Easter Festivities

Lincoln and his bubble wand

Carter finding eggs

Linc and his Hot Wheels car (we put them in the eggs)

All the kids loot

Brandon insisted we get the boys their own "car cases" for their hot wheels cars

before church (I couldn't get a decent pic out of either boy)

I Love Carter's expression!

Carter's prayers have been answered

So, Carter has been praying for about 6 months now that he would someday get a baby sister. Today when we went in for the ultrasound his prayers were answered. We are SO excited for this new little spirit in our home and feel so blessed to have her in our family. If anyone wants to submit ideas for girl names that would be great since we are starting from scratch!

Spring Break in Moab

This year for Spring Break we decided to venture on down to Moab, UT with our longtime friends, the Hardings. We camped for 4 days and had so much fun. This was a first trip for me to this area of the state and I really enjoyed it. We spent one day in Arches National Park and then the rest of the time we spent 4 wheeling and letting the kids run around in the red dirt/sand. The Moab slick rock amazed me and I have never seen anything like it before.

We took a 10 mile ride to this arch (Tibbets Arch) on our 4 wheelers. It was probably one of the hardest, but most fun rides I have ever done. We had to ride the 4 wheelers to the trailhead and then hike a mile to the arch and the kids did awesome on the hike! The canyon around Tibbets Arch. Brandon told him I was making him nervous getting this close to the edge of the cliff to take this picture.

Tibbets Arch

Canyon around Sand Dune Arch in Arches National Park

Sand Dune Arch

Delicate Arch (Does this look familiar? It's the arch on the Utah licence plate)

Window Arch

Lincoln and Daddy hiked all over Arches and boy did he sleep well that night!

Double Arch

Daddy, Carter, and Lincoln on the hike up to Double Arch

Awesome rock formations in Arches

The family loved the trip to Moab and I was amazed at how many things there are to do down there. Besides Arches National Park you are within 20 miles to Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point National Park. It is also on the Colorado River and there is TONS of river rafting that you can do. We camped closer to Dead Horse Point and the trails we rode on were awesome. We survived the crazy winds that kicked up the first 2 days we were there and even survived camping in a tent with temperatures that reached 25 degrees one night. I was amazed at how well my boys and I handled those kinds of conditions and yes, I would do it again. We were lucky to have the right equipment with us so everyone was comfortable and fine.

Where is spring?

I thought it was kind of ironic that the day after the kids and I put out the Spring/Easter decor we woke up to this. Kind of funny how the weather is here in Utah. You would think I would get used to this kind of stuff after living here 12 years, but it still baffles me. You would never see snow and below freezing temps and then 2 days later 60 degrees and sunny where I grew up. I guess I'm just super ready for spring and some nice weather daily instead of sporadically.

St George 1/2 marathon

I totally forgot to post about this back in January! Towards the end of January my 2 running buddies and I ventured down to St George and ran a half marathon down there. The weather was warm and beautiful and we were all very happy to leave the snow and cold. The course was a little messed up due to some flooding in the area, but overall it was very beautiful there. We left Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel around 5 and then went to the race expo, got our race packets, and then went to dinner to carb load at the Pizza Factory. We had a hard time sleeping that night (due to nerves before the race, sleeping in beds that weren't our normal ones, and just having fun girl time without kids around), but were still able to be up early and out the door for the race. We ran the race and then went right back to our hotel room to shower and then checked out and went to lunch and did some shopping before hitting the road to come home. It was a quick trip, but lots of fun to get away with my running buddies. For some reason blogger won't let me upload the photos I have of us down there, so all I have is the pic of my race bib and medal.

Lincoln and his new accomplishments!

Linc and his new "McQueen" bed

Here's my funny, sweet, and motivated 2 year old. Over the holidays he started showing an interest in potty training. I ignored it because we were so busy and I didn't have the time to do it. I put it aside for a while and then last week decided I needed to buckle down and do it because I really didn't want to go buy another box of diapers. So I bought a package of Pullups and we started the potty training. I gave him a little lecture about how he needed to tell me when he had to go. The whole week was amazing. Not only did he only have 1 accident the whole entire week, but he also woke up from his naps dry and even woke up at night if he had to go. So, after switching from Pullups to underwear or "big boy pants" as we call them we decided we also needed to get him out of his crib so he could take himself potty at night. I've been kind of hesitant to take him out of a crib because Carter was such a pain about escaping all night long out of his room as soon as we put him in a toddler bed. Last night was Lincoln's first night in his new bed and he was amazing. We told him to go to sleep and stay in his bed unless he needed to go potty. He went right to sleep without a fight and woke up at 3 am and took himself potty. This kid can't stop amazing me. If only his 4 year old brother was as obedient as him. We feel so blessed to have our boys in our life and enjoy being their parents.

Family Pics

Here are some of the family pics we took of our family when we did family pictures with my very large family. Enjoy!