nicest weather ever!

Earlier this week we had a few days of total summer weather. By mid-afternoon it was about 85 degrees, no wind, no clouds...it was perfect. Elsie and I spent lots of time outside and we were able to break out her new summer clothes.

I thought this little outfit was so cute on her. It made me feel so happy and summery! Plus, I think she looks like such a big girl in this picture. We invited some friends over to our house to play with a fun sprinkler I bought for Elsie. She woke up from her nap and I told her that they would be coming over to our house soon, so she stood at the window on her stool waiting for them to arrive. She waited for about 2o minutes. It was pretty cute.

She wasn't a big fan of the sprinkler, but she had a good time playing with her buddies. Oh, how I miss the days of being able to run around in your swimsuit all day without a care.

I have been giving Aaron a hard time about not getting any pictures of me, so I forced him to take some of Elsie and I the other night. Neither of us were really dressed or ready for a photo shoot, but he got a couple cute ones.

(Nice chin shot, huh?!)

Yesterday I spent the day washing windows for a YW camp fundraiser. It was a long day, but our girls are really great and we had a fun time. I really enjoy the other leaders I work with as well. We worked from 8 a.m. to about 3:30 in the afternoon. I was so tired when I got home! The highlight of the day was when Aaron called me in a total panic telling me, "I told them to send you in. Come in the house!" Well, here's the back story. We divided into two groups, and my group was not the one assigned to do the homes in my neighborhood. When I realized that, I gave the other group my garage code in case Aaron wasn't home when they went to my house to clean windows. Apparently, one of the leaders, after knocking on the door a few times, came in through the garage and said "Hello. YW are here." No response. So she said it again and Elsie came running over to greet her. Well, then she heard Aaron yell from upstairs. As it turns out, Aaron was in the upstairs bathroom using the clippers to shave his legs, chest, etc. (don't ask me why he does this!) and he was NAKED!! Elsie was downstairs watching a show to stay occupied. So as I'm talking to him on the phone, we called the other leader on her cell phone to let her know that it would probably be a good idea to come back to our house later. I tried not to give too much information, but I finally just had to tell everyone. We were all laughing so hard!!! Anyway, now he's famous in the ward...at least among the YW leaders!

orange popsicle

(Beware: This post contains a crazy amount of pictures, but I had a hard time choosing which ones to leave out. They are all too cute. But it's my blog and I can do what I want! :)

Yesterday was one of those days that just made me so happy. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we got to be together as a family. We were outside practically the whole day. We took a walk in the morning, hit around the tennis ball (I know, I know, it was Sunday...but we couldn't resist), played outside, sat on our little porch and looked around the neighborhood, visited with our neighbors, and took another walk. I felt genuinely happy and content, and I even got a little sun on my face. What a great feeling!

Elsie ate one of her popsicles while we sat on the porch. It was orange (her new color obsession), so that made it even better.

Elsie's faces...always entertaining!

When I say "cute smile" this is what I get. I think it's cute (I am her mom), but it really isn't the best smile she's got.

This smile right here is the one that just melts my heart.

Elsie insisted on putting on her BYU hat just like Daddy. She's also loving her new crocs (she was these pink ones and some purple ones and doesn't want to wear anything else).

She was so sad when her popsicle was finally gone (it didn't help that Aaron kept taking bites off of it), but Aaron got her all excited about playing with the stick and she forgot all about it.

just for fun

I love how Elsie drops the "h" when she says hello and sounds like she has a British accent. It makes me smile everytime she does it. She's already better at accents than Aaron is!

Easter in Moses Lake

None of us were looking forward to getting in the car for another trip, but there was no way we were going to miss out on our last adventure before Aaron started his job.

We headed up to WA on Thursday after Aaron finished up some court stuff in the morning. It took a little bit longer than he expected, and he even skipped going to the gym because he knew I was so anxious to get up there. We drove to Pasco and spent the afternoon/evening at Jared and Lindsay's house. Lindsay cooked us an absolutely amazing dinner (this is where I knew there was no hope for diet this weekend)! Elsie even ate some of it, and she's picky as can be. Angie and Qiana drove down to meet us there as well. The weather was really nice that day, so Elsie spent quite a bit of time in the backyard with Kaiya. It is so nice to see them finally starting to play together. Elsie's finally getting old enough to provide some company. Before it got too late, we drove up to ML. Aaron passed a big group of cars on the highway at a very fast speed (tsk tsk) and got pulled over. However, it turned out the cop pulled us over because our taillights were out. Phew!!

Friday was a nice, relaxing day. Aaron and I did go to the high school track and ran...well, I ran/walked. I guess I can feel better about the toast/jam we had we when got back, right?! We played a game, went out to Dana's for lunch, Aaron and Elsie took the longest nap ever that afternoon, and I got to go to Wal-Mart with Angie. A trip to ML isn't complete without a stop at Wal-Mart!

