mother's day

I had a great mother's day. My sweet husband made cold cereal for all of us for breakfast. (My sensitive stomach can't really wait for anything else when I wake up in the morning.) Church was also pretty great—my kids chose to sit with other families for most of sacrament meeting so I got to listen to the talks. During Sunday school Kate blew out of her diaper, and Nate took her home to clean her up, and he kept her for the rest of church, so again I was able to sit and listen. After church the kids took a nap, I read a book and took a nap, and Nate made dinner and cleaned the kitchen. My brother brought over some homemade ice cream and played with the kids before bed. A great day.

The kids won't smile normally for the camera anymore. They always get all up in my face and want to see what I'm taking pictures of and want to help take the picture and all.

And here's the outcome of our latest blizzard, April 30th. Ridiculous.

Cheese!

Granny and Papa came over and planted potatoes with the kids last week. Next step, tomatoes and green beans.

Colin even found some tasty carrots left over from last year. Delicious.

Kate let me do her hair on Friday, and it looked cute for about an hour. Then it looked the way it usually does. Kate still rips the bows out of her hair regularly, but she loves to wear them and pick them out. This is her pointing at the bows and saying "bow." Also, she's talking a lot more and can say just about any word that begins with b. Those seem to be her favorite. She can say other things too, but most words seem to start with b.

Yep, pigtails. Her dad would have been disgusted. Also, her ruffle-y shirt was so cute I could hardly stand it.

Colin being a weirdo on the bed.

More snot-nosed Kate.

We celebrated mother's day with Nate's family on Saturday. It was nice to get that out of the way so Sunday was calm and relaxing. The cousins had a lot of fun playing outside together. They played tag for a while, but Colin didn't quite get the concept. He just chased after Bryant whether he was it or not.

Kate liked the slide. She climbed up the back all by herself (only falling once), and she even went down all by herself (landing flat on her back once) (which led my father-in-law to calling me a bad parent for videotaping her instead of helping her) (also she was fine and didn't even cry despite my neglect) (also I picked her up right after; it's not like I left her lying in the grass).

the treadmill

Every night when Colin is going to bed he asks Nate to tell him a secret. Sometimes he wants a secret about Scar or Sleeping Beauty. Sometimes he talks to Nate about his day. (A secret is anything that you whisper to him or that he whispers to you.) Last night Nate told Colin that he was going out to the garage to run on the treadmill. Colin immediately started asking questions about the treadmill. "Does it have a hole in it? Does it have wings? Is it heavy? Can you carry it? Can you run on it? Can I walk on it? Can I touch it?" When Nate got home from work this afternoon he took Colin out to the garage to see the treadmill. It was a life-changing moment for little Colin, I'm sure.

easter, etc

Just before Easter, we got a package in the mail from The Children's Place. Inside were a couple of shirts for Kate and a $2 hat for Colin. He was very excited. He called it his "workman hat" and asked if he could go outside to work. I said sure.

On Saturday we had a neighborhood Easter breakfast and egg hunt. It wasn't as bitterly cold as it was last year, which was nice. The kids had fun seeing some of their friends, and I had fun letting them be watched by someone other than me for a few minutes.

Kate met some new neighbor girls who are her same age. She pointed at them and called them babies.

Everyone getting lined up for The Great Egg Hunt in the bishop's backyard.

It took quite a bit of convincing to get Kate to pick up more than one egg, and to put her eggs in her classy basket. (I forgot the baskets.)

Colin scored some candy that wasn't even hidden inside eggs. (And he borrowed Mary's pretty basket.)

Kate picking up some chocolate for Mama.

The best I could get when I told him to look at me and say cheese.

Mary didn't want to look at me and say cheese either.

After the breakfast and candy we took the kids home, Nate fed them lunch, and I went to a sweet brunch with some Relief Society ladies. It was my 3rd breakfast of the day. I'm not ashamed to admit that. When the kids woke up from their naps we packed them up and took them to Caleb's house for another egg hunt.

We also decorated some eggs. Those are my cute nieces, cute sister-in-law, and cute brother-in-law-arm.

Kaylee was super excited to decorate eggs!

This is what I got when I asked Colin to show me what he was doing.

And this is what Kate did instead of decorating eggs. I'm grateful for it too, because imagine the mess she would have made if she had participated!

This is Nate trying to look more British as he posed with his eggs. (See this video for explanation of the British thing.)

Colin was intrigued by the whole "color the eggs" thing.

Since it was rainy and yucky Saturday afternoon we "hid" eggs inside the house. Here are the childrens coming downstairs.

Caleb's kids inspecting their loot. The consensus: not too shabby.

And here we have Easter morning. I had Nate take some pictures before church since I knew the kids wouldn't look as nice by the time we got home. I was right. I was standing behind Nate trying to make the kids smile. Together we make a decent photography team. Also, together we make some pretty stunning children. I mean really, how adorable are those two? They are both really, really ridiculously good-looking.

After church and naps we headed back to Caleb's for Fancy Easter Dinner 2011. It was delicious. I took my camera but forgot to take pictures.

son of a vondruke

Classic Colin attacking Nate right before bed. I think he was trying to tickle Nate's back.

We really needed to get out of the house last weekend, so we took the kids to the Bean Museum. It's the first time we've been there as a family, and the kids really liked it. Colin kept pointing out Simba and Mufasa and Kate kept mooing at all the antelope-type creatures.

That would be Colin saying "Grrr" to the bears.

That would be Kate not sure how she felt about the bears.

This was their favorite place.

After the museum we wanted to get a treat for the kids, and since we're cheap and indecisive we ended up buying a Push Pop sucker at Reams.

Colin was kind enough to share his Super Special Sucker with his sister. It lasted about 4 days.

Sick kids plus worn-out mom equals watching a show before bed.

We've had a day or two of nice weather. I went to take a picture of the kids playing outside and this is what I found. How did that get there?

I was trying to get a picture of how ridiculously messy Kate's pants were.

Colin is very nurturing with his stuffed animal friends—until he decides to hurl them across the room. I got out Colin's old receiving blankets and wrapped up some babies for the kids to play with. Kate loves babies now, probably because she can say the word. It's cute.

The giraffe, formerly known as Dallin (named after a boy across the street), formerly known as Belle, is now known as Sleeping Beauty, or sometimes just My Princess. She has her very own special blanket and sleeps with Colin every night.

These last few pictures are just from playing inside while it rained outside. Colin wouldn't look at me and smile.

This is the face I got when I asked Kate for a smile.

Kate still likes to take clothes and shoes on and off. She'll grab random clothes from Colin's drawer and put them on her legs. It's pretty hilarious when I find her wearing one of his shirts and a pair of underpants on her legs. On this occasion she insisted on putting on several different things, and eventually I just let her. And this isn't even the most ridiculous she looked during the course of the day. There were also bows and socks involved.

mary magdalene

After we read scriptures tonight, this is what Colin did for 10 minutes. Really, 10 entire minutes. And he only stopped because I insisted it was time to calm down.