Children's Museum, Cupcake heaven

Yesterday was another rainy, cold day, so Trulie and I took the kids to the Museum here in Rexburg. It's mostly a Rexburg History museum, but they just added a childrens room, and the kids love it. They had so much fun playing on the fun tree house, with the musical exhibits, and the art supplies. Hudson is so busy, it was great for him to be able to burn some of his excess energy climing the steps to the look-out, banging drums, and crawling through tunnels. Kennedy expressed her inner rockstar and enjoyed the stage and dress-up clothes. Jace walks around with his arms waving in the air anyway, so the maracas were definitely his thing. They had an art project for the kids as well, Marble Painting, and Kennedy loved that.









Afterwards, we hit the Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe, Rexburg's latest and greatest. Gourmet cupcakes and steamers, it's a beautiful thing. Some say that a 1:1 cake-to-frosting ratio is crazy, Hudson and I say it's heaven. A perfect day.



Hudson and Mommy sharing a Vanilla Vanilla, and Kennedy enjoying the spinny stools.




Hudson trying to pick just one...


We miss you already, Trulie and Jace!! Thanks for coming up to visit, we had such a great time!

It's not Winter anymore...

It's official. We can't really say that summer is here, or really even that spring has fully sprung, but it's not winter anymore. How do we know for sure? Snow cones! The first snow cone hut has opened here in the Burg, and we are thrilled. You know me, there's no such thing as ice cream weather, and the same rules apply to snow cones. Unfortunately, the powers that be (snow shack owners) don't agree, and real snow cone season is regrettably short. I passed that outlook on to Kennedy, and the first snow cone of the season is pretty much the second best day of the year, after Christmas. We got Hudson his own Kiddie Pina Colada (no stains!) and he agrees with us, they are the best! I remember getting snow cones with my mom as a kid, back when the drive between Logan and Richmond was so long, and it's so funny to me that I'm the mom now, getting weird flavors like Mango, or Kiwi, or Pink Lady, and Kennedy just wants something normal (?) like Tiger's Blood. I love the memories, past and in the making, and the timelessness of something as simple as getting a snow cone with your mom on your way home from town.

Trulie and Jace are up for a visit, how happy are we? Tru is one of my best shopping buddies, we are really bad for each others' will power, and we are having a great time hitting the Rexburg hotspots...thank heavens for brothers who pick such awesome wives! It is so fun to watch him and Hudson interact, they are hilarious!

Oh, and a quick shout out to Nate: Happy Birthday! We are so happy that you are part of our crazy family, you are an amazing husband and daddy to Jenna and Preslie, such a hard worker and all around nice guy...and the best part - you get us....or at least you are good at pretending that you do...Love from spudland!

It's done!

After a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, the swingset is up! We are so happy to have that project over with. This picture doesn't really do it justice, it is so shiny! Thankfully, we had a beautiful weekend, weather-wise, and we were able to finish the paint and get everything assembled. The kids love it, Kennedy especially is in heaven, finally able to get under-dogs from daddy again! Our good friends the Pococks stopped by as we were finishing up, and Chad saved me from having to get too sore of a back...Next up, sand box!

Kennedy is obviously feeling much better, I'd say pretty much recovered from her sore throat. She had some company four-wheeling on Saturday afternoon, the little boys next door broke out their little ATV's and it was a regular moto-cross rally behind the houses. They are so cute! Kennedy has been playing with them outside a bit since it has warmed up, and she is happy to have neighbor kids to play with again. There are four boys in the family next door, and there are three that she has buddied up to. Hudson loves them, too, and though their names are Thomas, Jacob and Andrew, he calls them all Taft! He thinks any little boy bigger than him is Taft...We better get the real one up here soon so he doesn't get too confused!

These two were the only ones I could get to slow down for a picture!

Kennedy and Thomas






Ever since that sad day when Main Street Grill in Preston closed its doors, Dustin and I have been on a quest to find calamari that was as awesome. Unfortunately, most places, it is disgusting. Dustin and I had a little date night on Saturday, and I am very happy to report that the quest is over. We tried the new Italian place here in town, Amici's, and we hit pay dirt! Woo Hoo! Yummiest food in Rexburg, possibly south-east Idaho. (mom: good calamari, huckleberry italian soda, seafood fettucini, tiramisu....get up here now.)

Happy May Day...

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

I took these this morning right after we woke up...on MAY 1st!

I'm actually not quite as mad about it as I could be...Kennedy's preschool class was scheduled to take a field trip to a sheep farm this morning, which she was heartbroken about missing. Hopefully it was rescheduled!

I helped my mom with a little project last night, a family spotlight for her ward newsletter, I think....I made this for her, and I thought it turned out cute so I decided to share...love these guys!!!

Yum-O Dinner

One of mine and Kennedy's favorite things to do during Hudson's afternoon nap is watch a cooking show together. We don't really have a favorite, just whatever's on, and she gets so completely engrossed, I love it. Yesterday we caught a 30-Minute Meals, and Rachel made this dish: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_151603,00.html

We tried it tonight, and man, it was AWESOME! We all loved it, and we are not onion loving people...you gotta try it!

Some bad news, Kennedy woke up this morning with a very hoarse little voice, so we had her checked out and she has strep. She was so funny at the doctor; Dustin was in a couple of weeks ago, for a lingering cold, and the doctor told Kennedy today that she is way sicker than her Dad was. Naturally, as soon as we left the office she had to call him and rub it in his face, and then call my mom to get some sympathy. I cannot believe how fast she is growing up, working the system, learning how to tease...Crazy.

I walked into Hudson's room this afternoon and stumbled upon this little scene...

Talk about melt a mom's heart. They had three blankets on their laps, and Hudson had about 4 lovies. They sat like this for about 15 minutes, and if you know Hudson at all you know what a big deal that is. I made sure they had a nice little stack of books and then sprinted for the camera. Hudson loves to look at story books so much, and Kennedy is so cute to help him. She worries she doesn't know all the words, but he obviously does not care. Love it!

Swingset!

This weekend, since we had some decent weather, we tackled the big job of getting the swingset looking good again. As you can tell, this is no ordinary swingset. It has a glider that seats between 4-6 adults (depends on how comfortable you are with each other), places for 4 swings, and a teeter-totter. It is a monster of a thing, dating way back to the '80's, when Jeff, Garret and I first enjoyed it's pristine paint and the first of many under-dogs.... It has since endured MANY kids, several moves, and lots of wear and tear. I was lucky enough to get it when my parents moved to Ogden, so we have decided to be good swingset owners and fix it up a bit. We have big plans to replace all the wood with Trex, but until that happens, it's paint for now. We spent all day Saturday sanding and painting, and it's almost ready to erect. Kennedy was a so excited to help, she has missed playing on it since we took it down late last summer to move. Despite new work gloves, the work soon lost it's appeal, however. After about 3 minutes of "sanding," she says, "what am I, Cinderella? This is hard!" She noticed my incredulous look, and the sanding block in my hand, and then said, "I mean, what are we, Cinderellas?" She is quite the diva... As soon as Dustin lines up a loader tractor, we'll be swingin'. Hopefully, it will only be a few days and I'll post pics of it in all of it's shiny new splendor.

The "Cinderellas"...

Too funny not to share...