Rum Mint Beef Cinnamon Coconut Concoctions

Alyssa's cooking in the kitchen again :(
My kitchen is smelling pretty interesting and my $ was dumped down the drain after she emptied 3 bottles of extract, pumpkin pie spice and several cubes of unwrapped beef bouillon cubes in a heap on my countertop.
Last week she learned how to unlock the deadbolt on the front door and the safety locks on her baby brother's door on the same day. I'm thinking her curiosity is a curse!

She has some redeeming qualities though. She is so quick to say her sincere sounding "I'm sorry mom" even though I don't think she'll be forsake her naughty mess making habits for a while.
She LOVES piano! She begs me to play "the black keys" song with her several times a day & has the cutest little bow at the end :) She potty trained herself just after turning 2 & she always remembers to flush. I guess there are some benefits to her wanting to be big :)

Visiting "Painty and the Brain"

My sister Melinda (aka Painty) and I had our new babies less than 2 weeks apart. We enjoyed visiting them last weekend for the blessing of their sweet baby Hannah.

Close Cousins - Hannah and Joshua

First Picture of our BIG Family

Emily and Joshua

Emily loves posing for pictures!

Dessie "shooting" Uncle Aaron with her stick

Andrew in his 'beaver's nest'

While the rest of the kids are having some good clean fun playing on the grass with sticks, our curious little Alyssa thought the swampy sandbox looked more inviting.



Lately Jacob loves to give me goofy grimaces when I take his pictures. Here are just a few.

A smile at last!

Jared and "The Brain" (aka Uncle Jacob) had a great time dreaming about their future cabin.

Easter Fun

On Saturday we started with our usual Easter tradition of coloring eggs.




We then all packed up in the car (not an easy feat) to head to an Easter egg hunt that a friend texted us about. When we reached the care facility hosting the hunt it was pretty barren and we thought maybe we were the victim of a practical joke, but it ends up that the egg hunt was on Friday not Saturday. So we had our own egg hunt in the backyard. One of Jacob's eggs rolled into the outdoor heat vent, but fortunately the next morning he found it had blown out and he enjoyed some warmed peanut butter m&ms:)


That evening Rebecca and I headed out to see Saturday's Warrior at the local theater...

Good Things:
Nice Thrift Store Finds
1:00 church with a newborn
Warm weather for several days
No one got burned with the mattress in the trampoline hole
Enjoying inspiring Easter videos about the Savior on the Mormon Channel
Watching Emily get excited about pulling out her summer "hand-me-down" clothes
Family Scripture Study in the Dark
Daffodils peeking up their heads in the front
One row of peas planted

Spring Break Fun

To start out Spring Break, Jared's dad came up to visit for a few days and used his expertise to help fix a few leaks and get our sprinklers up and running for the year.
After spending most of the break inside we made a fun excursion to have a picnic lunch at the new giant playground in town despite the overcast sky. It started to rain a little as soon as we got to the park, but the kids were having so much fun we decided to stay anyway.
Emily packed the picnic lunch for all of us.





I thought the "musical section" of the playground was pretty cool.


As we drove away with drenched pants and dripping hair, the sun finally started to peek through the clouds.

Cebey aka Alyssa

Jacob decided one day to start calling Alyssa Cebey (Kebby) and pretty soon the name stuck. Now she refers to herself as Cebey. She is such a fun child although she is way too busy for a mom with a newborn.

Here's a little of evidence of the results of Alyssa's "work" while I was busy feeding Joshua.

Reorganizing the Videos
Stealing fruitsnacks
I was too busy cleaning up to take pictures of her salt and pepper shaker art, experiments with expensive shampoo in the toothpaste drawer, and Emily's unloaded dresser drawers strewn all over her room.

Whenever its time to leave Joshua's room so he can sleep, she scrambles underneath his dresser to avoid my grasp.

It's a good thing she looks so cute and innocent!
I love how she begs to climb on my lap and read stories, gives sweet "goldfish kisses,"sings EIEIO (Old MacDonald) and ABCDE throughout the day.