Memorial Day '14

Quick recap of Memorial Day Weekend:

We had a great visit from my parents the week before Memorial Day. I love that they are visiting us more! We got to celebrate their 41st anniversary with them at Cheesecake Factory. What great examples to us! 

Jensen woke up on Memorial Day and told everyone it was Mario Day. He thought it was a whole day of playing his favorite game.

We dragged Jensen out of the house and went to Boulder City to a try out their Splash Pads. They turned out to be a big hit with the kids. Then we went to the park in BC that has the big horned sheep. At first we only saw one and were kind of disappointed. Then we went to leave and saw that they were all sitting in the shade on the other side of the tennis court. There was probably 30 or more just sitting there enjoying the day.  Jensen wanted to get home to play Mario so we headed home and him and Daddy played for a while. 

When the boys had had enough of Mario (not possible for Jensen) I drug them to the outlets for a quick shopping trip. Then we hit Cafe Rio and Neilsons. It's weird not doing decorating grave's on Memorial Day, that's all we did growing up. But we were with family on those days and that is what we did today, a great family day. 

The Easter Bunny Shops at Old Navy Too!

Lucy helped me get the Easter decorations up this year. That day they started doing daily Easter egg hunts to get prepared for the real deal.  I have to say their practicing paid off because they were way better egg finders this year. 

One of our favorite Easter traditions (happened two years in a row so now it is a tradition) is to have a picnic egg hunt with the Kanets. Marian and I prepare their lunches in the eggs and then hide them over the house.  It was so such a fun day to have the Kanets over to hang out. It just hasn't been the same since they haven't moved over to Henderson (switching the blame on them). Lucy still asks to play with Reagan weekly so we were ecstatic to have them over for a whole day to play. 

Next up was an activity with some of our new ward members. All the moms brought 10 eggs per kid and all the kids left with 10 eggs. It was perfect. After the kids played at the park. 

Jensen really thought the eggs were hidden well so he ventured out in the rocks and only found rocks. But we did get him on track and he found his eggs. 

This is probably a fourth of the kids in our new ward. We are still learning names and making friends but so far our kids love our new ward.  Thanks Julie, I snagged this picture from her Facebook page. 

Since it was my spring break we did talk about going on a mini trip somewhere but it just didn't happen. Kind of hard to be last minute with a 5 month old. Quincy did take a day off and we went to the kids museum. It was nice to have Daddy with us for a change at the museum. 

Easter Baskets for the kids. 

Waiting for the okay from Mom to come downstairs. 

Lucy was the one to notice that her tags on her dress and shoes said Old Navy. She remarked that they Easter Bunny must shop there also. 

Blurry picture... but the only one of Jensen and his basket. 

After the kids found all of eggs (well most of them, Lucy just found one yesterday that was hidden a little two well I guess) and opened their baskets it was time for a photo shoot. 

One o'clock church is the best on Easter Sunday so we continued our photo shoot but in their Easter clothes. 

I had the kids decorate their own Easter jello eggs for their dessert. Lucy was very careful and put just the right amount of sprinkles on top. Jensen decided to use the hole jar. As if he didn't get enough sugar that day!

Santa Shops at Old Navy

Here is our Christmas festivities from the holiday season.

Duncan got to meet Santa for the first time at our ward party. Jensen told Santa he wanted a shark? Hot wheels race track? It changed every time we saw Santa or when we asked him. Lucy wanted a princess castle. For Duncan they both would answer new binkies.

Daddy just made it back from a work trip in Arizona to take us to the free night at the speedway. Duncan even got out of his car seat to see the lights and loved looking at them. It was well worth the trip across town to see the lights.
 

We made homemade gingerbread houses with Lucy and Jensen. I didn't mess around this time trying to assemble the house with frosting. I went straight for the hot glue gun. Then when decorating we hid the glue with frosting. They did most of the decorating by themselves which is hard for me to give up control.

We ventured out with Duncan to see Santa again at Ethel M's. It had been cold in Vegas that week but we hurried after daddy got home from work one night and beat the rush and cold. We all enjoyed our complimentary chocolates and fun size M&M's while walking around.

We had a pre-Christmas here in Vegas before heading to Utah for the real Christmas. We gave the kids the presents that wouldn't fit in the car.  The kids even got to try out their new bikes at the middle school across the street. The weather was perfect for bike riding.

We headed to Utah on Monday and even though we got there late, we were greeted by TJ and his family. The next day which was Christmas Eve Matt took Quincy snowmobiling while we got ready for our outing to Provo Beach Resort.  Quincy had never been snowmobiling and was really sore over the holidays. About lunch time we met up at Provo Beach with Grandma and Grandpa Knudsen and Matt's family. The kids got to play while us adults chatted. Then we got ice cream in the 50's diner.

 

That night we had dinner at my parent's house and had a Christmas program. This year Jensen played Joseph, Lucy was Mary, and baby Duncan played baby Jesus. I think Mary was a little more gentle with Jesus than Lucy is with Duncan. The kids got to open their cousin gifts that night and got new pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa.

The next morning the kids came and got us to open gifts. Duncan had to be fed before the opening could get started but Lucy and Jensen waited as patiently as any four and five year old would.

Jensen cracked us up while he was opening his new clothes when he said "Santa shops at Old Navy". Nothing gets by him. He also got a bloody nose while opening gifts and bled on his new Clippers jersey. Quincy loves that Jensen is into basketball right now. So that is what Jensen got. Basketball bobbleheads, jersey (Chris Paul), and a basketball to name a few. Lucy got princess barbies for her new castle, lots of clothes (including a Blake Griffin jersey), and a huge bottle of Jelly Bellies were her favorites. Duncan did get new binkies and some new clothes.

Grandma Ivie rode down on the train the day after Christmas to meet Duncan. She cracked me up when her and her friend got off the train stop in Provo. They were decked out in their jewels and looked like they were ready for the opera. I am so sad I didn't think to snap a picture of that sight. It was great to see Grandma but we sure missed seeing Grandpa by her side. My cousin Breklyn painted this picture of him to remind us of him this Christmas season. He loved dressing up and playing Santa.

Duncan also got to meet his cousin, Reid, that is nine months older than him. Reid is definitely going to tower over him. 

We of course did some after Christmas shopping. I was determined to find a new Christmas tree for next year. Ours had seen better days and the lights kept burning out. I would sing "The lights are slowly dying" each time a row of lights would burn out. Luckily I did find one at Dillards on sale on New Year Eve. A day before the big sale. I couldn't chance not getting a white tree. I can't wait until next season to put it up.

We once again enjoyed our Christmas season!