General Conference Weekend

I'm so excited to spend the weekend at home watching General Conference! Today was a great start. It was really neat to be a part of the solemn assembly as President Nelson was sustained as our new Prophet. Even though we weren't physically there, the spirit was still very powerful. I hope our kids can somewhat remember the experience as they grow older.
Brad stayed home for the Priesthood session and watched it on his laptop, but after the big announcement change to the Elders Quorum and High Priest Group we ended up watching some of it together. Pretty awesome to be a part of that as well.

The Organ

It was nice to have Brad home with us today! We had a lot of errands to run and things to do around the house. I feel like I'm in full nesting mode wanting to get all that I can done before our new little baby joins the family. The kids have been having a blast playing the Wii together so I've had plenty of time to work on my projects. But we did our best to have some fun family time as well.
Kade's request for the day was to go to the church to play the organ. He's been loving his piano lessons and Brad has really gotten him into organ solos. They've been listening to them on their way to and from the ski hill on the weekends. So he was excited to finally play a real organ. He played The Imperial March with his hands and then part of it with his feet! It was fun to watch.
The weather was super crazy today. Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny, 50 degree day. We woke up to about the same, but then a crazy windstorm came and we watched as the weather got colder and colder. By 4 in the afternoon it started to snow! The roads were slick and we enjoyed our adventerous night out to dinner. Luckily we made it home safely. Hopefully the snow melts in the next few days!

Spring Break

Today was the kids' first day of their Spring Break! It's a short Spring Break, but I'm excited to have them home for a few days. We had Tenley's favorite breakfast this morning, german pancakes, and then we went to the library per Kade's request. It wasn't busy at all at the library. It was so quiet and the kids played so well. Kade spent a lot of time looking for books and found some fun ones. Ryder built a really cool car track all by himself with some blocks. It was a great afternoon.

Visiting Teaching

This winter has been long and cold and it seems as though at least one person in our family has been sick at all times. The sickness is going around everywhere. Lots of friends we know have been experiencing the same thing. So we haven't gone out to people's homes much. This was the first time in a few months that we actually did in home visits for visiting teaching. And it was so nice to visit our sisters again and to let Ryder play with their cute kids. He had a lot of fun trying out new toys and seeing some of his nursery friends. I hope spring weather is here to stay!

Tonight the Laurels and I were in charge of the combined young men/young women activity. We put together a Parenting Olympics event that was similar to a Housewife Olympics activity my friend had planned for Relief Society when we were in Indiana. It was a lot of work, but all the Laurels came through on their assignments, we had a really great turnout, and it was a lot of fun! Serving with the youth is busy, but it has truly been one of the most rewarding and enjoyable callings I've ever had. I love them all so much.

TJ Maxx

Ryder and I had a lot of errands to run today and it was sooooo windy! I've never experienced winds like this city has. It's crazy. There were several times that Ryder thought he might blow away! But luckily we got it all done. Our last stop was at TJ Maxx. Ryder loves trying on the sunglasses there with me. It's a fun tradition he doesn't like to skip.

The Princess Bride

We introduced the kids to my favorite movie tonight, The Princess Bride. They seemed to enjoy it. I hadn't seen it in a long time and it was so much fun to watch it again!
Tenley gave us a great lesson on Easter tonight and the Holy Week. I'm so excited for this weekend! The kids have Spring Break, it's General Conference weekend, and Easter!

Spring Weather

Today definitely felt a lot more like Spring. Most of our snow has melted, the sun was shining, and it wasn't that windy. When we got home from church, the kids played outside and it was hard to get Ryder back inside. He was having a blast jumping on the tramp.
After dinner we went for a little family walk around the neighborhood. It was a nice Sunday to be with my little family.

The STEAM Expo

Kade got to participate in the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) expo today. He's been working on a science project most of the year with one of his classmates. Their project was to make glowing water. They both did a great job presenting their experiment to two different judges. We had fun walking around to see other projects and cool exhibits. It was a fun day!

