Riding Horses

Yes, we were all intrigued to watch Mrs. Potts torture a poor mouse before killing it.  Dad says he hasn't refilled the cats bowls in three weeks.  They live off birds, mice and moles, and I guess whatever else they catch.

Uncle Wyatt was so helpful in putting Ana on backwards!

Uncle Wyatt, Chad, Ana and Megan

Brynne and Elena had fun playing in the gravel.

Poor, fat pregnant Fazelle.

I can't even pick out who all of these kids are because of their hats.  But Elena's on front.

Chad, Elena and Brynne in the gravel.  Grandpa was wondering why he bothered putting up a playground.

Good Friday Part Two

Darby, Danica, Olivia and Ana

Andrea, Emeline, Megan, Hailey, Lindsay Ann, Miriam and Wyatt

Megan and Anders, Lindsay and Cowen, Leo and Elena

Leo and Elena

Emeline and Cassidy

Elena and Leo--the slide she loved is behind them.

Mom and Lynnaea

Elena, Leo and Ana

All the kids before we left Megan's house.

Good Friday Part One

Megan's house was a little crazy. The kids that were there, 13 of them, were up at the crack of dawn to search for their Easter baskets. Elena's was the first to be found and Ana's the last. Oops. I guess I hid that a little too hard. I stayed in bed through it all--we were up late filling the Easter baskets, eating sushi, and filling Easter eggs. Then they all ate breakfast, I got up sometime after that, when a kid opened our door and then slammed it, waking up Elena. Then they colored Easter eggs once the rest of everyone arrived. That would be 5 more kids making a grand total of 18--all cousins except one friend. Following that was a grand frenzy of an Easter egg hunt and in the afternoon we went to the Clearfield Aquatic Center. It was really fun. Elena didn't like it at first, but after a while Leo got her to go in and she loved it! She went down the slide so many times. She always looked scared while sliding but after she would smile so big. Ana showed me her impressive cannonball and spent the time with her cousins. Then we went to Andrea's house and ate pizza and tried to convince Leo that buying the house across the street from her was a great idea. I don't know that we completely sold him on it. Anyway, fun times.

Elena at the Easter Egg hunt.

Easter Games: Hailey's a pro at rolling an egg with her nose.

All the decorated eggs.

Egg bashing! A new game that's definitely a keeper.

Getting ready to boil a few eggs.

Emeline and Elena

Decorating eggs

On the hunt. The loot.

A Day at the Airports

Wednesday we flew out to Utah. My good friend Jenny was kind enough to pick us up at 5:45 AM to drive us to the airport. (Us being me and my two kids.) I didn't sleep well that night. Elena's been getting 3 more teeth in and has been a complete grouch the last couple days and then she was up for an hour during the night. Also I woke up from people talking outside, my neighbors upstairs, etc. etc. The flight at 7:45 AM was full. The flight two hours later was also full. My kids did fairly well though, although I snapped at Ana to stop whining that we couldn't get on the flights because I couldn't do anything about it. We ate a yummy gyro and french fries. The flight from 7:45 AM unloaded the passengers (they had never taken off due to an oil leak) and after another hour they reboarded at 12:35 and lo and behold--now they had two empty seats and we got on!!! At Sky Harbor we had to wait another three and half hours for the next flight to SLC. We ate burritos (I highly recommend The Blue Burrito Grille to anyone traveling through there) and the kids ran around like crazy in the near empty gate. I encouraged that strongly despite a few nasty looks. Then came the first episode of diarrhea from Elena. Good thing it was at the airport and not on the plane. Also good that we only took carry-ons and had all our clothes with us, although my splattered pants I just tried to wipe off. Yum. Then we made it on our flight with plenty of space. So nice. It went quick and we finally arrived at SLC at 7:45 PM local time. Leo's flight came in 15 mins later so we waited for him. This is when Elena's second episode of diarrhea struck. Again, thank goodness it was at the airport. After Leo arrived we called my sister Megan who was at a YW/YM activity and she came to pick us up after that. So we finally reached her house at 12:30 AM (1:30 AM my time zone). It was a long day. But the kids were really good. Ana is an expert at pulling luggage! A lot of people helped us get off the planes both times too. It's nice to see how kind people can be at times. Anyway, I'm glad we made it at all, so no complaints from me.

How Ana entertained herself at Sky Harbor.

How Elena entertained herself.

Watching the tarmac.

Giving Ana a ride.

