Easter

I should have been sad that Dahlia chose to hide the eggs for her younger cousins this year instead of wanting to look for eggs herself. But to be honest - it was great having her do all the work. New tradition!

We had a fun little Easter egg hunt with pizza (naturally) on one of those deceptively nice-looking but actually freezing April days. And don't worry - I did cook an actual ham (with funeral potatoes even!) on Easter Sunday.

Meanwhile, in Idaho, Biz and Dad found their Easter baskets in Ty's laundry room. Perfect! I don't have pictures of our family with their Easter baskets this year. Back in March, Utah was hit by a couple of earthquakes and we decided with the kids that the Easter Bunny should bring 72-hour kits to our house this year. Which the kids were totally on board with - in March. Not so much on Easter morning, which I knew would happen. But we did have candy and gift cards to their favorite stores in addition to the emergency preparedness backpacks. So I feel like the Easter Bunny should get some points for that.

Other, cooler, families had better luck with their baskets.

And my Aunt Jilene sent me the best Easter gift of all - pictures from Easters past. Love these! 

Easter means more to me as a tired, middle-aged woman than it ever did as a kid. 

"He Lives - and while He lives I'll sing."

Hoop Dreams

Rounds 1 and 2 of March Madness were in Salt Lake this year, so Tyler and Bryce got to spend some of their spring break with Grandpa. 

Mickey wasn't super interested in attending until he saw the pictures of Bryce and Tyler eating ice cream. And then he was more open to it. We enjoyed the games - and the hamburgers, nachos, ice cream and gelato etc. Apparently I didn't take any pictures of us at the games. 

But I did get one with Mickey and the brothers.

And.... We're Back

Sometimes I feel like blogging. And sometimes I don't. It's like they say, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit." Thank you, blogging world, for not throwing a fit.

So, what's happening? The first thing you should know is that IT'S SPRING! We have flowers in our yard. Dahlias even. And it's lovely.

Also, the Jazz are out of the playoffs. Which is sad for some people. And really kind of a relief for others.

And my nephew Theo continues to live the dream.

That's the basic gist of things. I'll try to do a couple of other catch-up posts. But you're more or less up to speed.

Tanner Man is Great at 8

Made a quick trip to Idaho for Tanner's baptism. I was so glad to see Kami and Ethan were wearing matching clothes when we arrived. They weren't interested in posing for a picture. They were too busy playing The Green Game, where you stack the green pieces from Sequence in piles with other green pieces.  At one point, Ethan got adventurous and tried to mix in a couple of blue pieces, which Kami didn't appreciate.

Story time with these sweeties.

Awwwww. Three of my all-time favorites.

I'd caption this picture "aye aye captain" - except Kami definitely has the personality of a captain and not a sailor. Kaptain Kami Kate has a nice ring to it.

Biz and Kami leading the opening song.

Tanner and Grandpa

Grandpa and some of the girls

The Thomas Fam

The Thomas Fam + Grandma and Grandpa Young

So proud of Tanner for his decision to be baptized!

Dodge Ball

There's a new trampoline park near us that the kids have not-so-subtly been hinting we needed to try. It's like they love to take every opportunity to remind themselves that I'm the least coordinated member of our family. 

The kids really liked the trampolines, the "ninja warrior" course, the balance beam/battle beam over the foam pit, and the rock climbing wall. (Side note: Yes, the kids are spoiled. I knew that before I read that description of the trampoline park, but it's becoming even more clear to me now.)

But they LOVED the dodge ball. Jason started out watching, but he wouldn't stop complaining about how bad the young children were at the game and how "everyone knows the rules to dodge ball" (which, ahem, they don't) but the kids were blatantly disregarding them. So I pushed him onto the court, where he was very quickly joined by a couple of other Dad's who had also been waiting for their time to shine. With the grown men leading the way, the kids on both teams quickly caught fire and everyone seemed to enjoy the new high-energy game WAY more. I wish I had better photos, but I can't post the video, because I was laughing too hard in the background, and I won't subject you to that.

Deskside Delivery

Last Friday was, without question, my favorite work day of the year.

Ethan's 4th Birthday!

I'm sure there are holidays that are hard to share a birthday with. But Valentine's Day is not one of them. You get to wake up to pictures like these...

Including this one of Tyler's 4:30 a.m. temple trip.

Your cute husband buys you flowers.

It's also not hard to share a birthday with this guy.

Or a birthday month with these fine folks.

Especially when you get notes like this from Carly.