Beautiful Babies

Aunt Kathy was so kind and bought all of my kids beautiful new Easter outfits this year. 

And of course because of my mild obsession I took about a million pictures. 

Here are some favorites...

 Haha, I guess pictures exhausted her.

Better late than never..

Easter!! Easter is always a fun weekend for us. We head down to St George for some fun in the sun. The Claytons are always so good to the kids and spoil them rotten.

The weekend consisted of 2 easter egg hunts, egg coloring/spinning, breakfast at kneaders, an out and out wrestling match over the special golden egg, an annoying Easter chick that WON'T STOP chirping, some fun family park time, and LOTS AND LOTS of pictures! Here is a little proof...

Here is the first egg hunt

some egg coloring

What a cute little bug, she thought the eggs were fascinating.

The boys loved playing ball

Oh my handsome handsome hubby...

The eggs that came from the spinner

We found a perfect little hole at the park that Addison fit in nicely.

Kaden was ecstatic about the Easter bunny leaving the movie HOP in his basket. He had been begging for it all year.

Our real bunnies (take two, but that is a whole different story)

We got to see the Easter bunny at the store.

Addison LOVED this little Easter chick... but it is a motion sensor... a very very sensitive motion sensor. I am hoping the batteries die quickly because there is no off switch.

Easter egg hunt number 2.

I think Kaden was a little more eager than Taycee was.

This was the wrestle for the final golden egg. Chris and Ben went for it first then Kelsey and I joined in to help them out. It ended with a slight wrestling match. I ended up with half and Kels ended up with half. My half had the money in it. I also ended up with a jammed thumb... haha... it was worth it.

This picture cracks me up, from Ben crawling over the railing to my face to Kelsey hair from digging in the bushes... now that is a real Easter egg hunt.

She was happy with her loot.

Easter was fun as it always is, but also special too. With all the eggs and baskets aside I am always amazed at the incredible gift of the atonement. I am so grateful to know that I have a Savior who loved me enough to die for me, and even more grateful to know that He is risen, He lives again and that I will see him again someday. 

Conference weekend

The Clayton family came up to stay with us conference weekend. The boys got tickets to go to the priesthood session Saturday night.  Sunday morning before conference grandma Clayton wanted to make Easter baskets with the kids it was a craft where you blew up a balloon and then soaked string in starch then wrapped it up around the balloon and let it dry til it got hard. The only problem is that it never got hard. haha, we found out later that instead of using starch we should have used a type of craft glue. Oh well... next time :) Here are some pictures of the crafters in action.

 Kaden was extra excited about it.. haha

 We had our traditional conference breakfast of crepes filled with fruit. YUMMY.

 Then we enjoyed conference. I LOVE conference weekend. Nothing is better than two straight days of direct counsel from our prophets. I always feel such a renewed sense of determination to do a little better afterwards. 

It was a fun weekend with family good food and inspiring words.

The kids always love to have grandpa and grandma near.

The Cage

Once we had the bunnies we really needed a permanent place for them to live. I started looking up bunny hutches to get an idea of what we wanted. I found a few things that I liked and didn't like and started creating a "dream bunny hutch" in my mind. The problem was they were all SO expensive. We watched KSL for a few days hoping to find something but nothing was coming up and the vacuum box the bunnies were living in just wasn't cutting it anymore. Trixie had learned how to escape and I was having to catch her and put her back about every hour.

Then I saw this bunny hutch...

It was perfect!! Everything I wanted. It had a top and bottom part. There was no wire mesh in the top part that the bunnies would have to walk on (that is really bad for rabbits feet and almost every cage we found was made with it) The only thing it didn't have was a slide out bottom on the top for easy cleaning. I was sold.... til I looked at the price... 230 dollars. WHAT? There was no way we were paying that much.

I showed Chris. We talked. He decided he was making it. And the next 12 hours were devoted to making a bunny hutch.

Chris decided to double the size of the cage. So the dimensions were 4 feet wide 5 feet long and 4 feet tall. We are lucky to have great neighbors down the street who own lots and lots of tools. A big thanks to the Bryners who made the cage possible.

We are also lucky that Lowes is literally only a few blocks away because I believe we made 6 Lowes trips that day.

I ran the chop saw all day.

Kaden was the board weight while daddy did the cutting.

Taycee loved the measuring tape and went around measuring everything.

Kaden eventually got tired of being dads board weight and decided to embark on a project of his own.

Getting closer!! I put all that fencing on by myself. I could barely move my hands the next day.

This was Kaden's finished project. He was quite proud of it. He wasn't very happy with me when I pulled the nails out of the boards to put the away.

