Easter

These pictures of my boys were actually a week after Easter when the sun finally shining. I don't know why it is so impossible to get even 1 picture of the boys all holding still and smiling. I guess if I did have a perfect picture it wouldn't even look like them, since my boys are always on the move. At least I tried.

Oh how they LOVE their Aunt "Wiz". Don't we all.

Ava and Aunt Marie at our Esplin Family Easter Egg hunt at Melanie's. Thanks to Mel and Marie for helping the Easter Bunny.

Sam wrote his name on this egg all by himself. We were all pretty impressed when he lifted it out of the dye and we saw what a good job he did. I think it is pretty good for a 3year old. (Luke had a little bit of help with his name.)

Sam loved dying the eggs this year. We had about 4 dozen, and it wasn't nearly enough for him.

Dave loaded the boys in our bike trailer for the trek to the ballpark for the Easter Egg Hunt. They were snug as bugs in rugs in the drizzley weather.

I love this pictue of Sam because it shows just how cold it really was. Sam didn't let the cold, wet weather slow him down. I think he got about 9 eggs, and at the end he started getting selective and only picking up the green eggs. Green is his favorite you know.

Dave and Luke hunkered down in the dugout to keep dry and watch the madness of the hunt.

Grandpa Robert brought William along with us since his mom was pretty busy taking care of new Baby Milo.

I really enjoyed this Easter season, since I spent last Easter in the hospital with Luke, and Sam was home sick with a croupy cough. I don't think I will ever find a better Easter Egg than my Luke, but I also was happy to be out hunting Easter Eggs with my boys this year.

General Conference

We had lots of good helpers with our painting project. I think my boys could sniff out a ladder from 50 miles. They just are addicted to climbing.
Hurray for when we finally finished. I love the blue and white and it actually makes our room look a lot brighter. Now we just need to get some pictures hung, and mayber someday we'll even have a real bed.

Mary and Baby Milo made an appearance

Avery and Lidnsey were in town and Avery and Luke had a very fun time playing together.

We had a very nice conference weekend. The weather was horrible, but I guess that just made it an even better day to stay inside and watch conference. I think this was the first year since we have been married that we have had a T.V. in our own home that actually has reception for Conference. It was a real treat to stay home and get to hear and SEE the speakers. Luke was very good to nap through almost all of the sessions, and I decided to just let Sam watch his own DVD's on the other TV. I felt a little guilty about just plugging Sam in, but I don't think a 3 year old could possibly watch all of conference. So, Saturday, I shut myself in our room to watch conference while finishing painting. I always listen best when I have a little project to keep me busy and awake.

I had all the family from both sides over to our house in between sessions on Sunday for dinner. We had quite a house full, and I loved it. We had a tasty dinner and then most people stayed to finish watching the afternoon session. Our family room was full of people, but I think our bedroom was almost as full. I was surprised just how many people could fit on our bed. I can't blame them, it really is the most comfy spot. John and Brady especially seemed to make themselves comfortable.

Overall, I felt like the talks centered around Easter themes, getting through tough times, and the importance of temple work. Elder Holland's talk on the atonement was especially moving. He made me think of the atonement in a whole new way. I don't think we can ever truly understand fully just how amazing the gift of the atonement really is. I think it is a talk that will long be remembered. I also appreciated the talks that reminded us that sometimes life gets rough, but we just need to have faith to keep moving forward, and we will receive all the help that we need as we work hard ourselves. Whenever I listen to conference, I just am overwhelmed at how TRUE everything that is spoken is. I don't know how you could listen to these talks and not know that what they are saying is true. I'm grateful for this boost to my testimony that I am given.

Eternal families

The other day I was going in to the bathroom and I had the nerve to try to shut the door behind me. Sam was quite offended.

Sam: Mom, what are you doing?
Kate: I'm shutting the door so I can go to the bathroom.
Sam: But Mom, we are a FAMILY, and families are always together.

I sure hope there are still some locking doors in heaven, even though we are an eternal family.

Moab

This is outside our room at the Red Cliffs Lodge.

This is the view from off our patio. That is the river in the back at the base of the red rocks. It was so beautiful

This is what our drive home through Spanish Fork Canyon looked like.

this was on our hike to Sandy Arch

That tiny little person under Delicate Arch is me. Proof that I was really there. It is amazing how BIG the arch really is.

I thought this big sloping bowl was kind of scary to walk across. I could just picture myself tripping and tumbling all the way down. It reminded me of one of the coin funnels that makes the coins go round and round. Dave is looking very cool here though. You'd never guess he's the one aftraid of heights. And for the record, he never went all the way over to the Arch.

Dave again looking very cool. I love the little bit of snow you can see on the tops of the mountains far in the background.

For Dave's birthday, I surprised him with a little weekend getaway to Moab. It was very quick, but still a great escape. We drove down on Saturday and spent most of the day hiking around Arches National Park. We couldn't have picked a better day for hiking. It was about 60 degrees, but the sun was shining down and there was a little cool breeze. Dave had never been there before, and I hadn't been for a very long time. I think that even if you had seen Delicate Arch a hundred times, it would still be impressive. The sky was a perfect blue, and the La Sal mountains were still snowcapped in the background, which made the Arch even more stunning.

