Spring Break at Ensign Ranch

Several families from our new ward go to Ensign Ranch and rent out the Lodge for a few days during Spring Break. Each family takes turn cooking a meal for everyone. We were hesitant to go, but decided to do it. I'm glad we did. We had a lot of fun. The kids loved it. We stayed 2 nights and I wouldn't want to stay more than that because we didn't sleep very good there. The rooms are small and you can hear everything. Every single time we would move on our air mattress it would make a big squeaky sound so you felt guilty for even moving! Such is camping!

Shannon Wright, our neighbor and friend, was doing a raffle for the kids. Basically, they all got a little gift from the dollar store. That was nice of her. Chelsea got a Big Hero 6 book and that was perfect for her since she's obsessed with Baymax.

The girls and boys, ahem, painting our nails. I was bad a painted one boys fingernails. Good thing for polish remover.

We went on a walk and stopped at the little river crossing and then found the ropes course to play on. The kids and adults were having fun with the challenges.

The kids were excited to ride horses. They only do led horse rides right now (in the summer they do the trail rides as well which is what Kate wanted to go on last year we were there, but was too short. She's hoping she can go this summer when we are there again with my family.)

Lindsey loved her horse ride. I thought she would be too nervous because she is usually the nervous one, but she did good.

Chelsea's smile cracked me up! Hahaha!

 Another family brought their cotton candy maker and made some for the kids. Another family did a dance off and had music and a disco ball to dance with. The adults would stay up after putting the kids down and played games and talked. I made kettle corn one night and that was a hit. We stayed up until after midnight both nights. It was fun, but with little sleep we were all exhausted when leaving. We did the lunch for one of the days. I served sub sandwiches on hoagie rolls (like subway) and then had various toppings with chips, fruit kabobs (another friend did this because they came up last minute) and crunchy no bakes.

Lindsey and Preston showing off their beds. Lindsey was excited to be on the top bunk bed. Chelsea reading her book before bed. She looks innocent, but really she was naughty this night. She kept getting out of bed and they were all awake (because of her) until 10:30pm! They still woke up bright and early at 6:30am though.

Central Market

Happy Easter! 

I had the kids wear their Easter clothes a week before since Easter was on General Conference weekend. They looked cute in them and I was glad I found them for a really good deal at Gymboree. Only $19/dress!!! My Mom said you can't make dresses that cheap especially with organza material like these. I love getting a good deal. 

Lindsey's co-op preschool took a field trip to Central Market (a grocery store) near us. The guy giving us a tour was so good with the kids. He told us about crabs and lobsters (they have fresh fish you can buy) and then we toured the vegetables and fruit (he gave us samples of Sumo oranges, yummy). We got a tour of the upstairs, the fridge and freezer, samples of fresh ground peanut butter, cookies from the bakery and cheese from the deli. It was a fun little tour. 

We took a picture of the kids and siblings in front of this tractor out in front of the store and right after this Chelsea bolted and ran toward the busy road nearby. I ran off and stopped her in the bushes before the busy road. She's crazy!!!!

The youth in the Stake put on a roadshow. It was a lot of preparation and Kyle would give me tidbits of what they were going to do. Each ward did a great job! They were so creative and funny. This picture is a scene from our ward's performance. It was hilarious and I love when the stake puts on fun stuff like this. I just understand that it takes a lot of work so they don't happen very often. Kyle got sick the day of the main performance and was supposed to drive kids from the stake center to our ward building, but luckily there was enough leaders to step in. I went with the kids, but then Kyle came to get them because Kate threw up in the parking lot as we got there. She wanted to stay to watch them, but was feeling worse as it went on. It was nice watching it without kids to wrangle and thank goodness the sickness was quick and they felt better soon. Plus, I couldn't complain when a couple of them got sick since we've been healthy all winter and this was our first sickness. Knock on wood.

Sabin Girls Weekend 2015

I hosted the girls weekend this year. It was a lot of fun. For a couple months before I was thinking and researching and worrying over what we would do and I wanted to make sure we had fun things to do so I'm so glad it turned out well. I'm thankful for my Mom and sisters and that we do these girl weekends to spend time together. Sadie even made a huge effort by flying out for the weekend. It was fun to have all of us together. 

We met up at Ikea on Friday morning. Marci was working and Sadie was flying from Utah, but the rest of us did some shopping that morning. Jeni was reliving her days when we used to play Fabricland (a store like JoAnn's). We would use my Mom's leftover fabric and then set up our own stores with the fabric laid out with price tags. Then we would go around to one another's stores to shop. We would choose material, then the "store owner" would cut it out on our makeshift fabric tables (think yardsticks and tape and scissors). We always wanted to recreate the groove they use to keep their scissors in as a guide. So nifty! 

Landon was too cute in this little hat. We ate lunch at Panera Bread then did a little bit of shopping near the restaurant before heading back up to our house which takes 40 minutes. We wanted to beat rush hour traffic. 

