Magic Marker

With all the packing we have done the last few weeks the kids have really been great. We have had our few moments of packing one box only to have each of them unpacking another but other than that they have been really good. I haven't had to take anybody up on their offers to take them for a few hours so I can pack. I have been getting a lot done while they nap and Andrew has helped more with this move than any other because he has been home a lot. I was packing our food storage the other day which was in closet in the hall between their rooms. They were playing in Ella's room and were playing really well with the occasional telling Ella to get off of Easton, she just loves him a little to much sometimes. I ended up blocking Ella's room with all the boxes which I thought was perfect so I headed to the other room to pack some more. I was thinking they were playing so nicely together but then decided it was way to quiet and went to investigate.

This is what I found! 

 I was so mad I scared Easton even though he was truly the innocent victim. I went and put Ella in time out where she leaned up against the wall and cried creating black streaks on the wall (thank goodness for Magic Erasers it came right off.) I made her stand in timeout for a good 10 minutes because I knew Andrew was on his way home to help me deal with it. I don't even know how she got out of the room to get the marker but somehow she did. Every time since then when I pull the marker out to write on a box Easton points to his legs and feet like I am going to draw on them for him!

 Luckily the lid to the blocks was the only victim of all the toys in the room! Magic Eraser got a lot of it out as well!

 Their clothes is what I was not happy about. This was one of Easton's nicer shirts and Ella's dress was brand new. They can both still wear them but they have lovely marker all over! As mad as I was that she did this I was just grateful it wasn't on the walls or carpet. With less than a week before we move I am so thankful it was on her dress and not the carpet because my deposit is a whole lot more their clothes. Now everytime she sees the marker she says "mom, markers are a no, no, no," apparently something sunk in hopefully it lasts!

Botanic Gardens

Last Friday we took a break from packing and headed to the Botanic Gardens. We had wanted to renew our pass so it is still good when we come back in the Fall. It is so nice to be able to get a free pass from here, it is beautiful and we really enjoy spending time there. The first thing we did was head to the fish. It is finally warm enough at night here to be able to feed them. We had never fed them and the kids loved it. They both of course tried a piece but Easton tries everything! There were a ton of school groups there when we were which made it crazy.

By the time the bag was half gone Easton got a hang of how to throw it in.

The kids both love the big dog and the big dog house they both head straight to the bench inside or the dog and climb on them!

We had never taken Easton down this slide, he loved it!

This nice Grandpa was standing there while we were playing and offered to take our picture. He only took one which always makes me nervous what we are going to get but he did a great job!

The Magnolia trees were beginning to blossom and had a few open while there. I am hoping to go back before we leave to see if they are all opened. I have heard they are beautiful at the Gardens in May.

Easton discovered the worm holes and was hard to pry away from

They both always love the little playhouses. Ella talks about them the whole way there.

We always have to end our trip to the Gardens at the swings and try them all out!

I put two of this one up but I love Ella in the second one. They were both being so sweet with me and with each other and were just generally happy and pleasant! We had such a fun morning!

I forgot to take Easton's Book out of his crib during nap time and went in to check on him after a few minutes and he was out with his arms wrapped around the book. I just love sleeping kids there is something so peaceful about it. I just want to reach in and squeeze him and kiss him but don't want him to wake up :)

Pictures from my Phone

They put our sign up last Friday. It makes me sad. I never thought I would be so torn to be leaving. I hated it here when we first moved here. I quickly grew to love it here, although I still don't love the bugs and humidity. We are so excited to be moving home for a few months and being close to family but sad that when we return most of Andrew's class and some of our friends we have had since day 1 of living here will be leaving. They already have someone to move in which makes me sad that in less than two weeks someone else will be living here! I just have to keep telling myself that we are a year away from graduation and moving on to better things!

He loves sidewalk chalk! He loves to color with it and eat it!

We went on a walk around a lake at the park! They were so excited to see the ducks!

Shopping with just one, heaven on earth!

This is blurry but they love to hold hands in the car. They always want us to see!

I just love this one. It makes me smile everytime I look at it!

I found my glasses I got a few years ago while I was packing. Ella wanted to wear them. I think she looks pretty cute!

