Cardboard House

It has been so chilly here lately! I've about had it. It's so crazy to me we had such a warm March, but now April has been so cold. I guess cold is a relative term, since it has been in the 40's usually, which is much warmer than December or January was. But still. Not warm enough for the girls to be running around outside. Between the cold weather and being sick for about a week, we've had it with being inside! Last week we all got the flu, so lots of time was spent not moving from the couch if possible. So today when we woke up to snow on the ground, and I knew we wouldn't be heading outside or to the park yet again, I had to think of something to occupy our time! So I raided out massive cardboard box pile, and Emery and I got to work making a house. 

After I got it all cut and taped, Emery went to work with markers and stickers. She was so proud of that thing. 

Macie woke up from her nap about halfway through and joined us. This is what we call the scrunchy face. It's a favorite of hers, and ours. 

She even enjoyed a morning snack in there. Once Jake got home he put a door on with handles so she has been in and out of it all night. She really loves her house! It was a fun activity to keep us busy today!

And this girl is the absolute sweetest. 

Happy Easter 2014

We had a great Easter! The holidays just keep getting every year with these girls! I filled her eggs with money instead of candy, because I knew she'd be getting plenty of that from her egg hunts. She was super happy to stuff her piggy bank with all of her money. They both got a lot of clothes too, but I didn't bother putting them out since I know they really don't care! 

She got lots of bubbles between me and Grandma, and we haven't stopped blowing them yet. She would chase and pop bubbles all day long. 

After breakfast and Easter baskets we went to Aunt Shayli's Track Meet. After a little while of that we went to the City Egg hunt. Macie was SO tired and fell asleep just before it started. Emery got lots and lots of eggs! She got a prize basket clear full of Sweets Candy too. 

Macie woke up right as we were leaving ;)

After lunch we put Macie down for a nap and then Emery and I made some bird nests. We took some to Grandma and Grandpa and the neighbors. Then Emery laid down for nap. 

After both girls got naps we headed to Grandma's to color easter eggs. Even Macie got in on some egg coloring. 

After Easter Eggs the girls had their Easter Egg hunt from Grandma! I'm telling you, we have so. much. candy. I sent most of it to work with Jake. I kept a few of Emery's favorites for bribing and special occasions!

Sunday ended up being a lot more low key, which I love about Easter. I love that you can get the business stuff done on Saturday and focus more on the holiday on Sunday. The only problem was we kicked off a week of the family flu that day! :( I made some yummy orange rolls for breakfast. But Emery wouldn't come eat, she said her tummy was owie and next thing I know she was throwing up. So we stayed home all day pretty much. Jake took Macie to church for a little while and then brought her home for a nap. And Emery threw up most of the day. We did manage to sneak outside to take a couple pictures for Easter. Emery was a really good sport about it too even though she did not feel good at all. 

After church to went to my mom and dad's and Colton and Haley came up and we had Easter dinner and the "big kid" Easter Egg hunt! The best hunt of the year! Between the 2 of us we got $25, a subway gift card, and an iTunes gift card. We did well! It was a super fun day. 

Since Emery and I missed out on church we watched the Easter Living Scriptures movie and tried to talk about it a little bit. She doesn't understand much, but still. We tried. While I was laying down reading the Ensign she came and laid down next to me. There was an article about the Resurrection that I was reading that had lots of different paintings of Christ. She came and laid down next to me and pointed out Jesus in all the pictures and said "I love you Jesus." It was pretty dang sweet. And opened up another conversation about Jesus that we talked about how much Jesus loves her, etc. I just love that little girls sweet spirit so dang much. 

Hope you all had a Happy Easter!

Happy Easter

 From our family to you! Here's little of our family's Easter Evolution for you ;)

Easter 2011-St. George Utah

Our first Easter as a married couple. 

Me pregnant with Emery. 

Jake in his Senior year at BYU. 

Easter 2012- Morgan Utah

Emery's first Easter. 6 months old

Jake Graduated from BYU for 3 months and at his new job for 1 month.

Easter 2013- Mesquite, Nevada

Emery 18 months

Me pregnant with Macie

Easter 2014- Morgan, Utah

Emery 2 1/2 years old

Macie's first Easter and 9 months old

Me pregnant with "baby brudder"

Miss Macie

I realize I'm overdue on Macie's 9 month post...I'm getting to it I swear. 

But for now here are some pictures of my little doll.