And this was our finished project. Perfect? Haha no. But It does the job and gives our little bunnies plenty of room to run around. We ended up saving about 120 dollars and it came out to be twice the size as the one we were looking at online. The bunnies were so happy to be out of the vacuum box and into a real bunny house.

Don't my kids do a great "Ta Da"? haha

Bunny Fiasco

Meet Trixie and Pepper. Our new bunnies.

Trixie is tiny and fits right in the palm of your hand.

Pepper is a little bit bigger ( she is about 10 weeks, Trixie is 6)

We have been talking about getting the kids bunnies for about 6 months. I had a bunny growing up and think as far a pets go they are ideal :) I am deathly allergic to cats. Chris is allergic to dogs saliva. I HATE pet hair, the smell of dog and cleaning up poop. With all that said I really do think it is fun to have a pet growing up. So after talking it over we decided a bunny was the best way to go for us.

I wasn't sure when we would actually get the bunny. I thought about waiting til Kaden's birthday at the end of May but wondered if that was too late in the year. I had checked out bunnies and cages out on KSL a few times last week but still wasn't set on a time to get one.

Saturday morning came around and it was a beautiful day. We were talking to the kids and promised if they helped to clean up and get all the chores done early we could go do something fun together later in the afternoon. They were excited about the idea so we started brainstorming something fun we could do that wouldn't cost a lot of money but wasn't the same old thing I did with them every week. That is when Chris got and idea, "We could get a bunny today" he whispered in my ear. That is when the fun impulsive side of me kicked in.. we both looked at each other and giggled like 5 year olds. Our minds were made up, we were going to end the day owners of a bunny. The rest of the story is probably best told in a timeline

10:00 am - We are working frantically to get everything done so we can head out to get our "surprise"

11:00 am- I come in from mowing the law. Chris and the kids are telling me to hurry so we can go.

11:10 am- I decide just to change my clothes and not shower so we can get going. ( BIG BIG mistake)

11:30 am - I jump on KSL and start scouting out the bunny ads

11:40 am- We make a few calls and find some bunnies in West Jordan that are only 7 weeks old and ready to be sold. The lady tells us to come down and just call when we are in the area and she will give us directions.

12:00 pm- we call IFA in Ogden to ask about cages. They tell us they have lots of options and bunnies too. We decide to drive there first and hope to knock it all out in one stop. ( hahahahhaha)

12:15pm-We decide to leave without everything done so that we can be home in time for the kids to play with the bunnies outside while there is still lots of light. (again hahahahaha)

12:20pm- we are all in the car heading to IFA, there is a load of laundry in the washer and 2 loads seperated on the floor ready to go in. The garage is half torn apart in Chris's attempt to start organizing ( all thing which we thought we would have plenty of time for later that afternoon when we got home.)

12:40 pm- we get to IFA, the kids are asking if this is their surprise, we tell them "maybe we'll have to see". We walk in and decide very quickly we will not be getting a bunny there because they are much bigger than what we want. we look at the hutches and about fall over when we see a $240 price tag.

12:45 pm- we leave IFA, the kids ask where their surprise is

1:00PM- we get back home and I grab Chris's lap top and pack a small diaper bag for the trip to salt lake

1:05 pm- We make a few stops before heading out. We pick up some lunch and then stop at PetSmart to see what they have to offer as far as cages go. ( After all my research I decided I definitely wanted a 2 story cage so they had room to run around on the grass but still be in their cage.)

1:59pm- The kids ask where their surprise is.

2:00pm- We head to West Jordan without a cage, and with the feeling it is going to be a lot harder/more expensive to get the cage I want than I originally thought it would.

3:00pm- We get to the West Jordan area and call the bunny lady.... no answer.

3:15 pm- We call again.... no answer

3:30 pm- We call again... no answer

3:45 pm- We text her... no answer

4:00 pm- We stop at a Petco to check for a cage... no luck

4:30pm- getting annoyed driving around aimlessly

4:32pm- The kids ask where their surprise is

4:45 pm- We decide to give up on the West Jordan bunnies. We got to a McDonalds with free WiFi let the kids play on the toys and get on the laptop to find some new bunnies.

5:00pm- We find a cage in Lehi that is exactly what we want for only 30 dollars! We call on it and the lady tells us someone else had already called but if she wasn't there within the hour (5:26) it was ours. We also find more bunnies in orem.

5:05pm- We jump in the car and head to Lehi

5:27pm- We pull up to the house. No other car is there... WE WIN!... or so we think. We knock on the door and the lady tells us that the other person called and said she was only 5 minutes away. She gives the cage to the other lady.