We had homemade cafe rio for dinner. The meat was cooking while we were shopping. :) 

L-R: Jeni, Sara, Marci, Sadie with Landon and me

We exchanged our favorite things. We started doing this a few years ago and had fun with it. Well, since we've been doing it the last few years it's getting harder to find things that our are favorites under $5. We keep it affordable. But this year didn't disappoint. We got some yummy and cute stuff. Sara handmade the Home Sweet Home signs. My Mom made the chocolate chip recipe on the hand towel using her fancy schmancy embroidery machine. Sadie gave us some yummy cocoa covered almonds, lip butter lip gloss and jelly beans. Marci gave us lemon covered almonds, pepper grinder and chocolate dipping sauce. Jeni made a bird vinyl picture to go on a glass holder and chocolate covered almonds. I gave a mini chocolate chocolate chip bundlet from Nothing Bundt Cakes.

No time to rest...we quickly started crafting. I had 3 crafts for us to do and some of them needed to be done tonight in order to be dry tomorrow and get finished. We made a bunny cotton tail decoration, painted mason jars and a St. Patrick's Day banner with burlap. It was interesting as we were doing the mason jars because the directions on the blog I found make it look so simple yet we quickly had problems like the paint not sticking or peeling off when you taped the stripes off. It was funny because the lady on this blog charges a lot of money for these mason jars on her etsy shop and by the end of the night we were thinking that maybe it wasn't too expensive after all! haha! It worked out though and they turned out cute.

 I like my new sign from Sara on my front entry table. Thanks Sara!

Friday night we were night owls and went to Seattle for a comedy show called Theatersports. It's down by Pikes Place Market and the gum wall. Kyle and I have been before, but it's been awhile. I like to laugh and have fun so this was something I wanted to take them to. Luckily, I found tickets on a discount website so we got a steal of a deal for them. The show started at 10:30pm so it's really late. We were quite the partiers that night! Landon tagged along and he was so good. He slept through most of the comedy show. What a good baby. We had debated getting a babysitter, but then didn't know how he would do with a sitter so it worked out to take him. The show was funny. Marci volunteered to go up during a skit and she was a good sport. We all laughed lots and loved it. I cried I laughed so hard, which isn't that hard for me to do. It was a fun night.

A selfie with the Great Wheel behind us.

I loved having all of them in my bathroom getting ready. We could have had a dance party in there! After sleeping in and eating a yummy breakfast (omelettes, hash browns and toast), we finished up the crafts and then ate lunch (toasted turkey/provolone/pesto sandwiches on torta rolls, fruit and chips) before heading up to Mt. Vernon (45 mins away) to go to the Tulip Festival. With this winter being so mild and this spring being so nice the tulips were ready 2 weeks ahead of schedule so they are lucky we were able to go see them. None of them had seen them before so I'm glad it worked out to take them. There weren't any big fields of tulips ready, just daffodils, but it was still pretty to see the big patch of tulips at Tulip Town. 

Breathtaking!

 Sadie drew this at Macaroni Grill, she's talented!

We finished the weekend off with dinner at Macaroni Grill. Then my Mom, Jeni and Sara went home. Marci, Sadie and I did a little bit of shopping (Forever 21, Nordstrom Rack and Home Goods) before heading home. Kyle had taken the kids over to Mattawa to my parents' house and he beat me home! haha. I'm still laughing about things from this weekend and glad we had such a good time together.

Happy Birthday To ME!

My Mom and Sara (with Landon and Zane) came over for my birthday!!! Isn't that so nice of them! My Dad got sick so he couldn't come. Marci came up after school and Kyle came home early. My Mom started making rolls for my birthday dinner and cinnamon rolls. Yummy. I got some fun presents and Sara cut and highlighted my hair. It was a fun day!

Kyle had asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said a new rain jacket. He knew I was going to pick it out, but he wrapped this poncho up and added the Columbia and North Face logos to it. It was hilarious and creative. 

Preston building the train track for Zane. Preston used to play with the trains daily and now he hardly plays with them. It's kind of sad he's moved on past trains. 

We had steak and chicken kabobs with pineapple, red pepper and onion. My favorite combo. Then we had garlic mashed potatoes, rolls and bleu cheese salad with bacon, cheese, tomatoes and onions. Yum. I'm drooling just looking at this. 

Chelsea is obsessed with "baby Landon" as she calls him. She says she can hold him because she's a big girl. She thinks he's so tiny and will name her babies she's playing with Landon. 

Lindsey holding Landon

Kate holding Landon

I love this picture of Zane! His eyes and he's about to help me blow out my candles. So funny. I love cherry cobbler so my Mom made me that for my dessert. I have such a nice Mom who serves me all the time. I'm spoiled by her. 

Sara, Marci, me and my Mom

Pretty tulips from my Mom. 

What a happy Birthday I had. :)