Lizzie's Birthday and Pennsylvania Petersons and April

 We came home from our cruise just in time for General Conference. Sean and I quickly ran to Walmart on Friday afternoon and bought candy, groceries, and general conference prizes. It was so relaxing to sit and watch conference and the messages were beautiful and inspired. 

Oreo was in heaven to have us all sit and play fetch and snuggle. 

On Conference Saturday, Mom P and I also had a fun play to attend at Hale Center Theater. It was about a murderer who was trying to climb his way to a title and inheritance. It was hilarious and also kinda shocking! 

The kids and Sean put together a puzzle and some mini lego cruise ships. 

It snowed AGAIN! And we even had another snow day! 

Brandon and Michal's family came to visit and we met up with them on Lizzie's birthday at Kidstopia. We waited for Sean to get home then piled in the van to head to Pizza Pie Cafe for a birthday dinner. Lizzie opened her presents in the car! 

Cookie hung out with Brett one evening and watched him play switch. 

Some mornings we go back to sleep on the couch!

I made bread as soon as we got home and it was so yummy! 

Here is Lizzie at Pizza Pie Cafe with her favorite pasta, a cookie monster dessert and another dessert bar from the buffet. 

My sister Sam made this amazing and darling mermaid for Lizzie for her birthday. 

Lizzie got lots of crafts including this one where you use clay to mold dragons. 

Cookie and Oreo:

Sean had that Friday off and we kept the kids home from school. We met up with cousins at the museum of curiosity and had lots of fun. We got take out from Chick-fil-A and ate quickly and got right back to playing. 

We came home in time for Lizzie to decorate her birthday cake and to clean and get ready for Lizzie's friend party. 

We played our fun pass the present game with wrapped boxes of candy. Three boxes had one dollar bill and one box had a five dollar bill! 

We played pin the Guinea Pig on the Dragon =) Ate pizza and cake, opened presents, and played outside. 

The next morning we met all the cousins at the theater for the new Mario Movie. It was so cute! Then we went to Mimi's house for a recital. Kaden and Carol both had pieces they had prepared and Brother Yeslith was there. Brielle and Lily both played piano pieces and Lily played on her flute. Lizzie and Alana sang a primary song. And Sean shared a new arrangement he made for Easter. Its called I Know He Lives and is taking lots of words from I Know That My Redeemer Lives and putting them to the tune of What Child is This. 

After the recital we went to Rebecca's for some lunch then went to the swimming pool. There was a rock wall in the lobby of the rec center. 

One of our neighbors had a funeral in her family and wanted to share the flowers. Our girls went and made some very pretty bouquets. 

We took Oreo to my mom and dads to be baby sat that day since we were going to be gone for so long! When I went to pick him up, my parents sent home Easter Baskets for the kids. 

On Easter we had Sacrament Meeting and then spent the rest of the day with family. We played a game together and then my parents and all the Peterson's came to our house for an Easter Egg hunt and Easter dinner. We had ham, potatoes, deviled eggs, salad, jello, pie, cookies, rolls, mustard sauce, briscut, and green beans. 

We sang some Easter songs:

Lizzie opened MORE presents:

Brett played his cello:

Its always lovely to be together. One thing that stuck out in General Conference was that we need to start celebrating Easter more fully and especially creating traditions around the death and Resurrection. We do pretty well at trying to celebrate Christ at Easter, but we can do better! 

Brandon and Michal's family went home the Monday after Easter and the rest of us went back to work and school. 

After Lizzie got so so many new presents for her birthday, I felt the need to majorly declutter our house. I went through so so many toys and donated many bags full of clothes and toys and stuff! We took the doors off Alana's closet and turned it into an art nook, then I found a storage bed for her to have a dresser and storage under her bed. 

Sean built some shelves in our coat closet and and in Lizzie's closet: 

Even after donating so so many things we still have PLENTY of stuffed animals to play with! 

Lizzies new shelves and bar so she can actually reach her clothes:

Our trees are budding!

Alana's new bed with her old mattress which was way too tall. So we went to Ikea to get her a new thinner mattress and Lizzie inherited Alana's old bed. I got Lizzie some new purple sheets and new pillows to make it her own and we are planning to paint her walls in the next week or so. 

Ikea shopping is always fun!

Alana's new bed with the new mattress:

Evidence of the stuff and stuff and stuff I donated. Our house feels a lot lighter:

Brett decided he wanted to get a new reptile and we felt ready. He did a lot of research and found that water dragons and red headed agamas were really cool. We went to Scales and Tales and found both of those, but the were crazy and we definitely couldn't handle them. So we waited a few more days and found a darling baby beardie at Pets Mart. Her name is Kiwi and we think she is a girl. So far she loves crickets, poops a lot, and is very friendly: 

Here is Lizzie holding a crested Gecko which was a very cool animal! 

Here's Kiwi!

We went to the Butterfly Biosphere with the Ellis family:

We played on the water tower and then got ice cream:

We got a grocery delivery and this sweet potato is literally bigger than my hand! And I had cute nails so I took a picture:

We drove to Logan to see the Saffrons and went to get Aggie Ice Cream:

The sunset was very pretty:

Mimi bought a new car and we bought her old van =) I don't have any pictures of our new blue van: