Fun with Grandma and Easter

We were lucky enough to have Grandma Ro here for a week. The boys were so excited for her to come. She got here after they were asleep so the next morning, they could hardly contain themselves and didn't believe us that she really was here. Once she was awake, they wouldn't leave her alone. It was really cute.
They loved sitting down listening to her tell stories or give presents.

Grandma even helped us dye Easter Eggs! The lighting was horrible in the picture and Tommy looks silly in his "paint" shirt, but we sure had fun!

Barrett and I went to New York while Grandma stayed with the boys. They had tons of fun and didn't miss us at all! Grandma's lost suitcase was finally delivered while we were gone and the boys were excited to see the stickers and books and movies Grandma brought them.

Easter morning was busy. We had made the Easter bunny buns (from the Friend magazine) earlier in the week and had them in the freezer. We ate them for breakfast and hurried to be out the door for choir practice.

Barrett usually has early meetings, so is never around to help get boys ready for church. Easter morning was different, meetings were cancelled so he could help. Tommy hates church clothes and I usually end up pinning him down to get him dressed while he's crying and trying to pull off his church clothes. Well, somehow Barrett convinced him to wear a suit and tie for Easter!! It was pretty much an Easter miracle! He sure looked cute. I really wished I had bought them all matching ties like I'd planned, but never did.

So church was a blur. I accompanied the choir. As of the week before, we only had 5 members in the choir...that morning more people joined in. The boys were tired of sitting in the chapel since they were there early for choir practice. Tommy cried going in to nursery and wouldn't give his teachers their cards and treats. Rolayne and I made it to Sunday School then headed over to Primary where I was doing Primary Music. It was wild. Tommy's teachers gave him a little bunny jar filled with candy. He was soooo excited after that and super pleasant! He was the happiest kid ever the rest of the afternoon. It was really cute.
We got home and gobbled up some lunch, then had an egg hunt outside.





I know the boys look kinda dorky...Damon wears those shorts every day and won't let me tell him what to wear with it. Tommy had his Sunday socks on still when we threw shoes on him for the egg hunt. Aren't their faces adorable though?!
We had funeral potatoes, ham, and tangy beans for dinner. We skipped out on dessert since we had so many treats already. We sure missed Nathan and Kim, but loved having Grandma for Easter!

We had a few days left with Grandma after Easter and had fun. The boys loved snuggling up to her. Damon loved drawing and coloring with her and occupied most of her waking hours. We went to Rita's twice and took her to Byler's to east Amish treats and see horses with buggies. We loved visiting with her and hearing stories and being with her. The boys were really sad to see her leave. Actually, we all were.


Grandma brought the boys these adorable little felt carrots filled with jelly beans. They loved them!

And here's a cute picture of my boys:)

Has it only been one week?!

A few months ago, Southwest was having a sale. We thought it would be the perfect opportunity for Grandma Ro to come visit. Barrett's office was closed for Good Friday and I didn't have seminary either, so we thought a night in New York City would be fun. Barrett's mom flew in Wednesday night then we left Friday morning without the boys, while Grandma babysat. It was awesome!

We drove up to New Jersey, parked the car, hopped on a train, and relaxed until we reached NYC!! I don't know how, but I forgot Barrett took a train every day to Philadelphia for 3 years. Riding on the train with him listening to him reminisce and explaining how he studied on a crowded train made me really sad. I dropped him off at the train station every day and then picked him up. I never realized what he had to go through in between time. I still can't believe he made it through law school riding the train every day. We could count on one hand the number of times he missed his train too!! Wow.

So, we were a little too early to check into our hotel, so since we had backpacks for luggage, we walked down to Guitar Center. Barrett has been drooling over the website for months. He even bought a new guitar, but ended up sending it back after a few weeks for various reasons. He was SOOOO excited to walk into an actual Guitar Center and play the guitars he'd been looking at online. I just sat and listened for probably over a half hour. We finally made it to the hotel. We were on the 24th floor. This was our view out our window.

Pretty awesome. We watched tv and took naps. Barrett said he needed to be "rested" to go see Wicked later that night. It was pretty neat to watch what we wanted during the day, plus take a nap! With two little non-napping boys, the parents never get to nap. We got ready for the rest of our adventure and headed out. We walked through Times Square. Barrett saw a ticker that mentioned Brandon Davies and BYU. He was pretty excited. He thought it was awesome that anything BYU was news in NYC.

We walked around Rockefeller Center. I kept seeing things our little boys would love.
Like this giant Easter Bunny.

We had fun walking around at OUR pace, not a child's. We went to a fun cafe for dinner, then made it to the Gershwin Theater to see Wicked!! It was pretty fun and exciting. Barrett had a pretty bad cough all week, so we were worried he'd start hacking and wouldn't stop, but we luckily made it through. We are not used to staying up late, so we were pretty tired by the time it ended, but we both really enjoyed it!!

The only thing I wanted to do was see Wicked, the only thing Barrett wanted to do was sleep in. We woke up at 8:30!! Heaven. It was raining Saturday morning, so we had a difficult time deciding what to do. We finally packed up and checked out. We hopped onto the subway and went back to Rockefeller Center to go to the Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes. We passed by the night before, but couldn't remember what corner we saw it on. I took us the long way...in the rain. Barrett finally found it. Another thing that wouldn't have been fun with kids:) We picked out some pretty beautiful cupcakes and took off. We ate at another cafe then headed to Penn Station to get back on a train home. We shared one of the 6 cupcakes and instantly wished we bought more! We made it to our car and drove home...sharing another cupcake. Barrett loved them and I am now thinking I can convince him much easier to stop by Georgetown Cupcakes soon!!

The boys had fun with Grandma, but were still excited to see us. After dinner we shared the rest of the cupcakes with everyone. Delicious! We had a really great time. We've never left both boys with someone over night, so I was really worried about it. But, once I was gone, I was fine and knew they were safe. This morning we couldn't believe our adventure was only one week ago...it seems so long ago.

Anyone?

Anyone else love this website?

Mel's Kitchen Cafe

This week I made this and this.

We loved the Baked Pasta with Chicken Sausage. Barrett loved the Kung-Pao noodles, they weren't my favorite, but they were tasty.

I love the Double Chocolate M&M Cookies. Especially since you can freeze them and only heat up one in the microwave for a few seconds...way good!

Since I only plan good/fun meals a few times a month, I thought I'd share some winners!

Our Boys

I have the cutest boys. I have been loving them lots lately!

One night Barrett was giving the boys piggy back rides. Then Damon tried to give Tommy one. Then we hear, "Hey Tommy. Wanna give me a piggyback ride?" Tommy replied, "Oh-tay, Damon." Hilarious! Barrett had to help them out, but they sure had a great time!




We were really excited for General Conference this last weekend. We've had visitors the last couple times for General Conference, but this time it was just us the whole weekend. I had made apostle cards for memory and matching games and we printed off tons of fun coloring pages for the boys. Damon received a few coloring pages in Primary the week before and had them completed by the next day...he was so excited! He also thought President Monson was going to be coming to Primary the next week...we cleared that one up. Both Damon and Tommy recognized President Monson, President Eyring, President Uchtdorf, and a few other apostles. It just makes a mom's heart happy to hear little boys talk about the prophet and apostles:)
A funny story: We were watching the Saturday afternoon session and listening to the choir (not the Mormon Tabernacle Choir). Barrett commented on how great they sounded. Damon said something like: Yeah, they even sound better than my Primary!!! I cried it was so funny:)


Snack time is always interesting. Damon can't stand getting his hands wet, sticky, or dirty. He barely holds an apple slice to eat it. He usually ends up eating his grapes "like a goat." So, snack time = interesting. This day the boys were eating pretzels. They lined them up then started eating them without their hands. Funny boys.



What we've been loving about Tommy:
-He's such a snuggle bug! He's always hugging us, snuggling up to us, wrapping his little arms tightly around our necks, telling us he loves us, and holding hands with Daddy when he eats and can't sit on his lap.
-We love his huge teethy grin! It is the cutest ever!
-He says the cutest things all day long. The other day at the park he said, "Stop wind!!" and brushed the side of his head...it was too windy for him. He says, "Hey mom, wanna pey yeh-gos wit me?" He was jumping up the other day and said, "I tant weech it!!" I asked him what he was doing and turns out he was trying to reach the ceiling!
-He loves singing along with us. Our favorites are Winnie the Pooh, I Hope they Call Me on a Mission, I Love to See the Temple, Book of Mormon Stories, Happy Birthday, The Cougar Fight Song, Robin Hood (from the Disney Robin Hood...his favorite movie), and Seize the Day (from Newsies).
-He loves having books read to him. His favorites are the Pigeon series (Mo Williems), the Llama series (Anna Dewdey), the Click Clack series (Doren Cronin), The Franklin series (not sure of the author), Where's the Green Sheep? (Mem Fox..I think I read this one 100 times in one week, really), and The Cat in the Hat (Dr. Seuss).
-Sometimes he does this little head cock one eye squinty thing when he talks or asks a question...so cute.

He just makes us smile and Barrett and I are always telling each other how cute Tommy is. He's super fun right now...even with the terrible two's stage and horrible temper he has.

What we've been loving about Damon:
-He's started to FINALLY play nicely with Tommy. I usually wait too long to check on them and end up with a disaster, but I love to hear the 2 boys talking and playing together.
-He has mad drawing and writing skills for a 4 year old. Yes, he's mine and I'm biased, but seriously, his drawings are the best!! He has better handwriting than Barrett too!! Some days he just sits at the table and draws, colors, and creates things all by himself!
-He loves music. I was trying to teach him a new Spring song from the Primary Song book one day. I would sing a line with the piano, then have him repeat it, but he wouldn't let me play the piano...he wanted to sing it by himself. He did awesome!
-He loves superheros...finding library books about them, drawing them, putting on his cape and snow boots pretending to be one, and talking about them. He doesn't understand that superheros are supposed to be good buys, not tough, mean guys.
-His smile. He has the sweetest face when he smiles...I have to remind him how cute he is when he has a smiley face instead of a tough/mean face that he often has!
-We love his ability to forgive instantly. He gets in trouble a lot, but is always scheming what to play with you when he's out of trouble. He got sent to his room for hurting Tommy, then hit something at the wall which caused a hole, and after getting in huge trouble for it...he instantly wanted to play with Dad. So forgiving.
-He loves to have books read to him. We go to the library at least once a week...sometimes more depending on what they are doing at Story Time. On Thursdays we pick out books. We come home and Damon pulls out all the books and wants to start reading them. He'll look through all the pictures, then we'll read them.
-He is an athlete. I have no athletic skills, so maybe I don't know anything, but Damon is really good at playing soccer...well, kicking the ball. He's always been good at throwing a football and tries to talk Barrett into playing Baseball outside with him whenever he can.

We just love these boys...even if sometimes we feel like we're losing our eternal salvation because of them (no patience, etc.)