Our Week of Spring Break

A whole week to have my kids home. A whole week to do whatever we wanted. A whole week to try to be creative (not my talent). Somehow, I pulled it off and we had a fun week.


Monday: Library and picnic at the park. Then over to Grandma and Grandpa's for some jumping on the trampoline and popsicles.

We took every advantage of the beautiful weather we had at the beginning of the week. The kids love picnics and they love parks.


Tuesday: Thanksgiving Point Gardens and picnic. The flowers were spectacular and the crowds were small.

Wednesday our plans changed because I overdid it the day before. So, it was a play with friends in the neighborhood kinda day. Fortunately, the weather was still so nice and they enjoyed swinging, and monkeying around.

Thursday we had Gracie over with us and it was cold outside. We made cake pops, that were sent to us from Grandma Lombardo for Easter, and watched a movie and colored masks.

Friday was our big surprise for the kids. We booked an over nighter at a hotel just down the street from us. I know, kinda weird to pay money to sleep over somewhere so close, but we knew the kids would love it. I kept telling them that we had a fun surprise for them and they were DYING to know what it was. We packed up their things and headed over to the Marriott hotel by Thanksgiving Point. They were SOOOOO excited! Especially when we told them there was a pool. (Beware, picture overload). There was plenty of jumping on the beds and pillow fights.

 We had fun cuddling and playing games.

 But who am I kidding, nothing could compete with their excitement for the pool.

 Abigail was so afraid of the elevator.

 Aaron and Hannah had fun taking pictures of them self under water.

 With time to spare after swimming we headed over to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. An absolute favorite place to go!

 Then it was off to get ice cream and cuddle up to watch TV.  A luxury we opted out of at our house a long time ago. There was NOTHING on worth watching, so Abby and I curled up and went to sleep. We were pooped!

Today we ate a yummy breakfast and got one more swim in before we had to check out. It was so worth it to have this fun little family time. We ended our weekend with "The Lorax" at the theater. Hannah was telling us that she can't wait until we do this again.
Me either!

Easter Week

The kids were beside themselves excited for Easter. They had multiple parties with school, friends, neighborhood, and family. The curse with not having much candy or goodies in our home very often has caused some slight contention and I'm about ready for it to be all gone. Thank goodness it almost is. But the kids have had a ball, except for when they were being disciplined for naughty behavior, which was often.

Our Neighborhood Egg Hunt: a very cold and windy day. Nathan's basket was full to the brim with eggs.

Nathan and Hannah each enjoyed Easter parties at school as well and came home loaded up with candy. They both were so sweet about sharing.

One of my favorite family traditions is the Eyre family Easter egg hunt and traditional egg-ala-golden rod breakfast. It never disappoints! It is a favorite of Aaron's as well. Good thing since I forgot to make it for him before we married, as it is a pre-requisite that one must LOVE this dish before joining our family. (j/k) The Easter egg hunt is of course the grand kids favorite part. My parents split their yard up according to ages. This year they added money to some of the eggs and had a special prize for whoever found the golden egg.

 Nathan found some money!

Nathan also found one of Dad's famous Easter eggs. None of us have ever mastered this art like he has.

Mom does such a good job decorating her house for each holiday. Not one of my strengths for sure. The tables were so cute. Each grandchild had a little toy at their spot. With 30+ people, we managed to squeeze in and enjoy our scrumptious meal!

The rest of our time together was enjoyed by dad talking to us about the true meaning of Easter. It's always a challenge to keep the children quiet, but this time more of the little kids wanted to hear what grandpa had to say and joined us for his lesson.

With all the fuss over the Easter Bunny during the week and the fun that that side of Easter brings, Aaron and I were excited to have a more meaningful Sunday. The kids woke up to their baskets with a little candy, but mainly they were full of underwear, socks, tights, and a new dress clothes for Sunday.

 Our morning was rocky at best. Poor Abigail has a splinter in her foot and was bawling this morning as we tried to get it out. No success! Of course, I wanted to get pictures of them in their cute outfits and it was positively beautiful outside, which was making Nathan cry because the sun was in his eyes, and Abigail wasn't finished crying from her foot either. So this is a much more realistic picture of how our morning went.

Fortunately, with the threat of no more candy if everyone didn't smile, we got some cute pictures. Hallelujah for candy!!!! (did I just say that?)

We had a combination of happiness and off the chart naughtiness all day. To end our day at church Nathan screamed bloody murder at me because he couldn't have a sucker that some of the 3 year olds received in their class. Wow! On the bright side, Hannah pulled a talk together last minute for primary. She wrote the whole thing by herself. It was positively darling! And she read it by herself as well, with very little help from me.

