What to do in rainy weather...

So the weather is just not cooperating with us and our spring break. Plus, we all have pneumonia so even if the weather was fabulous we would not be enjoying it. It has been a LOOOOOOONG winter, leaving me empty of ideas to fill our time with fun.

At Christmas Uncle Jeff and Aunt Tara gave JJ and Emma gift cards to Barnes and Noble. My kids LOVE to read so this was the perfect gift for each of them. We loaded up our van and headed to the local B&N. They were in heaven. JJ is very into fantasy books and is in the middle of 4 different series right now. He ended up getting "Leven Thumps" book 4 and "Peter and the Shadow Thieves" (I just might have to read these myself). Emma got "The Wish" and "Ella Enchanted". Emma loves a series called "The Princess Tales." She was thrilled to find out that the author wrote the two books that she got. I am always blown away at how much my kids read. They devour books. It is a lot different then me, and such a good difference.

Ellie and Elsie couldn't leave empty handed so they got special books of their own. It ended up that the kids were thrilled to come home and just read. Not to bad of a day after all.

keYhOle

Ellie loves our pantry. We have had to put locks on it but she figured that out so we have resorted to taking off the knob so you have to jimmy rig it every time. Well Ellie and Elsie thing being locked in the pantry is a blast. they love to look out the keyhole and trick us. When we try to get them out they cry. Here is what our view is when they are in the pantry.

Is it a pig or is it Elsie?

I love to just see their little eyes.

And oh Boo's smile is priceless.

We have a picture of Ellie that is on my phone so hopefully I will get it on here someday. It is such a fun little game that they play. We giggle a lot when they do this.

Oh me, oh my, oh dinosaur

Yes, this is our Spring Break. Yes I said Spring not winter. We decided not to let the snow get us down so we headed out to build a snowman. It wasn't the best rolling snow so we settled for a dinosaur. It looked better in person I promise.

Ellie was having a blast with the neighbors.

Elsie gave up and went inside. She just wasn't feeling it.

I feel ripped off that this is how we are spending our spring break but hey, lemon's into lemonade and all.

Helper?

Emma has taken it upon herself to help Ellie learn to do the dishes. Ellie loves to do it and Emma loves the help. She is always drenched after but she thinks she is such a big girl. Emma is such a good sister to Ellie. We really are blessed to have such great kids.

Easter with Mama and Papa

Mama and Papa had a yummy lamb dinner with orange rolls (Jeron's favorite) and a funky potato casserole. Dinner was wonderful and carrot cake to top it all off. After dinner the kids found their Easter bags and Mama and Papa prepared a fun little activity for them. We even got to have a special treat and video chatted with Vogel's and S. Meads', Lucy is getting so big.

JJ Papa and Emma

All my single ladies

Mama always gets the kids something that reminds them of Christ. This year she did the resurrection eggs. The kids had to find 12 eggs and in each egg as the story of the resurrection from the bible. Then mama got them a book about Easter, and read it to them. They loved doing this with her. Papa got out their pictures from Jerusalem and showed the kids the actual places they had just read about in the bible. JJ and Emma really liked that.

After we did all of that their cousins came and they got to see each other for just a minute before we had to head out.

Austin, Abby, and JJ

Uncle Michael and Ellie

Elsie, Papa, and Spencer

Trying to get a pic of everyone but Ellie wouldn't join.

Then it went crazy and Ellie decided to come. Silly girl.

Thanks Mama and Papa for helping us learn more about Easter. Thanks for the Easter bags and the book.

Easter with Grandma and Grandpa

Or first stop this Easter was at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The kids had a fun time finding all the treasures all over the basement. They love that they find money. It was fun for them to see their cousin Brock. We missed hanging out with everyone cause of mixed up communication. They all met at 4:30 and we had to come at 1:00. It was nice to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa though. It was also good to see Jenn and Roger.

Emma and Grandpa

JJ torturing Brock. That is what older cousins are for, I guess?

Jeron with his sister Jenn

Jenn, Jan, and Me

JJ and Emma with Grandma

JJ and Emma and NO that is not her drink

Ellie was thrilled to be in a pic with Brock, I am not sure if Brock felt the same way.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the fun time and all the treasures.

Hoppy Easter

This year I hope that my children can learn about Easter in the true spirit of the holiday. Christ Atoned for our sins. He died for us, and He broke through the bands of death so that we could live again. He lives! He knows us and loves us. He can help us through all our hard times and rejoices when we choose to follow him. I know He is there for me and cares about my everyday struggles and if I will just put my burdens upon Him he will take them. He has taken them. I hope that my children know that He was resurrected and that someday because of His great sacrifice and the atonement we can live with our Father in Heaven again. Without Christ there would have been no way for us to return to our Father.
We woke up and the kids found their Easter baskets. I love that Easter is on Sunday. I loved that we could watch conference together as a family. It is actually a holiday that I enjoy going to church. It feels weird to me that on the one day when most of the world goes to church we stayed home and watched church. I love conference though. It actually turned out to be a crazy day. We missed the second session. I will say next time conference falls on Easter the Snow clan isn't going anywhere.

