Easter

 I know, I'm like a week and a half late on this, but I have a good reason. We left for California the day after Easter and I never had a chance to sit down and do a blog post. Here is what we did for Easter this year. On the Monday before Easter, I finally got to use an Easter lesson that I made at a RS activity like 6 years ago. It had 12 plastic eggs, each filled with something representing an event from the last few days of the Saviors life. There was also a scripture reference for each object. By the time we had opened all of the eggs, we had read the scriptural account of the betrayal, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. It went over really well and I was happy to finally be able to use it.
On Saturday we dyed Easter eggs. The girls had fun dyeing them, but not so much fun eating them this year. I don't know why, because they usually like boiled eggs.

 On Easter morning, the Easter Bunny left baskets for the girls to explore and hid some eggs throughout the downstairs area of our house. We had toast and eggs for breakfast and then headed off to Stake Conference in their pretty new dresses.

 We invited Gawbie, Grandpa, Aunt Shannon, and the Roe Family over for an Easter dinner of ham, sweet potato casserole, salads, and rolls. We had cheesecake for dessert and celebrated Gawbie's birthday after we were done with dinner. The kids also discovered that the Easter Bunny had hidden some eggs outside too, so they hunted for them.

After our guests left that evening, we quickly cleaned up and packed our bags for our trip. It was a nice Easter and we were glad to be able to spend it with friends and family.

Cousins

We enjoyed getting to spend some time with family last week. Becky came through town with her three kids and stayed with us for a couple of days. The kids played so well together and I enjoyed some quality time with my sister. I was glad that she went out of her way on the trip down to California in order to come and see us. Here are the three older girls together.

 All of the kids together. And in case you are wondering, the baby did not go for a ride like that in the truck, just the older kids.

 The four older kids together. They enjoyed playing outside, going to the park, playing the Wii together, and playing with toys.

 That Sunday, we finally had a much overdue get together with the college neices/nephew and Steve's family. We had dinner, played games(Dr. Mario, 1 High, and Mariokart), and compared Ipad/Iphone apps. It was fun to see them. Alyssa was really sad to see her cousin Zach leave. Who knew that those two would hit it off so well when there weren't other cousins, their age, around.

We enjoyed Confernce this past weekend with Danny's family. I love the way I feel right after watching conference and hope that I can take some of the counsel to heart in order to improve my life. Next week we are looking forward to Easter and then a trip to California for me and the girls.

Wheeler Family Update

No pictures again this week, but this is what happened:

Danny- He is super stressed about all that needs to get done in the next six weeks as they prepare for the Grand opening of the Utah Valley Convention Center. That thought dawned on him in the temple on Friday night(not the best night to go to the temple here because it is so very busy. We had a lot of time to sit and think as we waited for our session to begin and then waited again for each other at the end of the session. We did appreciate the free babysitting offered by our bishopric though.) Here is a picture of what the convention center looks like. The website is found on our website list to the side if you want to learn and see more about it.


Laura- I applied for a physics teaching position a couple of weeks ago. I applied because I was told that the position was only for one class and that it only met a couple of times a week. I thought it sounded good because I could teach while Ashley was at preschool and then get experience for the day when I want to start teaching full time. They called me the following day to set up an interview. The interview went well, but during the interview I found out that they actually wanted me to have more hours than I thought. Long story short, I had a really tough week of deciding whether or not I could handle more hours and finally decided that the job wasn't right at this time in my life. I will have plenty of time in the future to pursue it when I do not have young kids at home.

Alyssa- She had a Thanksgiving feast at school this week. I don't know why they did it in March instead of close to Thanksgiving, but she learned all about the Pilgrims and the Indians and what the first feast was like. She has also started taking dance again and is really looking forward to her dance recital in May. She enjoyed lots of time playing with friends this week too, which she loves.

Ashley- She finished up her third round of swim lessons this week. She learned a lot in her second round so I had high hopes for the third round and for her coming out of it being able to swim short distances. I was wrong because I don't think she showed any improvement at all during the third round. I wasn't that impressed with her teacher and I totally blame it on her. However, it could have also been Ashley's inability to listen while she is in the water that caused the lack of improvement. Who knows. We will just have to work with her on our own this summer now that the beginning skills are there.

