Easter 2010

"Did someone say candy?!" Yup. My dad's side of the family does an annual Easter hunt the day before Easter, and instead of eggs they hide candy. The kids love it, and as a parent I always enjoy sneaking a few treats from their baskets later! This year the hunt was held at a park and it was really cute. The kids were bundled up more than usual since it was a bit cold, but at least the rain held off while we enjoyed our festivities.

Some of the candy was "hidden" in plain sight for the younger kiddos like Lincoln...

Noah loved running through the little wooded area looking for candy...

Before very long into the Easter hunt I stopped Noah & Lincoln for a quick photo. I told them that I just needed one quick picture and that afterward they could get back to finding candy. So, in order to get back to the candy hoarding they were very cooperative posing for one quick picture...smiling and even holding hands! Lincoln's forced cheeser in this picture absolutely cracks me up.

Lincoln finding a spot in his basket for yet another piece of candy.

Noah showing his basket. Isn't he such a handsome little guy?

I didn't end up getting many pictures of the other kids at the hunt, but here is my cousin Lauren with her adorable little son Jack.

And a shot of all of us! Well, all of us on my dad's side of the family that could make it that day anyway...

After the Easter hunt was over, the guys headed to a session of the bi-annual conference that our church holds, while my mom and I took Noah & Lincoln to lunch and then headed back to her house to color Easter eggs! The boys loved watching as we got all of the different colors ready in the bowls, but Noah wanted to know why we wouldn't be painting the eggs with paint brushes like was done in the Easter book we read earlier that week.

Here I am showing Noah how to lower the eggs down into the dye. Oh, and to document Lincoln's fat lip...the spots on my cardigan are blood from Lincoln's mouth. He got hurt in the tube slide at the McDonald's playground that afternoon...he says somebody pushed him, but I don't know for sure. I think every mom in town had the idea to take their kids there while the men were at conference - the place was insanely busy. Poor Linc came out of the slide screaming with a fat lip and blood coming out of his mouth...hence the spots I managed to get on my cardigan. Anyway, I was glad to leave that place and get to my parents' house to do something more mellow...

Noah cautiously putting eggs into the dye. It was cute to watch how seriously he took things.

I love this little face Noah was making while he poked at the eggs as he waited for them.

Noah showing off one of his eggs.

Coloring on the egg before dying it.

Here is my mom helping to teach Lincoln about dying eggs. He was really excited to get his hands dirty and do some of the eggs himself. It was a good thing we had newspaper down when he did it though - he had lots of spills.

It was so fun to watch how pleased he was with himself.

You can actually see Linc's fat lip in this picture...

...but Linc didn't seem to even remember his owie. He was having a grand ol' time.

If we were all just this happy with such simple pleasures.

I asked the boys if I could get a picture of the two of them dying eggs together, and boy did Noah ham things up. I had a hard time holding the camera still to get the pictures 'cause he had me laughing!


I love these two boys.

The next day was Easter Sunday. Since general conference was that day we don't have any pictures in new church clothes, but here is Mark with the boys and their Easter baskets.


We spent most of Easter Sunday at Mark's parents' house. The first activity we did was their traditional jelly bean hunt. It was fun to watch them run around the front room and scoop up all the jelly beans they could find.


Then it was time for some lunch. The boys sat down waiting to say a prayer over the food and I had the camera still in my hands, so I just had to snap a picture of them sitting there waiting for the prayer. They just looked so cute in those little chairs with their arms folded...

Mark's parents with the boys and the delicious spread of food.

The boys eating at the cute little kids' table.

And Mark's brother and their kids joined us there too! Here are cousins Spencer & Zach with Noah. They are so cute with him.

Mark's parents had some cute little games to play before finding little treat bags from the Easter bunny, and then it was time to watch more conference on TV. Mont & Mary had plenty of fun little activities to occupy the kiddos during conference too. Coloring, puzzles, etc.




Here are Noah & Ava coloring. Ava was sweet enough to share a page out of her princess coloring book that Noah really wanted to color.

Playing with Uncle Dave's dog...

