Spring has Sprung!

I love spring! Warmer weather, blooming tulips, open windows, starting that summer tan, and I even enjoy the rainy days. I think my girls love spring too because they have wanted to be outside every moment possible. Tori is constantly pointing outside saying, "Eeeeeee". I know it means she wants to go outside, but I think the literal translation is "Weeee" like when you go down a slide or swing on a swing.

Our favorite spring past-time lately is going to our neighborhood park. One afternoon we were adventurous and went to Liberty park to swing and feed the ducks. That was a good change of pace.


Tori loved feeding the ducks. I was especially impressed that, as our big eater, she didn't eat any of the bread. She actually gave it all to the ducks.


Madeleine loves her bike. She wants to ride it everyday possible. She's always very good about wearing a helmet and knee pads. I wish I could say I taught her the importance of wearing a helmet, but I didn't. Thanks PBS.


I love the amount of great entertainment a dollar store kite can bring. It doesn't get very high, but high enough for Madeleine, and the other neighborhood kids, to get excited about it.


I also love being able to work outside. Somtimes I would rather do the yardwork than housework. Matt does most of it now, but I'd like to think I help a little. As you may know we planted grass in our backyard last year. We knew before winter that we would have some weeds to deal with (thanks to our "screened" topsoil), but we didn't know how big our weeds would get come springtime. Ya, they are big. Even bigger in person. But we sprayed them with weed killer and mowed them down yesterday, so hopefully we'll have a better looking lawn in a few weeks.



I've also been busy moving rocks from the space under our deck. There are so many!! Soon, I hope this will be full of wildflowers. I hope it works. It's just fun to have a real backyard and try to make things happen.





In our rock moving process I came across some rusty nails. This is normal for new construction. But after picking up this pile of nails I thought I should probably make sure there weren't any more.





Well, can we say tetanus!?!! I can't believe how many we found, along with a carpenters pencil and a couple rubber bands! And to think that I haven't even finished looking. At least Madeleine enjoyed the treasure hunt.




Hopefully we'll be able to post some pictures of a good looking backyard in a few months. Wish us luck. Until then lets hope the spring weather continues and that summer doesn't come too fast.

Easter 2009

So, frequent blogging from us means once every two weeks, if you're lucky. And, you are lucky this week, because there was a major holiday, which means we had to bust out the camera.



We had a busy Easter weekend. We started by dyeing eggs on Saturday morning. I had Madeleine and Tori help with the set-up process, which was maybe a mistake. Tori took two color tablets, and instead of just dropping them in the water, she held them in her fingers under the water so they dissolved in her fingers. Of course, this served to dye her fingers brighter than any of the eggs we did. She was NOT happy with this development. She cried, she made us wash her hands multiple times, she tried to suck or wipe the color off, all to no avail. If you click to expand the picture below, you can see a tiny tear drop still stuck to her cheek, and every finger of her left hand is bright orange.



She didn't last long with the egg dyeing. She just chucked the eggs in the cups of dye and then left crying to go take a nap. Madeleine, on the other hand, turned out to be an egg dyeing pro.



Later in the day we took a trip down to the annual Goodman Easter party. We always do an Easter egg hunt with her extended family, and this year was no exception. Even in the continual drizzle that never let up all day. The kids didn't care at all, though. Tori seemed partial to the real eggs, while Madeleine got quite a bit of candy, which she was obviously thrilled about.




On Sunday, Jenny and I had to speak in church, so we spent both our Friday and Saturday night writing talks. Speaking on Easter Sunday is tough, we decided. You get people out to church who aren't usually there, so you feel especially pressured to give a moving discourse. And, it's not like you have to speak on the single most important event in history of humanity. Oh wait, yes you do. So there's some more added pressure. We struggled a little bit through the preparation, but we made it through OK. Luckily for the girls, our speaking preparations didn't stop us from having an Easter Egg hunt in the morning before church. With her second day of egg hunts, Tori started to get the hang of it. I think she was excited; what do you think?



Madeleine enjoyed the lack of competition at our own private hunt, and made out like a bandit.



The funniest bit about Easter morning was that the Easter Bunny played a trick on the girls. Jenny's Mom gave them each a stuffed animal inside of a plush, zip-up egg. Of course, they had to sleep with them on Saturday night. Well, the Easter Bunny came in their sleep and stole the stuffed animal out of the egg, to hide with their Easter baskets! Isn't the Easter Bunny clever? Well, it didn't work out quite as expected, as we were awakened at 7:00 AM to the sound of Madeleine bawling in bed that her stuffed bunny was missing from its egg! Oops. It sure seemed like a good idea at the time...Luckily, the girls found their baskets and their plush toys pretty quickly thereafter.



After church, we went over to my parents house for our THIRD Easter egg hunt of the weekend. With a little help from Grandpa and Uncle Clint, the girls found all of the eggs.



As a result of all of these hunts, we are up to our eyeballs in chocolate. This is not good when we're trying to get ready to go on a vacation that will include bathing suits. All in all, we had a good Easter. Our candy supply ought to last us until the next one.

Thankful for the Dinosaur Museum

You've missed us haven't you? Or have we scared you all off with the constant view of our creepy, mutant faces? Well, don't worry. We're here to finally update (with normal faces this time). And it's my goal to update rather often, since there's a lot that's happened that we've been too lazy to tell you all about. So let's begin with our family trip to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point (look at that cheesy Tori smile!).


Matt loved dinosaurs as a little boy, but was nervous that his girls wouldn't share that love of the big, ugly creatures. As soon as we told Madeleine where we were going and showed her pictures of dinosaurs, she was ecstatic! She kept telling us that she was going to say Hi to the dinosaurs and they would roar at her and then they would lick her. Yep, she was giggling in excitement that the dinosaurs were going to lick her. Luckily she wasn't very disappointed when we got there and they were just a big pile of bones. In fact, she absolutely loved it! To this day, over a month later, she makes sure to say in every prayer "And thanks for the Dinosaur Museum!"


She loved pretending to be a dinosaur... and pretending to be eaten by dinosaurs. No fear.


As soon as Madeleine saw this Utahraptor she immediately told us it's her favorite. Why? I don't know, it just her favorite she told me. And looking back at pictures today, she says it's still her favorite.


This is probably my favorite picture, because it's the perfect illustration of a family outing. Do you see Tori trying to climb on the exhibit? That's what she was always trying to do unless buckled into her stoller. Can you sense Matt's excitement for constantly pulling his children off the exhibits?


Tori especially liked this foot of the Brachiosaur.
"Hmmm, this looks like a good seat. Is anyone watching?"


"Wow! Look at that toe!"


"Do you want to join me? Say Cheese."


"Yes! This is the best ever!"


The girls loved all of the activities (I think...).




Tori had fun making the huge stuffed dinosaur. She especially loved wrestling all of the pieces to the floor.


The water table is one of the best parts of the museum. Madeleine could've spent all day there playing in the sand, digging up and burying dinosaurs.




Tori loved it too. If she were only a little taller.


Look at that good-lookin' guy!




We had a great time and we'll definitely be going back. I think Matt loved being able to spark a love of dinosaurs in his little girls.


And aren't you glad we made it back alive!?!