30 Week Ultrasound

When I had my 20 week ultrasound, they found that I have a low lying placenta with this pregnancy. I'd never even heard of this, but I guess when the placenta is low lying there can be catastrophic bleeding if you try to do a regular delivery. I was told that I would need another ultrasound at 30 weeks to see if the placenta had moved. If it hadn't, I would have to have a C-Section.

I had my ultrasound today. I actually thought it was next week--thank goodness the billing department at Dr. Nance's office called me today to let me know that the second ultrasound would be covered by our insurance and asked me when the ultrasound was :) Otherwise, I would have totally missed it. Anyway, my placenta has moved so I will not need a scheduled C-Section. I am relieved. A C-Section would be fine; I've just heard they are hard to recover from. Since I will have a rambunctious 16 month old to care for in addition to a newborn, I need the easiest recovery possible.

I have a couple of new ultrasound pictures. I will post them as soon as I scan them into my computer. Jake (what we think we will be naming this baby) weighs in at 3.9 lbs and is in the 60th percentile for all of his measurements at this time, which means he is tiny but he isn't Godzilla either. Also, according to today's ultrasound they said my delivery date would be July 7th--the sooner the better :) They didn't change my due date, but the original due date is July 12th. He showed us his little face really good today. I was even able to see his hair (yes, it looks like he has a bit of hair--I think that is crazy you can see that in an ultrasound) and the lense of his eye. Isn't that amazing?? Jim was with me, but of course Ryan was a monster so he didn't get to see everything.

I can't believe we only have 10 weeks left. I'm starting to get nervous, and I feel like I don't have everything I need for this baby. I have a bassinet, clothes, a bouncy chair, a Boppy pillow, gauze pads and Vaseline (for his little surgery), baby lotion and wash, diapers (I've got a few packs of newborn diapers on hand), and all of the other essentials like q-tips, Desitin, etc. What am I missing?? If any of you know of something I'll need for a second baby, please let me know. July will be here before I know it and I want to make sure I'm prepared--I'm pretty sure I'll be house bound as I don't want to go out with 2 babies, haha. I would like to get a double stroller, but I don't want to buy a new infant seat. Would my infant seat pretty much fit any stroller? Anyway, I'm up for any and all advice.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

A few weeks ago we had Jim's parents up for Sunday dinner. Guin brought homemade rolls and strawberry freezer jam to go with them. She left the jam for us and it's already gone. It was scrumptious. Ryan loves jam, too. He will not eat cake or cookies, but he will grunt (grunting is his way of telling me he wants some, haha) when he sees me get the jam out of the fridge for toast in the morning. I think he'd be happy if I'd just give him a spoonful of the delicious stuff.

I convinced my mom to come up and help me make strawberry freezer jam. It's actually really easy to make--the hardest part is cutting the tops off of the strawberries. I went and bought strawberries that were on sale at Albertson's last night. I also made sure we had everything else we needed, such as pectin, jars, light corn syrup, lemon juice, and sugar so when my mom got to my house we could make the jam. We ended up needing more pectin and light corn syrup. We actually ran out of jars, too. But my mom had some more in Levan so she just took what we had leftover and put it in jars at her house. After making 4 batches of jam, we took a break and ran to the store to get what we needed and to Barry's to get some lunch.

We ended up making 7 batches of jam, which made 36 pints. Ryan was our official taste tester. He loves to help cook. Every night when we make dinner, he grunts and bawls until we pick him up so he can see what we are cooking. Jim's really good about holding Ryan while he cooks, but it makes me way too tired especially in my current state.

Anyway, he did the same thing--grunted and bawled until we picked him up--today while we were making jam. My mom picked him up while she was stirring the sugar into the mixture. I told her that he loves jam so she gave him a little taste. From then on, he couldn't get enough of the stuff. He'd point to the bowl and grunt so she'd give him another taste. He finally got what he wanted...a spoonful of jam :) He's a funny little feller.

My dad was really happy we made jam. He thinks we need to make homemade bread now! I've actually never made homemade bread. I guess that's what my next lesson should be. My mom doesn't love to can because you're usually over a hot stove and she HATES to be hot. She also says that one thing always leads to another. In this case, making homemade jam just leads to us having to make homemade bread, haha.

