Andrew's 1st Birthday

Our sweet little Andrew is ONE!!

I can hardly believe a whole year has gone by.

I love this little boy so much!  

He is so FUN!!

We had a sock monkey birthday party for him.

We started with a little lunch.

Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches

Bananas

Banana pudding and cupcakes

Monkey Bread

Andrew being a "monkey" and climbing on the table during lunch.

And did you see his cute sweatshirt?

I knew I wanted to do a sock monkey theme before Andrew was born,
and my sister, Heather, bought him this and gave it to him at the hospital.

Then we made little sock monkey puppets.

(My darling friend Lindsay was in town and stopped by with her mom and son Jack).

And had a puppet show in the puppet theater.

We opened gifts!

And Andrew had his cake!

He got pretty messy so we took his sweatshirt on...and added the tie for fun!

We ended the party by watching this little slideshow I made.

Happy Birthday Andrew!!  

We love you!!           

Happy Easter!

On Saturday we found out that our neighbors got some new cute baby chicks.

When we went over to see them, we also saw that they had three cute bunnies.

How could I pass up baby chicks and a bunny the week of Easter?

I just HAD to do a mini photo shoot with my kids!

It was a quick session because it was cold and windy and Andrew kept squishing the animals, 

but I do think they came out pretty cute!

Happy Easter!!

Alphabet Dates--D Date

Darin planned our "D" date.

We went to Liberty park and ate a DELICIOUS DINNER (a homemade picnic) 

and fed the DUCKS.

Then we went on a walk to DISCOVER new DESTINATIONS.

While we were at the park a guy let us hold his hedgehog.  

I have never seen one in real life, so it was extra fun to hold one!

On the DRIVE home we watched the sun DESCEND.  

It really was the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen.

Alphabet Dates—Letter C

I had big plans for our “C” date. 

We drove to our CABIN, but when we got there the road was CLOSED, so we had to CANCEL the date and COME back home.  Although, on our ride in the CAR we did see some CATTLE.

The next day, we played CROQUET and looked at Heavenly Father’s CREATIONS.
For lunch we had CHILI, CORNBREAD, and salad with CABBAGE, CARROTS, CELERY, CUCUMBER, and CHUNKY bleu CHEESE dressing.

Conference Weekend

One of my favorite weekends of the year!

General Conference!

I love the uplifting messages....and some rebuking to do better!

This year I made little "Conference Bags" for my kids, with little activities, and little treats for listening for key works--hoping to motivate them to listen more.

It worked pretty well for about 3 talks.

I love this picture of the kids.

No, I didn't pose them, but they did hear the camera clicking, and planned it.

I'm carrying on the tradition of "Conference Mints."

Growing up, my grandpa Hodgkinson would give us 1 "conference mint" for every talk we would listen to.  I would take my mint, listen for about 10 seconds, then go back downstairs to play.  As soon as I heard "Amen" I would run back upstairs to get my next "conference mint."  I thought I was so clever, tricking my grandpa, but now, looking back, I'm SURE he knew what I was doing.

I'm also glad that I'm the adult now, and can have as many conference mints as I want! 

And of course, we went to mom and dad's for our conference brunch!

It was EXTRA yummy this year!  

Caramel pecan pancakes, ham, ham cups, fruit, hash-browns, juice, and french toast casserole!

April Fools!

I know a lot of people don’t like April Fools Day.

I'm not one of those people... I LOVE it!  Growing up, it was my favorite day of the year.

This year was particularly fun!

I made Darin this lunch—but when he opened each package, inside he found a homemade lunch!

For Matt and Lindsay's breakfast, I put a few drops of food coloring in the bottom of the kids’ bowls, then cereal on top.  When I poured the milk over the cereal, the milk turned blue.  The kids thought that was a pretty cool trick.  And Matt, is certain that blue milk tastes better than regular milk.

In the afternoon we went into town to pull a few pranks on my dad at his office.  I taped his phone so when he would answer it, it would just keep ringing.  I taped the bottom of his mouse so it wouldn’t work, left a mysterious piece of cake on his desk, and messed a few other things up.  He’s a good sport!  Love you dad!

When the kids took their naps, I carried Matt to Lindsay’s room (he really is a deep sleeper and stayed asleep), then I toilet papered them in.  ha ha ha-- I LOVE their faces in this picture!!

I also added mustaches to their pictures in the basement.

Last, for “dinner” I told the kids we were going to have “cake.”  

(One was meatloaf and mashed potatoes, the other cheese bread).

Then for “dessert” we had Spaghetti and Meatballs--a carrot cake, with piped white frosting for the noodles, the meatballs are just carved out of cake, the sauce is Danish dessert, and the Parmesan cheese is grated white chocolate.

Happy April Fools Day!