is it spring yet?

The boys had spring break this past week, but it sure doesn't feel like spring around here. Their "spring" break included a snowstorm that brought 17.3 inches of snow in one day. This picture is all new snow. The snow that piled up all winter had finally melted a couple days before the snow hit. We are anxious for the actual spring to get here, but in the meantime, we've been trying to do some fun things indoors. A few weeks ago we headed down to Chicago for the weekend. We swam in the pool, Bart went to the temple, we went to IKEA, we ate Giordano's pizza, and went to Legoland Discovery Center. The boys had a blast! Check out this awesome re-creation of Chicago, all in Legos.

I love this bridge in Chicago and it's fun to see it done with Legos.

The boys were in love with this Darth Vader and R2-D2. I think this right here was the highlight of their trip!

Dad and boys made race cars and raced them down a ramp. They could have done this for hours if it hadn't been so crowded.

Also a few weeks ago, a few friends and I took our kids to a children's museum. It was so much fun, and if it weren't for my parking time limit, I think we would have stayed there all day. The boys loved dressing up and pretending they were fire fighters.

There was also a fun water room. What little kids don't love playing in water? I remember when I was little, I would push a chair up to the kitchen sink just to play in the water. (Who needs a fancy children's museum anyway?)

While the boys were on spring break, Bart took a couple days off so we could all play. Thursday we went bowling and I could not believe how well the boys did! First time not using the ramp, and they both got close to 100! (With bumpers of course.)

Ky is using "the force" to try to get his ball to knock down more pins. I think he did this almost every time.

That evening we met up with some friends at a sports grill to watch the Florida vs. BYU basketball game. As you can see in this picture, Bart and Kade were cheering for the gators, while Ky and I cheered for the cougars. I was sad that BYU lost, but I couldn't be sad that the gators won!

The boys didn't last the entire game, but a soft chair and Daddy's iPod did the trick.

One thing about Ky's BYU shirt. That afternoon we were talking about who was going to cheer for each team. Ky said he wanted the cougars to win, and I was feeling bad that neither he or I had a BYU shirt. So in less than an hour, and using what I had around the house, I made us each a BYU shirt using my silhouette machine. My shirt was blue with a white logo, and I just ironed my logo on, but didn't stitch it so it could be removed, but I sewed Ky's on, and since then, the boys have fought every morning who gets to wear the new BYU shirt. Not bad for throwing it together last minute, if I do say so myself!

going green!

We have been growing tired of the "home-builder beige" wall color and so we decided to go green and let Kade paint the walls.

Actually we let both boys paint the sample colors on the wall, and none of these colors won.

But a few more sample colors and a few more spots and we had picked our color. I don't have a really good before pic of the kitchen/living room wall, but this gives you a pretty good idea of what it looked like before. We also painted the wall by our fireplace and around our pantry door in the kitchen.

Before

Before

Bart did all the painting and only had one incident wherein he stuck his toes in the paint tray!

What do you think?

After

Dining area in kitchen after

This wall around the pantry is my favorite part about the change. I just love the way the angled walls pop with the color.

I didn't contribute much to the wall color, but I did make this wipe-off menu that matches. It's so handy and cute!

sledding fun

While trying to make the most of the ridiculous winters here, we took the boys sledding. They had a blast! They've been three times this winter which I think is a pretty respectable number, considering.

This video of the boys sledding down the hill together is short, but pretty funny.