Catching Up! April 2012

Yup.  I've done it again.  I went through a marathon catch-up session in April, vowed not to get behind again...and then got behind in my family blog again.  So, now it's time to make up for it and play catch up!  Enjoy the pictures!

Above: To start off the month of April, Peter skinned up his forehead and nose pretty good.  We had a really windy day and the wind knocked over our garbage and recycling can.  It blew our cardboard boxes all over the neighborhood.  Peter was helping me to gather up our stuff while Jonathan was down for his morning nap.  However, Peter was running after a plastic garbage bag and tripped on the sidewalk and landed face first.  Poor little guy.  It was really sad.  It would have healed a lot faster if he wasn't such a scab picker too. I couldn't keep a band-aid on his forehead to save my life.  He kept pulling them off.  It made me really sad. Poor guy.

Above: Daddy and Peter at the Draper temple.  Dad had to speak on Easter Sunday and Mom was singing in the choir, so we asked Mimi and Papa to babysit Peter and Jonathan during church.  On our way home from picking them up, we made a stop at the temple since Jonathan fell asleep in the van.

Above: A close-up so you can see just how sweet my Pete is!

Above: Jonathan hunting for Easter eggs in his diaper.  He had gotten his clothes dirty during lunch time and he just couldn't wait long enough to get dressed before going outside.

Above: Jonathan was really good at helping find and gather the Easter eggs.

Above: Jonathan is a natural helper.  He always wants to help me pick things up, do the dishes, and do the laundry.

Above: Peter was in charge of the basket.  So, we all gathered eggs and put them in Peter's basket.

Above: I'm not sure why this picture flipped (and I can't seem to figure out how to un-flip it), but his expression is too priceless to skip including this picture.  Maybe I'll try again to fix the picture later.  Peter was REALLY excited about hunting for Easter eggs.

Above: Jonathan was enjoying himself, as always.  But he was much more interested in the swing set than in gathering more Easter eggs...because, gee Mom, hadn't we already done that earlier today?

Above: Peter is all about the hunt.  Hunting for Easter eggs never gets old for him.

Above: Jonathan finding an egg of his own.

Above: Jonathan after discovering that there was actually candy inside the Easter eggs!

Above: Jonathan lost all interest in hunting for eggs once he realized that he could better spend his time eating the candy that was inside them instead.  I helped him hunt for some more eggs to help keep up with the supply and demand.  That kid LOVES to eat!

Above: We had an Easter fishing pond for the kids too.  Jonathan was too busy eating to bother about fishing, so Peter did the honors.

Above: What a catch!

Above: Look, Mom!  I caught another one!

Above: Could that face be any sweeter?  Even with an ouch-ey on his forehead?

Above: We also made an April visit to see Nammy at work.  I drove Jonathan around in a chair that had rolling wheels.

Above: Peter pretended to drive the equipment.

Above: Here we are on our first visit to the park this season.  It had been too cold before that.  It was really the first time that Jonathan was old enough to really enjoy the park and participate.  He had such a great time!

Above: Jonathan absolutely adored the slide.

Above: On your mark, get set...GO!

Above: Sweet brothers having fun at Nammy's house.

Above: Jonathan played a little one-on-one with Uncle Sean.

Above: Peter is a very sweet boy and loves to pick me some flowers.  With Nammy's help and permission, he picked these beautiful tulips for me.  I was very appreciative because spring starts a whole month later up in Suncrest.  While it was finally warm enough to play outside from time to time, there were no blossoms on the trees and no flowers outside and I really missed it.  Having a touch of springtime inside the house helped to ease the loss of my early spring!  That will take some getting used to.  Fall is my all-time favorite season.  I know it will start earlier up here, but if it's too short, I am going to be sooooo sad!

Above: We decided to commemorate the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic with a dinner that included menu items that were served on the last night before the Titanic sank.  Everyone gave me a fair bit of teasing in regards to the fact that I bought a Titanic necklace over 10 years ago when the movie came out.  Everyone wanted to see it and I kept forgetting to bring it, so I snapped this picture of my necklace.  :)

Above: Here is our yummy dinner featuring different recipes that were served on the Titanic on her last night. Kim pointed out that if this had been her last meal, she would have died satisfied.  It really was that good.  If you want the recipes, you can find them on our family food blog, here.

