April 2015 - Easter, Fieldtrips, and Parties

Easter this year was the same weekend as Conference. What an amazing weekend! Rayola sent the kids some fun stuff including this great barn set for Pierscen. He had a blast with it.

I got Pierscen an egg painting kit and he had a lot of fun with it.

 On Saturday morning we went to the park for the big Easter egg hunt. It was crazy cold. I wish we had brought him a coat. Oh Wyoming.

 We did another little hunt at the house. Not like there are many places to hide eggs in our backyard, but that's okay.

 P came in one morning covering his eyes. When I asked him why he was covering his eyes and he said, "I just wanted to look good for church." I'd say he did a pretty good job applying his mascara. ;)

Devry's 4 month check went well. She weighed just about 12 pounds even. So her weight curve wasn't as high, she dropped in percentage quite a bit, but she was still tracking perfectly. 

 For one of our Wednesday Fieldtrips we went to Fort Caspar. The kids had a fun time running around exploring the teepee frames, trails, and an old jail cell.

 More cute Devry pictures:

 Here are our Easter pictures, though they were a week afterward.

I told Pierscen to stand "normal" for his pictures - and this was as close as we got. He was just super happy about his new suit from Rayola. 

We had another fun FHE. Pierscen and I "packed our tent" to go see King Benjamin. Ryan dressed up and stood at the top of the stairs and gave talked to us about service, baptism, and trying to be like Jesus. Afterward, Pierscen wanted a turn being King Benjamin, and then asked me to do it too. It was pretty great.

Ryan's birthday rolled around and I wish I could say that I was creative, but I'm not, so I bought him a bunch of things he likes and wrapped them up in the most amazing way possible: 

Ha! Pierscen wanted in on the fun, so he wrapped up a jar of pickles. 

Oh hey. That's not totally true. I AM creative. I actually bought something for Ry he never saw coming that he totally wanted - a cover for the grill. Go me!

I bought a Gyro loaf from the meat market in town and made him Gyros the night before his birthday. They turned out amazing. On his actual birthday we went out to Tanya's because Justin shares the same birthday and so they were holding a fun bbq. Hey, it got me off the hook for planning anything.  

The truth is, I really WANTED to do something for him. He turned 30 this year. That's a really big deal! And with him starting school and working his butt off at work and being Young Men's President, not to mention being an incredible husband and father... well, I really wanted to do something. Even just a little ice cream get together. But he didn't want me to do it. He was embarassed for people to know his age. So, at least we got to have a party - even if it wasn't for him strictly speaking. I did make his traditional strawberry cake and brought that along which was a huge hit.

Another fun Wednesday Fieldtrip was to Sam's Club. We had to wear hair nets the whole time, which made pictures pretty funny. Cutest little baby in a hair net ever. :) 

 Devry's bald spot has earned her lots of funny commentary. And yes, I have been asked if I actually cut her hair like this. Yeeeessss... I gave my 4 month old a bowl cut. Every loving mother does it. ;)

One day I found that Pierscen had taken a Styrofoam piece from our new light in our bedroom and pulled it apart bit by bit in the living room. I'm sure it fun in the process, but what a nightmare! 

The next big project was finally, FINALLY, painting the walls in the piano room/front room for real. Remember a long time ago when I primed all the walls to cover up the sage green? And then used a blue paint sample to paint beside the piano? (Same blue as last month's Pierscen fiasco upstairs.) Yeah, it didn't take long for me to decide I didn't want it blue, but it took ages to do anything about it. Tans are safe, but boring. But most importantly, safe. I decided I would find other ways to bring in color. So, I used the fan deck and put it on the couches and picked two colors - one a shade darker than the couch for behind the couch, and the same color as the couch for the other three walls. 
The color behind the wall went on super gold and I was REALLY nervous about it. However, it has chilled out and it now looks fantastic! 

And just in case the color above freaks you out - cause it freaks me out just looking at it - know that it looked much better once everything was put together:

Some day we would love to put trim around the top of that half wall and add some shelving so that it's a deeper and thus, more useful, shelf. Someday..

 
This is what it looks like now (as of the end of May). Isn't it awesome?! I know this is skipping ahead, but I purchased those end tables in Utah ($35 for the both of them), lamps - and beautiful decor Kara helped me pick out. (I took one of the pillows with me to find the right color of blue. This picture actually doesn't show the blue in the pillow very well, but it looks so good. Three years of living here and I finally feel like that front room is a real room! It has purpose! I LOVE it! Thanks Kara! And thank you mom for walking me through the whole color process. 

 Just a sweet picture of a Buzz and his dog on a rainy day.

 Devry really started getting "mobile" around this time too. Mobile meaning she could rotate herself around. She hadn't really rolled on purpose yet. Flopped over from her tummy to her back, yes, but not the other way around.

Apparently April was a great fieldtrip month because here was another one. The Tate Museum. The Werner and the Tate Museums are ones that have been on my bucket list since we moved here and it took me this long to make it happen. Wow.

I think this may be one of my favorite pictures of her. Ever.

We also celebrated Jackson's birthday. He had a pirate themed party and the kids had a blast!

The last week of April was spent in massive preparation. I was heading to Utah for an extended stay and I didn't want to leave Ryan unprepared. I did that last year and he really struggled. He is a really good cook so I thought he would be fine to shop and cook for himself. Apparently not because all he ate was pizza and corn dogs. So for about 3-4 days, all I did was cook freezer meals. 

 At the end of the week, I was exhausted, but super proud of my work. At least I knew he wouldn't die while I was gone. :)

The day before we left, I was working on switching out 0-3 clothes for 3-6 and guess who rolled over? She seemed a little confused, but pleased with herself. I love baby milestones. It's incredible how quick they learn!

And that concludes April. On to more insanity...