Happy Easter!!

I cannot BELIEVE how early our kids were up, begging to go downstairs and find their Easter baskets!!! Gavin came in a 5:45am??????! We have to D-R-A-G their bums out of bed at 6:30am on school days and then they are magically awake an hour earlier on non-school days?? I'll never figure that one out.

I was seriously annoyed and because we made them wait until a decent hour (finally relented 6:45am), my annoyance grew every time they came back into our room to ask again. I'm seriously reconsidering some of our Easter traditions....

Anyhow, they were thrilled to see that the bunny had filled their baskets with books, toys and goodies.

Coming down the stairs, following the trail of Easter eggs to their baskets~I'm just now seeing that it looks like Blake is laying an egg in this picture!!!!

I do have to document this, for posterity's sake. This year, I DID NOT BUY ANY NEW EASTER OUTFITS FOR THE KIDS!!!! I'm pretty sure there must be something wrong with me!! ;) I just wasn't thrilled with what was out there this year, so I put them in the same dress & ties from last year. I was so busy in the morning that I didn't even get a picture of them all dressed up before we rushed out the door for church! :(

Straight from church, we headed over to my parents' house for the evening. We had dinner, celebrated a couple birthdays (mine & Ashton's) and had an Easter egg hunt for the kids across the street at the church.

Off they go ~ Blake, Brooklyn, LexiRunning crazy!Matt loves hiding an egg peeking out of his pocket and letting the toddlers find it!Preston & AshtonGavin found the $$$ egg!!! 5 dollars!Checking out the lootCaught with a mouth full of candy!Daddy & his GirlsFather & SonsGrandpa & Grandma with all the grandkiddies!Jack (my parents' dog) was all over Scarlett (Brittney's dog) all night long!!!
She wouldn't give him the time of day. LOL!

Silly Cody with Preston :)

Our theme in Primary this month has been Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer. Both Brooklyn and Blake have given talks in the past two weeks and I love watching their little testimonies shine through. I love this special time of the year where we celebrate the One who conquered death, that we may also be resurrected and live with our Father in Heaven again one day. I love singing Easter hymns that rejoice in Christ. I know he lives!!!

Happy Happy Birthday to Me!

This is it! Only 365 days left until I leave the 20's for good!

It was a fabulous day.

The weather was beautiful!

Waffles & sausage for breakfast

Just Dance 2 (I still kick everyone's trash at this *ahem*) Dyeing Easter eggs (I think this was the first time I've EVER done this with my kids!!) "Rest" time

Easter egg hunt at Blake & Brooklyn's school (aka fast and furious chaos)Dinner at Red RobinFree dozen Krispy KremesLots of phone calls, texts and Facebook messages from sweet friends and family!

It was a perfect, relaxed day.... we didn't have to be ANYwhere or do ANYthing, which is a huge change from our normal pace. Matt surprised me once AGAIN with a Kindle for my birthday!!! I can't wait to get using it!Also, last night I was lucky to go out with some good friends to celebrate my birthday! (we all have sexy red eyes!! L-R Sarah Painter, Nicole Cronin, Kasey Turner, Celeste Caldwell, Heather Oitzman, Melissa Thornes, me)I have a feeling that 29 is gonna be GREAT!

Good news!

After my pity party/blog whine, I spent a good majority of the day CLEANING and got the house whipped into shape. Now it's not perfect by any means, but I felt mucho better after I got that tackled!! Plus that means I get to relax a bit on my birthday!

Dishes loaded, sink scrubbed, countertops and table cleared off and wiped down, floor swept and mopped.Boys laundry completed and put away. Miscellaneous junk back in its places. Floor vacuumed.Remember all the bins that used to line this wall?? All the clothes are packed away and the bins are back in the garage!Brooklyn gets the credit for cleaning the playroom. I didn't even touch a toy up there!!! She does such a great job helping out!No "after" picture of our bedroom because it's still a work in progress. I did, however, get those sheets washed and put back on the bed and the laundry piles are slowly but surely disappearing. Someday it'll be my haven.... *sigh* That's another {huge} project for another day!

I'm brainstorming some ideas that may help this ship run more smoothly. I have a feeling a little positive reinforcement may go a long way!! ;)

Field Trip to the Farm

Yesterday, our preschool co-op group took a field trip to a local farm. My boys were so excited to go see the animals!!! We were greeted by Lucy Goose, who terrified most of the kids. Quite intimidating when this thing is just your size! Preston kept saying, "I'm ok, I'm ok!" while clinging to me for dear life~ haha!We started off by listening to the farmers talk to us a bit about their work on the farm and where our food comes from; NOT the grocery store! Then we went outside for a hay ride to tour the farm and get a closer look at the thousands of cows they have.

Waving hi to the cows

We got to pet and feed the goats, sheep and a horse, hold a chicken and see a fat 'ole bunny named Sushi. Preston was happy to observe all the animals from a distance. ;)

After the tour was over, everyone got to try some flavored milk and ICE CREAM!!!

Gavin chose Moo-berry milkPreston tried the Peaches 'n Cream milk

The ice cream was definitely the best part of the field trip!!!!And since Gavin is such a yogurt lover, we had to buy some fresh yogurt from the farm!!

Where to start???

Here?

Here?Project started earlier this week that I still haven't finished?
(Can I tell you how much I despise switching clothes out for the season??)How 'bout here?
(those are supposed to be laundry piles)

Playroom anyone?????!!!!

One word --- EMBARRASSED!!!

Another word? OVERWHELMED!!!!!

If anyone were to burst into my house for inspection right now, this is what they would find.

