Normal Stuff

Caprisun Deal: K-mart has Caprisuns and Koolaid Jammers on sale for 2 for $4, which isn't a bad price, but if you pick up their ad (near the entrance) there is a Buy 1 Get 1 free coupon in it. You can get up to 5 free, per transaction. The lady at customer service said you can always do as many transactions as you'd like. You will have to have as many coupons as transactions. Oh and I'm pretty sure you have to join their rewards program - which means giving them a name and phone number (you will use your phone number each time you shop there, similar to Fred Meyer and Safeway). I bought 20 boxes for $20. Summer is coming, time to stock up!


Also -- Save the Date -- (no I'm not getting married, already did that :)), but we are only 2 weeks away from one of my favorite days of the year. That's right, the Lakeland Hills Garage Sale. May 14th!!!!! Who's coming?

I've already started my list of thing to look for. I just got rid of a bunch of junk - so I'm hoping to stick to my list, and not go to crazy. I'm looking for more of my IKEA preschool chairs (chunky plastic is the best way to describe them), 2 or 3 pairs of roller blades - girls sizes (11, 1, and 3), a gigantic magnetic white board, T-shirts for Samantha (size 8), cheap picture books, a nice dresser, and of course preschool craft supplies (paper, paint, play dough, etc).

Let me know what you want me to look for - I love spending other peoples money!

I am posting a Little Tykes Slide (good for 1 and 2 year olds) and a paper organizer (or a puzzle organizer - it has 16 slots) on Craigslist - let me know if you are interested ($10 each)

Easter Weekend

Our Easter celebrations started the Thursday before Easter. We had two Easter parties for preschool - here are the girls from the afternoon class.
Friday we had our annual friend Easter Egg Hunt. Since my brain no longer functions the way it used to, we almost forgot to have the egg hunt. Luckily, enough people kept reminding me about it and I finally sent the email. We had a pretty good attendance considering the late-notice invite!

Sam and friends checking out their loot:

Allison and her friends:

Saturday we had a garage sale. I had been making a give-away pile for months. Then I started thinking we might have enough to do a garage sale. Then the forecast said Saturday was going to be sunny, so we decided to give it a try. We told the girls if they did the work they could split all the money. So they helped gather stuff, price stuff, make signs, make cookies, make lemonade, and sale the stuff. We made over $400! And it was a sunny day - sunny enough to help with my tan! It was a GREAT day! Making money, while enjoying the sun - doesn't get better than that!

That afternoon we finally got around to coloring eggs:

That night my sisters, and their families came over and we did a bunch of baking. I just realized we never took any pictures of our food, but we made: Smore's Bars, Key Lime Dessert, Mousse Pie, Peanut Butter and Chocolate cake balls (didn't really taste peanut buttery :( ), Snickerdoodle Cupcakes, Peanut Butter/Oreo/Chocolate dessert, and cinnamon rolls! We were making all the desserts (except for the cinnamon rolls) for Easter dinner at my mom's. I think they all turned out pretty well (we hadn't tried any of the recipes before), other than the cake balls. While they tasted okay, they weren't what I was hoping for.

The Easter bunny came and the girls were very excited. Kimber and Sam were awake by 5:00 (or so they claim) but I didn't' let them wake up Allison until 7:30 - a long morning for them. I should have let Allison sleep longer, she was a bear by the end of the night!

As always they had a blast looking for hidden eggs and their Easter baskets.