Happy Birthday to Me

We celebrated my birthday this week. On Friday, Danny worked a half day and then we met up for lunch with some friends of ours at the new Buffalo Wild Wings in Lehi(We had BWW in the Midwest, but it is new here and everyone is so excited about it). Because it is new, it is always really busy. We got there around 12:15 and after waiting for 10 minutes we decided to take the two booths that were available rather than waiting for a table that seats eight. After lunch we went to the Home and Garden Show up in Sandy (Danny was technically working still by going to this show, but we got to go and walk the show with him). Ashley had swimming lessons that evening so Danny took her to them. Gawbie and Grandpa came over after that and watched the girls for us so that we could go out on a date. It was a really nice day, so we attempted to go and play tennis. We got about 30 minutes in before we declared it too dark to see the ball. Then we tried a new BBQ place right up the street from us and finished off the night at one of those frozen yogurt serve yourself bars(I get so sick of cake by the time it gets to my birthday that I always try and do something different). Danny and the girls surprised me with one of these.....

I love having an IPad. I just want to sit and play with it all day long. Of course, that is not possible because Alyssa and Ashley also want to sit and play with it all day long. I also need to get stuff done around the house so I have to have a little bit of self control.
Yesterday we continued celebrating my birthday with a mexican fiesta, cheesecake, and presents at Gawbie and Grandpa's house. Thank you everyone for the phone calls, cards, and birthday gifts. It was a great birthday.

SNOW!!!

 We finally had a significant snowfall this week. At least enough to get the girls all bundled up to let them go and play in it. We found a nice sledding hill and the girls built a snow man.

 The girls had a blast! Alyssa worked so hard on that snowman, rolling the snowballs and getting the face just right. She was so sad when she looked out the window later on that afternoon and saw that Casey had eaten the carrot nose and tried to eat the rock eyes, knocking them off of the face.
The snowman is now melted. The girls are currently outside playing in short sleeves in our almost 60 degree weather. They are making mud pies and eating the last remains of the snow. I love a good snowfall when the snow disappears less than a week later. This has been a marvelous winter.

Birthdays, Birthdays, and more Birthdays

Even though I have been terrible at taking pictures to document it, I want to make it known that we are thick in the middle of the birthday season in our household. I have already posted about Alyssa and Ashley's birthdays. We celebrated Danny's birthday a couple of weeks ago. On the evening of Danny's actual birthday, Gawbie and Grandpa Wheeler kept the girls for us so we could attend an adult only Hawaiian Luau put on by our ward. It was fun to go on a date and meet a few new people from the ward. Since Danny's birthday is only two days before his sister, Shannon's, birthday, we celebrated the two birthdays together. Since we get so sick of cake about this time of year, Danny's mom was nice enough to make Danny some homemade oatmeal cream pies instead. They were delicious.

This past weekend, we flew down to Arizona for Great Grandma Ginos's 80th birthday celebration. We were so glad that we were able to go. Danny got to see a lot of cousins, some of them he hasn't seen in 10 years. I got to meet a lot of cousins that I have heard about, but had never seen before. While we were in Arizona, we stayed at my brother, David's, house. Alyssa and Ashley had so much fun playing with their cousins, Danielle and Kristen. They also loved playing with the new puppies. It was a fun weekend and nice to enjoy family and a little bit of warm sunshine in the middle of winter.

Bowling

 In December, we purchased the Seven Peaks Pass of All Passes. There are many things included with the season pass besides the water park. In the past few weeks, they added a bowling alley to the list of venues where we can use our passes. While Danny was at work on Thursday, a friend and I took the kids bowling. The bowling alley wasn't in the best condition as they are still remodeling it, but we all had fun. Alyssa even tried throwing the ball herself a couple of times(without using the metal ramp). Here are some pictures from the adventure.

 (I don't know why, but Ashley seems to be the queen of funny faces when we take pictures. This picture isn't as bad as a lot of them have been.)

I just love those kid sized bowling shoes. I think they are so cute. They were ready to be done around the seventh frame, but we finished out the game. I'm excited that we get to go bowling now, for free, along with the water park, miniature golf, and numerous other activities that are included. We went to a Hockey game a few weeks ago for free with our passes which was also a lot of fun(especially since Danny knew one of the guys that works there who moved us up to one of the suites halfway through the game).

Tea Party

Last week, Alyssa's Kindergarten class had a tea party. They have been reading the beatrix potter stories in her class so the tea party was themed accordingly. She was just excited because she got to go to school in her prettiest church dress instead of her school uniform. I also attempted to do her hair like a princess. Here are some pictures of her before she left for school.