Easter & Ryan’s Birthday

Ryan’s first birthday fell on Easter. I don’t think that will happen too often, but it was fun to celebrate both – and also, actually a pretty stressful day / weekend. Nate was out of town Friday and Saturday (until 1am Sunday) and we had been asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting on Easter Sunday. I had grand plans of dyeing eggs, doing an Easter Egg hunt for the boys, and doing some awesome things for Ryan’s birthday, but – it didn’t really happen. This is partly why:

For several days, Ryan was teething and struggling with his naps. I would spend forever trying to get him to go to sleep, and wasn’t successful – then he was just tired and fussy the rest of the time so I couldn’t get much done. Two days in a row, he hadn’t taken morning naps and fell asleep like this while eating lunch. The second day, he was actually still chewing with his eyes closed. It was pretty funny.

Anyway – the Easter bunny did make it to our house, although I didn’t even take any pictures of it. We were grateful to have our talks over with – although it was stressful preparing, I was grateful that I had the chance to focus on the real meaning of Easter and Christ’s atonement and resurrection. We did attempt to get a couple pictures after church – no great family ones, but at least a cute one of the boys in their Easter outfits (not sure what Bennett was doing in the first one).

We went up to Nate’s parents’ house for a yummy Easter dinner and enjoyed the beautiful weather outside. We had a little cake for Ryan, and fortunately, he did not follow in his brother’s footsteps and devoured it :) He was a little skeptical at first, but decided it was pretty good. Bennett and their cousins enjoyed watching / helping him open some presents. It was a good day – I definitely wasn’t as ambitious as I could have been, but we enjoyed our little celebrations.

 

  

(just for the record…he ate his cake wearing just a onesie, and we were about to put his pajamas on so we didn’t bother with another pair of pants. He doesn’t normally walk around pants-less).

Cosmo

Last Friday, I took the kids (Nate was out of town) to a little indoor “field day” with the MBA program where they had races for the kids, some games, and a visit from Cosmo. Bennett usually loves watching Cosmo at the basketball and football games we’ve been to, but he got a little shy with all the other kids around. He did have fun racing Cosmo and doing the wheelbarrow race with me. Of course, his doggy had to be in the picture with us. I like that Ryan’s studying Cosmo in the picture – trying to figure out what the giant animal was.

           

Bennett already asks to sing the Cougars fight song several times a week (and usually sings along with me), and lately, whenever I say “let’s go”, he starts saying “let’s go Cougars, let’s go Cougars!” It was fun for him to meet Cosmo and get a picture with him!

Happy Birthday Nate!

 

Sadly, this is pretty much the only picture I have of Nate’s 30th Birthday. I promise our celebrations were (slightly) more exciting than that! As I mentioned in a previous post, we went night skiing at Sundance to celebrate. Despite the late-season snow (and slush), we had a lot of fun. Nate even managed to fit in a little water-skiing when he skied (on purpose) over/through a giant puddle at the bottom of a hill. It was probably 10 feet long.

On his birthday, I actually got out of bed before he left for school (I’m embarrassed to admit that it doesn’t happen very often) and made him breakfast, then we went out to lunch. I was in charge of a RS meeting that night, so I made dinner for Nate and the kids and ran to my meeting as soon as Nate got home. I invited Camille & Bryce (my sister & bro-in-law) over for dessert afterwards, but neglected to tell Nate, so he was kind of surprised when they showed up at the door before I got home. Last year, I ended up singing to him by myself, so I made sure I had company this year. We enjoyed some yummy strawberry shortcake to finish off the day. Happy Birthday Nate!

Spring Break Visitors

My parents came a couple weeks ago for their spring break and for LDS General Conference. Unfortunately, I didn’t pull out my camera much, but we had a fun few days with them. Bennett wanted grandma to do everything for him – buckle him in his car seat, take him to the bathroom, read books to him, etc., and loved playing with his grandpa too. We went to the Bean museum one day and had fun looking at all the animals; went shopping; went to a BYU men’s volleyball game; went to Camille & Bryce’s for dinner; and they watched Bennett & Ryan while Nate and I went night skiing to celebrate Nate’s birthday (the big 30! more on that later). I think I only took one picture during the week – Ryan sitting on Grandma’s lap eating cheerios. Fortunately, my mom took at least a couple more of Bennett and his grandpa (playing Boggle in the first one).

That Saturday was General Conference. Nate’s mom watched the boys while we went to the morning session with my parents, Camille & Bryce, and Bryce’s parents. I got more out of that session than any other one because a) I stayed awake, and b) I didn’t have kids distracting me. It was fun to be in the conference center for it.

My dad had tickets to the Priesthood session for that night for him & Nate & Bryce, so my parents decided to just stay in Salt Lake that night and we hung out up there with them the rest of the day. We watched the afternoon session of conference in their hotel, then when the men went to the Priesthood session, the women and kids went downtown to check out the new City Creek center. It was fun, but also super crowded. I’ll have to go back sometime when it’s not as bad. We all walked back to the motel afterwards and watched the end of the final four games. The boys were exhausted by the time we went home!

 

Ryan opening, and both boys playing with, his birthday present from Grandpa and Grandma.

 

Checking out the fountains at City Creek

 

a quick visit to Temple Square

two exhausted boys!!

It was a fun week, and Bennett kept asking where grandma and grandpa were after they left. Thanks for coming mom & dad!