You see, I'm really good at getting my house "presentable" for guests, but I find it nearly impossible to keep up day-to-day. I try to power through washing, folding and putting away laundry one day and meanwhile, the rest of the house gets thrashed. Leaving the house for grocery shopping, driving carpool, dance, baseball games and practices, karate, etc. just means less time to work on the cleaning. On a miraculous day that it IS clean, I'd love to be able to just enjoy it.... but we all know how that goes.

I have a toddler that is busy creating new messes faster than I can clean up after him. Older kids that just move from thing to thing to thing, never mind the mess they leave in their wake. A husband that wants down-time after work. A mom that is exhausted by the time 8:00pm rolls around and the LAST thing she wants to do is get hopping on the house.

Towels and dirty laundry left on the floors. Bits of trash EVERYWHERE!!! Four dirty bathrooms. Crumbs and sticky messes on the kitchen tile. Toys strewn up and down the stairs. Bedsheets that should've been washed 3 weeks ago. Back lawn looking scraggly. Office looking like a bomb exploded and can't even walk thru without stepping on something.

I'm in serious need of help. I hate constantly following the kids and hubs around, nagging. Nobody responds well to it and sometimes, it just seems like it would be easier to do it myself, not having to listen to the kids whine when I tell them they need to clean the playroom; the mess THEY made, all on their own. No one seems to see the messes as they walk past. Obviously I've failed miserably at teaching them how to work and clean up after themselves. Something has got to change.

What husband wants to come home to a disaster every day? I get so overwhelmed when the house is like this, I just want to sit down and cry. I don't even know where to start. It's hard to do everything on my own, just to turn around and see my hard work destroyed in 5 minutes. What's the point?

See? I'm human too. I'm out of the closet. I've recently been labeled an OVERACHIEVER by multiple people and every time they say that, it makes me sad inside. It hurts, actually. So what if I want to MAKE a baseball treat at home for a fraction of the cost instead of dragging 4 kids to WalMart to buy prepackaged, over-priced junk? So what if I bring a meal into a ward member's home and everything is made from scratch? So what if I love doing fun projects while it's my week to teach preschool? So what if I try 4 or 5 new recipes in one week? THIS is my reality. Does having a house that looks like this make me an overachiever? I think not. Maybe I'm good at putting up a false front, I don't know. Everyone wants to look like they have it all together, but clearly, I do not.

I don't know why I feel the need to do this, I just do. So go ahead and gasp in horror. I guess I'd better get started. The kids have the day off school so they're gonna be put to work. I'd like to do a fun project later today so maybe that'll be motivation enough? I just hope that my head is still attached by the end of the day.

Celebrating 9 years ♥~

This past Wednesday, Matt and I celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary!!! That means next year is the BIG 1-0!!! We decided to keep it low-key for the evening and go out Saturday. Matt insisted that he give me giftS. I protested, telling him it wasn't fair because I didn't have anything to give to him! He just has the hardest time with keeping gifts hidden and wants to give them right away. Me, I like the element of surprise on the appropriate occasion.

He ended up surprising me with a nice, hardcover blog book! HE is really the one who has wanted this and although I wanted one, I haven't had the desire to work on it. So he finally did it!! It goes from the beginning of our blog until right after he graduated and we announced my pregnancy with Preston. We'll do another book soon to catch up on the rest.Little did I know, he wasn't DONE!!! Then he brings out a stack of things, starting off with an SD card. Of course I know what's coming next, a NEW CAMERA!!!! I've been wanting to upgrade my SLR from the Nikon D40 to the D90, but have justified putting it off because it wasn't a necessity when I already had a nice camera and I'd rather spend the money on other things. Now I have this beautiful new piece of machinery that I'm trying to get to know better!! :)
About a month ago, I registered both Matt and I for Pat's Run, a 4.2 mile run in honor of Pat Tillman, who played football at ASU then was killed in action while serving our country. I knew this run would be cake for me since I've still been running three times a week, but I was a little concerned about Matt. ;)

Cody came and stayed with the kids overnight and we headed over to ASU bright and early that morning. We rode the light rail over (first time!) and it was seriously a MADHOUSE!!! Over 28,000 participants! Moving toward the start line... almost our turn to go!Matt kept up with me until a little after the first mile marker then he needed to walk so I took off. I was weaving in and out of runners, walkers and jogging strollers and felt so squished the whole time!!! SO many people!!! I ran the whole thing and finished in 43:41. Matt came in behind me at 49:53. He survived!! It was such a fun thing to do "together" ;) and I'm hoping we can do it next year as well.
A victory kiss. Matt's such a good sport to do this to appease me amongst thousands of people on the ASU playing field!!That night, we got a sitter for the kids and went off for our second date in 8 days! I've been dying to to go PF Changs for years and we finally made it there!!! So yummy! I can't wait to go back to try something else!I don't "do" chopsticks.
I managed one bite, posed for a picture then used my fork the rest of the meal.After dinner, we did some quick window shopping then headed over to the movies to see The Source Code. Very interesting movie.... one of those that I ask Matt for some explanation for mid-movie. Overall, I like it. I'm about due for a good chick flick, though! ;)

Right now, at this stage in our lives, things are great. We've been through a lot these past 9 years; undergrad, twin babies, grad school, baby #3, moving back and forth, starting a career and landing a wonderful job, new house, baby #4, church callings, etc. Looking back, I can see how much Matt and I have grown as a couple and I'm liking where we are. That's not to say every moment of every day is perfect, because it's not. We still have our challenges and struggle to balance everything we have on our plates. It's been a lot of hard work, but it's been totally worth it. I love you, babe!!!