Above: Peter loves to play in his Daddy's snowboarding stuff.  He always feels like a superhero when he wears this.

Above: Plus, it's perfect for a little hide-and-seek too. 

Above: This is Jonathan's first ice cream cone (at least that I know of).  He wasn't quite sure what to do with it.  He kept smashing it into his tray.  You can bet that he has gotten the hang of ice cream cones by now.  They end up all over his face, but the majority of it now ends up in his tummy and not wasted on his tray.

Above: Peter went through an Incredible Hulk phase.  This is his Incredible Hulk expression and stance.  I sure love that guy!

Above: On another outing to a play ground.

Above: Just playing soccer with Dad.

Above: There weren't many opportunities to play outside in the spring in our backyard because it was so often wet and muddy.  Here's Jonathan after being stripped down after getting particularly muddy.  His brother got just as muddy and stripped down as well (of his own accord).  They got a bath after this.  And also, let me note that every time Jeremiah grows a beard, when it is time to shave it off, he always leaves a RIDICULOUS mustache behind for a few days (and even as long as a few weeks).  I don't love beards, but I've got to admit that Jeremiah looks pretty good with a beard.  As for a mustache?  I HATE it when he has a mustache!  He just looks so silly!  It's hard to take him seriously when he has a mustache.

Above: Monkey see, monkey do.  Peter with the cousins at Thanksgiving Point.  We have a yearly tradition of going down there to see the tulips.  Pretty much all of the cousins idolize their oldest boy cousin, Cameron.  And whatever Cameron does, everyone else does too!

Above: The cousins (Cameron, AJ, Peter, and Lauren) in a rare moment of peace and solitude sitting together.

Above: Dinner with the cousins is the best!

Above: Jonathan showing the sites to his Mimi while stuffing his face at the same time.  Good multi-tasking.

Above: My boys playing together at home.  And can I just say that I love that expression on Peter's face?  That guy has sass and attitude, that's for sure!

Above: The only way to really enjoy an ice cream sandwich is to end up with an ice cream mustache.

Above: My two sweet BYU fans enjoying one of their favorite pastimes--looking out the front window.

Above: The wind sure can whip around that corner!  What a cute guy!

Above: Here are my boys "painting" the house.  This is a fallback to a game that my mom would have us play.  She would give us a bucket of water and some paint brushes and we would pretend to paint the house.  Jonathan really loved doing this.  Peter enjoyed it, but he wanted to do other things...

Above: Like check out everyone in the neighborhood. 

Above: Just putting the final touches on my dandelion and fern flower arrangement before officially presenting it to Mom.

Above: Busy eating and making messes with my food.  Just the usual.

Above: What?  You mean you don't like it when I throw spaghetti everywhere?  Don't you know that it's almost as fun to throw it as it is to eat it?

Above: Modeling my fancy headdress that Nammy and Grandpa Niel gave to me after their trip to Southern Utah.

Above: A tomahawk!  Awesome (or "aweshome" as Peter would say it)!

Above: Celebrating Uncle Sean's birthday a few days early (Sean's birthday is on May 2nd, but we celebrated on April 29th which is actually Aunt Laurie's birthday!  But since she wasn't in Utah, I'm sure she won't mind, right?).  And might I just say that Sean is the KING of all photo bombers.

Above: Mountain Man Pete.

Above: Enjoying a walk with Nammy and eating a crazy orange cupcake.  Seriously, why do they dye kids' cupcakes such ridiculous and stain-worthy colors?

Above: Trying out the new car that Nammy got for the grandkids to play with.  And sporting a headdress, of course.  What could be more natural?

Above: Jonathan didn't love the car as much as Peter did (it kind of scared him a little).  But if you look closely, you'll see that Jonathan has something that he enjoys even more...

Above: Yup.  Food.  That guy LOVES his food.  And it's even better when it was stolen off of someone else's plate after he has already cleaned his own plate.  This is actually Peter's roll that is in Jonathan's mouth.

So, there you have it, April 2012.  It was a good month.  My boys were as sweet as could be and we had some good times.

Next up...May 2012!  Here we come!