While he was Sleeping...

I lay down next to Jason now to get him down for his naps.  It isn't ideal and it certainly takes some time from my day, but man, I love it.  I love snuggling up next to him as he drifts off to sleep.  Today, I left him in my bed and then hopped on the computer to catch up on my journal.  A little while into his nap, I heard him stirring and I was annoyed that he was waking up so early.  Then I hear "I come too?" and he settled back in to sleep.
That's something that Jason says at least a hundred times a day.  It started out when we were in the car and I was delivering flyers for something.  I'd get in and out of the car and he had to stay in the car seat.  Every time I'd put the car in park, he'd say "I come too?" and cry when I told him "no".  Now, every time we go anywhere, he asks it as we head out.  Then he asks it when I pull into the parking lot...several times.  I think he lives in fear of the times that I say "no".  He asks it as Mike heads out to work and every time he gets "no" for an answer, it breaks his heart.  So, I guess, even in the sanctuary of his dreams, he has the fear of being left behind.

Up the Road a Bit...

Sometimes we go and get Allie and Jake from the top of the hill after the bus drops them off.  Nate and I were headed to get them and we had this conversation:

Nate: How much longer until we get Allie and Jake?

Me:  We are almost there.  It's just up the road a bit.

Nate:  Hey!  Grandma has "up the road" too!

Me:  What?

Nate:  Grandma has "up the road" too!  That's how you get to Easton's house!

I guess I learned to say "up the road" from my Mom and Nate thinks that it's a place.  :)

Order

I told you earlier that Jason really likes to have things in order.  He lines up his toys all over the house.  It makes me smile to come across one of his little piles of toys, so I thought I'd share it with you...

Jason had set these all up on the fridge and Mike came down to sit by him and mess with him.  He kept moving one magnet at a time or messing with the order of the animals.  Jason would fix it right away.

It's almost hard for me to clean these up because I see the effort he puts into making them just right.  The great thing about this boy is that when you ask him to clean up, he hops right to it.  He's a good boy.

A Bad Night...

...You can tell Jason is having a hard time falling asleep when you see this outside his door...

Eggs are Dying

Allie hounded me all of Spring break to dye eggs.  It seems like every time we wanted to get it going, something came up and pushed it to the back burner.  She was fed up with it and finally got her way on Monday night after Easter for FHE.  

It's fun to see that they still claim their favorite colors.  Jake still likes orange, Allie likes pink and purple, Nate likes green, and Jason likes red, but we didn't have red, so he was using the blue.

He was also stealing everyone else's eggs to add to his collection.

Allie gets so excited about doing things and sometimes it's a bit of a let down when it's over (after she's been waiting 6 days for it).  I really should let her color eggs all through the year.  I always buy the stuff after Easter when it's super cheap...maybe I'll remember next time I boil some eggs.

Easter Stuff

It seems like everyone in the neighborhood was gone for Spring break.  We went to Moab before the official break, so we were left alone in the hood.  Jake read lots of books...like an un-real amount of books.  Allie hounded me to do all sorts of things that are totally fun, but hard to do when there are other children to tend to.  She wanted to ride bikes to the library...fun thing, but we had to work around things like lunch and naps and library hours and it made that something hard to do.  She also wanted to make sugar cookies.  I don't know why I drag my feet on those so much, but I do.  I finally caved one night and she and I stayed up late frosting them.

 The kids woke up to Easter baskets on Saturday morning.

 We went to the city Easter egg hunt.

And had one that night in our back yard.

 We had a great Saturday and then we were all ready to focus on the real reason we celebrate Easter on Sunday.  It was great to have it on General Conference this year.  I loved hearing the testimonies of people that I respect and admire.  It was a great week and I was sad to have it all end and go back to life as usual on Monday morning.  I guess that's just how it goes though.

April Fools

We got home from our trip the night before April fool's day, so even though I wanted to trick the kids, I just didn't have the time to work something out.  Then, that night before dinner, I just got on pinterest for a minute and found some dinner ideas.  I told them I was making cake for dinner.  They got pretty excited about that...especially Jason...he loves cake.  The cake was meatloaf with mashed potato frosting.  They all like loaf, so it wasn't that big of a deal, but Jason was pretty put off by the green frosting.  He loves frosting and between the Dr. Seuss day and this, he may never touch it again.  :)

I did the jello in a cup thing and that tricked Jason and Nate, but Allie and Jake remembered it from last
time, so they weren't fooled.

Jason was totally grossed out by the "egg" on his plate and wouldn't eat it even when we told him it was a peach.

I did make some "brown e's" too...

It's always fun to trick the kids.  Maybe next year I'll get them good.

Conversation in the Car...

...we were headed into Logan and I looked in the rear view mirror to see two of the cutest boys ever.  They were just hanging out, looking out the windows and enjoying the ride.  There are times when I look at my kids and feel overwhelming love for them.  I always love them and always love to watch them as they experience their lives, but some moments are more powerful than others.   Anyway, here is the conversation...

Me:  I am so lucky to have you!  You guys make me so happy!

Nate:  You were happy when I was borned.

Me:  So happy.

Nate:  You were happy because of Sam?  You were so sad when Sam went to heaven, so when I came, I made you happy.

Me:  You did make me happy.