I'm really glad my mom gives into my desires to learn to can and be domestic :) Canning is very time consuming and takes a lot of work, but I hope I can learn all I can while she's willing to teach.

My mom stirring the sugar into one of our batches of jam

I forgot to take a picture of all of the jam we made. This is just 6 pints of the 36 we made.

Happy 2nd Anniversary

It's December 31st, and I still haven't posted about our anniversary. I've had this in my drafts ever since April 28th. I wanted to post some of our wedding pictures with it, but I haven't remembered where I put our wedding pics :) I know they are somewhere in my mess of an office or even downstairs. I figured I would just post the post cause there will always be more anniversaries where I can post our wedding pictures.

April 28, 2009 marks our 2nd wedding anniversary. I can't believe we've been married two whole years. It's been a very eventful and unique two first years of marriage. Sometimes I wish Jim wouldn't have deployed right after we got married so we could have had some time to ourselves before we had kids, but I guess that is why we dated for 4 years :)

I love Jim more today than ever. He is my one true love and help me be a better person everyday. He calms me down when I'm upset and he is a great listener, too. He is also the best dad any kid could ask for.

Happy Anniversary Jim! Here to many more wonderful years together!

I love you!

The night we got engaged. It was December 29th, cold, and snowy. Jim was at my apartment in Sandy. He said he needed to run the smallest gun part to his dad that day. I told him it would probably be cheaper just to mail it. But, we weren't doing anything else so we made the trip to Oak City so Jim could get the tiny gun part to his dad.

When we got to Oak City, no one was around; not one soul. So, we sat there at his parent's house twiddling our thumbs. Finally Jim decided we should take a drive up the canyon. I agreed. It was better than just sitting there. I didn't have proper shoes on so I slipped on some of Richard's cowboy boots that were just sitting there. They are awesome cowboy boots, I might add :)

So, we're driving up the canyon. The roads are thick with snow and Jim decides to go on one of the turn outs. I freak out! I thought we were going to get stuck and we would freeze to death :) Then I see the candles glowing in the night lighting up the snow. It looked amazing. I knew exactly what was going on. It was perfect.

I guess while we were driving up the canyon, we passed Jim's two sisters going down. I wasn't paying attention at all and didn't even notice them :) When we got back down to Jim's parents house, miraculously everyone was there. After Jim had proposed, it all made sense, haha.

The front cover of our wedding announcement

The inside of our wedding announcement

One of our engagement pictures

Grandkid Pics

We had pictures of all of the Mangelson grand kids taken for Mother's Day for my mom. We did this last year and hopefully it will become a tradition. Getting together for pictures is always a hassle, but for picture lovers--like myself--it is well worth it :) Plus, my mom doesn't need any more trinkets so a picture is a great gift for her...something she can't buy for herself, haha.

We had Casey's (Paula's husband) cousin Jenny take the pictures this year. Last year, we tried to take the picture ourselves. It was a last minute idea and we couldn't find a photographer within our budget to take the picture. It was complete madness to say the least. Jenny did a great job and worked really well with the kids. She also has super reasonable prices--I'd recommend her to anyone. The pictures were taken in Lehi at the Lehi Train Museum. Ryan didn't really smile for the pictures; he just squinted and wondered what was going on. But he didn't cry so that was a plus. Jenny even offered to take pictures of individual families so I had to get one of Ryan, of course.

Ryan loved playing in the rocks and running around the train museum. He would chase Dallin around, which they both thought was hilarious. Dallin loves Ryan--it's way cute. I wish I could have got it on video. It was seriously the cutest thing ever. Ryan thought he was just as big as Dallin and was trying so hard to run as fast as Dal was. Dallin even jumped off the side of the sidewalk (it was a platform type thing) and Ryan was right behind him. I had to grab him before he tried to jump off the edge because he was definitely going to try it :)

After the pictures, we went to IHOP for dinner. We figured it was pretty kid friendly and usually not too busy so they could handle our big crowd. It was ok food and good times.

