March Madness

Okay, I am going backwards because it's too much of a pain to rearrange the photos. 

For the last week of March we were in Utah, the kids and I, for Spring Break. We hung out in Mt Pleasant with Gma and Gpa Stum. Salt Lake City, visiting all of our friends. We were also able to attend my cousins baptism and catch up with my Knell side of the family. The kids were happy as clams spending the night at various friends homes. I stayed with Rose for some nights and then at my friend from my ward, Pam's house. She's a great hostess with comfortable home. I snapped a photo of this phrase she had on her wall. She's been through a lot of trials in her life and yet she's still a positive, strong woman in the Gospel and I love her example to me. 

And I was able to do some real estate while I was in Utah. It was awesome!

Colin eating his favorite meal: macaroni and cheese, at the Corner Bakery in SLC.

We celebrated my birthday at my parents house. Jennie made me an amazing ice cream cake, I think I requested cookie dough and peanut butter cups, my fave combo. I was also treated by some friends in SLC and Nora (see below).

 Can't go to SLC without a stop to the best cake donuts in town, Banbury Cross.

Mount Pleasant fire pit nights. My dad relocated his fire pit so this was the first time using it, at least he grandkids. Hot dogs and S'mores.

Each time I am in Utah I try to carve out several hours to go my fave salon so they can do their curly magic. Sadly, it's not realistic to keep up this habit and I need to find a local salon that I can trust here in Denver area. They introduced this new gel to me and it was amazing!!! Best part is...it's just as good as the other brand I had been using, but much much cheaper and easier to get (Target vs private salon stores via Steph).

I also got my nails done (see a few pics down)...and they match my pants almost perfectly.

Luckily, there was enough snow on the mountains and Sam got to ski, it had been a year since he'd gone for the fist time and learned. He was able to go skiing with 2 of his best friends (Ethan and Aaron) because my dad and Rose took them. But he needed some new snow pants because he outgrew his old ones. So I stopped at a couple of thrift stores in SLC and found a great pair for him. C&C also found some fun toys at the thrift store.

We stayed with Rose for a few days which was fun and helpful.....this is her cats butt.

I was able to go to the Denver Aquarium for the first time with Cecily's 3rd grade field trip. It was fun!

Felines are my favorite animal in the world!

I can't remember the name of this fish but I loved how its eyes bulged out of the water 

Beautiful and bright!!

Nora took me out to lunch and we got pedicures for my birthday. She's hardly been to Cafe Rio so I was happy to share it with her!

I took these to a movie....I think it was "The Secret Life of Pets 2"...the older kids didn't want to waste their time. It was an okay movie. Funny at times but redbox worthy.

We bought a $600 car from Stoehr's neighbor for Samuel. It's old and mostly functional. Well, Jocelyn is too mortified to be seen riding in it. This is her during one of the school drop offs or dance pickups. hahahaha.

St Patrick's Day fell on a Sunday this year so we had dinner with Tyler's fam. Corned beef and cabbage. Lori had some fun games planned for the kiddos.

This is one of the 1 cent horse rides at King Soopers. I rode the very same horse when I was a kid, and it only cost 1 cent. An employee told me they had just done some work on it. I am so happy they or someone maintains these little rides and that they haven't increased the price over the years.

Cecily and I went to another movie....but I can't remember which one! Lego ? Anyway, this was back when we had movie type passes and it was a lot cheaper to go to the theater.

Jocelyn was having some fun with herself! Look at that smolder.

One of the several snow days we had this month! One day they preemptively cancelled school and we woke up and it was just raining. But it quickly turned into an icy, snow, windy blizzard so I was glad they canceled. 

Jennie and I have this running joke....that neither of us (plus Grant) can't successfully make rolls. This was the first batch, in over 6 tries between us, that sorta worked. Since then (November I am writing this) she has successfully made them perfectly.

Cecily was reading to Colin one night in his little tented bed. She is so kind to read to him so frequently. It counts as reading for him and her! They are great pals, most of the time.

This is Cecily being awarded her Science fair honors.

We went to the Children's WOW museum in Lafayette with Heidi/Lori. This was clearly his favorite dress-up. 

Girls

Tonight Jocelyn and I had this conversation,

J said, "I wish the moon was dead"
I said, "Why?"
J, "Because I wouldn't have to go to sleep and I could just take little naps instead and stay up late like you get to."

Haha, I thought to myself. First of all, she no longer takes naps, except when she falls asleep in the car. And secondly, I didn't want to go into the natural necessity of the moon and how it makes our world go round. She has a hard time staying young and yet not wanting to grow up.

Take this for instance. She LOVES to paint anyone's nails, those who will let her. Cecily came up to me handing me a bottle of nail polish, "unh, unh" that's "here" in baby language. So I offered it to J and she took over. Thanks Aunt Stephy! You taught her everything she knows about painting nails and now she's passing it on :) Cecily loves her big sister, except when she gets attention from me then the jealousy creeps in. Jocelyn keeps saying she can't wait for Cecily to grow up so she can play more with her. I think it's sweet that they get a long so well and that Cecily looks up to Jocelyn so much.

Not a bad job either!

Cecily's celebration

I realized that I never finished showing pictures of Cecily's first birthday. Here are some more fun photos!

I love the classic first candle faces! You can see the whole thought process, it's fun!
I deliberated (for way too long) about which baby doll to buy Cecily. For some reason, Jocelyn was not ready for her first baby. I got her one for her first birthday and she really didn't care much for it. Jocelyn grew to love them when she was a few years older. But when I noticed Cecily taking Jocelyn's dolls and rocking back and forth while holding them, I knew she needed her own.
So I couldn't decide b/w the cheap $5 kinds where the head looks like they could pop off at any moment. But then I saw these baby cabbage patch surprise dolls. I reeeeally wanted to get it for her. I had a big cabbage patch doll growing up and loved it. But these were smaller, perfect for her size. But they were a surprise, covered in a cabbage leaf. You didn't know what color hair, if any, you'd get or if it was a girl or a boy. I wanted her to get a girl and I cheated because I saw a pink bow and blond curly hair peeking out of the hat, and it reminded me of her. So I bought it. And I am so happy I did because look at her reaction! Now she sleeps with her first baby.

Now for the birthday hat.

Yes, she kept it on....for now.

Well, it almost came off.

Yay, it stayed on!