 

 

After church we had a yummy Easter meal and divine strawberry pie. Then Aaron shared the Easter story with the kids using plastic Easter eggs that each had a symbol representing the last week of the Saviors life on Earth. I wish I had taken pictures of it. The eggs contained a cloth, nails, thorns, bread, stone, and wood. I was so impressed with how well each of them understood what each one represented. You never know just how much they listen and then they show you by repeating everything we've been trying to teach them about this most important holiday.

Unfortunately, the night ended with Nathan having to go to bed early, but the few sweet moments we had during the day will be what we'll try to remember. I'm so grateful for Easter and for the Resurrection of the Savior. For the possibility that we can be together forever because of Him, and that we will see our loved ones again. 

Conference Weekend

It is the time of year I love! Every six months to be spiritually fed by our dear Prophet, Apostles, and other leaders of the church. So much to learn! So much to be strengthened and encouraged by!

I must say, it's a bit tricky for Aaron and myself to help our kids understand just how blessed we are to have conference twice a year. There are so many great ideas available on ways to engage them, most were rewards with treats, but I thought we might luck out without the goods. I printed packets for them to color which had special pages of things to draw them into listen. Hannah really caught on and LOVED listening for those words so she could color her picture. Nathan brought his Lego's into the room and entertained himself. I'm not sure how much he got out of conference, but I'm just so glad he was in the room with us. Abigail sat quietly on mine or Aaron's lap, taking full advantage of the attention.

On Sunday I made a special breakfast and then we did more of the same. However, I brought paints out during the second and final session. Hannah painted such a darling picture of President Monson.

I usually take notes during conference, but for some reason I just felt like listening. There was so much I enjoyed that I wish I had written it down because I can't remember who said what, but I was touched by the messages on kindness, being happy for others, life and death and how death is not the end for us, agency and the importance of allowing our children to exercise their agency before they leave home, enduring to the end and showing compassion to others, and the wonderful talks on marriage and the strengthening of marriage. Oh there was so much to digest and process. I love how conference is a time of reflection and a renewal of goal setting.

Grouchy

Last week Aaron set up bunk beds in the girl room and then moved Nathan's bed in as well. Yep, all three kids in one room. I have to have my babies by themselves for the first year. I am somewhat crazy when it comes to good sleep and the only way I know to do that is "train" them to be great sleepers. It makes me so happy when I have babysitters tell me that my kids are so easy to put to bed, (this isn't always the case by the way) and that they sleep 12+ hours a night. They need their sleep and So.Do.I.

So, assuming that we'd have to do some re-training once all three of them were together, we decided we needed to have a couple months to ensure the novelty of bunk beds has worn off by the time little Joe joins our family. Almost a week later, the novelty is still going strong. Which means the 12+ hours has diminished to like 8 or 9 hours a night. Who knew that 3 hours could make such a difference? both in attitude and grouchiness? Nathan and Abigail have both taken naps during the day (something they gave up long ago), but then they are up late every night because they no longer are tired. Ugh! Even on the days they don't get a little nap, they are still up way later than normal. It's starting to wear on me an Aaron. So, last night when they came out of their room for the umpteenth time, we separated all three kids. Hannah got to stay in her bed, Nathan went back to his old room and fell asleep on the floor, and Abigail got tucked away behind our lazy boy in our bedroom. Are we mean parents? Maybe we are, but it worked and all three kids were sound asleep in minutes. Goodness gracious! we've got to get them back to their normal sleeping habits soon.

What's been going on?

So much! Don't know where to even start or if I should even share everything, but lets just say, we've been busy! Aaron has been home for the past 2 weeks and it's been heavenly. We of course had all kinds of plans to get things done.....most of which did indeed get done. The spring cleaning is the only thing I was hoping for that only slightly got worked on. But, the yard is in good order (minus the garden getting planted), you could practically eat off the floor in our garage it's so clean, all 3 kids are moved into the one room, closets have been cleaned out, most of the the clothes we've outgrown have been boxed up, baby's room is, well, vacuumed, but we still have some time to get his room ready. And then, there's been some random play in between the hustle and bustle.

I"m sad that it'll be back to the grind come Monday when Aaron goes back to work full time. I've taken full advantage of sleeping in in the mornings, taking spontaneous naps during the days, running quick errands without towing my kiddos along, and just enjoying adult company every day. But, the bills must be paid and I must admit that our regular routine will be nice to get back to.

To end this post, let me just write a few random funny things the kids have said as of late.

Abigail: "I'm so frustrated that I keep pooping in my underwear". That goes for me too!
Nathan: "Dear Heavenly Father, please let me have a motorcycle, airplane, and a rocket in my garage someday".
Hannah: "Ryker (boy in her class) gave me this today at school. I think he must love me".

Never a dull moment! NEVER!
(farm country at Thanksgiving Point)