Grandma and Grandpa T. visit Michigan!

We've been looking forward to Grandma and Grandpa's visit for a couple months and now the time is finally here. The last time my mom was here was when Leah was born almost 2 1/2 years ago so it's been a while since she's seen our whole family and has spent much time with the girls. We've had a fun couple of days dancing and playing the violin...
Reading books,

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Reading books again,

And visiting with my aunt and uncle who also live here in Michigan.

We also have been to the Henry Ford Museum (see below), driven around town to show them the UM campus and hospital and Jared's work, ordered in yummy food for dinner, gone shopping, made cookies, watched movies, and stayed up late talking. Grandma and Grandpa are now taking a road trip to Niagara Falls, Palmyra, Syracuse, and Kirtland, and then will be back with us for a few more days before flying home. We love having family here!

Visit to the Henry Ford Museum

We decided to go to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village with Grandma and Grandpa and we had a great time. We spent the whole day there and luckily we went on a day that it wasn't raining. Here are a bunch of pictures to sum up our day:

In an old Model T Ford, doesn't it look like the car in the old version of the movie "Cheaper by the Dozen"?

Leah in front of the Oscar Mayer Weiner mobile

Abbie and Leah got a kick out of this human hotdog display/toy. There were so many things geared towards kids, more than I remember when we first came here 5 1/2 years ago.

Me brushing up on my teaching skills in an old 1950's classroom. Abbie loved sitting in the desk and playing school.

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Grandma and Grandpa in front of a disassembled Model T Ford

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Taking a walk down memory lane

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Grandma learning how to spin wool which she never got to do in Nauvoo while on a mission working in the Family Living Center.

Going on the carousel in Greenfield Village, Abbie was terrified at first but at the end finally warmed up to it and wanted to go again.

Grandpa had a good time also on his dark stallion!

Leah has no fear and was happy to be doing anything out of the stroller

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We got her a candy necklace to keep her happy for a while and she loved that, it made quite the chalky mess though!

The coal-fueled steam train that goes around the village. It was too hard to pass up a free* ride to the other side of the village after tons of walking. *We were prepared to pay the $4 per adult fee (kids free) after being exhausted from walking all day but the conductor let us go for free after seeing our two kids, double stroller, disabled husband, and pregnant wife! Thank goodness!

The kids had fun taking a ride on the train but I couldn't get any good pictures except this view out the side.

The train station roundtable, the girls had more fun throwing rocks here than anything else.
Finally leaving at closing time down a beautiful path of blossoming trees. I'm so glad spring is finally here!

My tired babies at the end of a long, but great, day!

My dandelion ballerina

Abbie started a ballet class last week with her friend Nora and so far she loves it! She has always loved to dress up in her tutu and dance around but I've never put her in a formal class or anything so I think she's going to love learning some moves and poses. Here they are after class in their cute tutus.

Learning some moves...

Here they are after class picking dandelions and posing in front of the daffodils.

Abbie brings me bouquets of dandelions all the time now that they are growing everywhere in our yard. I remember doing the same thing when I was a kid and always loved it when my mom put them in water and displayed them on the table or window. Isn't my dandelion ballerina so adorable?

Everything IS bigger in Texas...

I just got back from a week-long trip to visit my sister and her family who live in Texas. It was perfect weather while we were there so we spent a lot of time outside at the park, playing on the trampoline, swimming in the pool, and enjoying the sun. My sister has eight kids so Abbie and Leah had a great time playing with all their cousins and we had fun just watching them interact and running them around town. It was fun to just hang out with my sister all day doing the mom thing and seeing how she manages a big family. It made me realize that my life is pretty easy right now comparatively and that I should enjoy it while I can. Here's a bunch of pictures from our week...

Her youngest three and my kids at the park

Testing out the water at their neighborhood pool, it was a little colder than we thought it would be but the kids still had fun

At a fun children's museum geared towards young kids, Abbie and Leah had a blast at this place playing cymbals...

and a zylophone in their music room. They also had a painting area where kids could paint on a real Volkswagon Beetle (or boring paper on easels), an area for building blocks and dominoes, a big space ship they could climb in, and a grocery store area with real boxes of food (empty) and mini-shopping carts and a working cash register. It was pretty cool!

Leah bonded with a few of her boy cousins,

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Played with legos,

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And learned to hunt for bugs. She's going to be a regular tomboy!
They also had fun coloring with markers and crayons,

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Jumping on the trampoline,

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And hiding in the laundry cabinent!

We even found Quacky's (Leah's favorite stuffed animal) long lost mother!

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The whole family, all together on our last night there.

Thanks for letting us come visit: J, A, J, T, A, J, T, A, T, and A! We had a great time and we can't wait to see you in July at the family reunion!

Easter fun...

We had a pretty good Easter weekend. On Saturday we did an Easter egg hunt with some friends in our ward and even though it was cold, Abbie and Leah had a great time finding eggs and eating all their candy. I had to ration it out, though, so they wouldn't eat it all in the first 10 minutes after getting home. Crazy kids!

Here's Abbie showing me her loot! She was the oldest kid there so she found her ration of 12 eggs pretty quickly and then went to help Leah and the other kids.

Here's Leah spotting another pretty egg...

And going in for the kill!

Here we are on Easter morning with our pretty new dresses. Leah wasn't happy about having to smile for the camera one bit!

Attempting again after church to get a better picture of Leah with no such luck! She was just being a little stinker but at least her dress was cute!

Finally getting their Easter baskets after church (I know, I'm mean, I made them wait so they wouldn't be all hopped up on sugar at church). Leah got a new quacky (stuffed animal duck) with bunny ears, of course.

She loved all the jellybeans and chocolate m&m's...

And Abbie was pretty excited about the Smarties she got!

Dressing up in the jewelry they got...

And fancy earrings! I don't have pierced ears and really don't care to so the girls have never seen me with earrings. They thought this was great fun, I'll have to let them dress me up again!

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and were able to be with family or friends to celebrate this day!