A Quandary

Today is a gray, ugly day in Chicago. It's raining and overcast. Hopefully, tomorrow is nicer--simply because then there shouldn't be any flight delays!!! Yes, it's true, I get to leave this gray, gloomy place and go to Utah!!! Hurray!!! Ana is so excited to meet all her new cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles, she can barely contain it. It's fun to see her so excited. Elena however, started teething on Monday and is ornery and fussy and plain annoying to be around. Sigh. I think I may buy some benadryl and dose her with it tomorrow. I don't know, it's going to be a miserable day in the airports, hopefully we get on the first flights out. Which brings me to my quandary.

Yes, it is my hair pomenade. Hee. Hee. (Isn't pomenade such a funny word? It makes me feel like Marie Antoinette saying I pomenade my hair.) Anyway, I just bought a new blow dryer and this styling stuff and have actually been doing my hair lately. When it was shorter I could just run some gel through it and go--so nice. But it started getting longer and I told Leo I could either buy a blow dryer or get my hair cut. He obviously chose the blow dryer. Anyway, this lovely styling stuff only comes in an 5.7 oz jar, and it's not really the sort of thing you can put in another container, and since we will only be taking carry-on luggage, I risk the chance of TSA finding it and throwing it out. Ruff. Yet if I don't take it, then what will happen to my hair--it will look lousy the whole time I'm in Utah!!!! Errrr. I guess I could buy a container there, but then what happens when I fly back?!?! You can see what a serious matter this is. Basically, this is all the more irritating because I think airport security is a joke. My husband agrees. And please remember, he is a pilot. See if you find this enlightening. I really didn't. Leo was telling me about a video a bunch of pilots were watching the other day that was spoofing TSA security training. One of the trainees kept raising his hand and asked these questions. "So how do you know a terrorist can make a bomb with more than 3 oz. of liquid?" Answer: "Well the FBI has done research." "So, with 3 oz you can't but 3.25 oz you can?" "What happens when two people meet up on the plane and combine their 3 oz and now they have 6 oz, wouldn't the plane still be at risk?" Etc. Etc. Here's one I found. It's pretty darn funny too. Well, that's my tirade for today.

In other news, this has what my diet has consisted of for the last month. Can you tell I'm pregnant??? I was out shopping for the Valentine's party last month and saw this and those big soft pretzels and for some reason, they just looked so very, very good. I've almost finished the entire box (it was one of those huge boxes of pretzels--Costco style). A couple nights ago, I got up at 1:30 AM to eat one. Hee. Hee. Two nights ago at midnight, I ate an entire package of soda crackers with butter on them. Thinking about it now, it really kind of disgusts me, but at the time, it was quite tasty. And here's my little goose girl. On Sunday after church, Ana spent ten minutes chasing around these Canadian geese outside. She hadn't even come inside to put her scriptures away. I wanted to take a picture when she was close to them (and she did get really, really close) but by the time I put Elena to bed, used the bathroom, etc, they were finally scared off.

Elena Moments

Getting into Dad's closet.

What do you say to this??

She loves reading sitting in or on her stroller.
What a goof.

Ana's Baptism!!!

Today was fabulous!! We cleaned the house top to bottom and then exercised. Ana was so funny trying to do the exercises Leo and I were doing. Hee. Hee. And then we went to the church and Ana was baptized! She was so excited!!! It went really well, and no, no toes popped out of the water or anything. We had banana splits afterward and then after that we went to our friends house whose daughter Kaylen was baptized today as well and had a feast of Filipino food. Yum!!!! It was just a great day all the way around.

Ana was supposed to be cleaning the bathroom. I'm not sure exactly what they were doing instead. Hee. Hee. But they were cute.

Hanging out on Mom's bed.

Love this picture!

My Book Club

I just completed my essay on the Life of Pi. It's bound to be fascinating to all my devoted readers, I'm sure. You can read it here. Really truly, I know you all want to join in--feel free at any time!

Ana's Happy 8th Birthday!

Yesterday was Ana's 8th birthday and I think it went splendidly (besides the tears at bedtime when she wanted to keep playing with her toys). We kept it pretty simple--I'm not a big believer in birthday parties. But Ana seemed really happy. I was a little sad that the toys we bought her (a set with walkie talkies, binoculars, compass, etc) was hud. Literally, none of it worked at all. I mean, we didn't spend a lot, but we kind of expected the walkie talkies to work from one room to the other at least. She loved it though, and hopefully it keeps her entertained even in its non-working state. She's thrilled with her journal from Grandma and scriptures too. She wanted scriptures "just like Leo's" (a quad) and was so happy that she got them. It was a really fun evening.

The cake she picked out. I don't care to be a fabulous cake decorator like my sister Andrea (see this and this and this), but I thought I did a fairly decent job.

Oops, missed one candle. Had to redo.

Thanking Dad for the presents.