Horse Ridin'

It's hard to believe that Emery is in this family, a Kilmer and a Thatcher, and is 2 1/2 and barely getting on a horse for the first time, but it's true. Grandpa Glen passed away, and my dad's horse died about a year ago, so there are just no horses in the family for her to ride! It has made my dad crazy, but he isn't buying a horse again until he has the land to grow his own hay too. So we're without horses for now. But luckily one of my mom's coworkers has plenty of horses and offered to have Emery come over and ride tonight. You have never seen a happier little girl. She just kept telling us "Emmy so happy!" "Papa da horsey make me so happy!" "Emmy a cowgirl!" and doing her queen wave to everyone she rode past. I am not sure where she learned the beauty queen wave, but I noticed her doing it the other day and I had to laugh. 

It was very hard to get her off when it was time to go. She did finally get off as long as she could go with Papa. Then she went and fed him carrots and pet the other horses. She was one happy happy girl. They told her she could come back any time and ride, I am sure she will be taking them up on that since they live practically next door to us. 

She would be her Grandpa Glen's "right hand partner" as he would have said. Just like I was. Oh how we miss you grandpa. 

Macie was just content to play in the dirt. 

The last few days...

Whew! I finished! 1500 pictures and I narrowed it down to about 100. And as of now, they are all on the blog. Wahoo! So now on to the last few days of our trip. 

After a beach day, then 2 Sea World days, we headed back to the beach again! This time we drove the 15 minutes out to Coronado Island to Coronado Beach. It was gorgeous! Silky smooth sand, gentle waves, really nice. We blew up Macie's pool that I brought her. I knew if I just let her in the sand she would stuff handfuls in her mouth as fast as she could. We put a little bit of water in the pool for her to splash in, but it was so cold! She hated it! So we just got her out and held her. 

Emery was just content as could be with her toys. That is all she cared about was digging and pouring water. She was actually really scared of the waves coming in. She didn't want to get in the water at all. I think the fact that it is freezing cold water in California didn't help...

This shows Emery's OCDness perfectly. She CANNOT have her hands dirty. It drives her crazy to have anything on her hands. So this sand was making her nuts when it would stick to her. She made me wash her hands all the time. 

An attempt at a sister picture. Macie wasn't having it ;) haha

After a couple hours at Coronado we ran into a bit of a problem. Macie's binki was no where to be found. We had brought 2, but somehow they had disappeared. Without it, she was putting handfuls of sand in her mouth as fast as she could. But when we held her she would just scream because she was so tired. So we decided that we needed to go and get one. So we packed up everything and loaded in the car. During the drive to Target to get a binki both girls fell asleep! So it ended up working out perfectly for Jake and I to grab some lunch anyway. 

After we ate and got binki's we had to wake Emery up, but she headed back to the beach. But we went back to Mission Beach that we had gone to the first day. Mostly because it was less than 5 minutes from our hotel and the Target that we were at. But it ended up working out even better because we found a nice little bay area that didn't have waves so Emery was so happy to play in the water when waves weren't coming up around her. 

A signature Macie face. She started making this face on this vacation and it was so funny!

Once Macie had a binki she was easy to let play in the sand. She can't get the sand in her mouth! So we let her crawl around. 

After only about a half hour Macie was still so tired so we laid her back down for another nap. She had a lot of naps to catch up on! She slept for about 2 1/2 hours while we just played at the beach. It was so nice. 

After being at the beach all day long we decided it was time to head back to hotel, get cleaned up, and get some dinner. We ended up just ordering in some pizza. We were so tired! After we ate though we did head back to the beach that we had been at because there was a nice playground there. So we let the girls play for a while, pushed them on the swings, then went to the boardwalk for some Ice Cream!

Sunday morning we got up and got ready and went to the San Diego temple to walk around. 

After a while of walking around the temple grounds we swung over to La Jolla beach where the Sea Lions are! It's so fun to see them just laying on the beach. 

After that we went back to the hotel, ate lunch, packed up, and began our journey back home! The girls did really well on the trip home. Until that night when it was really late and they were trying to sleep. They were so tired of being in their seats, and could not sleep very well at all. Lots of tears were shed in that little while. But we finally made it to my grandparents house at about 1:00 AM and headed to bed! We came back to Morgan about 3 the next afternoon. 

It was such a fun vacation! I wish we were still there! Especially since it has either snowed or rained every day since we got back! YUCK! We are definitely ready for summer around here. And can't wait until our next vacation!