Easter!

Zach's kindergarten class on their Easter Party day. All the girls had to wear bonnets and the boys had to wear ties.

We decorated Zach's tie with flowers and frogs. 

Our neighbors Dean and Alice were watching their grandkids for the week. I wish they lived there!!! The kids LOVED to play with them and it was so convenient they lived right across the street! We invited them over to dye Easter Eggs.

 

Easter Sunday was the day after Justin's Grandpa Low's funeral.  He passed away just 13 days after his sweet wife. It was a special weekend to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ and know that we will see and hold Grandma and Grandpa Low again.
Kamry and I had the same color scheme going on. Justin and Jason were also twins with pink ties, but they got changed too quick to take the picture with us. Which is a bummer. We have a picture of us back in 2007 with both couples randomly wearing the same clothes. Pretty funny! 

Our attempt at a family Easter picture. :) I love Zach's face in here, Kara's closed eyes, Addie's tantrum...

A bit better. :)

 

The favorite activity of the day was doing Auntie Kamry's hair! They all loved it. Especially Zach! He was pretty into it.

 

Good work guys. Team work.

 

Hoppy Easter!
The Avery Easter Bunny showing off her bunny teeth. :)

 

Bathing Beauty

Somebody LOVES the big girl bath tub.

 

 

Checking out her distorted reflection.

 

 

 

Beautiful Baby Blues.

Speech Festival..."Where the Wild Things Are"

Zach's kindergarten class entered the speech festival and performed "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak. They did so good!! Here is a video of Zach practicing THE WHOLE THING. So get your kids, sit back, and relax and let him tell you a story. :) Amazing how much they can memorize!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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"Mmm Mmm Mmmm"

Ever since starting solid foods, Addie has been very appreciative eater. She is kind of like Bob on What about Bob, "Oh Fay, this is delicious!" except in her own language. :) "Mmm mmmm mmmm," kind of humming through the whole things while she chews and swallows. I put together a video montage of several meals over several days. It's long, but skip through and see the proof. And I had to post the scene of Bob eating so you could see the resemblance. Love that movie. :)

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

St. Patty's Day

Even the butter was green this year.
SO SICK!!!!!

 

 

Green milk, kiwi, green eggs, and green buttered toast. Yum. No one could pinch these guys! Their insides were green. 

 

I think that's a kiwi. Some people eat the peel, right?

Grandma Low's Funeral

Justin's sweet Grandma Low passed away March 11, 2013 at the age of 86. This is the first of his grandparents to pass. And amazingly enough, Grandpa Low followed 13 days later! So incredible. And so sweet. That is love. I really do think Grandma got up there and found a way to bring Bob with her. They left an incredible family and legacy that I feel SO blessed to be a part of. I am so happy I married into the amazing family that I did. And I was lucky to live with Grandma and Grandpa Low the summer before we were married. I was to twitterpated to hang out with them more and I wish I had now. Certainly a stalwart couple, raising an amazing family and serving the Lord on 3 missions each (2 as a couple together) and then doing several sessions a week at the temple in their front yard. :) I love them. And I really will miss them. So will our kids. We all know she wanted to go, and was ready, so that makes it easier, but I sure wish we could talk on the phone or something sometimes.


All of her grandsons were the pall bearers.

 

  

6 amazing children.

The Low family.
It was FREEZING...and so foggy!

Sometimes You Just Have to Take a Picture. :)

Was I proud of this? No. Should she do it again? No. But was it kinda hilarious? YES!
"Kate, don't ever do this again because it's disgusting, but wait a minute and don't move so I can take a picture." Such a lady. :)

Or when you walk in on "Tale as Old as Time..." being reenacted in your living room. :) This was adorable. Kate was even trying to pick her up and spin her. :)  

 

 

  Everyone should have a twin. These girls don't know how lucky they are. :)
 

Or when they decide to play restaurant at lunch time and Zach is the maitre'd 

Him asking me what I want. Ha ha! Love the rag on his arm. All his own doing.

...Or when you walk in on your 5 year old snuggling your baby while watching t.v.
So sweet. He loves her and she adores him. It's cute.

  

And another day I walked over and Addie was sitting by Kate in her little chair. Of course I missed the 'tender' moment while getting the camera darn it. But here's to the memory. :) 

Or just a few days ago when this little one wants to go outside so bad and play football with the others! Walk Addie!! Just learn to walk!! At least Kara plays with her through the door. :) She LOVES being outside. She crawls all over the grass and doesn't care a bit.  

Or when Zach consents to feed Addie her breakfast, but plugs his nose the entire time because he thinks it stinks. What are we feeding her?! 

