Hunting for eggs!

And again, I couldn't choose between these sweet easter egg hunting pics so here's another slide (very late I know):

I love the looks on their faces as they find the eggs! And even better, this year they didn't make me re-hide the eggs for weeks after the fact. Yeah!

Loving the temple flowers!

And here's some more pictures for Anna. There's so many of them, I really don't expect anyone but her (and maybe Grandma and Aunt Patti) to watch them all :) Basically I couldn't choose just a couple pics because I love them all, so I made a slide show instead. Enjoy!

Boys are weird

(That is what I learn every Sunday from our CTR 7 class of 6 boys.)

Today we were learning about the Word of Wisdom (which is a revelation received by Joseph Smith that tells what things are good for man to eat and what is not - basically a code of health you could say with promised blessings for abiding by it). They were split into two teams for a review game, where they had 90 seconds to draw as many types of fruit they could think of, then vegetables, then meats, then the bad things that the Word of Wisdom teaches us not to consume.
The fruit and veggies rounds went pretty much as expected but then I went to tally up Team A's meat round. They had drawn red meat, a bull, a bear, a grenade, and a person (what?!). Needless to say, they did not receive points for all of their answers which led to a brief discussion on cannibalism.

Fast forward 90 seconds or so to when I went to tally up Team A's "things that the Word of Wisdom teaches are bad for us" round. They'd drawn a cigarette, candy, ice cream, an eyeball, eyeball candy, eyeball ice cream, and a person (labeled Brother Whitman) - which they reminded me, we are not supposed to eat.

We might have to re-visit this lesson sometime in the future. I'm just not sure they really got the gist.

Picasso was right.

He said, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."


By the way - the next two posts are new also. I'm playing catch-up.

Priceless

At least I think these smiles are priceless-


although I still don't think the Mona Lisa is Da Vinci's best work. It really wasn't that impressive to me in person, but Omsi's whole exhibit was fascinating - especially the parts I was actually able to read or listen to before realizing that my girls had again run off.
This was when we were still blissfully unaware of how many gazillions of people there were there that day! Note to self: NEVER go to Omsi during spring break!!!!
If our girls end up being scientists - we won't have any ideas were they got those genes!

Spring Break ... just a bit behind here!

For spring break (which was weeks ago, I know) we went to my parents' Bend house and had a blast! One day we head up to the mountain to take the girls sledding.

At the beginning, there was a lot of this:
(smiling)
And this:
(Enjoying the ride)
And this:
(Family fun!)
Then, unfortunately there was some of this:
(snow spraying in the face)
And more of that:
Which led to a whole lot of this:
(we'll call this crying and comforting)
And this:
And this:
And this:
So we gave up.
We headed up to meet all the family skiiers for lunch, and then Coop and I were persuaded (they really had to twist our arms) into swapping with my mom - she took our kids back home for naps and we skiied the rest of the day. The girls thought it was hilarious watching us on those silly skiis!
Despite my serious infatuation with powder, in the last 7 years, this was only the 2nd half day of skiing I've managed to fit in. For Coop - it was the first time in 12 years. I'm glad to say that we made it without any serious injury and had a blast!

Defender of my virtue

Last night I was exercising in my room. I was working really hard and was hot so I was just in a sports bra and pants. Shocking, I know. Jell came in and was very concerned, "Mom, why are you wearing that exercising shirt? I can see your belly button!" I had to laugh and then explain that I was really sweaty and since I was just in the house and nobody could see me, it was okay. She replied, "I can see you. I can see your belly button." Laugh again. Then, "No, I meant other people. You're family so it's okay. But it would be immodest for me to walk around outside like this where anyone could see me. I'll put more clothes on when I'm done exercising, I promise." I thought this was a pretty decent explanation for someone as out of breath as I. But then Jell went out in the hallway and when Coop tried to come down the hall to the room to tell me something, she stopped him with a "No!" She blocked the hallway - arms and legs spread as wide as she could so he couldn't get by. "You can't go in your room! Mommy's not modest! You would see her belly button!"

They're just so silly

I pointed out a potato bug to Jell and explained that when they're scared, they roll up into a ball. She studied it for about 5 seconds and then went, "Baaa!" with her hands shooting out to surprise the bug. Then, "mom, it did not work. He is not scared."

Meri likes to touch worms to make them squiggle. Jell eggs her on, laughing her head off, and urging, "Meri, do it again! Do it again!" (Although she refuses to touch them herself, because they're slimy) I called Meri a "worm toucher," and for the next few minutes she would walk around, throw her hands up in the air, and triumphantly proclaim "I da worm toucher!" She also likes to carry them in her hand.

While daddy was changing Meri's diaper I pointed out to Jell what a great daddy he was to do that. Jell, matter-of-factly stated, "Yeah, he's such a great poop-changing-guy."

Jell was playing with barbies, and said, "Oh, her dress fell off! She doesn't have any clothes on! HOW EMBARRASSING!!!!" (the girl is all drama and exaggeration!)

Have you seen the movie Enchanted? Both of my girls have taken to sticking their heads out doors and singing/calling to the birds and squirrels to come help them. Jell wants to know, "Mom, why don't they come like they do in the movie?"

In fact, Jell has taken to living in her own little princess-movie world. I've seen her "making her prince" like Giselle does when she's a cartoon (pronounced tar-toon in our house). She was getting rather upset with Meri the other day because Meri, who was supposed to be Sleeping Beauty, wouldn't fall asleep after Jell had her touch the "thing." She has informed me before that the mice and birds are making her a dress for the ball, often gets out a magic carpet to sit on, and on and on.

The other thing they like to pretend is that they're mamas. Jell has informed me she wants 6 babies when she's gets bigger and bigger. To avoid fights, everybody can be mamas at the same time, although I have to clarify that I'm the real mama, even though Meri likes me to pretend to be her baby. Yesterday I told Meri that you have to be potty-trained to be a mama (it's a rule). She said, "oh," thought about it for a second, and added, "and daddas too." Maybe now that she's got that understanding down, she will not only have some motivation to become so herself, but will also stop asking Coop and I if we have poopies.