3 x 12//April 2011

April 2011.

If you could pause for a moment with me and have a moment of silence for April, because it's outta here! I was hoping that the last few days in March going out like a Lamb were going to be here to stay...but alas April showers (and FREEZING cold temps) were here to stay. And might I add that it was actually snowing today! Crazy for sure.

April took no prisoners as we made the most of every moment, as we tend to do around here. We got to hit up the sand dunes, get a new dog, get a raisin stuck up our nose, throw up at the dinner table, go to three easter egg hunts, smell some pretty flowers, celebrate Easter with our families, get sick, and celebrate the resurrection of our savior.....whew!

But seriously I think the thing I'm most surprised about is how cold the weather has been. Where oh where has my nice spring weather gone, where oh where could you be? Do you think that spring is going to make an appearance here? I am questioning whether or not I have sessional depression. Katy begs me every day to head out to the park or go on a walk. We try to make it work where we can. I think we are both getting some cabin fever here.

Katy continues to make me laugh and question weather or not she is 2 and a half or 12? She seems so grown up, except in the potty training department. Ha, perhaps I have no idea what I'm doing here but I just keep asking and she just keeps going. I think I am scared to go full out and have accidents. She is more and more interested in going and has even asked a few times this month, but no poop yet! May is my month where I am actually going to make some efforts around here in that department......and yet other times she seems like she is 12! I cant believe how grown up she is. Katy has always been good at entertaining herself and using her imagination. This month she is very fascinated in "what you want to be?" I asked her, "when I grow up (?).....a mom". Katy informed me that she was going to be a doctor. Not sure where this fascination came from because this was before she had to make a visit to Dr. Schmidt to get the raisin removed. I asked her what kind of doctor she wanted to be. "a PINK one!" Not sure what a pink doctor does but it sounds like a good time to me.

Colt, our new police dog, has been a pretty great addition to our family. Steve got Chuck when he graduated college and was convinced that he had him wrapped around his finger. Now don't get me wrong, I wanted to KILL Chuck when we first got him and he was pooping all over everything. But I think I surprised both of them when Chuck became my BEST FRIEND (so cliche). Truth be told, I think Chuck would pick me over Steve in a heart beat :) No one spoons like I can. Colt, is totally awesome though. I was worried that Chuck would have a hard time with the whole situation but they are fast becoming best buds. I still cant believe I have two dogs before I had another kid, but we are really enjoying this addition to our family. I do think Colt likes Steve better at this point, but I am trying my darndest with my treats and peanut butter! Katy loves all animals but has found Colt particularly interesting and is convinced she must ride him like a horse. He is so kind and gentle that he usually just politely moves out of reach...poor guy, we try to keep her at bay. Being able to rough house more with him, because he's bigger, has made her a bit more "rough" with Chuck. He has seemed to not like that very much. Oh and I took him running the other night and LOVED it. He was a really good motivation, like running with someone, to keep going. He was sad when we had to stop. That will be a pleasant change of pace in that department!

Steve continues to be awesome, as usual! I am very blessed to have such a great family. We are far from perfect, but I wouldn't have it any other way. We have some fun stuff planned for May so I am hoping that the weather will join in and have some fun too!

Sleepy Head?

I wished I looked this BEAUTIFUL when I woke up in the morning!

Beautiful Day

I first want to say how grateful I am for my knowledge of the resurrection and why we celebrate Easter. Yes, we have many fun traditions when it comes to this holiday, especially when it comes to candy *wink*, but it's nice to be able to stop for a minute and appreciate this great blessing in our lives.

We started off our holiday weekend at the Beardshall's for an Easter egg hunt, lunch and the Easter story told by Miss Joanne and the famous flannel board stories! The kids were having a blast, but I think Paige was the most helpful!

I love how Katy carries her basket like it a purse!

Family photo time....awww!

Today, despite my feeling like complete CRAP (I've been hit hard by the cold bug, dang I haven't been sick in a while!), we had fun. After church we headed over to my moms for dinner. When I got there I realized that my mom had a heaping bowl of my FAVORITEs, Robyns Eggs (let's be honest, what's not my fav when it comes to sugar?). I don't know about anybody else but when we were little (I had all sisters) we loved to make lipstick with these beauts. I seriously couldn't help myself and just started to go to town. Lucky for me my family is fun and they all joined in!

Here's our best shot. We found that the blue ones make the best lipstick.

I think this one is pretty funny of TJ and Gage! They were both making us laugh so hard when they were playing with Katy and Brynn's parasols they got from Grandma Kerry!

Katy is at a really fun age to celebrate the holidays with. Growing up the Easter Bunny always hid our baskets for us to find. Same holds true here in our home. But the Easter Bunny was nice this year and helped Katy out with a trail of candy leading her to where it was. It was funny when she woke up. I heard her open the door and say "wow mom there's candy out here!" Then she shut her door, perhaps in disbelief? She opened it again and just kept yelling "mom, mom, mom theres candy out here"! I had to help her find her basket. It was hidden in the dryer! She was lucky and got some of Mo Willems pigeon books (a favorite), Max and Ruby beanie babies, and a princess flashlight!