JJ was the last to find his basket. Jeron and I did say that we could have put his on the table and he still wouldn't have found it.

Emma told us that her basket is in the same place every year. This year we hid it in a new spot and it took her a while but eventually she found it.

Elsie found eggs and had a lot of fun.

Ellie loves to find anything that has to do with candy. Once she found her basket she was in heaven.

We are evil parents or I should say I am an evil mom but I told my kids years ago about the Easter bunny. I really just like this holiday to have it's focus where it should be. And that is on Christ and that HE LIVES!

deCoRaTinG eGgStrAviGanZa

It is that time again. Easter is here. JJ was a huge help this year and actually hard boiled all of the eggs for us. What a cute kid. It is always crazy when priesthood session of conference is on Easter weekend because then we have to watch the clock. We ended up decorating the eggs after dad got home. Here is the fam getting started.
JJ's fingers were already stained before we even started. He helped mix the colors with me. I think he likes to get all dirty, it is part of the fun of it all for him.
Emma is getting very good at making fun looking eggs. We don't buy all the fun, fancy stuff so we have to be a little creative to make them look funky. Emma loved this egg.
Ellie was just proud as a peacock to do her own eggs. We only had one break which was pretty good.
Elsie was so cute. She soaked up every minute of it. Right after we were done Jeron and I were moving the eggs and Elsie thought it would be a great idea to throw hers. We lost 3 eggs to her crazy ways.

I didn't do our family picture like normal but here is the cutie pies with all the eggs.

shOpPinG wiTh My laDieS

I had to get away for a bit, and Boo really needed a night light. Anyone who knows me knows that I love Pottery Barn Kids. In fact I often say that is what my heaven will look and smell like. THere is a smell in that store like no other place I have ever been. I LOVE it. Anyway, need I say more, we headed to Trolley Square for some PBK action. Emma was not to thrilled to go but once we got there and she saw the store she LOVED it. She actually said "Mom, this is my favorite store" That's my girl. When it was time to go all my girls didn't want to leave. It was so fun to take them and see they love it just like I do.




After we got the light we went and got treats at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Lucky us.
Thanks ladies for having fun with me. I love my girls. I really enjoy when we spend time together just being girls.

Silly Fool's Day

I woke up this morning not laughing at mother natures April Fool' Joke. I was in no mood to see snow. Plus I got a call from work saying they needed a dictation done by 1:30pm so that meant trying to juggle the kids and work at the same time. After I picked Ellie up from preschool we decided to make a Snowman. I thought that would help me not feel so guilty when I placed them in front of the TV to babysit them. The snow was extremely slushy so it was HEAVY. After a lot of failed attempts to get the middle on the bottom we decided (really I did) to make him a sleeping snowman. So there you have it. Our fabulous snow man.


The girls pretending to lock me out. Aren't they silly trickers. JJ had stayed home from school cause he was sick so I wasn't to worried if they actually did figure it out. We went in and made lunch. I put the top romen in the microwave and started heating it up. I looked at the clock and HOLY CRAP it was 2:56pm. It took me a really long time to make that fricken' snowman. I start running around in a rush, because I had to get my work in at 1:30 and now I am totally late. I can hear JJ snickering in the study. I go in there and he yells "April Fool's, i changed the clocks" He really got me. He had no clue that i had to get work in so it was a double bonus for him on that one.
I thought okay I need to get my kids at least once. I made this fake "Jeron" and just left him there for each of them to find.

(Except Elsie she helped me make it, funny part about that is she was terrified of him after he was made.)

Emma was the first to come upon him. She yells Daddy and runs in and stomps on his leg. Her foot went all the way to the ground.

Next was JJ. He saw him and snuck up on him and stepped on his booty hard. Again his foot sunk to the ground.

Then it was Ellie's turn. She stepped all over him and still called him Daddy. In fact when Jeron got home and she saw both of them she was really confused.

Last was Jeron, he came in noticed the legs and went in and gingerly touched him with his foot. He thought it was my dad, but wasn't sure. I told him it was my boyfriend.

It was really funny to see each of their faces as the step on him. JJ and Emma both has looks of terror like they had really hurt him. Then laughed their heads off at how real the behind looked. THey kept saying "It looks just like dads bum."

I thought it was interesting that all 3 of my kids tried to hurt him by stomping on him.

