Work, Graduation and a wedding

The third week of April was a busy one. I flew up to Washington on Sunday to work for the entire week. We are changing broker dealers and Dan (my boss) hired a new secretary so I went up to help for the week. I can't tell you how excited I am to have someone there full time now. It takes so much pressure off of me. 

Greg and my dad drove up with all the kids on Friday. I can only imagine how much fun that was. 9 hours and three kids. Greg says they were really good so I just have to take his word for it. Friday was Steven's graduation. I'm so proud of him! I remember how awesome it felt to finally be done

We had a party at Steven and Ashley's house afterward and spent the rest of the day there. It was really grat to relax and spend time with family.

 just as an fyi, there will be no more pictures of me posted on this blog until after the baby is born.

 on Saturday Austin and Kristen were sealed at the Provo Temple. Somehow I managed not to get any pictures of them. But I did get one of all our family there. Afterward we went to the reception/luncheon which was beautiful. Now four out of five of my parent's kids are married.

Baby Shower

I did a baby shower for my friend Erica a few weeks ago. We used mostly brown and white, with yellow accents. I made the invitations using my silhouette. I personalized them by adding the baby's name along the border on the left side. They were all different as far as the paper, but I felt like they all coordinated well.. I didn't have enough paper on hand to do them all the same.

It was supposed to be outside, but we had to move it inside at the last minute because of the wind. It was a tiny bit more crowded than I would have like, but it still worked well and looked nice.

 We did a brunch and leaned more heavily toward breakfast foods. The menu was mini muffins in 5 different flavors, strawberry yogurt parfaits, banana bread with nutella and strawberries, quiche, strawberries in chocolate bowls and donut holes. The food all turned out really yummy.

I made this walling hanging for Erica's present. Since her nursery is the same color palate as the shower I used it in the decor. I painted the background and used vinyl to add the lettering over the top.

The rest of the decor was very simple. I used burlap for table runners, and fresh flowers. This arrangement was my favorite.

 One pic of Erica with her mother-in-law who crocheted that beautiful blanket.

Easter Week

Easter was a week long celebration this year. We started out with decorating eggs one day. Brayden and Tawny loved decorating the eggs. Ethan just loved eating them

Another day we decorated cookies. Ethan enjoyed this one more, but still his favorite part was eating them. No surprise there.  The funniest part was that he hated getting frosting on his hands, so it was funny to watch him try to eat it without touching the frosting.

On Friday we had an east egg hunt at my parent's house. I got a few cute shots of Ethan, but Brayden and Tawny were just too quick for me this year.

This is Brayden and Tawny with Tyler and Kelsey. They were so cute and of course each had to have a turn holding her. Ethan wasn't as thrilled with Kelsey. Hopefully he warms up before baby#4 is born in May.

The Saturday before Easter was our first swimming day of the year, at least for the kids. It was way too cold for me. Brayden's face says it all. He wants to smile and have fun, but it's just so cold!

Easter Sunday before church. Greg had early morning meetings so I was flying solo like all Sundays. Things They are just so cute!

 Tawny insisted I get a picture of her hair.

After church we had an Easter Egg Scavenger hunt with clues that led them to their baskets. They had eaten way too many sweets that week already, so we skipped the candy in the egg thing. They didn't seem to mind at all. They loved figuring out the clue and finally found their baskets, which had nearly all non-candy items.

Birthday, Wedding, and family luau

Greg had his 30th birthday this year! I wanted to have a party with friends but it was such a busy week that it just didn't happen. So he had a little family party instead, but I don't think Greg really cared one way or the other. The kids picked out little gifts and made card which he loved.

My Aunt Susan's wedding was the same week so we had a bunch of family visiting for the whole week. Brian and Kaylyn, their kids and Steven, Ashley and Jordan came for a few days during the week too. We all had so much fun but pics of that will follow. Susan's wedding was on Saturday and was beautiful. I was too busy wrangling my kids to get many pictures, but was a really nice ceremony. They had it down by the river and my dad officiated. 

 The following weeks was spring break and Brayden wanted to celebrate by having a party. SO we raided the dollar store. I let the kids pick the theme, the menu, everything. They chose a luau and obviously chose the hats. We ate tons of yummy food and played games as a family way past bedtime. It was a really great night.

End of Baseball

This is Ethan's favorite pasttime- getting dirty

 We finished out baseball strong. Brayden and Tawny both had great coaches and had a great time. Brayden started the year out in right field, but was progressively moved to more challenging positions. The last few games he was on 2nd base and did really well. Tawny was mostly cute, but at her age that's all the can be expected. They both got trophies at the end of the year and thought that was pretty awesome.