The new crown molding pic.
Just in case you forgot what it looked like "before"... After.....

I got 5 more blinds up today. Did I mention how much I hated old vinyl roll shades, half of which didn't spring and I had to roll by hand?

Sarah the spy. My kids LOVE to play spy. Yesterday I kept seeing little glimpses of this out of the corner of my eye. Her little case is filled w/all kinds of spy stuff: magnified glass, binocs, notepad, voice changer, etc.

Yesterday at church the kids had all been given a sheet w/bingo and games to fill out while watching conference next weekend (LDS biannual church-wide broadcasted conference). If they bring it back they get a treat. Isaac told me, "Mom, we got to make sure and watch the concert next week!!". Too funny. I'm really looking forward to the concert.

Better late than never....
Last Sunday night I realized that I didn't take any before church pics of the kids (before church is way too crazy to do something like that) so we stopped by the beach on the way home from church today. It's still chilly, but I got them to peel their coats off for a few pics, and Adam photo-chopped the runny nose in the pic below. I didn't take many of the girls, just tried to focus on the boys today. When the girls were little we were always taking such great pics of them in fields of flowers or at the beach, but life gets so crazy these days, I feel like I hardly have any frame worthy pics of the boys. And they're growing up WAY to fast, so I'm going to try harder.

Adam and I worked all day yesterday putting up crown molding in the yellow room/dining room. (I have to specify rooms by colors now that I switched them around to avoid confusion) It was pretty mind boggling for a little while till we got the hang of it. We had a huge mess when we got done--scraps and saw dust everywhere, and then the MESS the kids created while they babysat themselves all day. I think we cleaned up for a good 2 hours when we got done! It was worth it though, I was AMAZED at how good they turned out. Seriously, when we were milling the wood earlier on in the week, I completely had my doubts, it was a little scary, but by the time we got them sanded, painted, and up, it all came together and I love it!! One day we'll get done w/this old house. Probably the day before that for sale sign goes up. Oh, and I installed blinds in 3 windows ALL by myself on Saturday also. So proud of myself on that!! Only 16 more to go! So happy w/how they look though, HUGE improvement, not to mention the privacy is kinda nice!! Pics to follow . . .

Easter Egg Hunt...
We started out Easter morning almost on time for church--only missed the 1st verse of the opening song, not to bad considering I fly solo Sunday mornings now (Adam gets there early for meetings). Then the primary children performed their Easter song after the first talk, and Emma added a nice touch by having a laughing attack. I was leading them, and Isaac was on the front row, singing nice and loud, (his voice was totally sticking out, in a cute way though), anyway, this struck Emma as funny and she couldn't stop. She got this "laughing attack" trait from Adam, he still gets them once in a while, so I couldn't get too mad.

After church we had the missionaries and my neighbor over for dinner, then the big egg hunt.
My puppy showing off her new trick, Emma taught her this one.

Luke didn't get too many eggs until he finished that roll in his hand.

The Easter bunny apparently thought Emma needed a little more of a challenge this year. She had a great time getting it down.

Thank you Easter Bunny!!
It's been a while, I got behind, and then my internet was down for a few days, but I'm back!! We had a fun Easter weekend....Friday the kids had school off, we met Adam at 430 at the pool for a while, and then Emma and Adam made a quick trip to Boston to pick up a new TV that I had found on Craigslist. Earlier in the week, I switched a few rooms--the dining room and the fam room--a friend came over during the day, and I was complaining how it didn't really feel right to me, and she ambitiously offered to help me move furniture....so we did it all by ourselves (couches, armoirs, table). Anyway, the new family room had a spot that was just begging for a new bigger TV. The kids think they've died and gone to heaven. Jacob has told me several times, "I hate the tv upstairs" (our old one). Today we got the DVR and HD all hooked up and had a great time watching animal planet together tonight.

So ever since Fiona passed away a few months ago, we have been looking and looking for a new kitty, but been unsuccessful. Sarah's been checking on the internet faithfully every day. It's CRAZY. Friday morning I was so excited, I found free kittens in Portsmouth (our town). I emailed right away about them, and heard back that night that they had recieved over 200 emails about them!! So Saturday morning I found some more in Boston, and happened to be one of the first to respond to the ad, so Sarah and I made the drive this time and brought back GLENDA (after the good witch in the Wizard of Oz). Sarah has been in heaven ever since. She is such a friendly little kitty, meowing if she's not being held. She already seems to know who her new mamma is, this is how they sleep, and Glenda doesn't move all night.
Glenda and a Webkinz. She's pretty small, only 6 weeks. I'm always scared I'm going to step on her. Hopefully she'll grow quickly and be able to watch out for herself a little better. The babysitter reported a few days ago that Luke tried to stomp on her. Yikes.

Soakin' up some sun... Two days in a row of this FANTASTIC weather, we are all LOVING it!! I'm hoping that spring has sprung, but I doubt we're that lucky. The boys and I took full advantage of it today, and went for a run with the TRIPLE. I found it on Craigslist last fall right before it got too cold to run outside, so it's still new to us...we're still trying to find routes with roads wide enough to run on. I'm not so fast pushing 115 lbs in kid + stroller + gear (books, webkinz, snacks, drinks, blankets), but I figure it's like in HS when we'd swim w/sweats on for drag. At one point Isaac asked, "Why are we going so slow Mom?" I said, "Because you guys are so heavy", and he said "Want me to get out and run?". He's my thoughtful one (and he's not normally big on excercise, so it really was a gesture of kindness).

Sarah went on a seal watching field trip today. Her class took a boat tour out of Newport. She took a few pix w/her new camera.

I am still in shock!! I had no idea we had seals living so close to us!!! The bridge in the pic below is the Newport bridge, the main bridge going out to the island we live on, and the little tiny black mass of land to the left is what you see in the pic above! Crazy. Maybe we'd have better luck with having a seal for a pet....