Grandpa and Lincoln doing a puzzle...
Thanks to both of our parents for everything you did to help us celebrate such a wonderful Easter holiday. We had a great Easter weekend. We are obviously also grateful for the reason for the season, but that's not something that's as easy to capture in a blog post. I will say though that Noah was much more interested this year in learning about the death and resurrection of Jesus. Those topics have frequented conversations and questions initiated by Noah since then. Just a couple of examples:

• One day while playing "bad guys" Noah was trying to think of the worst bad guy to pretend to be, and he announced - "I'm going to pretend to be the bad guys that killed Jesus". Oh boy.
• Today Noah asked me today, "Mom, will the extinct dinosaurs be resurrected someday too so I will be able to see them?"

April Jazz Stuff

Towards the end of the regular NBA season our household had lots of excitement about the Jazz. The rankings of the teams in the western division seemed to change almost daily since things were so close, and we were holding our breath to end the season with a ranking that would provide us home-court advantage and a favorable match up. Well, our ranking bounced around and at the very end of the season we dropped from 2nd place to 5th place after just one game. We went into the playoffs with Jazz fever in our house anyway (despite our disappointment that we would likely not be able to put off meeting the Lakers until the finals like we'd hoped).

Anyway, just before the end of the regular season, I found these Jazz hats on a super clearance sale. The next morning the boys both got themselves all decked out in their jerseys and the hats before waking me up in the morning...so cute.

So, we started off our day by playing a little bit of basketball in the front room and snapping a few pictures.

Look at that sweet little face.

This expression just cracked me up. It's so Lincoln.

Even though this picture is a little bit blurry I had to include it. Lincoln just gave Noah the biggest hug, and Noah did this funny hand out thing. Love it. I was glad that Noah finally conceded to being in a few of these pictures (he really protests that sometimes).

One of my favorite "brothers" pictures that I have of these two:

And, after not too long, Anna joined us for the rest of that day (that was my last week babysitting her). Noah really wanted me to take a picture of them with her (that's my boy)! As you can even see in this picture - she is a lot more mild & mellow than my two very active little boys, but as the months went on she became a lot more tolerant about Noah's affectionate hugs and request for photos together...not enthused, but tolerant.

And I just thought I'd throw this photo in because I liked it. I took it later that morning while we were shelling peanuts for a snack.

That same night (April 6th) I got to attend a Jazz game! Mark & I had tickets to the Oklahoma Thunder/Utah Jazz game, but Mark ended up having to attend the second part of a surgical conference in New Mexico (that had been rescheduled). So, I asked Emily (Josh's girlfriend) if she would like to go with me. I've been wanting to do something with her anyway, and I knew that she'd be lots of fun to go with...I know that she got really into the games when she used to attend them with Josh.

So, Emily drove all the way down from Logan (where she attends college) and we went to the game together! We snapped a couple pictures together with the boys (partially because I wanted them, and partially so we could send copies to Josh). Lincoln held her hand and wouldn't let go - so cute.

And my wonderful mother-in-law took care of the mini-Jazz fans while we went to the game. Thank you so much, Mary!

Before the game we went to eat at Vinto. I've mentioned this place before in a previous post. Yum! We shared a fresh squeezed lemonade, and this is a picture of my dinner - the Patate wood fired pizza. Scrumptious.

Emily ordered the current pizza special that they were offering. I don't remember the name, but it was reminiscent of eggplant parmesan.

And, upon recommendation from my friend Claire, we shared their delicious molten chocolate cake.

Then it was on to the game! I think it was the most amazing basketball game that I've ever been to. It was nuts! Close back & forth game the whole time. Playoff-type energy in the crowd (I lost my voice a little). And Williams hit a shot just before the buzzer to send it into overtime...where we won by one point! And D-Will played an amazing, all time career-high scoring game. For those of you that want to ruin my fun by griping about the missed Thunder foul at the end of the game...re-watch the game and look at all of the missed fouls that should have gone our way throughout the game, including not long before the end of regulation which could have likely prevented sending the game into O.T. in the first place. It was an amazing game, and I'm so glad that I got to go...and go with someone who was as into it as I was! Thanks for coming, Em!

