Happy Easter!

Everyone in their Easter finery before church (can you tell how cold it was by looking at Siena?)

But the sun came out and it warmed up after church

The day before we got together with a some of our neighbors and had an egg hunt. It was a lot of fun:

Getting ready to start-- fun to see some of the dads in the background

Get ready, go!

There were some good hiding spots

Everyone checking out their findings:

We always love a great Easter egg hunt!

Happy Birthday, Siena!

I can't believe this little girl is 4 now!

On Thursday I volunteered in Siena's class so that we could celebrate her birthday. It's always fun to watch her in her classroom. Everyone made it a big deal for her, and we took a special treat for snack time. I thought it was so cute that all of her teachers (she has 5 teachers!) couldn't believe she was only turning 4-- she does act pretty grown-up for her age.

Siena in her birthday crown with a couple of her friends

She's getting to be quite the little artist lately, and it was fun to watch her doing her favorite activity

It was also a special day because they had an egg hunt outside during recess

Friday was her actual birthday. There is always so much planning and preparation to have a big birthday party, so I decided early on that in our family we will only have birthday parties every other year. Last year Siena had a great birthday party at Kangaroo Zoo with her friends so this year it was a little more low-key, but we still try to make it a special and fun day for the birthday kid. We started the day by bringing her breakfast in bed:

One of Siena's favorite foods is hard-boiled eggs

She said she felt like a princess!

Justin had taken the day off, and it happened to be "bring-a-family-member-to-recess" day at Brighton's school, so Justin and Siena got some lunch and ate it with Brighton. Then they played soccer with him at recess.

A yummy birthday lunch

For a birthday activity she chose to go to Discovery Gateway. It was fun to go as a family:

And for the first time London even played and had fun!

And then we got home and had her birthday dinner. I always make them their favorite dinner for their birthdays. Chelsea and Brighton always know exactly what they want (spaghetti and meatballs for Chelsea, Chinese food for Brighton), but Siena was cracking me up. At first she said "I want cup noodles" and I said no, and then she said she wanted a Nutella sandwich. I told her to try to think of something else that was a little more special, and she said, "fine, I want fried rice and gyoza (potstickers)", so that's what we had:

She was excited to get to use our special birthday plate and cup

And she chose triple chocolate cupcakes for dessert

Then she opened presents. She got so many great things!:

And we sang her "happy birthday":

Wow, what a fun and busy day! She wore herself out:

Some of our favorite things about Siena are:

-She is really great at sharing. If she notices that someone is sad because they don't have something she has, she gives it to them.

-She makes up hilarious and adorable songs. And she is pretty much always singing. And dancing.

-She loves all living creatures. She's probably the one person in our family who actually cares about Izzy!

-She is so friendly and out-going. She loves to talk to people and make them laugh.

We love you. Siena! We hope your birthday was a great one!

The last couple of weeks

So I've been getting complaints that I need to update my blog more than once a month (mainly from my cute sister), so here's what's been going on with us the first half of April. And Lillian, I promise I will try to update more often from now on.

The kids built a tent and watched General Conference "King Benjamin-style". They loved it, and actually listened as they played Conference Bingo:

The first week in April was Spring Break. As you may recall, that was when Justin and I were supposed to be in Japan, so we had absolutely no plans. So I put the kids to work with some spring cleaning:

Doesn't Siena make the perfect Cinderella?

But it seemed cruel to be cleaning the whole break, so Justin let each of them spend a day with him at work. Brighton went one day (sorry, no pictures of that), and then Chelsea and Siena went with him on another day. He even took the girls to visit great-grandpa Yarn after lunch:

London has been battling one sickness after another the last couple of weeks. First it was a bad cold and ear infection, and then fifths disease. Being a mother of four I thought I had experienced everything, but I had never even heard of fifths! It was pretty sad. But despite not being her usual cheery self, she was still such a pleasant baby:

Brighton has gotten more and more into Legos lately. I complain that I can't vacuum his room as often as I'd like, but I love that he is so creative and imaginative. This is pretty much what his room looks like all of the time:

We just keep his door closed so that London doesn't get into them

I took Chelsea to see our local theater's production of "Annie". She loves the movie, and loved the show just as much. I had to keep her from singing along to all of the songs out loud, but it was just adorable how much she enjoyed herself:

I ran the Salt Lake Half Marathon, and it was awesome! It's taken me a while to get back into running since being pregnant and having London, and I forgot how much I love it. It helps to have a great running buddy, too:

Justin went to Palm Springs for the Coachella music festival with some friends. We miss him when he's gone, but I love that he gets to be immersed in his music nerdiness once or twice a year:

Our kids LOVE the beard. I think he grew it to blend in with the crowd

And that's our first half of April in a nutshell. Busy and fun.

April Already?

This month has really flown by. Justin and I were busy getting ready for our big trip without the kids to Japan, which very sadly had to be cancelled due to all of the natural disasters over there. Fingers crossed, we hope to reschedule it for later this year. But despite that big disappointment, we made the most of the last couple of weeks of March 2011.

Brighton's indoor soccer team won the championship. He was the only first-grader on a team of second-graders, and it gave him a lot of good experience and confidence. We are really looking forward to seeing him use his great new skills on the outdoor field, which is starting back up very soon:

Brighton's indoor team, Roma

I volunteered in Chelsea's class on St. Patrick's Day. It was a really fun day to be there for the festivities:
This year I did not get around to making our usual "green" dinner because March Madness took precedence. Our years of being loyal BYU fans finally paid off with the basketball team doing so phenomenally well this year, we had a party that night and watched BYU beat Wofford instead.

Speaking of BYU basketball, we went to their last home game for the season. I have never seen the Marriot Center so packed in my life, and it was an amazing atmosphere. We were so glad we could be there!

Even London enjoyed it

The kids have had their nails painted blue and white all month long. Go cougars!

And no one is a bigger fan of Jimmer than this little girl-- apparently she is going to marry him

Brighton was pretty much inconsolable when they lost to Florida last week, but I had to remind him how lucky he was that he got to experience this amazing season. The last time they were this good, I was in kindergarten, and I think that put things into perspective :)

London is 10 months old now, and is still the easiest, most pleasant baby around.

And here's her new trick-- I didn't think it was going to happen, but now she cruises around like she's been crawling for months!