Battle of the Bulge '09

Our stake has an annual event on Easter weekend: the Battle of the Bulge. It's a basketball game with the stake leaders vs. the bishopbric members. Chris participated last year on the bishopbrics' team. This year, he played on the stake team. I braved going to cheer him on for the last half with the boys. Niko and Sam loved the popcorn and lemonade, Matt slept most of the time, I loved my hot dog, and Chris managed to not get injured. Yeah! It was pretty fun. :)


Sam was fit to be tied. He wanted so badly to be with "Papa!" Niko gives a play by play, too.

March Went Out Like a...

I'm not sure how to answer this. March went out like a lion up north, but we were down south, so does that mean it went out like a lamb for us?

After we returned from St. George, we enjoyed listening to General Conference. The following Monday, Angi arranged a fun outing to the BYU Museum of Art where we saw some neat exhibits. Afterward, we walked across campus and the boys ran around a bit.

Angi took these two pics:

Tuesday, April 7th - Happy Birthday, Angi!
Ang chose to go to the Paradise Bakery Cafe in
American Fork. We loved their sandwiches and
adored their cookies!!

Matt's "Evil Eye" look ;)

Uncle Michael has helped out a lot with babysitting
lately - he entertains well (see Niko with glasses)

Friday, after Mom & Me, I took the boys to a park
near our home that they have been begging to go
visit. We had a really fun time.

See video at the end of post for Sam on the swings

Happy Easter Sunday - April 12th
Sam got a hold of some heart sticky notes.
What a silly guy he is sometimes!

No tripod = photoshop everyone into the picture! :)

Thank you, Gigi, for a lovely last minute Easter dinner. It was delicious!

St. George, UT

Utah has relatively nice winters. Sure, it's cold and snowy, but the sun shines quite a bit compared to New York, where I grew up. It seems to happen every year, though. Just as the weather begins to warm up, winter takes one or two last stabs at us before giving way to Spring. That is the time when I literally start thinking, "Rain, rain, [or snow, or cold, pick your winter state of affairs], go away!" My sister-in-law, Angi, is from St. George, Utah. It is a mere 3-4 hours south of us here in Provo, but the month of March is night and day difference between the two locations. Angi always loves spending March at home visiting. This year, her trip was postponed a bit and she went later than usual. It was still rotten weather here. Not long after she left, I compared forecasts and saw that Provo was to have rain showers for the next 10 days straight with an average temperature of about 45 degrees. St. George was to have sunshine for the next 10 days with an average temp of 70 degrees. I had to join her! I was able to find a room at our timeshare for 2 nights and we made the trip down. The night before we left, Chris made the final decision to accompany us, much to my delight.

Our first meal upon arrival in St. George was at
In and Out. We all enjoyed it immensely.

We started our day with a walk near Angi's parents house.
I loved getting to see her dad, my cousin Dave. We enjoyed
a lovely walk and a fun hour or so at a park along the walking
trail. Fun, fun! Then, we had lunch and play time
with Jared & Jenna Simmons
and their three boys (didn't get a picture!).

Sunshine, swimsuits, and pool time!

Ang took the boys in turns to the big pool -
Niko loved it!

Ollie practiced jumping in

Baz loves his Niko

Chats between pools

Angi, Baz, Ollie

The boys were so tired after all that time at the pool they
didn't last the 15 minutes in the car on the way to dinner.

REALLY tired

The St. George Temple was beautiful at sunset!

Wouldn't even wake up when the car
was stopped and I unbuckled him

Niko not happy to be disturbed, even with
Ollie's smiling face to greet him

This was how dinner went. ;)
Seriously, this was a lovely little diner with
yummy paninis and amazing cupcakes.

More pool fun the next day, this time with Papa!

Baz, Kiko, Ollie, Niko - the water lovers

Maman and Sam - the pale-skinned hot tub lovers

Angi found this really fun park where we took the
boys to tire them out before the ride home.

Left side: rock wall

Alternate entrance to big kid play structure

"Please sleep!" all the way home :)

Thanks, Ang, for a fun couple of days and for converting us to the March down south tradition! We're totally there next year!

Marvelous March

I'm way behind on blogging, so here is a catch up for March. We loved having my Grandparents come visit and meet Matthieu.

Thank you so much for your time and your love, mom!
From making dinners to entertaining the toddlers to laundry
to diaper changes, my mom continues to be supermom
and I really appreciated her help during the waiting,
the birth, and the transition to a family of 5.
Thank you for being you, mom. :)

Sam having a rough moment...

Chris said he felt like a piece of food thrown
on the ground and that ants, Niko and Sam,
were crawling all over him. ;)

Sam is so sweet with Matt

SO little!

Niko had a checkup at the dentist and did really well.
He loved his spoils, which he is showing me here.

Love these boys!