Easter morning

Obviously, Zade and the twins are still too young to grasp the concept of what Easter is really about.  But Dace can get a junior version of it.  Both Dallin and I have had small, short conversations with him about how Jesus died and then came back to life so we can live with Heavenly Father again.  He was so excited and thought that was pretty cool.

But at 4 years old, the Easter bunny steals the show and rightly so.  The boys were so excited for Bunny this year.  In fact, they were the ones who reminded me about bunny.  Good thing too or that would have been a late night dash for candy.

Zade must have asked 5 times on Saturday when the Easter bunny would "be here."  At one point, he wanted to go wait on the porch until he arrived.  When they finally went to bed, I went to work.  I filled about 30 eggs with jelly beans, mini eggs, and Reese's Pieces eggs (my favorite!).  I put their baskets right outside their bedroom door and trailed the eggs down the stairs and around the main floor.

I woke up at 630, slightly earlier than usual.  Just before 730 we heard movement upstairs.  Then the sweetest, most precious squeal of delight  and excitement.  It was Zade.  I laid their listening to him and trying to hear their conversation.  They are so good at whispering in the morning that I couldn't hear much.  But those precious gleeful squeals- that is what childhood is about in a nutshell:  magic.

As they came down the stairs, I could hear Dace:  "Holy cow!  holy cow!  There's so many!"
They gathered them all up and put them on the table before coming to get us.  Bunny had brought new sippy cups for the twins, bubble blowers for the boys as well as new whoopie cushions.

"Mommy, this is the best Easter morning ever!"   Dace exclaimed.
Mission accomplished.  :)

A Clip of Conversation

Dallin worked late last night so I was on supper duty solo.  got the twins settled in their highchairs with their food, got the boys their plates then served myself and sat down.  I was on the end, Zade to my left, Dace on my right.  I sat down mid conversation and this is what Dace was saying:

When we were still dead, Jesus came to the earth and made us.  Because that what Jesus do – he makes people......Then on the 7^th day, he was really tired........  But he doesn’t make babies.  Mommy ate the baby seed.  

Breakfast and Bed Head

These kids can have some seriously crazy bed head in the morning.  Miss can have a poofed out rats nest some mornings.  But lately the boys have been extra spiky.  Ammon rocks this rooster tail every single  morning.  Dace trumps him with multiples and Zade is just usually a little puffy-eyed.

The twins are on a yogurt and toast kick and the boys love helping themselves.  I buy small yogurts and apple sauces and put on the low shelf in the fridge, their shelf, so they can self-serve in the morning.  they know that whatever I put on that one shelf they can help themselves to any time of day.  They get a kick out of being independent and it buys me a couple more minutes in the morning to wake myself up before getting out of bed.

But sometimes that little self-serve shelf backfires.

Like this afternoon.

Zade decided he needed another apple sauce.  He also decided that Ammon needed his own yogurt.  I was upstairs at the time, unaware in the moment.  Zade quickly decided after only a bite that he would save his sauce and needed to wrap it in plastic wrap.  The twins now had access to a full yogurt cup, Zade had so graciously removed the top, and the plastic wrap drawer.

the result?
Blobs of sticky pink yogurt all the way out to the deck.  The twins decided yogurt on the veranda would be quite exceptional this afternoon.  and what better way to enjoy yogurt than with your fingers?!  They also decided that the veranda was missing something - oh, about 30 feet of unrolled waxed paper.

Once outside Miss decided she didnt want to share.  She wears the pants in the twinship.  She won the yogurt tug of war and Ammon dramatically claimed defeat.

not even flinching at his antics, Miss ran away with her yogurt...

Sometimes I get bored of playing referee and would rather just document the incident on film.  It's a good learning experience for them, right?  I think so.

Zade has been dressing himself for almost a year now but some mornings after me telling him 87 times to do so, he is so proud of himself for actually getting it done that you get this -

Cutest 3 year old ever.  

Finally some family!

If memory serves me correct, and I wouldn't bank on it, my sister and her family visiting us have been the only family we have had come to visit since our parents left after the babies were born.  Needless to say, we were so grateful and beyond excited when gramma and grampa breland arrived last Saturday.  Zade bounded out the door before they were even up the stairs to welcome them, Dace played strange for almost an hour.  But when the twins woke up, they took to them within seconds.  Especially little Miss.  We weren't even 3 steps down the stairs when Grampa caught sight of her and he was already wrapped around her finger.  They were nearly inseparable for the rest of the visit.  When they left Wednesday morning, Miss spent most of the day wandering around the house, whimpering like a lost puppy, looking for grampa to snuggle her and tell her she's pretty.

Of course, they spoiled all of us like crazy.  The boys loved going to Target to pick out their own toys.  Zade got away with putting a few extra things in the cart and loved it!  We spent most of one day in Savannah, including going for a train ride, went out for Sushi another night and spent hours and hours playing, visiting, snuggling and loving.  We sure do love them!  We also had a few other people over Sunday night to share Zade's birthday cake.  He was so excited.  I caught him coming down the stairs saying "Welcome to my birthday party!" a few times earlier in the day.  Grampa also took the boys on a nature hike and taught them all sorts of things and stopped at a construction site too!

They arrived one week after our move which was a good incentive for me to hurry up and get the house set up and settled in.  Other than setting up my office space, I think there are only 3 straggling boxes left to unpack.  Kids have adapted well and Ammom has finally, after 12 days, conquered the long, tall, intimidating staircase.

Fresh out of the tub and posing for grampa!

First meeting

Miss' first ponytail

Ammon loves taking photos.  It's his favorite!

Birthday boy loves his cake!

Little Miss Slides and Flies

A Moving Circus

We move on Saturday.  Correction- I move on Saturday.  Dallin will be at work.  We sign our new lease tomorrow and need to be out of here by Sunday.  I have to clean, pack, move, and unpack/set up.  Dallin has to finish the book and get it to press for Tuesday then work Tues- Sat.  Why do we live so far from any family??    Sighhh....oy.

Well we survived his two weeks away at training...but barely.  It was very touch and go those last couple days.  But these last several weeks have been a complete tired blur.  We've been in crunch mode with the book, house shopping constantly. battling the "colder" weather and so cabin fever with these kids.  Its been a lot.  But it always pours when it rains and the storm is coming to a head this week.  I'll post again later next week once things have calmed down, we are moved in, the book is in mailboxes, bills are paid, I have slept and can remember how to spell my own name.  ;)

But to tide you over, here's a few pics I managed to snap over the last little while:

Dace is doing so great with his letters.  I can't believe how great his printing is.

Zade loves play-doh time.

Ammon loves this soft, cozy toque (aka beanie) gramma sent him.  He will seek it out and pull it on all by himself.

 This is how, on a good day, I get showered and dressed in the morning- popcorn and Gabba Gabba.

The inspiration for March's banner...everybody's snugglies as head wraps.  they do this on their own, ps.

Staying up Waaaaay past bedtime waiting for Daddy to get home from Florida!