How did she grow up so fast! That's a big kid face, not a baby face!

Or just to record this baby's obsession with markers/crayons. And her toothbrush. I need to get a picture with that one! She is obsessed with it!

Our little puppy. A crayon in each hand and a marker in the mouth. She can often be found crawling around with something in her mouth, a sock, a shoe, a figurine, a marker... And yes, I know this isn't safe. But sometimes you just have to take a picture and then fix things. She has 5 parents watching her and every move she makes.

 

Icicles!

This is kinda painful to be posting this blog post right now (trying to catch up!) When I am looking outside and it is a beautiful 20 degree (C) evening, brand new green leaves all over my trees, and apple blossoms and tulips in my back yard. Sigh. I love spring...But this post is about winter. A cool part of winter. Icicles! Here are some pictures taken on 2 separate occasions a month apart I think. We got some pretty amazing icicles and the kids love it!

 Turns out this girl loves water in all of its forms. They LOVE ice and icicles are a special treat!

And yes, I let them eat them. I try and makes sure they look halfway clean at least and do not let them eat ones that formed on the bottom of cars. :) Such a good mom. At least I draw the line somewhere. Ha ha! Mama always said, "God made dirt and dirt don't hurt."

This little one wants to be out there too! No fair!
Learn to walk Addie!


Crazy icicles meandering through the branches.

Addie found some snow on the mat and had a try. Woo that's cold!

Taking Zach to school. Hope it doesn't fall on him! I had to take a picture before we backed out because they were long enough the car would hit them!

 

 

THIS one was the most amazing!

It was as tall as Kate!

I bet my California family is pretty impressed by this!!! See guys. You should move here. It's so awesome!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

The night before Valentine's day was the night we flew home from California. :( We ended up stuck overnight in Great Falls because of bad weather. Boo. Just the welcome we were hoping for! The on ramp and freeway looked AWFUL so we decided to get a hotel. I cried. So done with winter and snow and it ruining my plans!!! So inconvenient and unpredictable. We were trying to get back for Valentine's Day because the girls had their field trip to see 'Aladdin' that the local high school was putting on and then their Valentine Party after that. Zach also had his last day of ice skating lessons with his kindergarten class and we had already missed one of the 6 lessons because we went on our California vacation. So I was mad. I was mad at the weather and the snow and not knowing if it would be better up ahead (which I think it did clear up, but we felt like we should stay, so we did.) It ruined my plans and my kids' fun. I was also sad because I had just come from my former reality to my present and eternal reality. Winter. Snow. For the rest of my life. ;)  "There is another way people! We don't have to live like this!!!" I know I am being dramatic, but really there are lots of winter days where I can't help but remember/dream of my sunny, warm beach-going-pool-swimming-sunshine-and-clear-roads-all-year-round (excepting the traffic of course but kids don't care about that stuff) childhood. I tell my kids I didn't really know what snow was and had to drive an hour to it in the winter if we wanted to play with it and got so excited with the first tiny patch of snow we saw on the roadside. They always look confused. In the beginning of winter they think that is sad! But by the end, they too are asking Justin to move to California by Papa and Mer Mer. And no, I don't ever pressure them or teach them to say that because I want them to love where they live. But they are seeing the light on their own!
After I got out of my 'woe is me' moment and realized how blessed I am and how good it was to be home, and after we drove home the next morning in the light on clear roads...,I was happy to be back. I love my home. And the people around me.  And everything turned out great. Justin went skating with Zach. I got to take the girls to another showing of Aladdin. And their classmate brought their Valentine's home for them and put them on our doorstep. All is well.



Here is our cute little Valentiny. :)

Justin and Zach brought me some of my favorite flowers for Valentine's Day.
Sunshiny yellow tulips in February. Yes please!
I love my men.



And here is what I got him! My practical man. He is always complaining about our vegetable peeler for potatoes, so I quizzed some of my Facebook friends and found that this one was a good one. The best part was my note to him though...

I'm so punny. :)
"Words CARROT express the way I PEEL about you. POTATO have to when I can show you instead."
Get it? Carrot = Cannot...Peel = Feel....Potato = But they don't
Yeah, he didn't really get it either. Well, the first part he did, but the "Potato" kinda took him a while. I should have just stopped after the first sentence, but I couldn't because I was giddy driving home in the car at 8:30 pm that night with his gift and thinking I was so funny. :) 

V-Day was also the 8 year anniversary of our first kiss! :) Woo woo.

And here's Kate with her Valentine, Waddles, all jazzed up. She is funny. :)