snow and sunburns

This week was a good week for me. We got our carpets and livingroom furniture cleaned on Monday. This meant that I had to move all my furniture out of my living room and family room. And that inspired me to rearrange things a little bit when I put stuff back in. I liked how it felt open and uncluttered when the furniture wasn't there, so I tried to make it feel that way when I put everything back in. I like the new arrangement a lot.

Also, it took me three days, but I was able to go through all the toys in the girls' room and rearrange and declutter so it all fit better. And I spraypainted a sunburst mirror that I inherited from my mom. And I covered the boxes for the shelves I got from Ikea that you can see in the background of the photos below. The shelves are cheap (only $35 a piece), but then they wanted $15 a piece for baskets to hold stuff. If I had filled the shelves with those baskets, it would have cost $60 for the baskets! That's almost double what I paid for the shelf! So, being me, I decided to find a DIY solution. What I found? 12x12x12 moving boxes from Staples for $1 a piece, which I covered in burlap which was $3 a yard. So for less than $4 a piece, I have nice-looking "baskets" for my Ikea shelves.

Emilia and Mira got chocolate all over themselves and thought it was really funny.

I tried to capture a picture of Cecily in her adorable outfit, but she would not stand still!

So sweet when she's asleep, though.

The weather in Utah may be less predictable than the weather in North Dakota was. This week Wednesday, it snowed. Mira was SO excited. She got into her snow clothes and hurried outside. When I looked out, I saw her sitting on the hill, eating handfuls of it. Then she started crawling, caterpillar-style, through the snow so she could eat it without having to use her hands. Silly kid.

Then yesterday, I picked lilacs for my table and Mira and Emilia got swimsuits on so they could run through the sprinklers with their friends. Earlier in the day, we took the girls for a picnic and to feed the ducks. There was a momma at the canal who had 11 babies. Three were a couple months older and eight were little little. They were all adorable, but I was surprised to see that many with one mom. The beauty of the day made us feel thankful for God's great creations. And Steve got sunburnt. :)

Spring Break, Easter, Silly kids

Two weeks worth today because I totally forgot last Sunday. We were at Megan's house for Easter Sunday and to watch the last session of General Conference. Looking through the pictures I have for you, I can only come to one conclusion: my kids are crazy sillyheads. And they are so fun.

Cecily has been going through a phase where she doesn't like to wear her diaper. Or perhaps it's just that she doesn't like to sit still long enough to have it put on.

The full moon was so huge the other night driving home from my mom's house.

Here are the girls playing outside at Megan's house. We do Easter baskets on Saturday morning so that we can focus on Christ on Sunday. But besides Easter and General Conference, we were also celebrating my mom's, Mira's, and Dylan's birthday. So they got a few new things to play with that day anyway.

 

Grandpa an Lincoln.

Dylan and Mira playing on Nana's tablet.

Here are some more of my kids being silly. I wear my hair up in an old t-shirt for a little while after I shower and when Cecily got out of the tub the other day, she wanted to wear something on her head. She was so cute, I had to take a picture and then then others needed pictures taken, too. Of course.

This last week was spring break for Emilia. A couple of the days, she and Mira and the other girls in the neighborhood played outside for 5+ hours. It was glorious. There may have been angels singing.

On Wednesday, Steve took a 1/2 day off of work and we had some fun. First we went bowling (I did the best with a 154). Then we put Cecily down for a nap at his parents' house. We were lucky that Wilda was off work with a headache so we could leave her there. We took the older two to Nickel City. (A little arcade where you pay to get in and then all the games are a nickel.) Then we got Cecily and we all went out to dinner at a pizza place called Malawi's. It was a fun day.

Mira did a victory dance every time she rolled the ball. It made me giggle. 

Cecily thought the ball ramp was an excellent slide.

 

I also had writing group this last week and they were troopers and read over half of my book this time around. I'm excited to have it close to polished. The writing conference is next month. Happy Day! :)