Happy Easter!

We had a fun Easter weekend. On Saturday morning the kids had a primary Easter activity. They had a special message from the missionaries about the true meaning of Easter, and then they got to go on a Easter Egg hunt. It wasn't very warm, but the kids didn't seem to mind (only me).

Alyssa was terrified at first, but then she got the hang of it. She was even happier once she realized there was candy in the eggs.
Dallin was very excited. I think he was more excited to play on the playground afterwards, especially with his cousins.
On Saturday afternoon we had an Easter Egg hunt at Jeff's sister's house. The kids had a great time getting all the good candy :)

On Sunday morning the kids got to find their Easter basket from the Easter bunny. They only had a few minutes to look at it because we have church at 9!

We tried to take pictures of them in their new outfits, but they were just being silly. The one with their best smiles was of them running away from us....
But here is a decent looking one.
After church we went over to Jeff's sister's house to take pictures of the kids in their matching outfits. It's pretty hard to get pictures of all 4 of them with smiles. Here's the best we could do :)

Then we took pictures of the families. Remember I am 39 weeks along....
Finally we made it home from church and pictures, so the kids could actually go through their Easter baskets. Dallin loves his new trucks :)
It was a great Easter weekend. I am glad we live close to family and enjoyed being with them. Jeanna made a delicious Easter dinner on Sunday night. The kids had so much fun playing hide and seek while the adults chatted after dinner.

Having some Fun

Now that some of the major house things are done, we have had a little more fun lately. Jeff and I have still worked on some projects. Jeff's parents were here awhile ago, and they helped get lots of outside projects done. Jeff was very grateful for his dad's help in building a shed. They helped bring lots of dirt in to fill all the holes the previous dogs had dug. They helped us pick out carpet and rip out the old nasty stuff. It was so gross and nasty, and now we have nice new carpet. Jeff and I have done some more painting, but now there is just bathrooms left! I don't know when we actually get to them because hopefully our baby will be arriving soon!!! Less than 2 weeks left until my due date, so she can come anytime:)

Our children's museum pass expired on the march 31st so we went to the children's museum here in town last week to check it out. It is very small, but the kids didn't seem to mind. Dallin's favorite part was the miniature golf course. We played a couple of rounds :)

They also enjoyed "driving" the bus and tractors.

Dallin enjoyed milking the cow. Alyssa was scared of it.
There was a dark cave for them to go in and color with chalk. I thought Alyssa looked so cute dressed up in the outfit.
Dallin has enjoyed helping dad mow the lawn. Jeff is enjoying his new lawn mower :) Dallin asks to do it every day. Jeff doesn't like it that much though.
The kids love their new sandbox that they got last night.

Children's Museum!

On Saturday we decided to take a break from doing "house stuff" and drive to Iowa City. It is Dallin's spring break and he really wanted to drive to Kansas to visit Grandma and Grandpa, but I am a little too far along to make that trip. We would drive through and stop at the mall in Iowa City every time we drove to Jeff's sister's house. The mall has a chick fil a and a children's museum that the kids begged us to take them to every time. We still have our museum membership through the end of the month, so we decided to go. The kids had a blast! I thought it was a really nice museum.

The kids favorite spot was the flying section. We spent over 1/2 the time in that part. They probably would have stayed all day if we let them. There was one section to make your own rocket to stomp up into the air. There was a section to make paper airplanes and practice flying them. There was a parachute section too. There was also a real airplane for the kids to get into and pretend they were flying. Dallin even dressed the part :)
Dallin and Jeff also did the flight simulators. Dallin needs lots of practice if I am ever going to get in a plane with him :)
The kids had fun getting into the hot air balloon.
There were also about 5 little airplanes. They really liked getting inside them.
There was this huge slide that they went down a ton! Alyssa would only go with Daddy, but they loved it. It did look pretty fun!
Next we headed over to the "moving" section. Dallin made it to the top of the rock climbing wall. Alyssa tried but didn't go anywhere :)
They made cars and raced them down the track. I think they both won several times.
Alyssa's favorite section was the store. She thought it was awesome!
While Alyssa kept shopping, Dallin drove the ambulance. They had a little hospital and everything.
Alyssa really liked going across this bridge, but only if she could hold daddy's hand.
The last section we went to was the lego room. They had tables full of legos, so everyone made their own designs. I think JEff and Alyssa had the best ones :)
After the museum we went to Chick Fil A!! It was so yummy. I wish we had one closer, but it's probably a good thing there isn't one close. Since this was in a mall, we had to do some shopping. And to end the day we got a milk shake from Chick Fil A and from Whitey's! YUMMY! It was a very long day for me. My feet were all swollen by the time we got back into the car. The drive home felt very long. It was a great day though!

