March and Easter

Easter picture! Taken the week before Easter because Easter was General Conference.  Owen's the only one who got new Easter clothes this year, because the girls are all getting dresses for Derek's wedding.  But they looked beautiful in Kate's baptism dress, Whitney in a hand-me-down from our old neighbors in Santaquin, and Maris in the dress Whitney wore for Ryan and Cortnee's wedding 6 1/2 years ago!  Also I should have taken the picture before church when Owen's hair was nicely done, or the next week after I had cut it!  Oh well, still an adorable picture.

 Maris in her Easter attire.  Her hair is getting longer and thicker!

 nice close-up of Owen haha.

 Easter bunny day!

 Maris was thrilled with her first Easter!

 and now Owen's got a haircut!

 "I found an egg, Mom!"

 uh-oh, an egg spilled :)

 Whitney and Katelyn with the eggs they dyed.

 And then Maris' achievement for March- standing up!  

 Such a big girl!  

Sadly though learning to stand up was a little disruptive to her sleep for the first couple of weeks.  Anytime she rolled onto her stomach-- in her sleep or while she was trying to go to sleep, she would automatically get up on her hands and knees, sit up, and then pull herself up to stand!  I wanted her to learn to just sit and lay back down, so the first few times I would go in and show her how to do it, but eventually I just had to let her cry and make her figure it out!  It only took 2 or 3 times of this, but it's so sad/cute when they fall asleep standing/sitting up!  Also it was so surprising to me the first couple of times I would go in to get her in the night or when she woke up in the morning and she would be standing up.  She is growing up WAY to fast!  My little sweet girl.

What we are reading.

Just for fun I thought I'd take pictures of each person's book stack.  The girls and I literally have books stacked on the end/headboard of our beds/dressers.  I guess I have passed on the habit of reading several books at once. :)  

Sadly these pictures were taken over a month ago, so our stacks are completely different now, but still it gives you an idea.

First is Kate (picture from the General Women's Meeting- so fun to go with just Katelyn!)

She's got Harry Potter #1 (for about the 8th time), Gregor and the Marks of Secret (from the Underland Chronicles), The Candy Shop War, and some silly book, Glitter Girls and the Great Fake Out. (Oh my.)

Next Whitney's: (picture with a horse toy she wants for her birthday)

She's got Meet Addy (American Girls), Afternoon on the Amazon (Magic Treehouse #6), Charlotte the Sunflower Fairy ( The Petal Fairies) and Leona the Unicorn Fairy. :)

My stack was Prince Caspian (trying to read them to get ideas for Whitney's birthday party; Eric read them to the girls so I hadn't heard the Chronicles of Narnia since my mom read them to us when I was little), Four from the Divergent series (better than the rest of the series!  She should have written the whole thing from his viewpoint!), and Only the Brave, which was alright but not amazing.

Owen's library selections were: Peek-a WHO, Is Your Mama a Llama, That's not my Panda, and Digger, Dozer, Dumper. The picture is from his latest haircut.  It's funny- I've been trying to check out picture books form the library from this "best 100 books list".  We own lots of them but there are many we don't.  The funny part is that Owen LOVES the ones from the list, and he doesn't even know about the list!  Two of his recent favorites have been Caps for Sale and Madeline.  So whoever made that list was correct, they are great books for kids!

Eric reading a card from his Mom.  He reads on his phone/ipad, so he doesn't have a stack of books!  but his latest have been Gerald Lund's WWI book A Generation Rising, The Lord of the Rings, and now he's reading Game of Thrones (but he says it's got some inappropriate things in it... fair warning).

And this is Maris in the garage after chewing on a watermelon rind for about 20 minutes at the end of track practice, hence the bandana-- trying to keep her scalp from getting sunburned.  Silly messy face girl. She likes all the That's Not My.... books and anything with pictures of babies.  I need to do better about reading to just her; she gets a lot of reading before owen's naps but not much individual/age appropriate reading time. Ah the 4th child! :)

Reading is the best!!