Egg Champ

 The kids look forward to champing eggs every year. It's something that we did in my family growing up. While we have no rhyme or reason to the order that we smash eggs together, it's always fun to see the cheering that goes on! Camilla was our champ last year, and was hopeful that she would win again. Ollie really enjoyed his first time smashing eggs and wanted to keep doing it over and over again. Joe and Daddy had the final two eggs and while we were all rooting for Joe, Quatro ended up the only egg un-smashed. We then peeled and washed them and turned them into delicious egg salad! Yum!

Dyeing Eggs

 Today we spent the day watching General Conference. It began with a solemn assembly to sustain our new prophet, President Russell M. Nelson. It was such a neat experience as I hardly remember the one that took place for President Monson. I am so grateful for continued revelation and the joy and peace the gospel brings. There were so many amazing talks and quotes that touched my heart today! 

With conference taking place, and family far away, Easter feels a little bit weird this year. Last night we did our traditional egg decorating after dinner. It's so fun to watch the kids creativity grow each year.  I love the way that they look forward to traditions!

This year, Camilla thought it would be fun to use elastics on her egg so that it would have cool patterns after it came out of the cup of food coloring. The boys all followed suit and we had some pretty cool looking eggs!

Finley dyed every single on of his eggs purple. It's his favorite color right now for some reason. So funny!

Ollie colored his egg blue, and then promptly smashed it and ate it. 

Joe made sure to take his time and was very careful with his color choices...

Daddy did Uno, Dos, Tres, and Quatro from the movie we had seen at the theater and the kids thought it was hilarious. 

The Easter Bunny hid them very well and the kids had fun finding them this morning!! We enjoyed traditional egg salad sandwiches for lunch, and another session of General Conference this afternoon while the children quietly played and built lego.

Ferdinand

Today we took advantage of $3.00 movie tickets (a Spring break deal) and brought the whole family to the movies! Mr. Stannix loves the theater and was so excited to bring all of the kids to experience a movie on the big screen. Only the older two had ever been, so Joe and Fin were pretty excited to watch a movie at the theater for their first time. As we loaded them up, Mr. Stannix worried we wouldn't have enough time to find good seats by the time we made it into the city. A plan was put into place for me to take half of the kids and rush into the theater and grab seats while Mr. Stannix took the other half of the kids to the concession to grab popcorn and drinks. 

When we arrived Mr. Stannix had barely turned off the ignition before he hopped out of the van and peeled open the doors. I felt like we were in the middle of a military drill as we hurried the children from their seats and shuffled them into the theater. I was the last to join the group as I fiddled with Ollie's belt, slung the diaper bag over my shoulder, made sure to lock the doors, and hurried across the parking lot. Joe, taking up the tail end of the big kids group, tripped a few times on the sidewalk. I caught up to him in time to help him up and hold his hand the rest of the way in. We turned the corner to enter the theater only to find that the doors were LOCKED! We had arrived so early, in fact, that the theater wasn't even open yet. I laughed out loud (and hard) as we lined up outside with very few other families who had arrived as early as us. Yes, Mr. Stannix loves his movies!

The little guys were so excited when the credits began! The look of amazement on Joe's face as he looked down the row at us was priceless. Unfortunately, Ollie only lasted through the credits before he started whining for drinks of Daddy's pop and pretty much took over the bag of popcorn. He and I quietly exited the theater and grabbed the stroller from the van. We wandered around the mall for the next little while, and he even got a nap in! Mr. Stannix was super dad and did amazing with four littles. They were so tired after that they slept all the way home!

Playful Pup

This morning I looked out the window to discover big, fluffy flakes falling from the sky. This Winter has felt so long already and I am so over all of this crazy snow! Watching our wookie pup play in the white fluff helped me see a tiny bit of joy in it. While my boys beg me every day to get their bikes out of storage, at least someone in our family is still enjoying Winter.  

Easter Cupcakes

Before the kids left for school today they shared a brilliant idea for Easter cupcakes. "You could put mini eggs on the top and they would be like bird's nests!" So, this afternoon I mustered up all of my energy and whipped up a batch of my very favorite, fluffy, moist vanilla cupcakes. I piped some vanilla icing on the top and added some mini eggs. The kids were super excited when they walked in the door and smelled the aroma of fresh baked cupcakes. I may have eaten three...

Mr. Sun

Today was practically T-shirt weather. We are crossing our fingers for Spring! It was so nice to play with Mr. Sun this afternoon on the back deck.

The Bunny Banner

This week we got out the Easter banners and hung them in the kitchen. Time is just flying by and I can hardly keep up with things these days. 

Oliver is at such a super fun age! Some days I can feel the terrible two's around the  corner, and other days I just want to squeeze and hug him all day long. He is such a nut lately and we love his scrunchy nosed grins and funny faces. He is giggly and crazy and busy and all over the place.

Nap time is always a very welcomed rest for this tired mamma. We both use the time to recharge for the after school rush. I love staring at his lashes and admiring his chubby pink cheeks. It's a good thing he's cute!

Hot Water

After having no hot water since Sunday, the littles are thoroughly enjoying WARM baths tonight! Poor Mr. Stannix woke Sunday morning to a broken hot water heater while he was watching the littles. Nothing was open, so I called a plumber on Monday. They were able to come late afternoon and take a look at it. After discovering some bird remains and other unmentionable things in the bottom, they had no luck getting it working again. We had to order a new tank (thank goodness for savings), which they promised would be in the next day. At the end of the day they called and told us that they had just received the hot water tank and wouldn't be able to come until first thing the next day. Meanwhile we've been boiling the kettle for dishes, taking cold showers, and tucking our kids into bed all grubby at night. They didn't mind so much, it was like camping! One morning as I boiled the water for dishes, and used the tap water to rinse them, I noticed it was coming out warm! "Mike, you have to get in the shower RIGHT NOW! It's WARM!" I shouted. By some miracle it stayed hot long enough for Mr. Stannix to enjoy his first warm shower in days.

Ollie sat in his bath so long that he turned into a prune. He enjoyed every minute! 

The kids were squeaky clean at bedtime, and Joe's feet smelled so much better! We will never take hot water for granted again! 

Naptime Shenanigans

Oliver is such a busy boy these days. Even after a long walk around the block before lunch, he decided that he needed to rearrange his room before falling asleep. Apparently he likes his bed better in the middle of the room! 

We Made it!

We made it through another week! Gooey cinnamon buns to celebrate!