St. Patrick's Day

Usually, St. Patrick's Day is a day full of green dye.
This year, I made these pancakes and eggs green by adding lots of spinach, and the kids LOVED them!  Who would have thought whole wheat spinach pancakes would go over so well!  This will become a regular at our house!

My sisters and a few nieces came over for lunch!  We had spinach wraps, rainbow fruit, spinach salad, cucumbers, chips, sushi, vegi sticks, and rice crispy treats!

 

After lunch we read, "Leprechaun on the Loose" and went on a scavenger hunt!

Payson, Parowan, and St. George

This last week I made the error of boiling eggs--then forgetting, then going to the park for 3 hours.  When we came home the house was filled with smoke from floor to ceiling.  We have some AWESOME neighbors that have been helping us with cleaning up the smell (thanks Tressa and Ryan).  We decided to get away from the smell and take a little trip down south to St. George.

On our way down, we had a little car trouble and we spent the night at Payson Quality Inn.  The kids LOVED it!  They loved the breakfast the next morning--especially the "Friday Drinks."  (I try to only give my kids sugar drinks once a week, and we chose Friday, so the kids call them 'Friday Drinks.')

The kids (mainly Andrew) needed another break on the way down and we stopped in Parowan which is the cutest little town, and I'm so glad we stopped! 

Shortly after getting to St. George, it was time for a nap.  I love this picture of these two cuties!

Mom and Dad gave Matt this cool spider-man parachute thing.

And we played some croquet. 

That night we went to the park and enjoyed the beautiful weather!

The kids on the train to bed.

The next morning we saw this cool hot air balloon floating directly over mom and dad's house!

Our neighbors, the Cleverlys, are on a mission serving over the St. George Visitor Center.  We stopped by to visit them and they gave us a wonderful tour and it was really fun to be with them!  We love the Cleverlys!

After the temple we went to Brigham Young's Winter Home.

The kids were a little whiny and we didn't last very long. 

And this is my favorite picture from the trip!

Thanks mom and dad!

Busy Andrew

Alphabet Dates--N Date

Darin planned our “N” date.

(Originally he told me we were going NOWHERE with NO one and doing NOTHING)

He invited our friends the NICHOLS to join us.

We went to a NEW restaurant where we’d NEVER been.

We ate dinner at the NACHO house in NORTH Salt Lake.

We played the NOT-so NEWLYwed  game.

Later that NIGHT we watched a show on NETFLIX with NO children.

We often take our kids on the alphabet dates, and I think they were a little sad not to come, but Matt took this picture of us holding one of the kids' bath toys letter N.

#10- Buy a new or refinish my current kitchen table

I am just a little beyond thrilled about my purchase today!!

I was going to refinish my current kitchen table, but I found one today for a really, REALLY good deal!  I couldn't pass it up!  And I am THRILLED!!

Here is my old table.  (That I am grateful I had--thanks to the help of my siblings!)

But, as you can see, it has seen better days.

And here is my NEW table!!
It also has a leaf so it can comfortably fit 8--and more if we squish! 

I didn't think I'd get this one crossed off my 40 before 40 this early, but I am glad I did!

Hooray!

#5 Do the iFly

Well, I did my 1st goal in my 40 before 40--and it probably is my most exciting one!
I did the iFly!!

Darin gave this gift to me for my 30th birthday!  It was a hoot!  I laughed and screamed the whole time!

 Here is a short video (recorded by Matt).

And here is a link to another video HERE.

Surprise #2

Do you know how you can REALLY surprise someone? Throw them a surprise party after they JUST had one!

I was a little sad that Darin was going to have to work late on my birthday, so my sweet sister Heather offered to have me come to her house for dinner at 6:00, but she had to leave at 7:00.  I felt bad to put her out, but I was also REALLY glad to have something to do on my birthday.  I told her that I would bring dessert, because I just got a new tip for my birthday that I wanted to try out.

I was late getting to my sister’s house, and Heather answered the door.  When I walked in, I saw my dad sitting in the family room.  I thought that was so nice of Heather to invite dad, because mom was helping out with the dance recital.  Two seconds later Rick, Heather, Annie, Grace, Ben, Kristy, Eliza, Reese, Greg, Becca, Ellie, Sarah, Rachel, and my mom ALL popped out from behind the couch with,

“SURPRISE!” 

I was SHOCKED!  We went into the kitchen and Heather reused my “Hayleewood” sign, but instead of a “Hollywood” theme, she did a “Bollywood” theme, and did a TON of Indian food!  It was so DELICIOUS, so fun, so cute, and SUCH a SURPRISE!!

I SERIOUSLY have the BEST family in the WORLD!!! 

Thank you SOO SOO  much Heather and Greg!!