I'll post pictures of the event when we get them back from Jenny. I'm sure they'll be great. I hope we can continue to get a Grand kid picture every year because I LOVE them :)

**Here are the pics we had taken for Mother's Day. They are awesome--I'm so glad we had Jenny take them. My mom loved them. We also gave a copy of the picture to my Grandma J, too. It worked out that I used the pics of Ryan for another small gift for my mom and mother in law.

The Whole Crew--we always tease Jackson and Holly because it looks like they are the mom and dad of all of these kids :)

This picture is super cute of Ryan--yes those are my beautiful, chubby legs in the background. He kept running away from Jenny so I had to keep taking him back her way and she snapped this cute pic of Ryan, not cute of my legs.

The shoes Ryan is wearing were given to me by Jim's family for his baby shower. They squeak when he walks. When I first put them on him he could not figure out where the squeak was coming from. I could not quit laughing. I don't know where they got the shoes, but I love them :) Let's just say he was easy to keep track of that day, haha.

My sister Amy made this story board of all of the best pictures. The last picture is a "funny" picture. It depicts how things really are behind the scenes :) We had this story board printed and mounted on foam board for my mom--it turned out really cute.

Ryan's New Friend

Ryan got this stuffed Curious George for Christmas this year and he hasn't really paid attention to it until recently. I'll always point to George's eyes and ears and give him loves. Then Ryan will do the same--well, he just pokes at George's eyes :)

We took a quick trip to Oak City and Levan today. I packed George up and took him along for the ride. Ryan would hold George and give him loves. I thought it was adorable. Most of my sisters kids have blankets that they are attached to. Ryan hasn't really been attached to anything yet. Maybe George will be his comfort item :)

*Okay, my mom pointed out that Ryan does have a couple of comfort items. He is attached to his binki. It is something that I keep track of and have a few extra on hand in case we happen to actually lose one. He also finds comfort in putting his hands down my shirt. However, he will do this to others as well if I am unavailable :) I guess George can be his third comfort item.

My trip to the doctor

I went to the doctor today. I've been having terrible headaches, a runny/stuffy nose, and a sore throat that especially hurt when I'd swallow. You know that feeling...you need to swallow but you don't want to cause you know how bad it will hurt, ugh.

Anyway, the headaches started on Sunday. It wasn't until yesterday afternoon that my throat started to hurt and I got a stuffy nose along with the headaches. Unfortunately, it progressively got worse. The night was absolutely terrible. I couldn't sleep at all. My ear was killing me and so was my head. Of course, Jim had to go to work the next day. He had to take a PT test in Fillmore and couldn't stay home. I prepared for the most awful day ever. Amazingly I started to feel a bit better as long as I kept taking Tylenol. If I let the Tylenol wear off at all I would start to get the headaches and aches again. Around 4pm, I decided I would call and see if there were any appointments available with a doctor. I was able to get in at 5:50pm that day. I was shocked.

I went to the doctor. There were 4 people in the waiting room. I watched as a bunch of the nurses started leaving for the day--that was a bad sign. I sat in the waiting room for 45 minutes. I asked the girl that was sitting next to me if she had been waiting long--she'd got there about 10 minutes before me. Next thing I know, they called my name to go back. After waiting in the examination room for another 20 minutes, the doctor finally came in. But just as soon as we got started he said he'd be right back. Ugh, so I wait another 15 minutes and finally he comes back. He looks in my ears and at my throat and gives me a prescription. It probably took 60 seconds, max. On my way out, the girl I had asked if she'd been waiting long was still sitting in the waiting room. She hadn't been called back yet. I think I would have got up and asked the receptionist what was going on.

I've been on antibiotics for 4 days now. It finally feels better when I swallow but I don't feel 100% yet. I just hope Ryan and Jim don't catch whatever I've got...or anyone I've been around for that matter. I hate being sick.

Ryan's 1st Visit to the Park

Lacy asked if we wanted to go to the park with her and Kam this week. I didn't have any plans, I usually never have plans :) so I told her Ryan and I would love to go to the park with them. We decided to go on Wednesday because Kam has preschool on Tuesday's and Thursday's.