Ski Bums

Brad and Kade went skiing yet again! They took Travis along with them today. It was a beautiful spring skiing day! Kade improves so much every time he goes. Today they mostly stayed on blue runs but they did go down a black diamond! Kade did great. He tried out a jump as well. He's a brave little guy!

More Guests, Thai Food

After the Murdock's left yesterday, Travis, Calli, Libbi, and Rocky arrived! We're excited to have more family. They all had dental appointments with Brad today and while they were doing that Ryder came with me to the baby appointment. I had another ultrasound today and he seems to be just perfect! Which is so nice to hear.
Travis made his delicious and always begged for Thai food for us tonight. It was so yummy! And they were so nice to force me to sit on the couch while they cooked.

Giant Springs, Bowling

It was a beautiful sunny day today! If there had been no wind it would have been perfect. We all went to Giant Springs State park and caught a tour of the fish hatchery. At the end all of the kids were able to feed the fish. We had lunch in the car because the wind was brutal, but a few of the kids were brave enough to play on the playground and go for a hike.
We spent some time at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and had fun there. Then we went bowling! Ryder had a blast bowling like the big kids. He is loving being with his cousins. He's always with Bryson or Koy. They've all been so nice to him. He is super spoiled and extra loved right now!
We've been missing Brad, but it's been fun to see him at night at least. He made us all popcorn tonight and it was yummy!

Ice Cream, Cousins

Today we stopped by Brad's office and then went out to lunch with him. We also took the kids to get $0.25 ice cream cones which they loved. They're all having so much fun together!

We ended the night with family home evening. Kade gave a lesson on The Plan of Salvation and then we watched Coco while we ate pizza downstairs. So much fun to have cousins here!

Visitors

We were planning to have Brad's brother and sister here for the weekend, but his sister, Lesa, called last night and said they had a funeral they had to go to over the weekend so they wanted to come up today! Our kids were excited to hear that they'd be seeing their cousins sooner than they thought. They helped us get the house ready after church and they've been playing with their cousins non-stop since they arrived. We'll have a fun couple of days with them!

The baseboard cleaning train :)

Youth Temple Trips

Today I got to go to the Cardston Alberta Temple with the youth from church. It was our Stake Youth Temple day and I had a great day with all the youth! They are amazing. So many of them brought their own family names to have work done for. I ended up bringing one family name and in the rush of handing out names to all the girls I wasn't sure who I had given mine to. I didn't think much of it and wasn't paying very close attention to all the names of those being baptized, but when my ancestor's name was read my ears perked up and I had a good, warm feeling. It was pretty neat to feel the spirit like that at that moment. I love the temple! There were 30 youth from our ward there and they did hundreds of baptisms for the dead. It was amazing. The temple is a 3 1/2 hour drive away, so it was a long day, but I had so much fun getting to know my Laurels better. We stopped for dinner on the way home and luckily it didn't start snowing until the very end of the day.

Brad took good care of the kids while I was gone. Tenley was really excited about St. Patrick's Day so he made them all green eggs and green orange juice for breakfast. When I got home they were watching a movie and eating popcorn. They're so cute!

Brad

We got to celebrate Brad's birthday today! He took Kade skiing with him all day and they had a blast together, of course. Kade even went on some blue runs and had some pretty crazy wipeouts, but luckily no injuries. When they got home we went out to dinner at the tepanyaki restaurant Brad and I had gone to a few months ago. The kids have been begging to try it ever since we told them about it, so we decided it was a special enough occasion to give in. Ryder was a bit scared of the fire, but he was definitely mesmerized by the cook the entire time. Kade even got to crack an egg. And Tenley and Kade both caught the broccoli in their mouths that the cook threw to them. Brad got some yummy fried ice cream there and then we came home to a few gifts and a homemade white chocolate raspberry cheesecake that I had made earlier. It was my first time making cheesecake and it turned out pretty well!
We sure love Brad and are so grateful for him and all that he does for us!

Tenley's leprechaun trap for school.