Hello sunshine!!  We finally got a break from all the cold wintery weather today and had a wonderful warm spring day!  We took full advantage of the warmth and played with chalk in the front yard.  Look not coats and no shoes either.

Now if only we could keep the warmth...

Abbie has learned what a board game is.  She got Chutes and Ladders down today and asked Zack if he wanted to play it with her.  It was so cute to listen to them climbing the ladders and then going back down the slides because "you did something wrong".  They played by themselves for a while but then lost interest when Ashton tried to show them how to play by the rules.

Spring flowers!!  Ya! Now if we could just get some warmer weather to go with the flowers!

Today we went to Vernal to visit family, it was a short trip (out and back on the same day) but we had a really good time.  We visited with my cousin and his family, they have chickens that they raise in their backyard as well as two nanny goats that they milk.  They drink the milk, and they also sell it for $8.00 a gallon!!  I could hardly believe that it cost so much.  Anyway, Ashton was my only kid brave enough to give it a try.  I was pleasantly surprised with the taste, it wasn't nearly as bitter as the last time that I tried goat's milk.  I'm not going to go running out to buy some, but I could drink it if I needed to.  I don't think that Ashton liked it very much but he was very polite about it.

This is what my WONDERFUL hubby had delivered to me today for our anniversary.  He is such a sweetie.  I love him more and more each day.  We have been married for 15 years, I can hardly believe it has been that long, but then at the same time it seems we have been together forever.  We have had adventures, both good and not so good, and stuck with each other through thick and thin.

Here's to the rest of eternity!

Oh how I miss my sister.  She left us WAY too soon.  (two years ago today)

She taught me how to love unconditionally, 

how to laugh,

 how to live in the moment.  

She was so limited by her physical body, yet she was so strong spiritually.  She loved with Christ-like love.  She inspired me to do better, to be better.  She never sought for riches or glory, only to love and be loved in return. 

 I love you Trisha.  

Sorry this picture is from my phone... enough said.

Today I did a little extra babysitting for my mom, the world traveler that she is.  (Ha, ha she isn't traveling the world, but she is going out of town again!) And Abbie and Zack found a new use for a pool noodle.  It was their horse, well actually it was more like a kangaroo because they went around singing "jump, joey jump, jump, joey jump" from the Little Einsteins with the kangaroos. Which we haven't watched in AGES!  It cracked me up.

At about 7:30 tonight, Abbie looked at me and said, "I am tired mom."  The next thing I new she was sound asleep on the couch.  I never get tired of watching my kids sleep, they are so peaceful.

Today we went to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum.  We haven't been in a long time and the kids had a pretty good time. Their favorite was the sand and water table, I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures, but I did get the kids this dinosaur play set in the gift shop.  It didn't come with all the dinosaurs the kids have out, but we have plenty of plastic dinosaurs to add to it.  They have been having a fun time playing with it.

Happy St Patrick's Day!! I haven't been known to make a big deal out of most smaller holidays, letting them pass without hardly acknowledging them.  But I decided it might be fun to have green pancakes for breakfast today.  I realized I should do this more often when Lexie was the only one who was super surprised that I made green pancakes. (I don't think I have ever done it before)  Boo on me, but I am going to try and make the little things like this more fun for my kids.  After all we are only kids once!

Spring!! I love flowers.  I had to get some flowers for our porch. I needed the smile that these flowers give me each time I see them.

And the kids helped me plant them, so I got an extra bonus.

Trains, trains and more trains.  We invested in this wooden train set when Lexie was 18 months old.  I am so glad that we did, it has lasted FOREVER and still seems brand new although it has been played with by our three children and countless cousins.  We had added pieces throughout the years but the base set is still there.  We also have a huge set of plastic tracks that hold smaller trains that are also a family favorite, in fact what you can't see in this picture is that the rest of my family room floor is covered with the other set of tracks.  Lexie was the master builder today and the kids played for hours.