New Wagon

Last Month I was able to sell a bunch of baby and kid stuff at a local consignment sale. I priced the stuff and they sell it and send me a check. With our move coming up I had decided to consolidate our baby stuff and get rid of the things we didn't use hardly at all and they both had so many clothes. I ended up getting rid of 3 bins of clothes between the two of them (we still have at least 6 bins). I thought I would make a little money and be able to buy them some clothes for the summer. Well I sold so much more than I thought I would and came out with a nice check! The week of the sale our landlord gave us two-three bins full of clothes I was not excited to go through them but I did and then 8 loads of laundry later finally got the cigarette smoke smell out of them.  I kept a bin full of the clothes and some shoes and put the rest of them with the others I didn't sell at the consignment sale. A couple weeks ago I took them to a consignment store here like kid to kid and they took over about 3/4 of the stuff I had and gave me a nice amount of cash! I am excited to get myself and the kids a few things when we get to Utah. I saw this wagon in a store ad this last week at a steal and decided I would use some of my money I earned to get it for the kids. They LOVE it! Easton screams when he can't get in it when we are getting in the car and screams when it is time to get out to go inside. We have made a lot of laps around the neighborhood! I feel like we are well on our way to getting our moneys worth if we haven't already!

This Kid can't keep his shoes on to save himself! We have already lost them once in Target luckily they found it!

Storytime

Last Wednesday we went to Storytime at the library. She read stories about caterpillars and how they turn into butterflies. Afterwards we did a craft making butterflies out of coffee filters and pipe cleaners. The kids had fun coloring them and Easton wouldn't put his down for a while. Afterwards our friends had brought some food to feed the ducks in the pond behind the libary. They told us there were some baby ducks and sure enough we found them, there were 9 of them. The kids had a lot of fun giving them the food and running around!

Hair

Ella has the most crazy hair. She wakes up in the morning and after naps with a lions mane. Last Sunday I had her hair in all pulled up in pigtails and she ripped in out while she was going to sleep. She woke up and it was huge, pictures don't do it justice! She hates having it combed because it gets so tangled, it isn't worth doing if we aren't going anywhere that day!

Senior Send Off

Last Saturday was Andrew's Senior Send Off. They put this on every year as a last party before his class parts ways for a year before graduation. They are going to be seniors so soon (less than 2 weeks!) We had heard from other students from previous years about how fun this event is and how nice it was. They told us it was Semi-formal and to expect dinner. Andrew's class really disappointed us. They didn't really put much work into it at all. After hearing how well put together it was last year we had our hopes up. First thing we show up and the free parking is way down the road in the scariest part of downtown so we opt to pay to park next to the event. Then we think it is at this fun pizza place or nice event place next door but instead it is around the corner in a bar they had rented out. We walk in and it is dark and freezing! We find a table for the LDS couples to sit at and we wait. There was enough seating for about 1/4 of the people there! It is already past 8 o'clock and we are starved and ready to eat. So we see people getting their food so we get up and try to make our way through the bar area where people don't ever leave so if there beer runs out they are right there to get another. We get in line and can't really see the food since it is so dark. We get to the front and it is the strangest assortment of food I have ever seen, especially for a formal event that was supposedly catered. We had some iceberg lettuce with some cheese sprinkled on it, shells and cheese(I could have brought my kids :)), meatloaf, and some chicken. The chicken was ok, not my favorite. We went back and ate our food that we couldn't see. The best part was Andrew went to get us a drink and they only were offering water, I was really hoping for a Sprite or something.  We were beginning to think our money on a babysitter was a waste. After we ate they did the senior superlatives. They were great except they had a winner and each one had anywhere from 5 to 25 "runners-up" weird. Andrew was a runner up for Class Dad as were about half of the other LDS guys! Each member of the class got a "most likely" award and Andrew's was Mr. Congeniality. Some of them were kind of mean for some of the other classmates. The best one was the 30-40 people who made the "most likely to never practice optometry", really that is sad. After that they did the senior slide show (could of just called it the Memphis Bar tour). They thought a brick wall would be a good place to project it which made everything distorted. There is no secret here that Andrew's class is big about their drinking and partying which is so sad! Luckily a couple guys and Andrew submitted some family pictures so a couple slides were good! After the slide show they gave door prizes for those who chose not to drink they gave a way a whole 2 prizes, not much for those who don't drink. After that they opened up the dance floor. We were going to leave but the girls wanted to dance first. We were having a lot of fun (finally!) and danced a few songs. Then another song came on and everybody started getting really frisky on the dance floor and that is when we decided to call it quits, there was some disgusting things going on on and off the dance floor. It is so sad to me that at this point is some of these students careers they can't get over the party scene. We were sad it wasn't as fun as we thought it would be but we tried to make it fun. It is sad that they spent all their money for the event on alcohol instead of a better venue and food, they could have had all three just limited people on how much they can have. It was a night out away from the kids so that is all that matters, it was great!