Now this is random. We were at McDonalds one day, and while the boys were playing on the playland Lincoln screams out, "Jazz guy! Jazz guy!". I finally realized that through the glass doors leading to the lobby area, he had seen this cardboard stand up (of Paul Millsap). He really wanted to go see him, so I took the boys over. Lincoln got a little trepidatious as we got closer, and I realized that he thought he was real. I decided to take a picture of them with the fake-Millsap, so I showed him that he was not real and he reluctantly agreed.

Now moving onto playoffs. Mark got to attend a game with my dad, grandpa, and brother Matt...of course photos don't get taken if I'm not there, but he had a great time. Then, my dad invited me to the playoff game (also against Denver) on April 30th. We grabbed dinner before the game (just like we did when I was growing up), and we were even in our seats before tip-off - wahoo! It was a really great game. There is always a lot of energy, and fans on their feet during playoff games...and it's always more fun when you win too! We clinched our 4th win against the Nuggets that night, sending us into the 2nd round of the playoffs. Thanks again, Dad! I had such a great time!
I won't have anymore Jazz pictures to add to my blog for this season. And, although some other Jazz fans may curse me for saying this...I'm just hoping that we can prevent a sweep on the Lakers part. I am admittedly a Laker-hater, but I'll realistically admit that I think our chances are slim to none of overtaking the Lakers (especially with Okur & A.K. injured). Still, I say "Go, Jazz!"...and the next time I post pictures from a Jazz game, it will probably be from attending at the U.S. Airways Center in Phoenix!

March Wrap Up

So, to start this random mish-mash of photos & video clips from March (that didn't make it into another post) let's start with a cute little picture and video clip of the boys enjoying a smoothie. They were enjoying sucking it down and were pretty cute talking about when they get "freezie heads"...



Just a couple quick shots of Noah in one of our Buzz Lightyear costumes.


One day during bath time I grabbed my camera to video Noah's cute little laugh...and how surprising it was that Lincoln was being so passive with what Noah was doing to him. Just a little spitting was all...


One evening we noticed that Lincoln was jumping up and down on an air vent in our front room. Mark thought to look inside of it and it was full of various toys. He pulled them all out and we both reached down as far into the vent as we could to make sure we got everything. However, that night we couldn't find his binky anywhere (which in our house is close to a crisis). Of course, we began to wonder if he'd put his binky in there...and if it could have tumbled further down the air duct than we could reach. So, Mark turned on the timer delay and rigged our camera so he could lower it down into the vent. It took a couple of tries to get a good shot, but this is what we were finally able to see! The elusive binky and a bunch more blocks and toys. Luckily, Mark was able to go downstairs and find the proper tube in our laundry room to take apart. Binky was retrieved and bedtime was able to progress as planned. Whew.

Mark & Lincoln enjoying some popcorn on the couch one night:

My aunt Joy gave the boys this fantastic book which they absolutely love. They enjoy reading and re-reading it, and it wasn't long after we got the book before Noah began reciting lines from the book. I took this video clip about a month & 1/2 ago, and Noah has memorized most of the book at this point (I should video him again)...but this video clip is pretty stinkin' cute:


I swear. You turn your head for one second with Lincoln and...

I always loved St. Patrick's Day growing up. My mom always had little green footprints that led from our bedrooms downstairs to a black pot (which naturally had a rainbow hung over it) of gold coins and other fun little goodies. There was always a green pin or something green to wear too...and green shamrock pancakes with green orange juice. I didn't realize that not every house did this stuff until I was a little older. Anyway, we're still refining the way we do things in our home with our boys, but this was my first year really doing much for this holiday and we had a good time with it. Boy did Noah have a lot of questions about leprechauns though. He was much more interested in trying to catch the leprechaun than he was about what the little man could have left him, but here's a clip of Noah finding his pot o' green goodies.


Lastly, for documentation purposes (and for those of you that haven't heard)...Mark was offered a job in Arizona that we're really excited about. This is a picture of Mark during the first week of March as he signed the final contract! Wahoo! Our journey together through the years of undergrad, 4 years of medical school, and 3 years of residency has all culminated in landing this job. We are sad to be moving away from family & friends, but are thrilled for Mark to finally be doing what he loves (for a "real" paycheck) and with such an esteemed practice. We feel very blessed.

