My Belated Easter Post

I broke our camera, so I took some pictures with my Mom's camera and then had to figure out how to transfer them to my computer. There were too many cords to keep track of... We spent Easter at Ty's house this year, and Jack bought lots of candy for an egg hunt. Ty filled and hid the eggs on the front lawn and did a spectacular job, if I do say so myself. Jim and Tamara came down, and I brought a ham. It was a lot of fun to spend the day with everyone.We did the Easter photo shoot at my Mom's house on Saturday and colored some eggs. The Easter bunny brought sunglasses, which Alli is modeling below:

Attacking Squirrels and other Misadventures

After a much needed break from society (no offense to those reading), I feel like myself again. My alter ego, "Mean Mom" is gone, replaced by a kinder, gentler person who I forgot existed. Vacations really are the best.

We spent the first two days in St. George with our friends the Nelsons and the Andertons and then drove to Zion for the last day of our trip. I love hiking in Zion so much. It's not really strenuous, and that's why I think I like it so much. The girls were ecstatic playing in the dirt and climbing up on the rocks. Every time we go to Zion, we have to hike up to the trail head of the Narrows so Ty can jump in the frigid water and re-prove his daringness. It was a little chilly this year, so I wasn't sure he was up for it. Plus, five minutes after we got there, the river claimed one kid's flip flop and no one was brave enough to jump in and fight for it. That little shoe is still out there somewhere, probably making a new home for an attack squirrel, but I'll get to that. After lunch, yes, Ty did get in the river.

Here he is keeping tradition and going all the way under:
But, wait! There go his flip flops. He's got to swim now, but me and about thirty other people watching know they're goners.

Look how fast that water is moving. You can see Ty up in the left corner climbing out in defeat. Oh, how little faith I have. Ty found the flip flops after all! I could not believe it.

Some of you are wondering why I couldn't get one shot of Ty and his feet together, and that is a very good question. Like I said, I was in shock and still planning my "you're hiking barefoot because I am not going home" speech.

Other entertaining misadventures of the day included lunch cave-man style. We had to hover over the food and keep a constant watch. The squirrels in Zion, you see, are well fed on trail mix, and they have gotten very brave. I was kicking them away from my lunch all day, and I swear one of them figured out how to unzip my backpack and pull out the crackers I hid there. I came over to find the guilty little guy with his head four inches deep in cracker heaven, and the funniest part was that he didn't run away in shame and fear when I nudged his head with my foot. Doesn't that violate some sort of squirrel code? Absolutely no human contact from closer than two feet. The ones in the real wild seem to abide by it.

Anyway, we had some good laughs. Now I'm wondering where we can go next for cheap.

Something for Nothing

Today I would like to make a tribute to free stuff. I love free stuff! When I first started couponing, it seemed to take forever before something was free. Finally, after two months, excedrin went on sale and it was free. I had to go to three stores to find it in stock, but I was determined to get something for nothing. That was almost a year ago, and I still have three of them sitting proudly on my shelf. I can't bear to use them because they've become sentimental to me. I'm a nut, I know.

But last week I could barely keep up with all the stuff that was free. I even missed out on some things because I just couldn't get to the store to "buy" them. In conference last week they called the "something for nothing" attitude prideful, and it's so true. But honestly, if you call driving around to eight stores and fastidioulsy storing away coupons like a certified pack rack nothing, then so be it. Judge me how you will. I can take it. I'll just be at home eating my free stuff and thinking about how much money is still in my grocery budget.

Pictured above:
$30 worth of albertson's deli meat
8 croissants
2 dozen eggs
5 quaker rice cakes
3 dial hand soaps
5 bags of halls cough drops
8 mentos gum packages
5 wrigley's gum packages

Plus there were the six boxes of post cereal, the $18 ham, and the 4 packages of diapers, but I ran out of room on my table... All free, free, free.

Spring Hiking

We decided to take advantage of the reasonably warm weather on Saturday to go walk around in the canyon. We took some lunch and headed out down the paved trail at the mouth of Provo Canyon. So maybe it's more of a running trail and we were only out for a stroll, but we saw some nature. That's what's really important here. Ty has been working so hard and such long hours lately, that it was a stress relief to get out with the family. We climbed up hills and crawled over rocks and visited the bank of a river. I couldn't ask for a better Saturday. Alli and Maddie love to throw rocks in a river, so we spent a good amount of time doing just that. Here's Maddie showing us her rock: This is her throwing her rock: (notice the rock flying through the air by her feet- my camara caught something in motion, I can't believe it.) And this is Maddie picking up the next rock. This really could go on all day.

There's a little bird shopping the real estate inside our dryer vent. It's warm and cozy in there, apparently, and he sang me a pretty little song the other morning as I came down the stairs, which resulted in some screaming by the kids(and me too). Then some frantic flapping noises ensued followed by silence after he finally found his way out. A couple of days later he was back. Dangerous neighborhood, but the climate is good and the other tenants are all talk and no bite.

Birthday

So I have this goofy, hillarious, awesome little girl named Maddie. Maybe you've met her? She's the one that's always hiding her face in my leg whenever you're around. She just turned two! For weeks she's been singing "happy birthday to you" and having long conversations with me about her birthday party, consisting of lists of everthing she knew would be apart of the event: "Cake, and 'bloons, and grandmas, and presents..."

Then she would stop and repeat "presents?" over and over until I confirmed that, yes, Maddie, there will be presents. It was funny, I tell you, but do you think she would sing one line of "Happy Birthday to Maddie" or even look at her birthday cake when we finally sang to her for real? Nope.
In fact, she was perfectly healthy until about 3:00 on her birthday, when we started hanging streamers, at which point, and I am totally serious, she developed a fever and stopped eating any and all food or drink. She didn't take one bite of her cake, although she did consent to open her presents... Ahem. Before she went to bed, she threw up to solidify her sickness alibi.

The next morning at 6:00 freakin am she woke up chipper, with no sign of fever or illness, and ate four pieces of toast and, yes, some cake. Gotta love that stinker.

We did have lots of fun with all of Maddie's grandmas, even without her consent, and I made my first ever cake. I know that almost everyone I know can make a cuter cake, but I am particularly proud of the frosting. I made it myself and it tasted oh so yummy. MMMM... frosting.