After finding eggs, enjoying egg and bunny shaped pancakes, and watching Music and the Spoken Word we headed to the cemetery to leave a little Easter basket for Ian and Cooper. This was our first time back there since the funeral, it was pretty emotional. It just doesn't seem right to have to drive somewhere to "visit" your child and then have to leave him there. It sucks. Sorry no better word. We walked around and looked at many of the headstones, almost all of them in the Children's Area - it is a heartbreaking thing to do. We are trying to figure out what to put on his headstone, so we were checking out some options. I was amazed at how many people had lost multiple children - the most I saw was 3, but quite a few had lost 2. Losing 1 is enough - no one should ever have to bury a child, let alone more than one. I had kind of hoped that maybe since we had lost one, that if we luck out and get the chance to have another, he/she would be safe. Now I'm not so sure. I guess we don't get to make those decisions, huh. By the way, if anyone has any good suggestions of a picture to put on the headstone, please share. I know what I want to write on it, but I can't decide what picture I want or if I even want a picture. I am planning on writing "Safe in His arms. Forever in our Hearts." (thanks to my friend Tana for that idea - she made me a really cute picture frame, with Ian's name and those sentences on it).

After the cemetery we had church. It was a typical day of church for me - lots of crying. I was asked to give the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting - let's just say I was a bit emotional. Sometimes I just want to give up going - I just cry to much - but then I remember that I am crying most of the time b/c I feel the Spirit and b/c I'm getting answers to the many prayers I've been sending up. Some of the tears are b/c of sadness and frustration - but I also get the "boost" I need to get me through the week. That being said, if I stop coming, yell at me! :)

After church it was time for the annual Easter celebration at my parents house. This year we were up to about 35-40 people in attendance. My entire family, plus 4 families from my parents ward. My dad hid 294 eggs, all filled with money. It was an expensive way to spend 20 minutes :) The fun thing about hiding eggs at my parents is there are actually hiding spots - so you have to really look for the eggs, they aren't just laying on the ground!

Allison:

Sam:
Kimber:
I have the job every year of counting the eggs as we go. We keep a running total of how many eggs each child has found. We stay outside until they are all found (or too much time has passed and we can't convince the kids to look anymore). This year, for the first time ever, we had found all the eggs by the time the first count was done. It was amazing. Granted, I was doing the math, and like I said above - my brain doesn't work very well anymore - so maybe we were off by one or two off, but still, we were all excited!
Once all the eggs are found the kids pile into the house, shed their rain boots and raincoats (we live in Washington, it always rains on Easter!), and dump their eggs onto the beach towels layed out in the hallway. Then the money counting begins.
We had a great weekend. We are grateful for the fun the Easter Bunny brings, but we are even more grateful for the real reason we celebrate Easter - the fact that Jesus Christ was resurrected and made it possible for us to be as well. Never before in my life has Easter meant so much to me. My faith in Jesus Christ and the fact that the atonement really did happen and the fact that the tomb really was empty on the 3rd day after Christ was crucified, is what keeps me going these days. I do believe I will see my son again, Jesus Christ made that possible.

Spring Break

We decided that we were going to do something fun for Spring Break. Something that would build some fun memories and bring smiles to our faces.

Our first thought, as always, was a cruise. Unfortunately, the flights to get to a cruise were too expensive. So then I said - let's just do one up to Alaska (that has always seemed crazy to me - when I want a vacation I want the sun and warmth - not snow and cold!), but I was desperate. Cruises don't start to Alaska until May though.

So I did what I thought was impossible. I convinced my husband to let us go to Disneyland. We could drive down. Use points for the hotel. We'd just have to pay for gas, food, and Disneyland. Konrad has never been into the whole "I have to take my kids to Disneyland" thing. He isn't against vacations - he'd just rather go on a cruise, or to Hawaii, or Costa Rica or something. Why pay to stand in line? Before all the craziness happened with Ian, I was working on planning a trip to Disneyworld - where we could stay with one of Konrad's cousin's - so he was slowly warming up to the whole idea of Disney. Throw in a sad wife and things start happening!

We had a wonderful time. It was exactly what I/we needed. It was something to help distract me and help me to enjoy life a bit more than I had been the 4 previous weeks. I think it was good for the girls to see me smile more than cry. It was amazing to see how used to me crying they were...anytime Konrad gave me a hug or anything they all ran up and hugged me as well, glancing up to see my face. Then they'd slowly pull back and smile, when they realized I wasn't crying. I could see the relief on their faces. I obviously had a few sad moments, but the happy moments out numbered the sad ones by plenty.