We headed to the park Wednesday afternoon. We stopped at Barry's and got some lunch and took it over to the park to eat. It was a really nice day and the park was pretty busy. I took Ryan over to the playground, but the slides were all so hot cause they are in the sun that I didn't want to have him go down them and burn his little legs. The baby swings are black so they were just as hot. They need to have little shades over them or something. I can't imagine how hot they'll get when it gets really hot outside. Anyway, he was content playing in the bark and putting it on the slides. Oh, Ryan loved eating the dirt too. I don't know what it is about dirt--he loves playing in it and having a taste or two of it. He'll eat some dirt, shutter, and then eat some more. What a weird kid, huh.

We played at the park for an hour or two. Afterwards, we headed to Coldstone for some yummy ice cream--like we hadn't got our calories for the day from Barry's, haha.

This is the only picture I got. I thought I had taken a bunch more, but since I'm using Jim's digital camera and I'm not quite used to it so pictures I thought I had taken must not have?? There was a really cute one of Ryan's mug. It looked like he'd eaten a bunch of Oreos but no, it was just dirt all around his mouth :)

Ryan had the best time at the park. He would run around and just look at people and check things out. Of course I had him slathered in sunscreen. We both have really fair skin, if you can't tell.

It was a really fun day at the park. I'm sure we'll have many more to come :)

Sad Day :(

Last Friday, April 17th, I went out to lunch with my mom, sister Molly, and Ryan of course. We went to Red Robin at the Provo Towne Center and had a really good turkey, bacon, avocado wrap. It was so good it is what I will order the next time we go there :)

Anyway, while we were there my camera must have fallen out of my diaper bag because I cannot find it anywhere. I didn't know it was gone until I got to Levan and wanted to take a picture of Ryan playing. I called the mall's lost and found and Red Robin, but no one has turned in a camera :( I'm so sad--Jim gave me that camera for Christmas while he was in Iraq so it was more than just a camera to me. Plus, I'm lost without my camera; I'm constantly taking pictures. Luckily Jim has a digital camera that I've been able to use in the meantime, but it is a battery hog.

I've always wanted a Nikon D-60 so maybe I can get one now. I wouldn't mind having my smaller digital camera though...

Weekend at Grandpa & Grandma's

We spent the weekend of April 17th-19th in Levan with my parents. Jim had drill the whole weekend, and he found out on Thursday afternoon that he had to stay out at Camp Williams the entire drill. I hate staying home alone so I packed our bags, and Ryan and I headed to Levan.

On Friday, my mom came up and we ran a couple of errands. We then met my sister Molly at the Provo Towne Center for lunch at Red Robin. She was on Spring Break from school. After lunch we ran a few more errands, then we went back to my house to get my bags and we headed to Levan. That night, we made dinner, hung out, and crocheted around some blankets for the new baby. Ryan didn't want to sleep in the crib my mom has at her house--well, he slept in it from 9pm - 11:45pm. I didn't feel like rocking him back to sleep so I just put him in bed with me for the night, which is always a treat. He snores (yes, snores) and is constantly moving around. Needless to say, I didn't get the best sleep that night.

Saturday, we went to Herriman for Dallin's 4th birthday party. Em & Joe have just finished their basement so they had the party downstairs. It is really nice. I love the way they finished it--the colors they chose, the carpet, the bathroom, the little kitchenette, etc. They barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs and we had salads, etc. for sides. I love the way barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs taste especially these days. I also love the smell of barbecue smoke, too. Weird huh.

Since I lost my camera the day before (see post about "Sad Day"), I only have pictures from Dallin's party because I took pictures with my mom's camera.

Dallin opening presents

Everyone watching Dallin opening presents. You can kind of see the kitchenette in this picture.

Ryan really like Jessica, Jon Eyre's wife. He kept watching her and staring at her. He laid down by her so she tickled him. It was pretty funny. He seriously would just stare at her :)

All the kids loved Dallin's new Geo Trax toy

Dallin had a Wall-E cake from Schmidt's that was delicious. I wish I had a scanner that was hooked up so I could scan in Dallin's birthday invites. They were Wall-E themed and said something like "Dall-E is having a party..." Emilee is always so creative.