I am again grateful for my family and the resurrection and our knowledge that we can be together forever! Happy Easter!

Daffodils!

One of my favorite flowers. I had to hop out of the car again and snap a few shots on the way to the gateway. Not the best light but I still love these shots!

Steve said I was not allowed to go there buy myself....kind of a scary area. I was glad he came to help me get some shots!

You can see last years shots here

Super Fun

And thus the Easter Egg Hunting for the season starts. We had a little Easter egg hunt with playgroup yesterday. And our cute little neighborhood had one this morning. Katy was LOVIN' it for sure. Wow, I'm kind of glad the eggs were mostly filled with one piece of candy because she got a TON of eggs. We have a few more to go so we'll see how much more we can find.

She wanted to play at the playground after. She kept telling me to watch her basket so no one would get it. She is super into things being "MINE" lately and seems to think that everyone else must want them too. She also had to remind me not to eat any. Why would she even need to do that?!? Ok, I've been known to steal a few (a lot) of the good Halloween candy :)

It's (commercially) beginning to look like Easter around here. I've made Katy one dress from pillow cases I've found at the Down East Clearance center for less that 4 bucks. I think I'm going to try to make one more by next week if I can make the time! I love Down East. By the way I found $42.50 in a duffle bag I just bought there! BOO YA!

The tall tales of Katy!

I think I'll start todays tales with a little story about last night.

Picture us all sitting down to dinner at the In-Laws. Everyone's sittin' pretty enjoying the good food. Mrs. Joanne even made Katy a special pizza on a tortilla. Katy was enjoying all the fruit that Grandma and Grandpa Beardshall brought over, but she would not even try the pizza. She's old enough to know better so I told her that she needed to at least try it or she couldn't play with the doll house after she was done. Still no takers. It went back and forth like this for a bit. They she decided that she would test the waters and licked it. Anyone? Does anyone else have to deal with the licking? It's so funny to see that little tongue pop out and give it a try. Well because we had already been bickering back and forth for a bit I think she had mentally psyched herself out by this point. The mere lick of her food was making her gag.

Now I have heard many a tall tale about how Steve was the biggest gagger/throw-upper this side of the mississippi when he was a lad, but for some reason I just never figured I'd have to deal with this myself. Why? Because, let's be honest, who wants to deal with a gagger?

She finally took a bite and spit it out. I had had it by this point and decided it was time for us to make a graceful exit before we really got a show. I put her on the couch and told her that she couldn't play with the doll house. She was crying and wanted her blanket so I went and grabbed it for her. Not two seconds later, with blanket in tow....I got that show I was trying to avoid! Vomit everywhere!!! Now I would say it's just Karma if it was Steve that got sick all over....but it wasn't Steve it was me!!!! And if the truth be known, Steve has a hard time with vomit himself. He was very helpful but was, himself, on the verge of getting sick! We cleaned up and had a tub.

Steve was asking me why I was being so hard on her and forcing her to eat her food! Ha, that was not the case at all. And let me tell you.....that Tangled movie that I was going to save for a poop in the potty day, she's already watched it many times. So I guess I'm just trying to at least stick to my guns on this one. Steve is actually a HUGE softie for this little gal. He'd probably spoil her rotten if I gave him the chance. I am thinking that I will be taking the "you go to bed hungry" route for the next few years for now and not the "you have to try at least one bite!" I DONT really want to deal with that one on a regular bases.

Our next tall tale takes us to this afternoon. I got a call from Steve, frantic on the other end looking for the tweezers. I could hear Katy in the background screaming. I told him where to find them and asked what was up. He told me everything was fine, but he'd have to call me back. I got a call back not 10 minutes later where Steve had explained that Katy had taken the liberty of shoving a yogurt covered raisin up her nose! With no use getting it out she got to visit Dr. Schmidt this afternoon. And I guess raisins plump up when they are exposed to moisture...snot! That thing had expanded to the point they had to get out the extra long grabbies! But, alas, the raisin was removed and the disaster was averted!

She graciously posed for a picture for me today, pointing to her nose!

I guess this girl is just keeping us on our toes. Let's see what tomorrows tall tales take us!

Really???

Oh my HECK....I can't believe I am even saying this but meet the newest member of Team Beardshall, Colt! Really?!? That is pretty much all I've been thinking all day today.

Actually I am kind of ashamed to say this but when we were wild and crazy before Katy came along we actually tried 2 dogs, twice. Every time Chuck had the hardest time. Okay, I was really the one having the hardest time....it was just HARD! So obviously that didn't work out because we only have Chuck now.