Disneyland/California Adventure were crowded. It was our Spring Break as well as many other people's as well (I swear half of Utah was there - at least all the BYU fans were!). We waited in some long lines - a couple were more than an hour, most of them averaged about 30-40 minutes. The ones with Fast Passes were awesome and luckily our favorite rides all had fast passes.

The girls did awesome. We went on pretty much every ride - maybe missed one or two of the rides in Fantasyland that they just didn't care to ride - but everything else they did.

Their favorites were:
Kimber: Tower of Terror, California Screamin', and Toy Story
Samantha: Thunder Mountain railroad, Toy Story, and the Swings
Allison: Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Grizzley River Run, and Dumbo

We also thought Soaring over California was great - all though I realized I have a fear of heights. I was gripping my armrests like I was going to die. Who knew?

I of course loved Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean - but the girls weren't huge fans so we only got to go once on each of them. I think I just like them b/c those are the rides I remember from the last time I went.

We seriously had a great time. Konrad asked the girls if they'd rather go to Disneyland or Hawaii - they had a hard time deciding - my guess is we'll be hitting Hawaii-like places more often than Disneyland. I do think we picked the perfect time to go to Disney though - the girls were perfect ages - not too old and not too little.

The next 5 or 6 posts include all the pictures from our trip - if you decide to look at them all it might take awhile :)

Forrest Grove with the Kenyon's

We wanted to split up the drive as much as possible on the drive down so we could see as much family as possible. We spent one night and a couple hours in the morning at my sister Michelle's house. The girls love going there, they always have so much fun. They were able to squeeze some fun playing time:

and even a tea party: They wanted to go for a walk, go to a park, and have a picnic but how do you do all that before 10:30 in the morning???

Michelle and her family are moving to Texas this summer. It makes me so sad to think of them not being 3 hours away. We've taken it for granted the fact that my side of the family has always been close - they (Shell's fam) have always lived the farthest away - first 1 1/2 hours, then 3, now too far. Richard, can't you change your mind? I don't want you to take my sister away! At least when I go visit her in Texas it will be sunny and warm! I think I'd rather have Oregon weather though - it's much closer!

Sacramento with the Crabtree's

When we decided to make the trip down to LA we were happy to realize we'd be able to stop and stay with Konrad's brother Doug and his family for a couple days. We don't get to see them that often (all though we did see them at Christmas - before that it had been more than a year), so we were excited to see them.

We had a great time talking at night after the kids went to bed, we watched Scotty's baseball game, played at the park, ran some errands, listened to General Conference, went to a yummy Cupcake Bakery and ate too much sugar, went on a double date (we got a babysitter for all the kids) that included dinner and gelato, and the kids and dads went on a little hike/walk. That is what the picture below are from:

Kimber, Sam, Scott, Allison, and Tyler (Austin stayed home with Brittney and I, otherwise he'd be between Allison and Tyler - they are in age order) It appears that Kimber was in possession of the camera for awhile on their adventure - I had to post a few that cracked me up: Do you see two sets of hands? Thanks Doug and Britt for letting us crash at your house for the weekend (and then one night on our way back)! We had a great time and can't wait to come back to the sun sometime soon! I think they thought we were crazy. Konrad and I would go sit on their wonderful deck (I so want their backyard/deck!!!) anytime there was even a sliver of sun. We had to soak up all that we could - before coming back to this cloudy place.

California Baby!

We got to our hotel on Sunday night. It was way to cold to swim in my mind, but the girls disagreed.

notice the sweatshirts we are wearing...while our girls are swimming? Crazy kids!

We had a suite, so it was nice to have 2 rooms - and the pull out couch and the other part of the sectional worked perfect of the girls.

