Ashley's talking

I was so excited to tell Guy last week that Ashley is starting to talk more and more. When we are reading stories, she will point to an object and say it's name repeatedly until you acknowledge what she has found on the page. Later that night as we were reading a bedtime story, Guy was a little disappointed to hear Ashley say, "A blah-blah, a blah-blah" "A glob-glah, a glob-glah". Even though I was convinced that I had heard her say "elephant" earlier that day, she didn't repeat this for daddy. There are some words that she says that you can figure out like "a haa-haa" is a hat, "a cla-clak" is a clock, and a "woof-woof" is a dog. For some unknown reason, she repeats everything twice. She also thinks that both cows and horses say "moo" which she belts out at the top of her lungs whenever she sees one in a book. It is so cute! But I still have to remind her that a horse says "neigh". One day she will get it.

Easter Dresses

One of my favorite things about Easter as a kid was getting a new dress. Here are Amelia and Ashley in their new Easter dresses. Ashley didn't want to hold still so this was as good as I could get. Amelia was determined to get Ashley to hold still by holding on to her arm or leg in just about every picture.



...and then the great escape.

Easter Egg Hunt

We got together at my mom's family cabin in Fairview for the weekend and had an Easter egg hunt and dyed Easter eggs. It was a ton of fun! There was still some snow on the ground and Ashley loved walking through it and hearing it crunch under her feet. Amelia loved playing with her cousins and going down the slide. Ashley was also introduced to the fun of puddle splashing by Josh. The kids got really wet, but it was so fun.

Ashley walking in the snow.

Dying eggs.

Amelia on the hunt.

Josh and Erin hunting for eggs.

Ashley on the hunt.

Samantha, Cody, Dallas, Amelia, Lory, Ashley and Josh

Amelia on the slide.

Ashley and Josh in the puddles.

Amelia's First Talk

Every time that I conduct closing exercises in Primary, Amelia is right by my side just in case there is the slightest chance that I will let her speak into the microphone too. Of course, this never happens and so she rushes to the microphone when Primary is over to have her chance. But a wonderful thing happened on Sunday, she gave her first talk, and so she had permission to talk into the mic. She was so excited and she did a really great job. I put some big words in her talk like "Resurrection" and "Atonement" and she did great with them. It is going to be a long 3 months until her class has a turn again.

Super Easy Macaroni and Cheese

This is a recipe from my Aunt Linda. It is always a huge hit at our house and we rarely have leftovers. Enjoy!

1 can (14 1/2 oz) chicken broth

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp uncooked elbow macaroni

3/4 cup evaporated milk

2 Tbsp butter, cut up

2 tsp flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium-size baking dish (about 8x10), combine broth, macaroni, evaporated milk, butter, flour, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Stir after 15 minutes and again after 30 minutes. (Sometimes after it has baked for 40 minutes, the sauce still isn't thick so I just put it back in for 5 more minutes to thicken it up.) Remove from oven, stir in cheese until melted. Makes 4 servings. When doubling, bake in a 9x13 pan.

Candy Run

On Saturday, there was an Easter Candy Run at Flowserve where Guy works. They pretty much just tossed candy all over the lawn and then let the kids go for it. Luckily, things were split into different age groups so all the kids could get an equal turn. We got there a little bit late so they had already started with the 0-3 group. We didn't get any of the big candy but Amelia and Ashley didn't mind just getting Tootsie Rolls and Hershey's Kisses. And quite frankly, I don't mind it either.

Ducks, Ducks, and more Ducks!

At Guy's office, there is a pond out front where there are ducks that live there year round. Today, I decided to take the girls there to feed the ducks some bread and leftover pancakes from yesterday's breakfast. Amelia did a pretty good job throwing the bread to the ducks, but Ashley just held onto her piece of bread and even started nibbling on it herself a little bit. When Amelia saw her do this, she decided that she was going to have some bites of pancake too. It was a ton of fun and I think that Amelia will want this to be a regular activity.

Challenge

My sister issued a challenge to me yesterday. You see, for the past couple of years, we have walked in a 5K Fun Run in Magna on the 4th of July that has been named after our Grandpa who loves running. The only year that I missed was when Ashley was 10 days old and I figured that I should take it easy. Recently, my sister has started going to the gym a couple of times a week and working out on the treadmill. I'm sure that she could totally kick my butt right now if we were to have a little race. Eventhough I have to keep up with two kids everyday, I'm certainly not in the shape that I want to be. So, I have decided to start running a couple of times a week to get ready for this fun run. I'm thinking that the easiest way to do this will be to get a double jogging stroller for the girls and just run around my neighborhood. There are a ton of great hills so it will definitely be challenging. If anyone has any suggestions on strollers or other gear, please let me know.

For The Longest Time!

It's official...We have now lived in our house in Springville longer than we have lived in any other house since we have been married! What a weird feeling for us. We lived in a rental house in Logan for 12 months right after we were married, then 20 months in our dream house/garage in Nibley, another 12 months in our basement apartment in Payson, and now 21 months in Springville. Guy jokingly says that it must be time to move, but we have plenty of projects to keep us busy here for quite a while.

Our house in Nibley

Our house in Springville

Here is a "before" picture of our house in Springville showing the old shingles, soffit, fascia and windows.

A New Lift For Guy's Truck

Soon after I met Guy, he put a 4" lift on his truck. For the rear springs though, he just added a 2" block instead of getting completely new springs. (He was a poor starving graduate student at the time.) So, at the end of January, he pulled the truck into the garage and started to take it apart. There were a couple of snags that took a little bit of time to get through, but after about 4 weeks, he finally got it back on the road. And my favorite part about that is that I could finally park our family car in the garage again. Yeah! Our neighbor joked with Guy on Sunday that he must have a mild case of ADHD because he just can't let that truck sit still for too long without doing something to it. Hopefully now that the truck project is done, Guy can get started on our bathroom again because it has been sitting for too long as a bare wall of exposed plumbing.

Railroad Crossing

We have the luxury of living just a few blocks from some train tracks. So, not only do we get to hear, see and feel the trains go by a couple of times a day, we also get to drive over the tracks a lot. Ashley has recently started saying "Whoa!" every time that we go over the tracks. Which gets the rest of us in the car saying "Whoa!" right along with her. The only problem is that Ashley doesn't tire from this game as easily as the rest of us do and her voice can be quite ear piercing in such a small space. But I still think it is a ton of fun saying "Whoa" over the railroad crossings.