Happy Easter

Michael:

has had some interesting work stories lately. He told me a few of them on Saturday night when we had our first post-Bennett babysitter and went out for our fifth anniversary. He's on call on our actual anniversary (April 21st) so it was fun to celebrate early with him. Thai food and Trader Joe's, happy date night. When we came home just before 9:00 Westin was singing a little song in his room, and Michael said, "Can I go set up our tent really quick?" He had wanted to camp outside with Westin on Friday night, but he ended up getting home from work around 10pm so that didn't happen. So, we went in to see Westin and he said, "I need to get out, I need a snack!" Which are typical bed-avoiding requests, but this time we let him get back up and gave him a banana and started setting up the tent. He just kept saying "This is fun! This is fun!" Then Michael slept outside with him for Westin's first "camping" experience. I heard a lot of "Do you need to go back to your crib?" "No!" "Ok, then lay down." for the first little while, but then all was quiet from about 10:00 to 7:00 a.m. which was pleasantly surprising. Michael is such a fun dad. I tried to not stress about the fact that 10:00 is still 2-3 hours later than regular bedtime, before a Sunday of church during his regular nap time. Can you tell who the fun parent is?

Maddie:

was so happy to go out on a date night this week! It's been a while since I just went to dinner with Michael. We need to start doing that more. This week we finally found a grill that we wanted after keeping our eye out ever since Michael's birthday last November. Purchasing it was kind of a fiasco, as I pulled a cart full of a grill and grill supplies while pushing a cart full of kiddos and a car seat through Costco. Annnd then that grill didn't really fit in the Corolla. Whoops. Luckily a kind Costco employee noticed all of my efforts and came and helped me finagle it into the front seat of my car. I had to hold it up with my elbow so I could shift into drive and keep it from knocking me out of gear. It was one of those "I hate residency" moments because some errands are not mom+2 kid errands, but in the end it always works out. Plus now we have a happy Traeger grill that we are so excited to start playing with! I helped put together an Easter Egg hunt with a friend this week and it was fun to watch all the kids have fun that day. Also I held a 40-pound Burmese Python this week. Bam. I don't really understand how I can comfortably hold that snake and think it's awesome, and then literally shed tears when I had to kill a cockroach this week. 

Westin:

was on his best behavior when we fed the sister missionaries this week, it was so entertaining to me. He was acting super sweet and kind and almost formal, and they kept complimenting me but in reality that was just his chosen mood for the experience and it was so funny. Let's be real guys, all moms with two-year-olds never fully know what they're going to get, despite best efforts. So that was a pleasant evening. He loved camping outside with dad SO much, but that night combined with his Easter sugar intake made for a crazy Westin on Sunday. We ate a delicious Easter dinner with friends and he was happy to be running around with them. He looooves going to nursery at church. Also he loves an older couple at church that he refers to as "grandma and grandpa" thought I've told him they are his friends, even though they are someone's grandma and grandpa. So now he calls them "someone's grandma" and "someone's grandpa" and he wants nothing to do with Michael or me during Sacrament meeting. Just wants his someone's grandparents. We went to a cool pet store this week with some friends and Westin was not too into the huge snake I held. He did like the tortoise though, and seeing some lizards and stuff.

Bennett:

has started being a pretty dependable sitter-upper and it's cute to see how much he loves feeling big. He had his first taste of real food this week (avocado) and that pretty much blew his mind. Maybe he kind of liked it? Who knows. But I'm guessing this kid is going to love food, if I had to make a prediction. His brother sure does. On Saturday I skipped the tent experience to be around for this guy and his night feedings, and I decided to feed him before I went to bed rather than wait for him to wake up. It worked great and he only ate at 3:30 after that. We got a video of Bennett laughing SO hard at Westin this weekend and it's the happiest little 40 seconds, I love how much he loves watching his brother. Also, I don't think it's possible for Bennett to be more good-natured right now. He's just so happy and wonderful and I'm obsessed with him.

Kitty:

woke me up so much on Saturday night that she gets her own paragraph for the first time, just because that's how bad I want to complain about it. That cat.

I kind of loved this. I am so fearful of anything that scurries (mice make me die), but snakes are cool.
Maybe because they eat mice.

First food!

The easter bunny brought play dough! And naturally he made lots of "food" with it. Pizzas pictured.

Westin and his girlfriends. He loves this crew.

You guys, he's the sweetest right now.

Emily had us over for Easter dinner and it was (as no surprise) so extremely delicious and fun. This is us talking about how happy we are that we are heading into a Fresno summer with these babies out instead of in.

Easter Sunday picture! Oh wait, that's not how you do that. Whoops.

Tent sleeping.

Sometimes Westin pushes his noisy little lawn mower allll the way to the mail box and back. Sometimes when I almost worry if my kids are being too loud outside or in our yard, I remember that 100% of our surrounding neighbors have obnoxious dogs. Push that mower, Westy boy.

Bathed babies are the sweetest babies.

Don't judge this donut/smoothie lunch. We saw a party so we just, got in line with the rest of the cars. Then we learned it was a grand opening of a little coffee shop by our house and all drinks were $1 for the day and all proceeds went to the children's hospital. The donut shop next door hopped on board with the cause so... donuts and smoothies for lunch.

And nothing goes better with donuts and smoothies than some balloons. I told you it was a party.

The line was super long and Dutch Bros workers were walking from car to car offering straws with a hit of whipped cream.
I don't even really like whipped cream but presentation is everything.

Why are these pictures out of order? Anyways, here's the same snake just slithering around the pet store. This was creepier to me than when she was around my shoulders.

Please Westin, only ever ask for a puppy. I'm not sure I could be a reptile's mom.

Ridiculous situation. But, it's now in our backyard and all is well.

He's not into taking pictures lately but whenever I say, "Let's show this to daddy later!" he's on board.

We had a practice easter egg hunt in our backyard while Bennett was sleeping and he loved it so much.

He just watched us for a while in sacrament meeting and then I looked back down and he was out. Angel.