Visitors!

Lucky for us, our good friends/cousins/former roommates have another family member in the Houston area and they decided to spend a week on vacation in the Lone Star State! Wahoo!
We had so much fun with Nathan and Stephanie and their adorable little Wills. We only wished they could have stayed for a year or so instead of a week.
Last Friday, while Nathan went fishing with Stephanie's uncle and some others, the girls and babies (me, Megan, Stephanie, Wills, Stephanie's aunt and cousins) spent a day wandering around Old Town Spring. It is a really fun little shopping area with lots of home decor, collectible items, toys, crafts, etc. to look at.
After Easter weekend, we picked up Nate, Steph, and Wills on Tuesday morning from her aunt's house and headed to the coast. We walked around the Kemah Boardwalk, drove down to Galveston and played on the beach, went out for a delicious Mexican dinner (yum, Pappasito's), and headed home to eat Blue Bell Ice Cream, play games, and stay up way too late chatting and catching up. Dan was able to take the day off and we had so much fun. I dropped them off at the airport Wednesday and they had to leave the beautiful 75 and breezy weather and go back to some snowy/rainy weather in Utah.
They were our first out of town guests and I thought that was a great excuse to use the money set aside for the guest room and buy a queen size bed, comforter set, and pillows to make their stay a little more comfy than our leaky air mattress. And they said they slept great--so to all our other out of town loved ones--consider this your invitation! We've got a nice little room all ready for you, just come!

On the boardwalk


The Kemah splash zone (it was a little cold for Megan)


What a cutie (this was her 2nd outfit of the day--by the end, she was just in a onesie)


Megan and Wills waiting for Dan, Nate, and Steph to ride the roller coaster--Wills is only 2 pounds lighter than her!


On the beach. Megan LOVED playing in the sand.



Stephanie, William, Amber, and Megan

Easter Sunday

We had a quiet Easter morning (as quiet as every Sunday is trying to get out the door by 7:55 for church). We had an Easter Egg dye kit...but didn't actually dye eggs. Maybe next year when Megan actually cares :). She did get a basket and a new bunny.
Dan and I are in the younger nursery at church (a class for kids from 18 months to about 2 years) and we taught the lesson. We thought it would be fun to bring some empty plastic eggs and let the kids "find" them and play with them. Well--the kids were really excited for about 2 minutes until they shook all the eggs and realized there was nothing in them--and at that point, they ignored them!
After church, we went to my parents' house for some yummy ham dinner and a few Easter egg hunts. My brother and his wife and kids were there and they and some neighbors participated in the hunt. Megan had a good time running around the yard and I was glad I had her in a onesie and not her dress since she found some good mud and puddles to play in. She did decide that mud doesn't taste as good as jelly beans (and she ate more of those than she should have).
The adults had some fun egg toss action after the hunt ended. Dan and my brothers and Dad even tried the toss with raw eggs (eww).
It was a really nice Easter and we are glad we could spend it with family. It was my first Easter with my parents in 7 years!
We are grateful for the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and for the hope that it gives us. We hope you each enjoyed your Easter!

After church...


Splish, splash!





Sorry my voice sounds terrible...I've been fighting a cold!

Easter Egg Hunt

On Saturday our neighborhood had a fun Easter egg hunt for the kids. There were sections of eggs roped off for each age group and Megan was very excited BEFORE the hunt started. Once they let them start hunting, she found 2 eggs and felt pretty good about that. We helped her find 2 more and at that point, 90 seconds had passed and all 600 eggs were gone. Kids are crazy, what can we say :)
We wondered why some of the eggs had cow spots on them and let Megan pick one of those so we could find out. Next year, we're training her to ONLY get those ones--they had Chick-Fil-A coupons in them!

What We Do All Day...

It often amazes me when another week has flown by and I can't seem to remember what on earth we have done every day, only that the days are gone and felt busy.
Some of our favorite things to do these days include: go to the park (this has been a favorite of ours for a long time), play in the backyard (especially with bubbles), read books over AND OVER AND OVER again (my memorizing skills are quite sharp), run errands in the car (ca! ca! as Megan says), check the mail, wave at doggies (woof! woof!), go to Granny's house (she's started saying grandpa- "pampa"), and go on walks.
We also manage to make dinner, keep the house picked up and clean, stock the pantry and fridge, and take the occasional nap (most of the time at least).
I'm so grateful that I get to be home with Megan every day--thank you Dan for working hard for us! I love this little cutie.

Movie night with her big cousins Hailey and Zach


A beautiful park day






A little dinner action...


What a funny face. For some reason it reminds me of her cousin Tyler

NYC #3

I've determined that this will be the last post from our trip--life has kept marching on and I have other things to post about...but it means very limited pictures from a very fun trip! If you want to see more pictures, check out my mom's blog.

The family went into the city Thursday , Friday, and Saturday (March 19-21). Thursday, my sister Jamie watched the babies (Megan and Chloe) and we trekked in with me, Dan, my brother Shad and his wife Amy and their two older kids (Hailey and Zach), my sister Carrie, my brother Tyler, my parents, and Jamie's youngest girl (Madelyn).

We rode the train in from Connecticut and saw Grand Central and Times Square. We had lunch on Times Square and then took a subway to the Museum of Natural History and wandered around for a few hours. After the museum, we went to the Staten Island Ferry and the Trinity Church and Ground Zero. Ground Zero wasn't as cool as I hoped it would be--it's just a big construction site right now. Trinity Church was beautiful and we got to see the Statue of Liberty from the ferry (and a good view of the skyline). We had dinner in Grand Central and then headed back to Jamie's house. It was EXHAUSTING! But also very fun and I enjoyed my first taste of the Big Apple.

