Duck Pond

Carri was at our house for a week and then we had to drive her up to the SLC airport. We stayed in Provo one night and visited Trisha at BYU. We met her at the Duck Pond after she got out of class. Ruby loved the ducks and tried to walk into the water. Porter liked the ducks and when he found out we could feed them bread it was all he could talk about until we did it. We ate kids meals at the Creamery for dinner that night (what a bargain) and breakfast the next morning at Kneaders, yummy, yummy almost to the point of being sick. The next day we tried to go shopping all day but by lunch time my kids had had it. We went up to SLC to my Aunt Ruthie's to talk, play cards and luckily she made us dinner so we didn't have to have more fast food. I drove Carri to the airport and off she went to the ever cloudy land of Seattle, which is why it would attract vampires.

Easter Dresses

I sewed Ruby's Easter dress this year because I use to make dresses for my neice Josie when she was little, but had yet to make one for Ruby. I spent half of Saturday making it and it was still missing a eyelet skirt underneath the dress but oh well. I waited until the last minute to get Ruby dressed because she had a white shirt under the dress and I cleaned up all the candy but it didn't matter she somehow found a RED jellybean and ruined the first white shirt I put on her. Luckily Ruby's grandma Dodd had bought her another white shirt the week before and I changed her right before we left for church. The funny thing is that I must have not have cleaned all the red mess from under her chin because the second white shirt had a hint of pink around the chin area.

Obviously Ruby was not in the mood for picture taking because I could not get her to really smile. Even the first picture is only a half smile.

Easter

The kids woke up and before I got ready Ruby had found her easter baskets, but Porter had a harder time. I had really hidden Porters baskets this year and we had to play hot and cold for him to find them. They each had two baskets because their baskets are small and the toys they got were small but with the packaging they wouldn't fit in their normal baskets. So they each had one basket with a little toy and one basket for candy filled eggs. It was nice to have Carri here to help me celebrate because as usual Sam isn't big on holiday celebrations. Carri and I had stayed up and put the baskets together and hid them. Carri and I had tried to buy all of the fun candies we had when we were little. Carri bought the Cadbury eggs because I didn't like them too much. I bought the big Reese's Peanut Butter eggs, Cadbury mini eggs (my personal favorite), Easter SweetTarts, Starburst jellybeans, and Easter malt balls. Yummy Yummy!

Porter Strikes Again

Ruby loves Porter so much that if he does something mean to her she usually doesn't care. It was a nice chilly yet sunny day in Cedar and while I was busy Porter went into the backyard, leaving the backdoor open so Ruby followed him out there, and he turned on the hose. We have a sprayer on the end of the hose and Porter had turned it to mist and was spraying Ruby right in the face. Of course she wasn't crying so I didn't notice until she was already soaked. I sent Porter to time-out and changed Ruby's outfit for the 2nd or 3rd time that day(that is her undershirt so at some point in the day she had already trashed her normal shirt). In the second picture you can tell that with that big of a smile its obvious how much Ruby didn't care that she was soaking wet and cold.

More Easter Prep

After the hunt we went back to my house to have some Easter fun. I was busy sewing Ruby's Easter dress at the last minute so I wasn't a lot of help except taking pictures every now and then. We boiled eggs and Porter could hardly wait to start dying them. Carri and Porter colored all of the eggs. We had these little cups that came with the dye kit that Carri thought were ingenious. Porter put face stickers on his eggs and Carri had lots of fun rubbing gold on her eggs. Next Carri made sugar cookies and frosted them. I did help with the sprinkles.

Getting Ready for Easter

Saturday morning we went to the city easter egg hunt which is always chaotic. We got their early and had our baskets ready. The eggs were tossed around and this one guy (he was part of the group putting on the egg hunt) realized that their wasn't any eggs close to our side so he attempted to get us to move in 10 ft but kids on the otherside of the area saw us moving and thought it was time to go. We stood there knowing we weren't supposed to go but the guy couldn't stop the other kids so if we didn't go we wouldn't get any eggs so away we went. I think their should be only one adult per child allowed in the egg area because you have to push your way past parents to get the eggs. Last year when we only had one kid I stayed out and took pictures while Sam helped Porter. People need some common sense.

Aunt Carri

My sister Carri came to visit on Friday April 21st. We waited and waited and Porter asked everyday for 3 weeks if today Aunt Carri was coming. Sam just happened to be in SLC the day that Carri could fly in after her finals so he drove her to our house. Friday morning Porter woke up and the first thing he said was "Aunt Carri is coming today". - Carri I need a picture of you and the kids.

Thank you Grandma & Grandpa Dodd

Grandma & Grandpa Dodd sent the kids $10 in their Easter cards and boy did they have fun finding something to buy. Porter wanted lots of toys but ended up getting a Cars toy that shoots out the car, he also got bubble gum and Starburst. Ruby got a baby stroller that she can practice walking with and play with her babies.

