March Madness

March is just flying by. The second weekend in march we were able to spend some time with good friends and hosted a BBQ at our house while Michael and Cari were in town. Michael, David, Tyler and I were in the east stake together growing up. Now we are all married, and each have three kids who line up in age pretty well. It was fun to spend time with their families, and a bit like Woodstock in the backyard with 12 munchkins running amok. I am kicking myself for not getting any pictures. Especially non of all the kiddos, so if anyone else snapped pictures send them my way!
It seems like Peter has really amped up his game these days. He's always been busy, and all three kids have been busy; but I feel like he's gone to another level. Friday was an especially fun day. By noon he had set off my car alarm, let himself out the locked front door, written on the wall with pen, colored on the floor with chalk(after chewing on it), and taken the batteries out of the remote. You'd think I'm neglectful to let all these things happen, but he's so sneaky and knows when I'm busy doing things, like getting dressed, or going to the bathroom. That's all the longer it takes. Also, I can't do the dishes while he's awake because this happens.

Also, He eats dirt. Gross.

But we found a way to slow him down. Monday morning bright and early Peter had his tonsils and andoids removed and tubes put in. Yep, 19 months old, he beat Andi's record by 6 months. It's been a rough couple of days. We saw the tonsils after they were removed and they were massive! Typically they suggest tylenol afterwards for the pain, but the Dr prescribed him some stronger pain meds because the raw area was much larger than normal. He's not happy. I want to get these sticker temperature things.

The weather has been lovely around here. Everything is in bloom, which means our allergies are going crazy. Thad thought this would be helpful. It might actually be if I could stand to wear it for more than a minute.

The weather has had the kids outside all day long. They have been mastering their roller blades, so Thad bought a pair so he could take them on longer rides.

They love to ride just outside our neighborhood to see the horses.

Also, they love ice cream. Wonder where that comes from.

Thad finally took the beast in to get lowered a couple weeks ago, and though it's still high it's much easier to get in and out. And he switched out the blingy chrome rims. These are much more his style I think.

Oh, and Peter has decided he needs to swing like the big kids. No hands or anything.

February recap

Huh. Another month has gone by and I feel like I don't have much to post about. Thad and the kids have been talking about building a tree house for a while now, and I just can't get on board with the idea. So I suggested maybe they add another level to the current play set to settle their need to be up high. Thad quickly agreed and two days later we had this lovely addition.

 And then Thad thought it would be good to have the kids help paint/seal it. It wasn't a horrible idea, but it was messier than he calculated it would be. The kids however loved it. Sammy kept saying it was the best family project ever.

Sammy has decided that our bi-weekly trips to costco make great photo-ops. Every time we go he climbs on something, "take my picture and send it to daddy!"

 And about the only things these two can do together peacefully is this. Fishy crackers and little Einstein.

Have I mentioned Peter is a climber? He is. He can't even play with toys normally, he has to climb them as well.

Ellie had a birthday party at build-a-bear and Sammy made a dog. And named him Perry. Perry the puppy (since there were no platypus dolls to make). He loves Perry.

Okay so remember when I painted our cabinet white? I skipped one section because it was full of white appliances. My plan was to re-stain them dark to match the floors. Thad was out of town last week so it was project time again and I took the doors off the cabinets and got to work. But hours and hours later things were not going well. Whatever stain/poly they use to make cabinets that lovely orangey oak is never supposed to come off. I chemically stripped and sanded and sanded and sanded these 4 stupid little doors and the stain would not absorb. So since I had basically ruined the doors, I still had to do something to the cabinets, and I didn't want to paint them white with all the white appliances. Enter chalk paint. I decided that until our appliances die and we replace them with black ones I would paint the cabinets grey. This is not the greatest picture because the flash on my phone turns everything blue-ish, but here is the end result.

I'm still trying to decide if I should paint the stools grey to match. But I will say chalk paint is amazing. Super easy to use, no smell, dries incredibly fast. Love it. And that's about all we've been up to.