I can't believe this boy.  I'm sure I have told him some time in his life that he made me happy after Sam died, but I know it wasn't recently.  He remembers things though, and can connect things in ways that most adults can't do.  What a good kid.

On a somewhat related note, I was just about to make a post about losing my Sam necklace.  It's been gone for a few months now.  I had checked all the lost and founds at the church and at the temple because that's where I wear it most.  No one had seen it.  I was so sad about it.  I knew that the clasp was broken and there were two times that I remember taking it off.  One was at church and one was on the couch while I was enjoying a Sunday nap.  I had torn the couch apart and checked over, under, around and through that whole room.  I had prayed about it and never felt anything but hope that I would find it one day.  I did keep checking the living room because I thought it must be there somewhere.
In the mean time, every time I wanted to wear it, I felt more and more sadness that it was gone.  Mike offered to buy me a new one and that would be fine, but I still couldn't  help but be sad that the actual necklace that Sam held would be gone.  I always wore it to the temple, or to baptisms or places that I wanted to think about Sam more than usual, so I missed it when those things came up.
Then, a few days ago, Allie came running into the room holding the necklace!  She said she looked over at Jason, who was being unusually quiet, and he was playing with it.  They were in the room that I had searched high and low.  When we asked where Jason found it, he just spoke gibberish back.  Who knows where it was.  I suspect that it was under the rug or something because that's the only place I didn't look.  All I know is that it's back.  I am so happy about it.  It makes me want to hide it away so there's never a chance of losing it again, but that wouldn't be any fun for anyone.  Now I will just make sure to keep better tabs on it.  I'll get the clasp fixed and continue to wear it and think of my cute boy in heaven.  I am such a lucky girl.  Lucky in so many ways.

A Big Boy

I forgot to post about Nate's birthday shopping trip with grandma.  He got to go with her all by himself to pick out a gift.  I guess he wanted a train set, but I said no.  He has some and they are such a pain to set up and keep from being destroyed...it always ends in tears.  So, when he found an RC car, he thought he was the luckiest kid in the world.

He picked his favorite color and has been driving it outside ever since.  It's one that he can control easily and he loves it.

He got to have dinner at Chick Fil-A after.  He is one lucky boy!  Thanks Grandma!

Monument Valley

After the reunion in Moab, we went to Blanding to stay the night and then went on from there to Monument Valley.  It's on the Navajo reservation and it is one of the most beautiful places I've been.  Mike's aunt and uncle were going to be there and we decided that since we were already so close, we'd just extend the trip and go along for the ride.  Mike had mentioned that he might want to stay when I was packing for Moab, so I threw in the tent, but I really didn't think he would ever stay away from his precious bed any longer than he had to, so I didn't pack more clothes.  I was a little nervous about camping.  We haven't been camping since we got the motorhome and really haven't even used our tent more than once.  Tent camping with our friend Jason was just too much to think about.  My worries were for nothing because all the kids did great.  Sure, it was dusty and windy, but we were out of clean clothes, so adding to the dirt was just no big deal.  The kids all slept well and it was totally worth it to watch the sun rise over the mittens in the morning.

There is a 17 mile loop that takes you around to see the monuments from different view points.  They wouldn't allow 4 wheelers, but you could ride a dirt bike.  Allie and Jake took turns riding the little motorcycle, and Jason and Nate took turns riding with Mike.  I rode in the truck with Aunt Lavon, Uncle Dwight, and Merrilee.  It was a beautiful drive and I loved each of the monuments.

Uncle Dwight has a snowy white beard that he keeps held together with bands.  Jason was sitting by him on the picnic table and he leaned over and said "poooke" as he poked him in the belly (it's something he does to everyone).  I said "Jason, did you just poke him?" as I laughed.  He said "I poke Santa!"  and we all laughed so hard we cried.  We were pretty lucky to be able to hang out with Santa all day.  :)

The kids loved gathering rocks and doing the things they always do when they are out with a million new things to look at.  Jason and Nate went exploring and I sat above them watching as they maneuvered through the sage brush and past the cactus.  Jason got stuck on a little ledge and was calling out for help.  I could have gotten up and helped him get down, but before I could even stand up, Nate called out "I'll help you Jason!  I'll be your hero!"  It was the cutest thing to see him go and help Jason out.

It was pretty windy and we had kites in the truck from the reunion, so they flew kites for a while.  It was fun for me to see that kite way up in the blue sky with all the red rock below.  I paused a hundred times just to look around and thank Heavenly Father for the beauty.  We are so lucky to live so close!

We got up the next morning and the boys drove the loop again on motorcycles.  We had to pack up and head home so Mike could get back to work.  We took a scenic route and went to Goose Neck Point.



After that, we drove the Moki Dugway.  It was one of the coolest roads I have ever been on.  It goes up 1100 feet for 3 miles.


I hadn't ever seen a sign like that.



It was really cool!  It's one of those things I'd like to do again.  It made for a really long drive home, but it was worth it.  There are so many places to go down there, but we just didn't have time.  I'd like to see Natural Bridges sometime too.  Some day, we'll go back.
The kids did great in the car.
They were happy to be home, but they really had a great time on the trip.  We all did.
We had a few more days to kill before they had to go back to school.  It really was a great Spring Break.  We are pretty lucky to be able to have so many great adventures.