I had to get a picture of Elsie playing on the organ at Grandma's. We all used to love playing it...all the different sounds in could make and the different beats. I wonder how many little hands have touched that thing over the years?!

That night we went out to eat at Inca's. When we got home Grandma wanted to show us the video from Grandpa's 80th birthday celebration. It was very entertaining for a variety of reasons....getting to see my mom as the host of the evening, seeing cute grandpa's reaction to our presentations...and seeing how fat my face was and how horrible my hair was and how cheesy Aaron and I were together. To make me feel a little better, I must mention that Lindsay's face also looked a little larger than it does now. It must be that our face shape has changed because I know I've weighed a lot more than I did then. Plus, Jared couldn't keep his hands off Lindsay and they kept making googly eyes at each other. Even cheesier! Anyway, we all got a good laugh besides the fact that it was really neat to remember that evening.

Elsie kept herself entertained by rocking back and forth in the chair with Kaiya.

...And by running around the room.

...And by hugging and kissing Qiana.

Jared (who loves to be cheesy) and Kaiya snuggling on the couch.

Saturday morning we had an Easter egg hunt in Grandma's yard. Ryan brought his kids over (and Tom and Gail came to watch the fun) to join us. We made the boys go in the back while the little girls got to find eggs in the front. Elsie was totally into this year. Her basket was kind of big (not great planning on my part) but she insisted on carrying it herself while she found the eggs. It's no big surprise that she didn't even care about the candy in the eggs. She has more will power than I do, that's for sure.

Aaron tried to get a picture of Elsie and Kaiya together, but, no, Elsie didn't have time to stop for a picture. She had better things to do. Good girl, Kaiya.

Cute picture of Elsie holding hands with Carson. Too bad she refused to look at the camera.

Nearly every picture Aaron took shows Elsie's tongue sticking out. Her concentration face!

We probably should've dyed easter eggs before Saturday night, but that was the only time that worked. Besides one little spill of a cup of dye, it was pretty fun. Aaron always gets into dying eggs and helped Elsie make one the way she wanted it...purple and orange.

Don't you love Carson's face in this picture?

We didn't really talk a whole lot about the Easter Bunny coming to fill Elsie's basket, so she was really surprised to see her basket full of goodies. The Easter Bunny filled it mostly with little toys, so she was very happy.

We had to get to 8:30 a.m. church that day, so we were pretty rushed in the morning. Elsie threw one of her best tantrums ever, so we didn't even think to get a picture of her in her dress. She did look cute! We ended our visit with a wonderful lunch of german pancakes (my choice) that Angie made for us. What a great weekend. We loved visiting, letting the kids play together, planning the family reunion...it was just really nice!

(Notice there are no pictures of me. I have asked Aaron a bunch of times to try to get more pictures of me when he's in charge of the camera. Usually I'm the one taking pictures. Well, the two pictures he got of me during the Easter egg hunt were of me stuffing candy in my mouth and bending over to pick up an egg for Elsie...neither one was the least bit flattering. Thanks, Aaron!)

Aaron is "yardy"

Aaron has been so excited to get the yard cleaned up and looking pretty. Our irrigation water was turned on the other day, so he was very motivated to mow the lawn, get the fountain ready, and fix the sprinklers. I really don't know anyone (well, except Gary) that gets so excited to do yardwork. He has all sorts of landscaping plans to get the yard looking better, but who knows what we'll actually do because we don't want to put too much money into it. I really am grateful that he takes care of all that stuff and keeps the outside looking nice, so I don't have to do any of it. (Now, if I can just get him to clean up INSIDE!)

So he mowed the lawn this morning, and it looks so nice out there. It has definitely made even more anxious for nice weather and hanging out on the lawn.

On the road...AGAIN

So what do you do when you have all sorts of time on your hands and you already have a trip to WA planned for Easter weekend? That's right, you head to Utah...again! :)

We realized that we needed to take advantage of the time off before Aaron goes back to work and we can't use his vacation days for 6 months. We had thought about trying to go somewhere warm, but the only places that were close enough for us to drive weren't going to be great weather over the weekend. It worked out for us to head back down to Utah and relax with family.

It really was a nice, relaxing weekend...not a lot of running around, trying to get here and there. We ate lots of food, played lots of games, did a little shopping, hung with the fam. Gary and Sylvia tried to fatten us up as usual (ha ha), but we enjoyed every minute of it!

Elsie's is such a trooper in the car. The DVD player we got helps a lot! She was making herself quite comfy, as you can see.Can you say spoiled?! Aaron and I came home from the store one night to find Elsie watching TV while leaning up against Grandma on the bed with her pizza mounted on a pillow and Grandpa sitting close by. She is the queen!

Grandpa was reading the newspaper to Elsie and she was enjoying the snuggle time.

It's always nice to getaway. We're excited to go to ML next weekend for Easter, but then we're home for most of the summer. :(

I guess that means the party is at our house!!