just because

art fest

Yesterday was the annual OKC Art Festival. We always enjoy going downtown, looking at the artwork, listening to the local bands

(William found the music to be a little too loud for his liking),

and Grandpa even treated us to some sno-cones!

YUM!

This year they had a place for the kids to create some "art work" of their own. Our boys liked to run around among the "art" more than they liked to help create it... but either way, they had a good time! It was fun to get outside and enjoy something different.

William and James were hysterical on the way home. I caught a little of it on video:

I love days that we can do something out of the ordinary... and I really love living somewhere that provides those opportunities (for free).

donut palace

Rich and the boys are running to the Donut Palace this morning to get us a special Saturday morning treat. As they were getting ready to leave I was reminded of the first time Rich made a donut run here in our little town. It was my birthday so he and William decided to wake up a little early and run for a treat. They picked out their donuts and, when they went to pay, realized that they only accept CASH! Yikes. We're not big cash carriers so Rich didn't have a dime. But, life in a small town has it's perks. The lady told Rich to just take the donuts with a promise to come back later with the cash to pay. Nice huh?

busy, busy, busy...

I have been a major blog slacker lately! With less than a month to go until the baby arrives, I've been keeping myself super busy. I've been cleaning and reorganizing like crazy. My big project has been to transform the spare room/craft/computer room into a playroom. I've been moving all the toys in there plus reorganizing my things so that the boys aren't too tempted to touch them when they are in there--hopefully I'll get it all done in time. I've also been working on getting some Young Women stuff all in order before I'm out of commission for a while. Luckily I have a great presidency and advisers. Rich was also recently called to be on the High Council which has added even more busy-ness. But the most exciting thing that happened recently was a visit from my youngest sister, Rachelle!

The Saturday before Easter Rachelle came to visit us for her Spring Break (thanks to Dad's frequent flyer miles). I was worried that the boys would take a while to warm up to her but they loved her from the moment they saw her in the airport (which makes me hopeful that they'll be the same with my mom when she's here in a month).

We always do our Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday so when we arrived home the Easter Bunny had paid us a visit! The boys had so much fun looking for eggs!

The week had been kind of crazy so we didn't get to dye eggs until Sunday afternoon. We let James do one egg before his nap and then Rachelle and William did most of the remainder. William loves dying eggs with kool-aid... he thinks it's pretty neat.

My life is pretty low-key so hopefully Rachelle wasn't too bored. We did let her sleep in most days and we went shopping a few times... and since those are two of her favorite activities I think it was okay. We made sure she got her tour of Piedmont, visited the library, and ate at the Piedmont Diner.

James got an Easy Bake Oven for his birthday (this boy loves to cook) and Rachelle wanted to try it out... so we did. Rachelle always felt deprived that she didn't have one growing up. After using it she realized that she wasn't really missing out... she'd rather just make a whole batch of cookies. The boys thought it was fun though.
There aren't really any parks in Piedmont, but one of the neighborhoods has a park that we play at occasionally. The boys loved running around with Rachelle.

We also went to the Science Museum. I think Rachelle might have had as much fun as the boys. We went down the three-story slide, Rachelle rode a segway, we raced lego cars, James and I went into a tornado, we made shadows, and Rachelle was a weather girl.
Rachelle read the boys bedtime stories every night. James would sit on her lap the entire time--he never does that with us!
After the boys were in bed every night we played games or watched movies. Then Rachelle and I would stay up way too late and talk. It was so much fun to have her with us! Thanks for visiting (even if the boys threw beanbags at your head while you were napping.)

We miss you Rachelle!!!

march in review

March has been a fun, busy month. We have celebrated birthdays:

James loved blowing out his candles. I lost count of how many times we lit those candles! He loved all of his presents... but most especially his baseball bat/ball and his trampoline.

Built lots and lots and lots of forts:

I'm pretty sure that every day the boys build one sort of fort or another. It keeps them busy for a long time and they play together so nicely.

Did several crafts:

William loves to do crafts! We even let James in on one this time as well!

And just for fun I thought I'd throw in pictures of our Young Women newspaper fashion show:

This ended up being a fun activity. Once a month we combine all the young women from three wards for an activity. We were in charge this month and had them design a prom dress, school outfit, and swimsuit (all modest, course) out of newspaper and duct tape.