After spending the day at Arches, we went out for a wonderful steak dinner. We stayed at the Red Cliffs Lodge right on the edge of the Colorado River. It was such a beautiful place, kind of tucked away from most of the business of Moab. The stars were especially bright and thick away from all the city lights. I wish I could get a picture that would capture how beautiful they were.

We left Sunday morning, and we hit a major snow storm once just after we passed Price. We ended up being totally stopped in SF Canyon for over an hour because of accidents. I'm so glad we had perfect weather while we were in Moab, even if our drive home was a bit scary.

Humble prayer

The other night I was tucking Sam in to bed, and he said a really nice heart felt prayer.

Kate: Sam, that was such a nice prayer.
Sam: Ya, Jesus is really going to LOVE that one.

Luke's 1st birthday

These are some very cute pictures of Luke and Dave as we sat outside in the beautiful evening sunshine waiting for our party guests to arrive.

I love Luke's curls here. He really is doing a happy squeal, not a scared, stop and don't get any closer to me, I promise.

Luke really loves his tummy. He loves to point to it, play with it, and most of all fill it with all the food he can find.

I just love these cute boys!

We had a BBQ-birthday-bash Friday night to celebrate Luke and Dave's birthdays. I know that a combined party is kind of lame, but Luke really didn't care, and Dave really didn't want to have another big party for his birthday a week later. We had wonderful weather for our first BBQ of the summer, much different that the snowy day when Luke was born. We just grilled hot dogs, since they are one of Luke's favorite foods. Although, I bet he would like eating a steak if we would let him since there really aren't many things that Luke won't eat. We had most of the family from both sides come. Mary even brought baby Milo out for his first public appearance. We had about 20 adults and 5 kids. I couldn't help but think about how many more cousins there will be someday. Just to reinforce my thoughts, we were very excited for Aunt Mel's announcement that she will be adding another cousin to the family in October. Hurray for Mel and Jesse! Anyway, we had tons of good food, and then 2 birthday cakes. Luke got a rubber duckie bath-tub cake since he loves taking a tub so very much. Dave got a super deluxe sprinkle cake, since our big tough guy is a softey for sprinkles. Of course Sam, William and Ava helped blow out the candles and all the kids loved the rubber duckies. It is hard to believe that my baby Luke is a year old already. It is also hard to imagine our family without him. He is such a happy little guy. He always has such a cute little smile for anyone who will look his way. Someone told me that he has smiling eyes, and I think that is a great description of his happy face. he is such a sweet boy and I don't know how we ever lived without him. Happy Birthday Luke!

Luke really loved his new musical firetruck. He does a little dance everytime the song turns on.

Luke can always make Grandpa Reed smile. Grandpa always says Luke is "such a nice boy."

Baby Milo's big party appearance.

So, obviously Luke loved his birthday cake. I hear cake is really great for your skin and hair.

We survived February

While we were stuck inside with earaches, Sam made some great pillow forts and towers. I could always tell when his ibuprofen was wearing off because he stopped jumping and climbing and just cuddled in the pillows and said he needed a little rest. Definately not Sam's nomal behavior.

In this picutre Luke looks exactly like his Grandpa Reed. I think it is especially his mouth. I don't see look without a big grin very often, so I guess I haven't noticed it as much before.

This looks more like Luke's usual happy face.

Luke loves chewing on apples. I think it feels really good on his sore gums. Teething can be such misery.

It is not a secret that February is my least favorite month. It all started when I threw up all over my desk on Valentines Day in first grade. My regular teacher, who I loved, was not there that day. Instead we had mean old Mrs. Carpenter. I really didn't feel good, and I got up the nerve to tell Mrs. Carpenter that I felt sick. My nice Miss Anderson would have let me go lie down in the back on a special pillow, but not mean Mrs. Carpenter. She told me I had to finish writing all my spelling words first. Just as I was finishing writing my last spelling word, I threw up all over my desk. My first thought was, "good, now mean Mrs. Carpenter will have to clean it up." I tried to warn her. Then I was pretty embarassed when the girl sitting next to me, Kim, had to raise her hand and say, "Mrs. Carpenter, Katherine is throwing up. As you can tell it is a pretty vivid memory for me. I think I was sick and missed Valentines Day parties for most of Elementary school. I still seem to always get sick in February. I think it is all because of nasty air, dirty snow, being cooped up inside, and S.A.D. Well, this year was no exception.

The worst part of being sick this year was that Sam and Luke got sick too. They ended up both having ear infections. This was the first ear infections for our kids, so I know we are really lucky. Poor Luke was really miserable. He tried to be happy, but everytime his ibuprofen wore off, he just got cranky. I am so thankful for ibuprofen, Tylenol, antibiotics, and warm tubs. I'm just happy to report that I think we are all feeling better and February is over. Hurray!!!!