Lexie was folding socks the other day (actually quite a while ago) and Abbie really wanted to help her, but she really isn't very much help when it comes to folding socks.  Finally she found this pair of my fuzzy warm socks and put them on. It was so funny cause when she tried to walk they flipped off the ends of her feet.

Jake got a new camera to take with him to Texas and we were trying it out before he left.  I found this picture and thought that it was really cute of Ashton and I needed a picture so here it is.  We were clear across the room and he was at the top of the stairs leading to the playroom.  I was impressed by how much the camera zoomed in.

One more picture from the Children's Museum, I didn't get many pictures of Lexie probably because I spent most of my time chasing Abbie making sure she didn't get into trouble or lost.  But here is one of her and Ashton making music, she was showing him how the letters corresponded to notes and when played in the pattern in the book made a song.

Ashton worked hard on this building at the Children's museum yesterday.  He got a little frustrated because  the other kids would sometimes come and take his blocks away when he went to get more.  At one point he put the same shaped block in the same space three times before the other kids would leave it alone, I was proud of him that he kept trying and didn't quit.  He wasn't very thrilled that I wanted to take his picture when he was finished either. 

Abbie picked me a whole bouquet of flowers.  The kids and I went to the Children's museum today and they had a great time.  I giggled a little when I saw Abbie gathering all of the flowers from all of the window sills, she then brought them to me, it was rather adorable.  

It amazes me how tech savvy my kids are.  Even Abbie can play simple games on the computer (if you ask her it is a puncuter).  I may be dating myself, but the first time I got to play a game on a computer was in third grade and it was an old Apple IIe.  Oregon Trail anyone? When we first got a computer at our house as a kid, it was amazing and we thought we were so cool, but we weren't allowed to play games on it.  Now we have no less than 4 working computers at our house, and we can fit more info on a tiny memory card than the whole computer had as a kid.  We were cleaning out our office a few weeks ago and we found some old 3 inch floppy disks, Lexie asked "what are those?"  So Jake explained what they were and how they worked, then explained to her that the thumb drive in his pocket held more info than 1000 of those disks could. 

 Oh and I just have to say that I love my Apple!  Which is a little like eating crow, since after we first bought it I let it sit in our office, hardly used for a year while I used our PC instead.  Now I hate having to use a PC.  

Abbie and Zack best friends or worst enemies.  These two cutie cousins have a love/hate relationship.  They are either playing super cute together or pulling each other's hair and hitting.  I guess what can you expect from one 3-year-old and one almost 3 year old.  Today was a good day, mostly playing :)

Snow? Really? Again? I am so sad that we got another snow storm.  I am so ready for spring.  At least on the bright side you can see my daffodils coming up through the snow.  

Abbie's way of eating her apple tonight made me smile.  

The only bad part of our Yellowstone trip.  Our snow coach broke down on the way out and it took about 45 extra minutes to get back.  No one could figure out what was wrong with it, but the engine kept dyeing and wouldn't restart for about 10 minutes, then we would go along for a few miles then in would do it again.  At least we made it out.  This was the service guy they sent in from West Yellowstone to try and help.

Lexie is getting really good at cooking.  She can follow a recipe all by herself and almost everything that she makes turns out wonderfully.  She is making craisin white chocolate chip cookies and they were great, (they only lasted two days) but her favorite thing to make is lemon squares.

An explosive event.  When we were at Yellowstone, Ashton really wanted this volcano kit in the gift shop I decided that it would be something that everyone would enjoy so I bought it for him.  After making the volcano and then painting it we finally got to have an eruption today.  It was a hit.

My little reader... Ashton finished the reading program at his preschool.  I am so proud of him, he can read all of the little readers at the library already and he doesn't start kindergarten until July.  If anyone out there is looking for a good book to help you teach your children to read try this 100 Easy Lessons .  It made teaching Ashton to read a snap.

A picture of a bald eagle through the spotting scope of our tour guide.  Not the best picture ever, but I thought it was kinda cool how it turned out.  I think I could post pictures of Yellowstone for the next month and not use the same one twice, but I will try and restrain myself.