Here's to Brian....

I realize it isn't Father's Day, or Brian's birthday or anything, but I just wanted to write a little post about how awesome he is, and how much I love his guts. He'll probably be wondering what it is that I want when he reads this, but honestly, I was just thinking the other day about all the great things he does for us, and how lucky I am to have him for a hubby. Before this gets too corny, here's my list of just some of the things I love about Brian (and you might be surprised):

1. He's a wicked great organizer. Seriously, better than me! You should see our basement, garage, and food storage. It's awesome.

2. He can fix anything. And I mean ANYTHING. When we lived with my parents, he fixed their gas stove, patio umbrella, and toilet. If this Psychology stuff doesn't work out, we're gonna open our own Handy-man business.

3. He loves to go shopping with me. I promise! Not only that, but he insists that he go shopping with me if I need to buy pants. He knows I'll get really angry and depressed and eat an entire carton of ice cream if I don't have him there to tell me how great I look.

4. He's a girl's guy. Almost all of his friends are girls, and some of his best friends have been old ladies. I guess it comes from being raised with so many sisters.

5. He's not afraid to do all the gross jobs around the house like cleaning the toilet, taking out the garbage, cleaning up cat diarrhea, stuff like that. Of course, he agreed to it before we got married.

6. He has endless patience. Well, it might not be endless, but it's a heck of a lot more than I have, so it seems endless.

7. He's a fantastic dad. He's always got tricks up his sleeve for keeping the kids happy and busy. And he's always willing to play one more game of Candy-Land with them after I've fallen into a coma from sheer boredom.

8. He's amazingly smart without hardly trying. I know his sisters wonder how he even graduated from high school, since he claims to have never read a book in high school.

9. He loves to have fun and go on adventures with me and the kids. Me and Brian seriously have the funnest time together. Or is it MOST FUN??

10. He tells me I'm the best thing that ever happened to him. Enough said.

Brian's new son

We'd like to introduce you to Tigger, our new 9-week-old kitty, or as I call him, Brian's new son. We got him last night from a small pet store around the corner from us. We've been promising the kids that we would get a pet when we got into a house, and we thought about all sorts of animals, but ultimately decided on a kitty. He seems like a fun little guy so far, and the kids are definitely way too much in love with him! He's already learned to hide from the kids under our bed. Here's some pictures from Tigger's first photo shoot:

Our new house

So, I'm finally getting around to putting up pictures of our new place. The inside is looking pretty cute, so now I'm concentrating on getting the outside looking as cute. The owners said we can do whatever we want to the yard, so I don't need any more encouragement than that! I've started planting flowers, and I can't wait until May to get started on my garden. I'm not quite ready to take pictures of the outside, but here's some of the inside:

The girls play room

My mom made the bedspreads and curtains for the girls' room, and they turned out so cute! Thanks mom!!

Easter!

Easter was pretty low key for us this year - just our family - but it was great being together! The week before Easter there was an Easter egg hunt at the cemetary a few blocks away from our house (I know, sounds creepy, but it's actually really pretty, and kind of like a park), so since Brian was out of town, I took the girls over by myself to get eggs and meet the Easter bunny. I got a few cute pictures. Then the day before Easter, our ward had a primary activity for the kids at the church, which was making an Easter bag, and then going on an egg hunt. The girls had a lot of fun. Later that afternoon, we went to the zoo. The weather was a little brisk, but it was so sunny and pretty outside that I didn't mind. Then that evening we colored eggs. I have to admit, Brian had to talk me into it, because I don't like coloring eggs with kids. Horrible of me, right? I just hate how big of a mess it makes for the whole 10 minutes it takes to color the eggs. And then getting the dye off of our fingers.....ugh. But hey, who am I to fight tradition? Our day was so busy and I was so tired that night, I was REALLY glad our church doesn't start until 2 pm. It gave us time to sleep in and for me to get dinner ready. We had several honorary Easter bunnies this year who sent treats and presents to the girls (thanks family members!), and strangely enough one of their favorite things they got was "Bunnies Chews", which basically looked like a little bowl of dog food. Jenicca's dog, Fozzy Bear, sent that one. We got some cute pictures, and of course had lots of egg hunts, that morning. For dinner I made beef tenderloin, double stuffed potatoes, and strawberry spinach salad, with homemade carrot cake for dessert. It was awesome, if I do say so myself. Even though we were just by ourselves this year, we had a really fun Easter, and here's the pictures to prove it:

Easter egg hunt at the cemetary

Meeting the Easter Bunny

At the primary Easter egg hunt

At the zoo with the polar bears

Makayla smelling the tulips

The girls in front of the beautiful tulips at the zoo

Doing their scary animal faces

Kylee getting serious about coloring eggs

I love how self-satisfied Makayla looks in this picture. She was very proud of her eggs!

The girls eating their "bunny food"

Showing off their Easter eggs

The cutest girls I've ever seen!