Kaylee's Boyfriend

Yup- you read that title right.  Kaylee definitely has a boyfriend and I totally encourage it.  Partly because he is the cutest little boy in the whole world but also partly because he is moving in a month and I won't have to worry about it anymore :)  Here is the culprit, his name is Riker.

(hope it's ok I stole this pic from your blog Lisa!)

 See? Didn't I tell you he was the cutest?  And if you don't believe me already, try listening to him sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Then you will fall in love with him too.  In addition to playing together as often as possible, Riker and Kaylee are often seen holding hands

and we even caught them kissing on this little love seat once before making them stop. (This picture was taken shortly after we broke them up)

 I am dreading the day they move because I really don't want to have to explain to Kaylee why she can't play with Riker anymore. I don't know who will be more sad. We have loved getting to know him and his family and Kaylee has loved having a little boy to play with, hold hands with, kiss, smother, and boss around. Even though I love watching the two of them together, I hope this isn't a glimpse into her future where I will always have to worry about her with the boys :) That's what she gets for being such a gorgeous girl!!

Butterflies, Take 2

For Richard's first day of spring break, we decided to go visit the butterflies again, like we did in September. Kaylee wouldn't sit still for two seconds so most the pictures I have of her are like this:

She was just having too much fun running around finding butterflies! Kenna was much easier to get a picture of since she couldn't run away :)

 We did however get Kaylee to sit still for a picture with her daddy and sister.

 Don't ask me what they are sitting in because I have no idea, it was just a good photo op :)  My favorite part about Franklin Park Conservatory is that they frequently rotate what they have on display so you can go as often as you want and see something new each time. And they have a kids activity area downstairs so they can learn about the displays in a fun way.

And even if they didn't, I don't think Kaylee (or I) would ever get sick of watching the butterflies.

Spring Cleaning Slide

Who knew spring cleaning could be this much fun???  Even McKenna got in on the action and thought it was a blast too.  I wish I was this easily entertained :)

Splashing Lot

What's better after a rainstorm than splashing in the puddles with friends? This was a very fun impromptu block party with all the kids getting soaking wet playing and laughing and stomping in the puddles.

 

  Luckily for them we had lots and lots of rain on account of a very big thunderstorm following our very first tornado warning. Having been sheltered in the Utah mountains my whole life, let me tell you- I was terrified!  I had no idea what we were supposed to do and was freaking out a little bit.  Luckily we made it through and after the tornado sirens stopped, we came upstairs to watch the rain pour down in sheets.  It even started hailing, with pieces of ice the size of marbles. 

  I love watching the rain and we have amazing thunderstorms here but unfortunately that also means we've had two tornado warnings since then.  I will definitely not miss that when we move away....in 3 or 4 years.  But the good news is that it made me realize how very unprepared we are and has motivated me to start getting more serious about emergency preparedness.  And in the meantime, we'll keep finding puddles to splash away in :)

Grandma Time

We were so lucky to have my mom come visit for a week. The only bad part about her coming is that the house seems twice as lonely when she leaves!!!  We had so much fun talking, playing games, crafting, playing with the kiddos, making treats and mostly doing a lot of shopping (yes, I just said it was fun shopping. Don't worry, I still don't love shopping but it was fun with my mom!)  We made two crafts for my girls, super easy and adorable hair bows:

and felt Mr and Mrs Potato Head dolls:

 

These were extra fun because I got to draw all of the templates we used to cut it out of felt. I haven't drawn anything in years so it was fun to try it again, even with my lack of artistic ability! And I love how they turned out so I hope my girls love playing with them. I will definitely be adding to this collection down the road! We also started two more crafts that will have to be finished later. We also had an early birthday party for Kaylee so that Mom could be here to celebrate her 2nd birthday. We didn't do anything big, just had a cake and gave her one of her presents from Grandma early- a new trike!  

 

   She is loving it and is slowly getting the hang of working the pedals. In the meantime, we figured out a solution for letting her ride her bike until she can zoom around on her own :)

Mom even let us go on a date, gave me time to go to the temple (a rarity these days), and spoiled all of us like crazy. There is seriously nobody Kaylee loves more than Grandma.  They are best buddies and Kaylee cried all the way home when we dropped Grandma off at the airport. Thanks Mom for another fantastic visit! Now I'm starting the countdown for our next adventure- our summer trip to Utah!

Blessing Day

 

Today we were able to bless McKenna in our ward. We are lucky enough to have Mom with us this week so she could come and spend such a special day with us.  

 It was weird not to have a big family event but that way it was more focused on the actual blessing, which was nice. The day was kind of a disaster and we had one fiasco after another, which left me a stress case, but it was all worth it when Richard gave her a really beautiful blessing. McKenna was an angel and didn't even make a peep.  In fact, our neighbor who stood in the circle told us that she spit out her binky and just smiled.  What a sweetheart!  We are so lucky to have this beautiful girl in our family.

Giggly Girl

Another way that McKenna is opposite of Kaylee is she smiles at EVERYTHING and you can get her to laugh pretty easily too.  It took a lot to make Kaylee crack a smile so it's fun to have a baby who actually thinks we are funny!  Nothing cheers me up faster than the sound of a baby laughing!