Our New House!

I finally took some pictures off of my camera today, so I thought I would post some pictures! This might end of being a boring and really long post. We closed on our house on Friday, Feb 3rd. We got home, took lots of before pictures and then the real work began. It's so weird/exciting to finally be in a house that we bought. I will get to the painting in a minute. The people that lived there before us had 2 dogs and a cat, and I am pretty sure they never really cleaned. Jeff cleaned the carpets the day after we closed, which helped but I still smell a little dog so carpet will be replaced eventually. The kitchen was left really nasty. Along with all the painting Jeff's sister did, she also cleaned the nasty kitchen and bathrooms for me. I am forever thankful for everything she did for us.

We honestly could not have accomplished what we did without the help from Jeanna! She was awesome. Her and Jeff painted 2 rooms and then her husband and I joined them on the 3rd bedroom. We got the 3 bedrooms upstairs painted before Monday when our moving truck came to deliver our stuff.

This is the baby's room -a dark brown room. We are painting everything upstairs a tan color. It made this room look so much better and bigger. It also helped getting rid of their nasty curtains. Here's the before...
And the after. The master and other room were white, but we painted them all this same color. I don't have any after pictures I guess, so there's 2 more rooms like this one :) This pictures was taken around midnight, so it's even brighter during the day.
This past weekend, Jeff and I painted the living room. It took us forever with the windows, fireplace and all the doors in the entry way. The kids "helped" which made it take even longer, but they were so happy to be helping.

Both kids thought it would be great to paint with boots on...
They were so happy to put on their painting shirt. So happy that they had to give each other a great big hug :)
Alyssa was great at putting her hand in what she had just painted...
Dallin's favorite part was getting to use the roller! He just thought that was the coolest thing. Dallin painted pretty much the whole time until we got to the last coat. Then we didn't let him help because he liked to make tornado designs...
Here is proof that Jeff and I helped. Dallin took the fuzzy picture of me...I only have 7 weeks left so yes, I am huge looking.
Here is the room all primed and ready to go.
The camera really does not do these rooms justice. The people had painted the living room/kitchen a dark grey color. It looked terrible with the trim in the house, and it made the house feel really dark and small. I love the color we painted it, and I think it looks sooooo much better. I am glad we got the living room done.

The before color that was everywhere. It doesn't look nearly as dark in this pictures as it does in person. We also changed out all their blinds since their dogs chewed them all up/were completely covered in animal hair.
The after:
There is still so much to paint. The kitchen, bathrooms, a big red wall in the basement, and the bedroom and bathroom in the basement as well. We will also be changing the layout in the kitchen with more cupboards and new countertops. As we do more, I am sure I will be posting more pictures. Hopefully we can get a lot of it done before the baby comes, but we will see :)

Bunk Beds!

I'm back! It's been awhile since I last posted. We have since closed on our house, and actually moved into it this past Friday. Jeff's sister was wonderful and let us stay at their house for the last 6 weeks. The kids loved being with their cousins, and they miss them a lot. We only live 2 streets away, so there has been lots of crying when we come home and not to play with cousins. I will get more to the house eventually. I have to take those pictures off my camera, but I will get to it soon.

This past Friday night was our first night in our new house that we actually own! With the baby coming in less than 2 months, we decided to buy the kids bunk beds and get them used to sharing a room. The kids were VERY excited about the bunk beds. It took them a little over 2 hours to fall asleep the first night. They were whispering and laughing the whole time. We caught Dallin in Alyssa's bed once, but they stayed in them for the most part. Saturday night it only took 1 1/2 hours to fall asleep. We caught Alyssa with all her blankets and stuffed animals in Dallin's top bunk this time. I'm glad she didn't fall since she has fallen already from the top of the ladder. Last night took about the same amount of time.

Alyssa did take a nap yesterday in her big girl bed too. She's been in there for about the last hour and has yet to fall asleep today. I hope she still will nap :) I can't believe she is big enough for a big girl bed. Dallin was so great about adjusting to the big bed. He didn't get out of it for the first 6 months even though he knew how. Alyssa does not have that same problem, so it might be a little harder with her. I just hope they adjust before the baby comes :)