So how did we end up with another dog??? That is a good question, one that is easy to answer. Among other job duties, Steve is now a K-9 officer. Lucky for us (or me really) is that Colt is not your typical K-9 dog. He is strictly a drug sniffing dog. Not aggressive at all, in fact. Which is kind of the only reason I'm okay with the idea. Maybe if we had older kids we could deal with your "typical" type of police dog. Steve's unit got a hold of this guy because I'd say about 50% of cases Steve's unit deals with involve drugs.

Steve is on cloud 9 for sure, he was hoping that he'd get the chance one day to be a K-9 officer. I guess things are just happening a bit faster than expected for us, or me that is. But, alas, I am super proud of Steve and making things happen for himself.

I was worried Chuck would have the hardest time. But as you can see......

Chuck seems pretty ok with the idea. Maybe it works because Chuck and Colt are both about 4 years old. Also I think it helps that because Colt is around all the other SUPER aggressive police dogs all day long, he could care less if Chuck wants to be "man of the house". He'll sleep in the basement in his crate. Chuck still gets to spoon with me :) So, all in all, it's going good so far. Considering I only had less that 24 hour notice that we were getting the thing!

We went to the dog park today. Man am I not used to things like this happening! Chuck was awesome....he played fetch too until about the 6th time throwing it he was all pooped out! His little legs just cant carry him around like a dog like Colts can!

Here's to smooth sailing, fingers crossed!

Tent Trauma

We went to the sand dunes on Friday. Kind of a last minute decision really. I'm glad we went.

Britney and her family were going.....so we tagged along. I figure any outdoors adventure is more fun for Steve when my BIL Josh is there.

We left Friday morning and moseyed on down. We were in no hurry, really. I think we finally made it down there around 1:00, we had a few stops to make. Once we got there they were off for a ride. I love 4wheeling but decided to stay and hang out with Brynn and Britney. I'm glad we did because we had a pretty great time. Best afternoon so far this year, the weather was perfect.

Poor Katy got a pretty good runny nose that morning, but it didn't get her down.

I brought some bubbles. Katy and Brynn had fun with them. Chuck kept trying to eat them.

We watched movies.

Speaking of Chuck he did not pull out his Chuck Norris powers this weekend, and instead claimed the title of an indoor dog. When we were eating dinner he was freaking out. I noticed that he was not walking on his back paw. When I picked him up to take a closer look he tried to bite me, not something that Mr. Norris would ever try with me! We finally concluded that he had been bit by a red ant. He spent the rest of the night winging about it....poor thing. He even got cold that night but refused to come to the fire because it was giving him too much anxiety. Ha, that's my boy!

I guess they call it the sand dunes for a reason. I still have sand coming out of places I didn't know I had!

We all had fun playing in the sand, including Gage....

and TJ.

Now this is a real outdoor dog, Chase. I am secretly going to steal him when no one is looking. He is my favorite!

Steve had to get a new flag on the way down, and promptly lost it on his first ride. He was lucky enough to find this one. A bit short, but I think it get's the message across....DUNE FREAK! Ha, that was making us all laugh pretty hard. Here they are taking it for a spin in the parking lot.

We went home on Saturday after our morning ride....so we could get back for priesthood and listen to conference. Katy LOVES the 4wheeler and all the bumps that come along with it! We even got to go on a ride with Darrel (Josh's dad) in his sand rail. What a blast!!!! Katy was loving being at the top of sand mountain!

Aside from our TENT TRAUMA, we had an absolute blast. More about that? Well Katy was totally stoked about the tent. We've been talking about camping a lot lately. In fact, she wanted to go right to bed at about 4:00 when we set up the tent. She even fell right asleep when we went to bed about 9:30....but she woke up about every 30-45 minutes not knowing where she was. It seemed like she was still sleeping every time and I could calm her right down. But about the 5th time this happened (no sleep for Steve and I up to this point) she was actually freaking out. So we decided to wake her up...the only thing she wanted to do was watch a show on the computer so we allowed it (3:00 am at this point). Steve and I had zipped our sleeping bags together and through our ordeal, Katy ended up in there with us.

Everyone was finally asleep, snoring....including Chuck! I had Steve and Chuck on one side and Katy on the other. I was seriously uncomfortable and I couldn't even move, let alone bend my legs. Well guess what happened next? Katy woke up again and was crying...I was LOOSING it by then and I FREAKED out! I hoped out of the sleeping bag and yelled "I'm loosing it, Steve!". Of course Steve is awesome and totally calmed Katy down. She kept saying over and over "I wanna go home" Steve explained to her that in order to do that we'd have to pack up the 4wheeler, the tent, all our food and clothes. She finally agreed to be brave and fell asleep at this point for the rest of the night (it was like 4:45am at this point!!!!), mostly because she was totally exhausted!!!! She hardly remembered it the next day. And aside from being totally delirious for the rest of the weekend we had a blast!

Also on a side note we totally LOVED and ENJOYED listening and watching conference.