We tried to let the girls swim everyday. That (and watching cable TV) seemed about as exciting as Disneyland at points. One night they opted to stay home and watch the Disney channel rather than go to Disneyland, silly girls!

We loved the hotel we stayed in. Free breakfast. Cheap shuttle to Disneyland. Free dinner. Yep, I said free dinner. We ate dinner at the hotel Monday-Thursday nights. We also snagged slices of bread and bagels for lunch during breakfast - so while on vacation we didn't buy one meal from Monday's dinner through Friday's lunch. Not to bad, huh? thanks Homewood Suites! (and thanks Tami for recommending a hotel that we could use points for...which means we didn't have to pay for the hotel either - it's like they paid us with food, cable, and a swimming pool for staying there :))

Hollywood

Kimber really wanted to go to Hollywood. So we did. We didn't see anyone famous but we had fun looking at the stars and hand prints on the sidewalk, as well as shopping of course!

We had planned on doing Disneyland Mon-Thurs but the weather forecast showed rain for Friday - we didn't want to go to the beach in the rain, so we made the girls wait one extra day before heading to Disney. We did Hollywood and the beach on Monday, it was in the mid to upper 70's that day :) Yeah for sun!

Our first Mickey picture:

They love Tinkerbell!

Harry Potter anyone?

We're melting! They thought it was soooo hot they hid in the trees for some shade.

A little MJ

Not a Shrek fan, but we couldn't pass it up!

That's the Hollywood sign in the way back of the picture. Kimber was bummed we couldn't get any closer!

Venice Beach

One of my favorite beaches in LA is Venice Beach. It is great for people watching. All though I did realize, I'm not really sure I want my children watching the people there - but it is very entertaining! It also has a great "boardwalk" - tons of shops!

The first item of business was to get some sunglasses for the girls - they found some at the 2nd store we tried. All the same style, just different colors.

Someone offered to take one for me so I could be in it as well (they did a much better job :)).

We worked out a bit at Muscle Beach :)

Cute girls ready to hit the water:

Alli and Sam got completely wet - Kimber maybe up to her knees, if that.

Sam's favorite thing to do at the beach...become a big mess!

Kimber's favorite thing to do at the beach:

Allison played in the sand and layed out - the best of both worlds I guess.

They have a cool graffiti area at Venice beach were people get permits to graffiti the walls. There weren't any "artists" there when we were, but we still had to check it out. (oh, and don't mind the crooked picture, the backpack was holding the camera :))

We heart the beach!

California Adventure

We had a great time at California Adventure.

They had some great rides and fun shows as well. We saw a little Monsters Inc, an Aladdin play (got us excited to see it at the 5th Avenue theater this summer), Disney Rocks - which included songs from Camp Rock, High School Musical, Hannah Montana, etc; and the Incredibles. They also had a great Water/Fountain/Light show at night - it was pretty long (seemed really long b/c we had to hold kids so they could see), but really cool.

I really wanted this picture at the end but blogger won't let me move it. This is the last picture we took, right before getting on our last ride of the trip. Allison pulled this Mickey Mouse shaped Nilla Wafer out of her bag - how crazy is that?

We saw the Monster's Inc show. We also watched Aladdin (in the theater behind the monsters, it was fun, the girls really like it).

All of us on the "rocket" ride, not sure what it's really called. This was a bad choice for me - I don't do well on spinning rides...it was my last one (spinning ride) of the trip!

Konrad and Alli on the swings - I love the conveniently placed mouse ears behind Konrad :)

Check out Sam's face...

One of our favorite rides, Toy Story. It is a 3D ride and you get to shoot things - how fun is that?

We were almost sold as toys, luckily we escaped the box and moved on to the next ride!

The girls did some rock climbing

Allison, Samantha, and I happened to walk past this roller coaster and I jokingly said, maybe this is the car Dad and Kimber are in - look there they are, first car and everything. This roller coaster rocks! So much fun!

We also saw the Incredibles: