Happy Easter

There has been a lot going on around here, well not really here actually. We took the trip down to San Diego and Valencia for my cousin Kyle's wedding back at the end of March. Unfortunately I couldn't find my camera before we left so I have nothing to show for it. 

The long car ride by myself with 3 little ones went as well as I could have hoped for. Chloe was my super helper passing snacks back, finding toys and Avenlea's binkie, and keeping a good attitude. She colored and wrote in her note books most of the time. Blain was really good too, content to watch the DVD player and  stick his little hand out his cracked window. Avenlea was the one I was mostly worried about but she did great. She took two naps and was happy with her snacks, stuffed animals and binkie.

We spent 2 days with Mamma swimming in her pool and enjoying her fun new house that is now an 11 hour drive away instead of a plane flight. Chloe and Blain loved the (freezing cold) water, floating in their water wings, and Grandma was even nice enough to paddle them around in her kayak. We went to the park and had lots of fun playing with all the old toys that I used to play with growing up.

Dad was so nice to take Friday off so we went down to San Diego a day earlier than planned to spend with him and my sisters. We spent a beautiful day at the beach. Grandpa was so nice to spend a good hour playing in the waves with Chloe, lifting her up and swinging her in the waves (he reported having sore muscles the next day :) Chloe was my water baby spending the majority of the day in the surf and waves. They also built sand castles, made water holes to jump in, and ate lots of sandy snacks. Poor Avenlea was covered in sand all day but she seemed to enjoy herself. Blain was also braver this time around, jumping in the puddles with Dylan and Benji and even going out into the waves with me a little.

Saturday was a busy busy day but lots of fun. We started out goin to the swap meet to fix the screen on my ipad which had stopped working after a good 1 inch chunk fell off. I also found a gallon size mason jar for 2$ which is a steal in my book. Wendy and I then zipped over to Sea World for Breakfast with Elmo. Wendy was so nice to take Avenlea and I to a special breakfast with Elmo. The food was delicious and Avenlea loved pointing at all the Characters and loved watching them dance and clapped along with the songs. She freaked out a little when they tried to hi five her or give a hug, but I think she still had fun drinking juice and eating muffins and watching it all from a safe distance.

The wedding was in the evening so we ate some lunch, got dolled up and headed to the Wedding. Kyle was his same happy self and Melissa looked beautiful. The wedding itself was amazing with delicious food, dancing and even an old school icecream man! I got back a little late to find Dad and Peggy had already put Chloe and Blain to bed and Avenlea was about half way through a bottle so the timing was perfect to put her down as well.

Overall the trip was lots of fun but I ended up going home a day early (Tuesday) because I missed Nate, was exhausted from non stop kiddo patrol, and I wanted to give them a little more time between long car rides as we were headed out to Nevada for Easter that Friday.

Easter with Grammy: We drove out to Spring Creek Nevada to spend Easter with Nate's mom and his family out there (Darcey, Debbie, James and their families). We have some pictures from Nate's phone but again I wish I had more.

 Avenlea all ready to color Easter Eggs

 Chloe dying eggs with Marie

 Chloe so cute with her big smile - rarely do we get that on camera

Blain wasn't super fond of wearing the trash bag protector

We had a total of 4 Easter Egg hunts that weekend and they enjoyed every one of them. The best was the one out in Crescent Valley where they have lots of prizes, the Easter Bunny comes to visit, and the divide the hunt into sections according to age. They all did such a good job finding eggs and being little cuties :)

 Avenlea loved playing in the Barbie car, riding on the bouncy horse, and following around Trixie Debbie's little dog. She would just laugh and laugh whenever the dog came near her.

 Feeding the ducks and geese at the marina park

 Look who is brave enough to stand by the Easter Bunny!!!

We got to play lots of games with everyone including an awesome knertz tournament, mexican train, LOL, and BANG. We also got to catch up with every how everyone is doing, eat Yummy Easter dinner, and watch conference. We are happy to be home after what seems like a very long vacation but it was good to see and spend time with everyone.

Now that we are back we are back to work. Nate, Molly, Sam and Jonny all got pickups full of wood chips to bring to our house today and we spent the majority of the day unloading them in a giant pile on the old raised garden spot.We have big plans for those wood chips.

 Betty was giving us no milk even before I left for Cali so we separated her from Prince Ali last night. We got a whopping 1 quart of milk after separating for 11 hours. I was disappointed but I could tell she was holding back for her baby because he seemed to have no problem eating when I let her out of the stanchion. Once we get a halter on him or train him with grain I'm gonna try to get the second let down after he eats for a minute. Why is nothing ever easy with this cow??

Nate has been working hard on getting the house more organized as we have another person entering our household and family soon. We moved Avenlea in with Chloe and Blain which meant fitting another dresser and bed in their already tiny room. Well Nate not only made it functional but also improved the layout and so far the babies love it. Their boxes are stacked at the foot of the bunkbed, a net (the old destroyed hammock) holds all of the stuffed animals, there is a shoe wall holder behind the door, and the treasure chest of dress up is now in the closet.

 He is also building us more storage in the kitchen to hold all the new homesteading equipment - mason jars, grinder, juicer, slicer, etc. We made Chloe a little art table out of the old kitchen table and put it in the mud room so she now has a contained carpetless area for all her painting, glueing, coloring, and crafting. It's still a pretty big mess but at least it's contained and not all over the living room now.

I tilled the manure into last year's garden area and plan on planting my peas and maybe some other cool weather veggies tomorrow depending on what seeds I have from last year. Momma comes on Wednesday and she has promised to help with the garden so I hope to get a lot done this week!