After the fake dad April Fool's joke we had a fool's dinner. Everyone was given a paper plate and that was it. We had a cup in front of us that had everything on the menu including the utinsils and cup cut into word strips. You could draw out 3 word strips at a time. That is what you got for that course.
The kids had a lot of fun after a little complaining. The craziest one would have to be when you got a drink without a cup. I had to eat spaghetti sauce only without any utensil. Emma lucked out and got her sauce and noodles together. Jeron did the best he got Sauce, noodles, and fork. Go figure, I wonder how he did that. The craziest would have to be JJ. He got butter, cup and fork. What do you do with that? After each round you had to give up what you had and start all over. Jeron got butter, bread, and knife, does anyone see a pattern? It was a lot of fun to see the craziness we came up with. I love that my family is willing to have fun with me. After we ate crazy I told them they could have seconds normal. There was a few sighs of relief and my hubby said "Oh, if I had known that I might have guessed differently." Hum, was that a confession of cheating? Ha, got to love him.

{Tea for Two}

I was cleaning around the house and I saw Ellie flipping through my Pottery Barn Kids catalog. I thought it was cute that she was just looking at it like I do. Then a little bit later, I noticed that she was on a mission. She was going up and down the stairs bringing up item after item. I rolled my eyes cause here I am cleaning and she is making a trail of mess in my wake.

After a lot of trips she comes up to me and pulls me to her little table she has set up for TEA! IT was the cutest thing ever. I ran in the kitchen and whipped up some heart shaped sandwiches and used all the stuff she brought up. Ellie, Elsie and I had a wonderful tea party.

After we were done and I was cleaning up I noticed the catalog still open to the page where Ellie had stopped looking. Now this part made me so proud and a little sad as well. I should have done this more with her. She really is a cute girlie.

Fun at Temple Square

Okay so I am running out of ideas with this winter hanging on like it is. I needed something FREE and fun for the kids to do. Since we live in Utah we kind of don't go to Temple Square all that often. It is so close that is just seems like something we can always do. Well since it has been a long time I thought I would take the kids to "Do Temple Square" My brother asked me what do you do at Temple Square all day. Well here is how you can spend your whole day there and not have time to see it all.

Our first stop was the Church History Museum. My Grandma use to Volunteer there so I know that I love this place because of times I would go see her there. It has a lot of pioneer artifacts and tells about the starting of the LDS Church to present time. It really is a neat place. I love to learn about history and my ancestors so I really do love it. The first thing that my kids loved to see was the Death Mask of Hyrum and Joseph Smith. Emma commented that Hyrum looks like our family. She even thought JJ looked a little like the mask. See how cool ancestor stuff is. Then we saw the boat that brought the saints to America and the kids got to see what it was like to share a bunk with your whole family. They are much happier with their own beds.
In the museum the Angel Moroni is in a room where you can see the Angel Moroni on the SL Temple. The kids thought that was awesome.

They got to see what it would be like to stand behind the pulpit in General Conference.

They loved pretending like they were giving talks in the Tabernacle.

The museum has a children's room. It tells how special children are. It is a small but fun interactive play house. They can do a lot and they all loved it. We stayed for about an hour and they weren't to happy when I said it was time to move on.

Dress ups for the Manger scene.

After the History Museum we walked around the Temple grounds. It was a bit chilly, but still beautiful.
We went to the south visitors center and watched the videos about family. JJ has already used a line on me from the videos. Family, isn't it about time commercials. He is too smart for his own good.

JJ would not come stand in a pic to save his life, and Ellie was terrified to stand on the HUGE round platform so I had to hold her while we took a pic and she was terrified the whole time.

After the temple we headed over to the Lion House to get a treat. We had yummy cookies and talked about all the fun stuff we had done that day.

Then we took a tour of the Beehive house. My kids love to tell the missionaries that their great-grandmother lived here. The missionaries always think that is SO COOL!

After the Beehive house we went to the Joseph Smith building and waited for Dad to come so we could go see the Joseph Smith movie. We went to the Family History Center and took a picture of us at Ellis Island. We just came to America like our ancestors. They have put a play area in the Family History Center now, so the little kids played while JJ, Emma, and I searched our family out. We didn't get very far. We got the bug though. It was fun again for the kids to show the missionary that helped us that Joseph F. Smith is in their family tree. We think she about passed out. She had never met anyone related to a prophet. She is from the Philippines, so that explains why.
When Dad came we headed over to the movie theater and watched the Joseph Smith movie. This was our kick off to our knew scripture study time. We loved the movie. I can't make it through without crying. Emma and JJ both got a little teary eyed. It really has been useful to have seen that right before we start studying the Book of Mormon. I have referred to that movie a lot of times in our lessons.

It really was a fabulous day. We were not able to go to the North Visitors Center or the Conference Center or the Library. So it looks like we may need another Temple Square Day. The kids had a blast and still bring it up.