Milestones

On April 19th, I reached a pretty big milestone in my life.... I turned 30!! I'm kind of glad I'm finally 30. The past few years I've had such a hard time remembering my age. 30 is much easier to remember!

My Mom gave me these beautiful flowers for my birthday. Gerber daisies are my favorite flower, so bright and colorful!


I look pretty official with my new apron, spatula, and pastry mat. I love making pies, but don't love the pie crust sticking to the counter!

Can I just say that my Mom is the best! Birthdays were always a big celebration in my family when we were growing up. We had amazing themed parties, food, cakes, decorations... the whole nine yards! I always felt so loved and special on my birthday. This year we happened to be in Utah for my birthday, and my Mom did not disappoint when it came time for celebrating. I requested strawberry shortcake for my birthday cake and this is what she whipped up. Beautiful and delicious!!

I used every breath I had to blow out my candles. There weren't even 30 on there! Madison helped me out too.

Hal and I ended the night by going to Salt Lake and seeing Wicked. It was AMAZING! Last summer I found out it was coming to Salt Lake and I decided that I would do everything possible to go. Tickets went on sale back in December and I called the minute they went on sale. It took me over 2 1/2 hours of constant calling before I finally got in (I was even calling from my cell phone while getting my hair cut. I was determined to get my hands on tickets!). But it was all well worth it! I'm so glad we got to go. Thanks Mom and Dad for watching the kids while we went!

Thanks everyone for making my birthday so special and memorable!

Like Father, Like Son

Quinn got the perfect birthday gift from Grandma Duce this year...his very own bubble lawn mower! A few weeks ago, Quinn got his chance to mow the lawn with his Dad. And he LOVED it! He mowed and mowed and mowed....... (good thing his mower doesn't take gas!)

Hal is quite the lawn man himself! He's the first one in the neighborhood each spring to fire up the lawn mower and officially kick off lawn mowing season! Though I can't complain, our lawn always looks nice and it's all to Hal's credit.

I like to think Hal was some kind of master lawn gardner in a previous life. He just knows what he's doing! The fact that Quinn naturally took up a love for lawn mowing proves that he is indeed 50% made from Hal!

I wonder how many miles this baby is going to chalk up this summer?

Our Easter

Easter time is probably one of my favorite times of the year. I love the coat-free weather, the blossoming trees, hearing the birds chirp, April showers, seeing the kites fly in the sky, and opening up the windows of my house. Just a few of my many favorites!

This year Hal and I decided to change up our Easter traditions. We both felt the need and desire to have our family's focus be more on the true meaning of Easter. Saturday would be spent doing fun Easter activities and Sunday would be spent focusing on the true Easter message. So The Easter Bunny made its visit to our house on Saturday. Madison and Quinn were excited to wake up that morning and find a few small things in their baskets.


We were so surprised to see Quinn run toward the Easter Bunny with outstretched arms and give him (I think it was a him???) a big hug! This past Christmas he was scared to death of Santa....so go figure. Madison clung tightly to my leg as the Easter Bunny made his rounds. She, on the other hand, has never been a fan of the Easter Bunny. And honestly, I don't blame her!

We hit up not one....but two Easter egg hunts on Saturday. Both were close by our house, so we figured why not. Madison's quick set of wheels paid off when it came time to finding the eggs.

Quinn had his own egg hunting strategy too. It was find one egg, open it up, eat the candy, then find another egg and repeat the process. None the less, he still scored some eggs and had a good time.

You can't have Easter and not color eggs, so that we did! I like to think the egg coloring kit I bought was a dud because our eggs just didn't seem to turn out all that great. But then again, I'm no Martha Stewart! I was just happy to not have a bowl of dye end up on the floor!

Who needs a spoon to hold the egg when you've got two useful hands? Quinn's hand was green the rest of the day, but it was all in the name of good fun.

So onto Easter Sunday. Our plan was to focus our day on the resurrection of our Savior. We had a little lesson together about the resurrection. We used many pictures from the gospel art kit as we taught about the life of the Savior, his atoning sacrifice, and glorious resurrection. There was no Easter candy, no talk of the Easter Bunny or Easter eggs. We felt the spirit in our home and felt the love of our Savior. It was a beautiful Easter Sunday.

I love the bright new colors that come along with spring time. Grandma Duce gave Madison this adorable dress. It fits her little personality so well. Quinn looked so handsome in his little sweater vest and matching argyle socks. Can I just say that I'm so happy I have a little boy! I get all excited when I get to buy little boy's argyle socks! Too bad you can't see them in the picture.

Quinn Had a Birthday Shout Hooray!

On March 29th, Quinn celebrated his 2nd birthday! We can't believe he's already two. Where has the time gone? Quinn is our sweet little boy, who can sometimes get into trouble (proof in a few of the photos below)! He has brought so much happiness and laughter into our home. Our family wouldn't be complete without him. We love you Quinn!

Here are a few things about Quinn:

* He has the sweetest smile

* Give him a ball and he's happy

* He's very lovable and often gives us hugs and kisses

* He knows his ABC's, colors and even a few sight words

* He LOVES cars, trucks and trains - can play with them for hours

* His eye lashes are to die for long

* He loves to go to Cabella's with his Dad and look at the animals

* He hides behind the couch when he hears the garage door open and then runs out yelling "surprise" when we come in the house

*He loves veggies and salad - as long as it has ranch on it

* He loves to go down the slide at the park

* He's a Mama's boy (I love it!)

* When he sings "I am a Child of God" it melts my hearts

* He loves to say the prayer at dinner

We had a birthday party for him in Utah while visiting family. It was fun to have Grandma and Grandpa Duce, Jon, and the Schmelter family there with us.

Now for the picture overload...sorry, but there were so many cute ones!

Quinn made quite the haul of gifts! I decided to have a Thomas the Train party for him since he can't get enough of his "choo choo."

He scored lots of "Cars" cars from his cousins. He was so excited!

I found a Thomas the Train lunch box and I couldn't resist getting it for him.

Just a cute picture of my baby boy.

He played with his new cars and trucks all night long! He plays with them all the time, it's fantastic!

Thanks to a lot of help from my Mom, we made this Thomas cupcake track. We saw the idea at Walmart and my Mom thought we could make it ourselves.

I thought our Thomas cupcakes turned out so cute. Even cuter than the picture at Walmart! And we didn't pay $25 for it either!!

We thought Quinn might pass out from trying to blow out his two candles. He blew and blew and blew! Finally, his cousins helped him out!

Here's the proof...he can't resist a little mischievous behavior! This one he did just today. While I was getting dinner on the table he managed to dump out my entire (and it was new!) container of loose face powder. And what about the look on his face??? I don't think he felt too bad about it either!

This time he got into my hair paste. Now you might be thinking that this kid is never supervised, but that's not the case. These little mishaps happen in a matter of seconds. It doesn't take him long at all to find something fun he can get into.

Like I said earlier, Quinn sure makes us laugh a lot. I just love this picture. Can he get any cuter???