Other April pictures

Maggie had "picture envy" on Evelyn's birthday and wanted me to take a picture of her ring

Evelyn is wearing one of the vintage dresses that I wore (and Maggie wore) when I was little

 Grandma and Grandpa Stout bought our kids these darling shirts from their recent trip to Mexico.  The sea creatures' mouths flap open!!  Evy loves her shirt so much that she insisted on sleeping in it one night.

I took this one of Evy just today when she was drinking the smoothie ("movie") I made for lunch.  She loved it and kept asking for more!

This video is Jared showing off his hula that he is learning for his school dance festival at the end of May.  All of the 2nd graders will be dancing this together.  He loves practicing it at home once he found ot we could look up the music from Lilo and Stitch on YouTube.  I love how "graceful" Jared is.  :)  

Happy Birthday to Alan

We also celebrated Alan's birthday this month!  I don't have as many pictures of his birthday as Evelyn's, but we had a wonderful day.  Alan requested chicken enchilada soup for dinner and his favorite ice cream sandwich cake.  Alan and I also celebrated his birthday that week by eating out at Cafe Rio and at Los Hermanos.

new wallet and belt

Alan and his loot--some of his favorite treats and new jeans, among other things

I love you, sweetie!  Thank you for being mine!

Happy Birthday, Evelyn!

This month we celebrated Evelyn's birthday!  I can't believe she is two already!  Evelyn has the first birthday out of a big line of birthdays in our family, so she has quickly learned what birthdays (and presents!) are all about!

These are as fancy as my cakes get...

coloring books

My Little Ponies!

 Two-year-olds are easy to please, as far as presents go: new coloring books, My Little Ponies, books, and a hand-me-down Leap Frog shopping cart (thanks, Shell!) Oh, yeah, and a cute ladybug outfit!

Good job blowing it out!

We love our Evelyn!  She is so big!  She talks so much, knows all of her colors, and a few ABC's.   She loves to be doing whatever her big brother and sister are doing!  She is a joy to cuddle!

Goblin Valley

This year for spring break we took a fun camping trip to Goblin Valley State Park with my two brothers and their families.  (We usually go to Arches National Park, so I was sad to miss that, but we will go again soon.) We decided to leave an extra day early and spend some time with Alan's sister Amanda and her new husband Todd at their apartment, which was the halfway point for our drive.  We had such a fun time with them and loved staying up late and chatting.  :)

 The kids loved playing in the campground, and even Evelyn climbed pretty high!

Several months ago we decided to splurge and rented a yurt to sleep in. It was so spacious inside, and it had a heater and electricity!  We brought our own microwave and our Coco-motion to make hot chocolate.  We set the thermostat to 70 degrees and weren't even cold either night (good thing--the weather dropped to 35 degrees at night, so my relatives in tents were pretty cold.)

 Even though we just got back from this trip a few days ago, all my pictures are looking the same to me, and I can't distinguish which pictures belong with which hike we went on.  We hiked several nearby slot canyons (Ding Canyon, Leprechaun Canyon, and Little Wild Horse Canyon) and also spent some time playing on the "goblins," of course.

I think this was in Ding Canyon

Maggie and Evy in Ding Canyon

Jared and cousin Andrew playing on goblins

Alan and Evy in the backpack

Jared and Andrew again

Alan and Jared in the cool cave/tunnel on our hike around the goblins

My brother Mike helping Jared up a tough spot

I took this picture of Alan after climbing this tricky place on our hike in Valley of the Goblins

Valley of the Goblins hike

Jared and Maggie petting the lizard that my brother Mike caught

Evelyn loved to romp and "hide" in the goblins

I took a picture of Alan and Evy from a high spot I climbed up

Our one and only family picture this whole trip.  Evelyn didn't want to stop to take a picture.

Jared named this place by our campsite "Goblin's crown." It was pretty high up!  This picture is of Jared and several of his cousins.

 I think the rest of the pictures are from our hike to Little Wild Horse Canyon.  It was such a long hike, but Jared and Maggie were both such troopers!  I am so proud of them and all the hiking they did without complaining.  This hike was such a pretty slot canyon full of fun S-curves.

Cute Maggie

Jared and cousins stopping for a snack

Maggie and Jared in a really narrow part of the canyon

We had a lot of fun on this trip and look forward to going again sometime!

Happy, Happy Easter!

 I made this fun bunny cake with my Activity Day girls, and the kids loved eating it up!

 We had a very full and exciting Easter weekend.  Not only did we watch our prophets speak during General Conference, but we also had an egg hunt with the Stouts, an egg hunt with the Curtises, and we celebrated my mom's birthday.

 My father-in-law's ex-wife hosts has hosted an amazing egg hunt at her house these past couple of years.  There were seriously hundred of eggs hidden!  She also made cute aprons for my kids.  It was fun that Evelyn was into egg hunting, too, this year!

 The following pictures were taken at my brother Matt's house on Easter Sunday:

Jared and Maggie with cousins Summer and Charity

Trying to take a picture with most of the Curtis cousins was a challenge!

We sang happy birthday to Alan, my mom, and my niece Charity after Easter dinner