Haircuts

Porter and I both got haircuts this week. Porters hair was way way too long. I knew he needed a haircut but I was amazed how much hair I cut off. He always wants his hair in a mohawk or "pokey" so I just cut it so he has a faux-hawk.For the last year I haven't cut Sam or Porter's hair because we haven't had clippers. I finally broke down and paid $85 for a really good set. The lady told me that if I oiled them the right way they should last for 10 years. Our previous clippers have last max one year but these should be a lot better.

I also got my haircut this week which was a lot of fun. A friend of mine is really good at cutting and styling hair. Everyone who knows me knows that I never do my hair which is partly because I hate it in my face and partly because I have no idea how to style hair. Shanette told me everything she was doing and what products to use so I have high hopes that I can make it look nice. I also got bangs which I am really excited about because even if I put my hair in a ponytail I have to do something with my bangs. So here is my new hair cut, its hard to tell from the pic but it is shorter in the back (A-line).

St. Patrick's Day

This year St. Patricks wasn't as much fun because Porter wouldn't eat any of the green food I made him. I made him green macaroni and cheese and he refused to even try it. The "leprechauns" had dyed his milk green and he wouldn't drink that. I even made green cookies that he wouldn't eat. In the morning my goal was to get a family pic with our green on, but that never happened. I did get one picture of Ruby trying to get food out of the freezer.

Megan's 15th Birthday

My sister-in-law, Megan, had her 15th birthday on March 10th, which makes me feel really old because when I first met her she was a sweet 7 year old. Luckily she is still sweet but now 8 years older! We met the family at Texas Roadhouse in St. George and I now love it. The food was really really good, they bring out rolls with cinnamon butter, you can spit peanut shells on the ground, and they are really good at embarrassing people on their birthdays. They bring over this saddle that the birthday person has to sit on while they yell some birthday stuff. Megan was so embarrassed and didn't want to sit on it but they made her. I definately wont go to Texas Roadhouse for my birthday but it was fun to watch someone else be embarrassed.

The trip to St. George was a lot of fun. We met Sam's Mom at Costco and bought lots of things, like a kite. We also stopped at Target and Kohl's and spent more money. For those of us that live in Cedar going shopping in St. George is a big deal so we had lots of fun and Sam was in the mood to spend money so that was nice too.

Sandbox Fun

Monday's are Sams day off, for now, so we did some work on our backyard. We went to the gravel pit and got another truckload of sand to fill in behind our retaining wall. We had to wheelbarrel the sand to the wall and then rake it out. Porter, of course, wanted to play in the sand we were dumping and not in is newly finished and wonderfully large sand box that his amazing mother had made him. After we were finished dumping sand Sam decided to bury the kids in the sandbox. They had lots of fun but afterwards they had sand all over them. We had to drive to St. George that night so I put the kids in the bathtub and there was sand all over the bathtub. Porters hair had lots of sand and he he doesn't like getting his haircut anyway so he was crying through the whole thing. After the tub we realized we were running a little behind schedule and hurried and got the
kids all dressed and ready and looking nice for Megan's Birthday.

Ruby and the Tramp(oline)

The weather has been really nice in Cedar recently, occasionally there are still days where it snows but it hasn't stuck for awhile. Our grass is all brown and rough so Ruby can't really crawl around. The other day I put her on the trampoline so she could crawl and bounce. After playing for awhile she crawled to the edge and sat on her bum. The problem is we are missing the hooks for two of our elastic springs and of course she was trying to sit right where there was a hole in the springs. She started to fall right through the hole so I freaked out and ran as fast as I could but when I was about 4 ft away and starting to dive for her I realized she was stuck. Once I realized she was fine I took a picture!

FYI -For all those who haven't seen my trampoline it is less then two feet off the ground. We took out the middle pieces of the leg supports so we wouldn't have to worry about Porter falling off, most adults can't even walk on it without it touching the grass.

Ruby

I was bored and wanting to take pictures so I tried out some new techniques but the sun was too bright. These pictures are so Ruby. She always smiles so big that she shrunches up her nose and squints her eyes. She loves to play with wipes and will wipe her toys if we tell her to clean. Ruby is such a sweet baby and most of the time she doesn't wear headbands because he hair is too out of control. Usually the headband will look good at first so I will leave it in thinking it will be okay but before long it falls out and her hair is in her eyes. Sam keeps saying she needs a haircut but I have to keep reminding him that little girls dont need haircuts.

Computer Problems

I have been horrible at updating my blog but both of our computers are having problems. I accidentally downloaded some major virus onto our desktop (it was really dumb and now Sam tells me that I am always the one to ruin computers, ha!) The laptop, which luckily now works, was running really slow and Sam found a virus on it too (not my fault). So Sam is going to reformat the desktop and I have literally spent the last week transferring all the photos 2G at a time to the laptop. The desktop transfers sooooo slow and randomly just stops working so the thought of using the computer anymore then I have to right now is enough to make me crazy. So I will update more when I get this all worked out.