Dallin blowing out his candles

Cute little Ethan--he always has this cute little pout so he looks so innocent.

Annalisa and I patiently waiting for our cake :) Thank goodness I was holding Ryan so you can't see how large I really am.

This picture is kind of dark, but I love the blue ring around Nick's lips from eating his cake. It looks like he has a mustache, haha.

Ethan loves his mama. He is always giving her kisses--making out with her, haha. He won't appreciate that when he's older.

The weather was starting to get nice for the weekend. Earlier in the week we had got snowed on and there were 4-6 inches on the ground. It had melted by the time the weekend rolled around so the kids were able to play outside. Ryan had to go outside and play in the sand box, of course. Have I mentioned before that we really need a sand box?!?

Here he is running away from me. I was trying to get him brushed off so we could go, but he wasn't ready to go so he was running from me.

We had a really good time at Dallin's party. It's always fun to get together with family and have good food and chat. Ryan was so tired he immediately fell asleep for the car ride to Levan, thank goodness.

Sunday we got up bright and early to get ready for church. Ryan had slept a little better the night before...he stayed in the crib until 2:30am then he got in bed with me. We went to sacrament meeting. I pretty much wrestle the whole time, but oh well at least we were there. We sat by Jessie Ann Wood. She would talk to Ryan and he would laugh. Ry really liked her :)

I just have to mention--this couple sat in front of us just long enough to take the sacrament and then they left. They seriously stopped kissing for maybe 10 minutes while they were there. The rest of the time they were kissing or touching each other. I love Jim, but I can handle not touching and loving on him while we are at church. It was pretty disgusting. I think my mom and I both puked in our mouths, haha.

After church Ryan took a short nap. Then we went outside and jumped on the trampoline for the first time and swung on the swings. He really thought they were both a lot of fun. Then we helped my mom make lunch and clean it up. After lunch we went back outside and let Ryan run around and play in the dirt. My mom and dad were swinging in the porch swing. I think Ryan fell or something and was crying so my mom picked him up and was swinging with him. He fell asleep so he took his afternoon nap out on the swing with my mom--just like old times :) After the home teachers came, we took a ride around Levan. It's always fun to see who lives where and all the new houses. After our ride around town, I packed up the car we headed back to Spanish. Jim was already home by the time we got there. I planned that though--I hate being home alone :)

We had a good weekend in Levan. Usually on drill weekends, I'm home alone with Ryan during the day and then Jim comes home at night--it's just like the regular work week except Jim gets home later. It was actually kind of nice to go down and stay so I wasn't just home alone during the day. It kind of broke up my week, ya know. Anyway, Jim said his drill in May will probably be just as busy as this drill was and he'll probably have to stay out at Camp Williams again. I've already made arrangements with my mom to go down and stay in Levan that weekend :)

Accident Prone

Is it boys, learning to walk, or both?? Ryan is constantly falling and/or hitting his head on something. It seems like since he started walking, he always has some kind of bruise or cut on his body. It may be because he has no regard for things that may be in his way. He hasn't quite grasped the concept of stepping over the toy or going around :) There was one week in particular, it was more like one day, that I didn't think he was going to make it to his 2nd birthday. All before 10am, Ryan had hit his head on the corner of the silverware drawer, tripped over the pillow while I was making the bed and hit his head on the corner of my nightstand, fell in tub and bruised his head, and slipped while standing on a DVD and hit his head on our coffee table. I honestly couldn't believe it.

Anyway, this morning I was dusting. Ryan was roaming and bringing me diapers from his room like he was doing me a favor :) After giving me a diaper he was walking away and looked back at me. He tripped and lost his balance when he looked back, fell and hit his head right on the corner of our bedroom door. Initially, I couldn't see any cuts or bruises so I just held him until he stopped crying. When I looked again, his little bridge of his nose was bruised and looked like it was starting to swell. I called Jim and asked him if your nose bleeds if it is broken. He said it would. I told him what happened and he said I needed to touch his nose and feel it was out of place. I didn't dare touch it; I didn't want to hurt him. He didn't seem to be in too much pain though and it wasn't bleeding so I figured he'd just bruised it pretty good.

