Easter Sunday 2014

 Beautiful Easter morning at the St George temple with these darlings:

 

 Driving home with exhausted babies—it was a busy, wonderful week (and sleeping travelers are my favorite kind—aren't they cute?)

Feeling so blessed, as always, that my forever includes these amazing souls. 

I love this family with all my heart!

Red Rock and Egg Hunts

After riding with the Gardners on Thursday, we came back to my parents SG house to find Stacey and her two boys who had arrived from Vegas along with my dad. Hooray for more family and cousins, and the darling baby Stanford to snuggle and inspect. He had changed so much from his newborn days back in February. My brother eventually joined us after driving up from Phoenix and we had a full house for dying eggs—a favorite Easter tradition.

Lots of great cuddling time going on...that Livs sure likes to cozy up :)

 

These guys fit in some golf on Friday afternoon:

Earlier in the morning Joseph took all the littles on an exploring hike in the desert hills behind Sunbrook which was a cool, new place to discover. Meanwhile I went for a run and realized it was much too hot at 10:00 am to run along an asphalt trail so it was slow and laborious but still a beautiful spring morning.

 Saturday morning egg-hunt:

 

 

This boy was pure entertainment hunting this year. He was totally loving it and very expressive about finding each egg, "I find 'nother one!" Such a cutie.

Just before dinner we took the kids over to Pioneer Park and the red hills around the Dixie sign to let them climb and play. It's such a great spot for little hidden crevices and holes and tunnels.

We were pretty filthy and sweaty by the end of it all but a great way to wear the kids out and enjoy that classic SG terrain.

Spring Break in SG

 

On our first day of break, Monday morning, the kids and I drove down to beautiful SG and were in the pool just after lunch time—love that! These kiddos are getting to be such good travelers and I am building confidence in our ability to pack up and head away on our own. Luke is obviously the hardest in the car but these days with a good movie and some favorite snacks he can do the drive quite well.

 

 On Tuesday morning we met up with Maggie and her littler kids to check out the new children's museum. We met baby Lily for the first time and she is the tiniest, smiliest, ball of cuteness! Livs felt like an old baby holding pro with that sweet, tiny cousin. Mag and I got a kick out of the cow's name too :)

Later in the day we enjoyed popsicles on the patio and more pool time, and were happy to see Grandma Bobbi who had driven down that day to join us for the rest of the week.

On Wednesday night Cec and her whole family arrived for a quick overnight stay before heading to Phoenix in the morning. And they brought our favorite Joseph with them! The next morning we soaked up some daddy time on a golf cart ride and Sunbrook exploring.

Later in the day Maggie and Justin invited us up to their family property just outside the Ledges for horseback riding. It was such a fun afternoon! My kids now think they are all true cowboys and cowgirls and Cares is especially eager to ride more.

 

 

The baby foal on the property was just 2 days old! He and his mama had their own pen and they were just the cutest together. I could have watched them for hours and loved how protective and aware the mare was of her baby. She kept nuzzling faces and noses with her foal and it was just so sweet. It was also funny to me to watch the foal nurse just a little here and there but then repeat it almost every other minute—and his mommy just stood there drinking water or watching him roam as he came back again and again for more milk. As a mom I think I am just fascinated by how instinctual it is for mammals in general to have babies and take such good care of them. I truly appreciate how natural it is for mammals to nurture and care for their young.

Anyway, lots of riding, hay bale climbing and fun with our cute Gardner cousins:

  

Luke even got his very own tractor ride with Uncle Justin. He was a little intimidated by it at first (shown by the classic Luke blank-stare in this picture) but he was loving it by the end!

Early April

Classic April weather around here has meant lots of running and not much biking—but it's been good for me to try and get better at something I am totally bad at. Seriously, I am not a runner! But I have this drive to be better and get faster, and mostly get stronger (heart/lungs/endurance/muscles included). I hit a big milestone the other day running a 5K in under 30 minutes (most of it was downhill :) Had to document the day and my neighbors beautiful blooms:

 On a sunny Saturday we cleaned out and decluttered the garage. We also sold the two strollers in the picture below which felt amazing! Love the cleared space, loved making some money on great baby investments that we no longer need. Hope someone will adore that jogging stroller as much as I did—used it for so many walks and runs with all 4 of my littles.

Luke's set-up during conference weekend:

These cuties gathered flowers for me on their walk home from school:

A good hair day :)

 

First try with our new set of spiral curlers for the girls. Mary was telling me about these last year and since Livs needs her hair curled just so for her recital next month we finally got some. We discovered that they work really well and we can put them in at night in the girls' wet hair, they sleep on them and wake up with gorgeous curls (and they're squishy and softer than than sponge curlers)

We planned a Provo family date night a few weeks back starting with dinner at Los Hermanos:

 

And then a great adventure hiking the Y with all of our crazies:

The kids were eager to use their new hiking sticks from my parents and the 3 olders did beautifully. Olivia even hiked the whole way up without ever complaining or asking to be carried—that is a steep hike too! Of course Luke was a hyper little devil and wiggled all around when he was in the backpack and then when we let him walk he veered way too close to the edge and gave us lots of grief. He's at such a tricky age for hiking because he's huge in that backpack but he's all over the place on trails! We may be leaving him with a sitter more often than not this summer :)