We were surprised that there wasn't hardly any LDS couples there. There was a total of six of us. We were missing 6 or 7 others.

One couple left before we got a picture but here is all the girls.

Laura, Ashley, Me, Elise, and Rachel

After we walked outside to leave we decided it was still to early to go home so we decided to go down the street and get some cheesecake. We went back to our high school days and put six of us in a five passenger car. I was the only one wearing a seat belt! We thought we were going a couple blocks but ended up on the other side of downtown. The line was huge so we decided to go to Baskin Robbins after we roamed through the ghetto on our way. We had such a fun time laughing and enjoying ourselves. It is fun to see how people are without their kids! Baskin Robbins ended up being closed so we went back and got our car and went through the Wendy's drive-thru for a frosty (another thing I was not happy about was they didn't even take the effort to give us dessert for such a "formal" event.)

Rikson driving, Laura, and Ashley

Josh, Andrew, and Me. They were trying to figure out where the cheesecake place was. It took us a good half hour to go a few blocks since there was a Grizzlies basketball game, Redbirds baseball game, the symphony, and every school prom going on all at the same time downtown and most of those events had just let out. Side Note: I thought the girls dresses at our event were bad but the girls going to prom take the cake! I can't believe their parents let them leave wearing practically nothing! I hope future classes don't mess it up so much! Hopefully next years banquet at Graduation will be better!

Bath

The second Easton hears the word bath he books it to the bathroom. He loves his baths! He has a meltdown when we take him out almost daily. He tries so hard each time to get in himself. Lucky for us the tubs in this house are usually high, Ella still can't really get in herself. He will usually stand there like this for a few minutes until we are all ready for them to get in.

Random

The night before Easter I had forgot that I told Ella we could paint our nails together. She reminded me as we were reading our stories so I went and got it and painted them. We were having quite the conversation and she has gotten really good at sitting and holding still under they are dry. I remember not to long ago when she hated to get her nails painted but now she loves it and it is always the topic of conversation at least once a day!

Easton really loves these slide and find books. I have discovered if I put it at the other end of his bed at night after he is asleep that he has something to keep him entertained in the mornings instead of screaming to wake us all up!

Happy Easter!!!

We had such a lovely Easter. It is so nice to sit back and reflect on our Savior Jesus Christ and all he has done for us. We are thankful for the Atonement and for the Resurrection in our lives. We enjoyed church and all the Easter messages that were given (as much as we can with Easton!)

After we got home we ate some lunch really quick and then Skyped with some family. After we skyped we dyed our eggs. We were going to do it on Saturday but it just didn't happen. Ella really liked doing it but she is a little rough still but we managed to only crack one egg! Easton was beyond tired and so after the first 2 eggs he went down for a nap, besides he doesn't really get it yet anyways.

He just wanted to dip his hands in it and dump it out. And then he wanted to eat it!

Andrew was nice and very patient with Ella and they dyed all the eggs together!After there naps their baskets were waiting for them on the couch. I was going to hide eggs or baskets but decided they did enough egg hunts and that they wouldn't understand trying to find their baskets. Ella was excited for Princess Crayons! Easton was thrilled with more candy. They also both got some sticker sheets. Easton got a couple race cars to go to their ramp.

They dove right in and we let them share an egg of jelly beans and then we put it up. As a family for Easter we bought The Lion King. Ella watched it at a friends house a while back and hasn't stopped talking about it plus it might be going back into the "vault" again so we decided to get it while we can!

They were so cute sharing their jelly beans and feeding each other.

Naming all the princesses on the crayon box!Easton loved his new cars he got right to work pushing them around!

I found some cute carrot necklace bubbles in the Target $1 bin that had two to a pack. They actually are really good bubbles for being .50 cents. After Easter baskets we had our friends The Lants over for dinner. We were able to eat outside it was so nice and the kids played like crazy (couldn't be all the sugar!) It is nice to have good friends to celebrate holidays with when family is so far away! Thanks for coming over Lants! After dinner we had bunny cake that they made! It was really good!