I know, I sound really paranoid...you just never know though. His nose still looks a little swollen (to me anyway) and has a little blueish, reddish look to it. I took some pictures, of course. The last picture is where you can see it the best. It looks worse in person, I think. Hopefully he'll get over his clumsiness soon :)

Ryan's Eye

Monday April 13th was really nice outside--sunny and warm. I put some sunscreen on Ryan and myself since we both have really fair skin, and we went outside to play and do a little yard work. Even before we went outside, Ryan was rubbing his eyes and they were a little red. Jim thought I had got sunscreen in his eyes so they were bugging him. I didn't know how this could be since I have the "tear free" sunscreen.

Anyway, we went outside and Ryan was playing while I was weeding the area around one of our trees. He kept rubbing his right eye and it was watering pretty bad. He also had a really runny nose; it was clear, but it was still really runny like water. I called Jim to see if maybe he thought it was allergies. Ryan sometimes gets red eyes and people are constantly asking me if he has allergies or if he's tired, ugh. Jim still thought it was from the sunscreen. I had put sunscreen on Ryan just the week before, and he didn't have this kind of reaction to it so I didn't really think it could be the sunscreen.

Ryan usually loves to be outside, but he kept coming up to me and pulling on my shirt and whining and wanting me to hold him. His eyes were still watering and his nose was running so I decided to take him inside. He was just miserable being outside. I sat him on the counter and washed his hands and used a washcloth to kind of rinse his eye out. I took a picture with my phone and sent it to Jim so he could see. He called me back and said he thought I should take Ryan to the pediatrician to see what it could be.

I was able to get an appointment with the pediatrician that day; I actually was able to get right in--it was quite nice. I took the sunscreen with me so he could see what I had put on Ryan's face earlier. I felt so bad for Ryan--on the way to the doctor he could only open his eye half way, poor little guy. Since only one eye was red and watery, the doctor thought he had some kind of eye bacteria OR the eye problem was a precursor to an oncoming cold. He thought that it was watering and red because the light of the sun irritated it when we went outside. He gave me a prescription for some eye drops that he informed me Ryan would not like (awesome) and sent me home. We've actually had to use the same eye drops on Ryan before so I put some in Ryan's eyes when we got home and he went down for a nap.

Ryan hasn't got a cold or been sick since the eye episode on Monday. And his eyes look pretty much normal now. I don't know how he got an eye bacteria--it grosses me out. I feel like we're clean people... I took some pictures of his eye after we came in from outside.

He looks so sad sitting there :(

I was holding some candy up high so he would look up, haha

It is drill weekend this week...hopefully we won't have any more trips to the doctor. Keep your fingers crossed :)

Happy Easter!

We had a very fun and relaxing Easter--a lot better than last year with Jim getting ready to leave to go back to Iraq looming over our heads :) The Easter Bunny came after Ryan's morning nap (lazy bunny, I know). Ryan didn't really know what to think--he kept pointing to his stuff on the couch and making a grunting noise. The first thing he grabbed was his new cash register.

That afternoon we headed up to Nick & Sophie's 3rd birthday party. They started the party with an Easter egg hunt. They had their entire back yard covered with eggs filled with candy. There were also 7 "golden eggs" that we filled with different amounts of money. The big winner was Scott & Molly's daughter, Hollie. She found the golden egg with $20 in it! I should have been looking harder, haha. After the hunt, we ate lunch. Yummy ham, potatoes, rolls, salads, deviled eggs, etc. were served for lunch. And of course we had birthday cake--I always look forward to cake, haha.

Here are some pictures:

Ryan playing with his new cash register from the Easter Bunny

Ryan looking over his Easter basket. I love when kids squat like this to check things out...that's why I had to post this picture :)

He opened an egg filled with candy

Ryan trying the candy from the Easter egg

He drooled everywhere while eating the candy. He even got blue drool on the carpet that I had to clean up with carpet cleaner :)

We tried out Ry's new bubbles. He was kind of bugged with them blowing in his face and he wouldn't touch them either. He likes them a little better now that he's a little more used to them now.