Dan and I with "Dum-Dum"


On the Staten Island Ferry--see the Statue of Liberty?


Friday was a pretty small group--Dan, Mom, Dad, Tyler, Carrie, and Shad. Amy, Jamie, and I stayed at the house with all the kids and relaxed for the day. They went to Pier 17 to pick up some half price Broadway tickets for the whole family, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rockefeller Center, and some other big pretty church.

One of Dan's favorites at the MMA--a Van Gogh


Shad, Dan, and Ty at Rockefeller


Saturday, the WHOLE FAMILY (that's 18 people!) took the train in. We formed quite the entourage as we made our way through town--2 double strollers, 1 single stroller, and a bunch of kids and adults all walking in a group. We had lunch at the McDonald's on times square, walked around the M&M store, saw some amazing views from Trent's office building, and saw Shrek, The Musical. The show was fantastic. The kids all did great (which was good because the manager almost didn't let them in--despite the fact that they had tickets and everything--but we convinced him they were angels and he relented). After the show we walked to the Manhattan Temple, through Central Park, down 5th Avenue, past Rockefeller Center, and back to Grand Central. I got to see my old roommate Karen for a few minutes (she met up with us at the temple) and my friend from high school Holly (she came to Grand Central). It was so fun to see them even though they were very VERY brief visits and I'm glad they were in town and able to meet up with our crazy group.

On the train


Sweet view...


My parents and siblings


Broadway!!


The whole group outside the theater

NYC #2

Like I said, our trips are well-documented when we are with my family. I finally got all 1200 (literally, 1200) pictures from my Dad's camera and have been weeding through them. Here are some favorites from our first few days there.

My whole family after church


Megan all bundled in Jamie's backyard


Megan and I


Megan chilling after a bath at the hotel in Palmyra


Niagara--see the frozen wave thing at the base of the falls?


Dan and I at Niagara

NY trip...

Sorry it's taking a while to post about our spring break trip. When I vacation with my family, I leave the majority of the picture taking to my Dad and siblings with much nicer cameras. But, I haven't taken a jump drive to my parents' house yet to get all of the photos, so here are a meager few from our camera that will suffice for now :)
We arrived Saturday, March 14. We got to my sister's home in CT in time for bed and spent Sunday at church and relaxing in the backyard. Monday we got up early and drove the 6 hours to Palmyra. After arriving, we went to the Smith Farm, the Sacred Grove, and the Hill Cumorah. Tuesday we went to the Grandin Printing Office, the Whitmer farm, and Niagara Falls.

The Sacred Grove (Palmyra, NY) There's no snow and no leaves--it felt a little bare compared to what we are used to seeing in pictures! But it was still beautiful and has such a nice peaceful feeling about it.






The Smith Farm in the background (Palmyra, NY)


Carrie holding Megan and Chloe in their matching pj's (at the hotel in Palmyra)


Megan at Niagara Falls (brr! It was chilly but very cool to see in the winter with the river partially frozen and a big frozen "wave" under the falls from the spray spalshing up and freezing and then snow falling on it.)


Dan and I with Ontario (I think Ontario) in the background.


Some pics from the grandkids' "retaurant" lunch (our attempt to get them to be more patient and polite) at my sister Jamie's house on Friday (March 20). This is in New Canaan, CT.

Almost Friday...

I'm so excited for this weekend! And apparently Megan is too because she's decided that telling herself all about her excitement is more fun than napping (I can hear her jabbering away on the monitor).
We're having a family from the ward/neighborhood over for dinner tomorrow and then Saturday we are flying out with my whole family to NYC for a week!!! And another perk is that since my dad has a gazillion frequent flier miles, we don't have to pay for checked bags. Even better.
Anyway. Here's some random things from the past few weeks.

Megan loves to dance and her skills are soon going to surpass mine. Our new favorite is her sumo wrestler impression but we have yet to catch it on camera.

She is also honing her self-feeding skills. As you can see, she likes to use as many senses as possible while she eats (sight,taste, touch, smell, she even tries to "hear" her food by squishing it in her ears). We take it as a sign of her great intelligence :)


And she's even learning to "share"...gee, thanks


Here's some climbing action. And as much as I'm happy to see her learn new things, how many times in one day can I say the words "Megan, we play on the FLOOR!" before I go crazy?

We went (with my brothers and Hailey and Zach) to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (minus the rodeo b/c we're cheap) and saw lots of animals and fun crafts and boots and chaps and cowboy hats.
Megan just seemed amazed at the actual size of cows and she did lots of pointing. I really liked the animal nursery with all the teeny, just-born sheep, goats, cows, chicks, piglets, etc. We watched the milking demo and saw both some boring animal races and some more exciting piggy races.

What a happy cowgirl...(she was a little exhausted by the end of the day)


And, last but not least, we had lunch with Dan at work today. His last day in this office (and in the new hire training program) is tomorrow! He starts his first "real" assignment when we get back from New York. We're pretty sure he'll be back downtown again and hopefully can set up a carpool with a neighbor. He's excited for the new challenge.




Have a great weekend! We'll be sure to post pics from our New York adventures when we get back.

A New First

Now that we've cleared the major hurdles of crawling, walking, etc., it feels like there aren't many "firsts" anymore.
But here is one from Tuesday--prepare to be amazed!

Can you tell from this angle? Not quite?


What about now?!? It's a pony tail!!! (ok, really it's a pony tuft...and when there's only like 8 strands of hair in it, you have to go around about 10 times before a rubberband will stay in and Megan wouldn't sit still for that so this only lasted about a minute, but here it is) YAY!