This is a picture that Mark took when he flew down for his second interview. This is where Mark's office will be, and where he'll see patients and do most of his surgical procedures. It's a nice, new building with it's own O.R. on site - so that's fun too.

Since I have started blogging I'm quite sure that I've never included a post of anything related to Mark's residency life. So, to wrap up writing about Mark starting his new job soon...I thought it seemed appropriate to include a picture of him with his co-residents too.
So, for March...that's a wrap!

One-on-one night.

Back at the very end of March my dad called to see if he could take Noah to a Jazz game (ummm...yes!) and so we decided that while he was getting a fun night of one on one attention from grandpa, that we'd give Lincoln a night of attention focused on him too. So, here are a few quick pictures from that night. Here is Noah all decked out in his Boozer jersey and excitedly waiting outside to greet grandpa when he pulled up.

Noah & grandpa before leaving for the game. They had a great time, and Noah was particularly excited to tell me that he ate a hot dog AND cotton candy!

We had a more low key night with Lincoln, but we had a great time. He's been into eating noodles lately, so since we'd never been to the restaurant Noodles before we decided to give it a try. We enjoyed it, and it was so-o nice to be able to relax and enjoy each other's company without having to coax Linc to eat his food (he loved it)! Here he is munching a saltine and enjoying his mac 'n' cheese.

You'll notice the red mark/bruise on Lincoln's cheek...it was from an incident at a prior trip to the park (which I already documented in this previous post). Poor guy. Lincoln had a great night though and he really seemed to relish all the attention from Mom & Dad being on him. Part way through the meal he kind of stopped and looked back and forth from Mark to me, noticing that we were both smiling and admiring him, and he just grinned the cutest grin - kind of a happy/shy/pleased with himself grin. Precious. Here are a couple pictures of him being very thorough at cooling off his macaroni...


I have to mention one more side note before moving on...I wouldn't trade having both of our two boys for anything, but Mark & I kept commenting on how easy things felt being out with just one child. One kid to get in and out of the car, to answer questions while driving, to watch for spills during dinner, etc. Again, we wouldn't ever want to change the way things are, but it sure was nice to have a chance (for all of us) to just take out Lincoln...and to smother him with attention. Maybe someday we'll say the same thing about taking out "just two kids". Anyway, since that night was all about Lincoln - we tried to think of something to do after dinner that Linc would particularly like. He is super into trains right now, so Mark suggested that we take him to a couple of places to just play with trains. Perfect! First we went to Barnes & Noble. I don't take him there very often because when it's time to leave he throws the biggest royal tantrums. However, this time we were armed with the ultimate counter offer...when he started the tantrum (and, oh, he did) we just told him that we were taking him to another store to play with another Thomas the train. It took a second to sink in, and he just looked up at us to see if we were serious...once he could see that we were serious, then it was off to the car with smiles!

So, next we went to Toys 'r' Us where he played with Thomas the train. Eventually he allowed us to break him away from the train table to explore the toy store. We just let him look at and touch all the toys he wanted - and he LOVED that. We spent the most time in this aisle (with Wall-e and Toy Story toys). Lincoln just plopped down and moved from toy to toy yelling out the name of each toy and beckoning us over to look at each one. He looked so tiny sitting in that big aisle of toys...

Once we were ready to leave the toy store, Linc was delighted that we let him pick out one train car to buy (which we don't normally do just for fun) and then we headed home to eat some ice cream together and watch the end of the Jazz game.
It was such a fun night. It did help Mark & I realize that while we really love enjoying time all together as a family, that we really want to make more of an effort to give the boys individual time and attention too. Not only for them, but also for us to really take the time to think about what each child's particular likes are at that time (what would be fun particularly for them to do), to make sure that child is having a chance to be noticed, heard and praised specifically. Noah & Lincoln are less than 21 months apart in age, they are both boys, and they both like a lot of the same things - so it's often easy to lump them together in their interests...but, like all kids (no matter how close in age) they certainly have their own specific interests that are unique to them too. It was fun to get to focus on Lincoln that night. The cute way he talks right now, his cute little grins and expressions, and his over the top excitement for trains...and it was so nice to do all of that guilt-free knowing that Noah was having a great time at the Jazz game too!