Playing with his new bucket and shovel

Nick's Word World birthday cake--Paula just told Sharon, the cake lady, that Nick loves Word World and this is what she came up with. She's amazing. The cake tasted as good as it looks, too.

Sophie's Little Mermaid cake--Sophie is a princess and knows all of the Disney princesses. She has a basket full of all of them and man is she protective of them. If Ryan even came close to touching one she would say, "I need that!" She's funny.

Ryan during the Easter Egg hunt at the Nielson's. He found two eggs and then went straight for the sand box/play area. He didn't care about finding the eggs; he was happy as could be playing in the sand box. We really need something like this at our house to keep him entertained. He loves to play outside but we don't really have anything to play with outside.

We put Ryan in the baby swing. He giggled the whole time he was swinging. It was really cute. Most kids lose their breath, or they get a tickle in their stomach so they don't like to swing. Ryan had a great time swinging.

Happy 3rd Birthday Nick & Sophie

Jackson Family Easter Egg Hunt

The Jackson Family Easter Egg Hunt was held today at my Aunt Lisa's house. After the Hannah Montana movie, we drove to Levan and spend the night there. I haven't been to this Easter Egg Hunt in a few years, and I've never been with a child. It was quite the experience :) Ryan didn't really care to hunt for eggs; he was just happy as a clam to be outside. He loves the outdoors.

After hunting for eggs, we went inside Lisa's Dance Shoppe to have lunch. We had sandwiches, salads (including Granny J's scrumptious potato salad), and tons of delicious dessert. We always have good food at our family functions. We stayed and chatted for a bit and then headed back out to Levan to color Easter Eggs with Grandma and Grandpa. We were supposed to get this done on Friday night but we ran out of time.

Anyway, here are some pictures from our fun day:

Madeline was vacationing in Levan--after telling me that she only washes her hair once a week (this was not true confirmed by her mother, haha) she let me wash it and fix it for her. She even let me blow it out straight. She looked so cute, we had to take a picture :)

Madeline being silly

Ryan hunting for eggs in Great-Aunt Lisa's backyard

Mana and Ryan after he had found all of his eggs. There were 30 kids hunting for eggs this year. To make it fair, my mom and her sisters got together the night before and filled all the eggs so each kid had the same amount of eggs to hunt and got the same amount of money and candy. They started to number the eggs when there got to be so many kids. It works pretty well. Anyway, it was a little chilly outside. Luckily we hunted for eggs between the rain :) It had been raining in the morning and it started up again later that afternoon.

Ryan sitting on the grass after falling. He is better at walking on carpet and tile than he is on grass with his shoes on, haha.

Mana coloring Easter eggs

Jim working on a master piece, haha

Ryan just wanted to dump the colors everywhere so he didn't get to participate--even though coloring eggs is supposed to be for kids :) While we colored eggs, Ryan tore apart my mom's silverware drawer. This is the extra silverware she uses for Thanksgiving or when she has a lot of people over to dinner. He had a great time making the mess and Jim and I had a great time cleaning it up.

Jim coloring more eggs

Mana making a fancy egg. She put the egg in yellow first. Then she put rubber bands around it and put it in red. When she took it out and took of the rubber bands, it ended up looking kind of like a basketball. It was pretty cute.

I told Jim to get an egg and write something on it. This is what he made--see below to see what he wrote up close.

He wrote: Annie Is A Dork. He's so nice, isn't he :)

Our "Nielson" egg

Mana with her "Mana" colored egg

We had a bite to eat before we headed back to Spanish Fork. Lawrence Welk came on while we were eating. Ryan loves that show--he seriously will watch it better than Wonder Pets, Dora the Explorer, or any cartoon for that matter. This is Ry watching LW while we ate dinner. We tried to get a video of him when the show first came on. He was standing in front of the t.v. waving his hands and bouncing his knees. It was pretty funny. Maybe he loves it because he heard it every Saturday night and Sunday afternoon while in the womb while I was living with my mom & dad :)