5:28pm- The kids ask where their surprise is

5:30 pm- On the freeway headed to the Orem bunny house. We call again to get directions and she tells us she won't be home til 7. We are determined to make sure this trip isn't a waste so we say we will wait around.

5:45pm- We hand out at Lisa and Dougs house til 7 rolls around.

6:45pm- Chris and I leave the kids with Doug and Lisa and go to pick our bunnies

7:00pm- We get to the house ( if you can call it that... it was disgusting) and see that their "baby" bunnies are really full grown rabbits

7:10pm- We leave empty handed and discouraged

7:15pm- The kids ask where their surprise is.

7:16pm- Back at Lisa and Dougs we find more bunnies in Holladay. They are dwarf Hoto bunnies which are tiny and cute. I really like them. Chirs calls the man who says someone is coming the next day from Idaho to get 3 of them, if we want first pick we have to beat them there. Chris says we will come right now, bunny guy says we can't he will be out for the rest of the night. We have to come tomorrow.

7:30 pm- Pow Wow.. we can't decide if we should try and stay the night in Orem without diapers, formula, toothbrushes, extra clothes... basically without anything. Or if we should drive home and drive all the way back the next day.

8:00 pm- We make the decision to stay the night in Orem and leave bright and early the next day to make it home in time for church. Luckily we both have a sibling that lives in the are. Kaden stays with Lisa and Doug. Me, Chris, and the girls stay with Jason and Katie. (we did make a Wal-Mart trip for the essentials)

NEXT MORNING

6:00 am- Chris and I are up. ( after sleeping maybe 2-3 hours) We find out the guy also has church at 9 and we can not come get the bunnies til after.

7:00 am- I am frantically trying to figure out what to do about the singing time I am not going to be able to lead. I am feeling really bad we are about to miss church to pick up bunnies.

8:00am- The kids ask where their surprise is

11:00 am- we are finally ready to leave and we get another text from bunny guy saying he has church meetings and can't meet til 2:30. We about lose it. The guilt is mounting that we missed church for bunnies.

11:10am- The kids ask where their surprise is

12:00pm- Bunny guys texts us again.. he can meet us at 1:30.

12:30pm- We leave Orem.

1:20pm- We turn up Walker Lane in Holladay (HOLY COW... talk about nice houses.) We are convinced we must be in the wrong place. Who lives in a mansion and sells bunnies for $20? Also we can not find the house number.

1:30pm- we call bunny guy and find out he doesn't live on Walker Lane... oh no... he lives at the end of Walker Lane behind he huge electronic private gate. He gives us the code to get in

1:35pm- We pull up to THE Walker Estate, built on acres of land with not one but TWO houses and a giant barn that is nicer than our home. A very nice man dressed in a suit and tie meets us out in front and shakes our hand.

1:36pm- we go back into the mansion of a barn and I feel somehow unworthy...to be in his BARN

1:37pm- We see all of his animals: rabbits, pigeons, ponies, love birds, peacocks, golden tailed pheasants, doves.

1:38pm- I instantly see the two bunnies I want.

1:39pm- Bunny man ( Jeff Flamm) asks if we know Thomas S Monson...

1:39:30pm- uh..... yeah

1:40 pm- Bunny man tells us these are his pigeons, and he brings his grandkids up to fish on his private trout pond all the time

1:41pm- We smile and nod like that is totally normal.

1:45pm- We walk out to the car with two bunnies....finally

1:46pm- The kids finally get their surprise.

We got home about 2:30, exhausted and worn out... and probably a little smelly. The laundry that was started the day before is still in the washer and needs to be restarted. The garage is still half torn apart. We still don't have a cage, but we do have 2 cute little bunnies and 2 very happy kids.

It turns out we lucked upon some semi-rare bunnies to the Utah area. The Hoto bunny ( which is what their dad is) is a breed of bunny that is usually all white with the dark line around his eyes just like Trixie. They have small ears and only get between 2 and 3 pounds. Both bunnies moms were dwarf breed so these bunnies should stay pretty small.

The whole thing was kind of a disaster and looking back I can't believe we didn't just give up after the first failed attempt and just come home. But we did end up with 2 darling bunnies that we couldn't be happier with.

Addison was so intrigued by the bunnies. She kept trying to touch them and grab their faces. No worries, we didn't let her.

I love cute little bunny faces.

Don't judge me for my greasy hair or lack of make-up. This was minutes after we got home from our 24 hour bunny search.

The boys and Pepper