without making him sad or worried about things like death... since the concept of resurrection is pretty abstract for a 3 year old. 

One of my favorite parts of today was reading My Little Book about Jesus that the Easter bunny put in Andrew's Easter basket.

We talked briefly about how we will be able to live together forever as a family because Jesus died for us and made it so that we can live again too after we die. We listed off all of the family members that we get to be with together forever. Hanging out with some of them this weekend definitely made our Easter a bit sweeter.

I am grateful for beautiful music and inspiring talks that brought a spirit of love and peace into parts of our day today (although during this photo shoot and the craziness of getting ready for church that peace was lost for a bit...).

I'll post a lot more pictures from our weekend full of fun with family later in the week, but this was the main focus of my thoughts tonight. Happy Easter!

Caitlin rolls

She could already roll front to back... now she can roll back to front... pretty soon she's going to put it all together and be rolling around the room like a crazy girl!



This was the 2nd or 3rd time she rolled within 5 minutes. I was gchatting with Kevin- telling him that she rolled over for the first time- back to front (so you can see my computer in the background with my naptime treats- empty DC bottle & Cadbury mini-eggs :)). Ignore the messy floor and focus on the cute girl with the thunder thighs!

She figured the rolling thing out about a month and a half earlier than Andrew which is surprising since she has a lot more weight to work with than he did. Yay for fun new skills!

The best way to prepare your cupboards for Easter...

is to get rid of the old candy by having your very own episode of Iron Chef Cake Wars!!

At least that's what we called it. 

We started off by making A LOT of cake (I actually made all of these cakes and then accidently made two more... so Andrew & Kevin were very happy... guess what they ate for dinner? :)).

Next we raided our cupboards for every random item imaginable (Christmas Hershey's kisses, pretzels, half eaten bags of marshmallows... whatever we wanted to get rid of)...

and we brought it all to the church...

We put the kids in four groups, had them pick a scripture story or parable to illustrate (via cake) and then the war began! They had 40 minutes before they had to present.

They did a great job... but mostly just had a lot of fun

This is the only story I remember (Jonah and the whale), though I recall several groups picking stories where there was burning at the stake or smiting heads. :) Starbursts are very useful for making flames. :)

The panel of judges had a tough time deciding which group to pick as the winner!

Overall, awesome night and we need to make this an annual week before Easter tradition. We were all so stoked to rid our cabinets of treats in preparation for the onslaught of candy arriving this weekend!