Happy Easter!

Here are Maddie and Ian in their little Easter outfits all ready for church. I thought about making a dress for Maddie this year, but after I bought the fabric and pattern I realized that there was no way I had the time to focus on making a dress this week. Especially since I have never done such a thing in my life. I will tackle that project another time. After church we had Easter dinner with most of Spencer's family. We sure missed Holly, Mark and Noah, but we had a really fun time with everyone else! Avery and Madeleine had some crazy moments when they didn't want to share, but played really nicely together for the most part. It's so great to get together with family!


Speaking of which, I am lame and didn't take pictures, but we got see a lot of my family this past week too. Last weekend we hung out with my sister Angela and her family out in Rancho Cucamonga. We are so excited they live out there now! So much closer than North Carolina! My parents and another sister, Erika and her family were there too, visiting from Arizona. Then another sister, Maggie, and her family (also from AZ) stayed with us Thursday and Friday night when they came out here to go to Disneyland. So fun! I love to see everyone and I love for the kids to play with their cousins!

Now, the best news of all is that Spencer and I are getting away this week kid-free! We are going to Cabo San Lucas for 5 days while his parents take the kids to St. George and San Diego. I am hoping to return rejuvenated after a nice break...and with a nice tan too!

American Idol, anyone?

I confess that I have been hooked on American Idol for awhile. There are a couple seasons I didn't watch but for the most part I have been a long time closet Idol fanatic. I guess not a "closet" fanatic anymore. Luckily, this year I am in very good company with my AI obsession. I know Brooke White so of course she is my top pick, and she's really good friends with some of my really good friends, so we all get to obsess over Brooke together! Yippee!! In past seasons there have been LDS contestants who have gotten pretty far, but I don't think any of them stand up to Brooke and David Archuleta talent-wise. Those two are totally going to go far! (Assuming David doesn't have anymore nights like last night). I love them both, but especially Brooke! She's so unique and beautiful and sweet, as well as an extremely talented singer/songwriter. The picture is from the viewing party Anneli and Jono organized for last night's performance.

(I know most of you who read my blog have almost this exact posting on your own blogs and I didn't plan to post on this subject, but how can I not when this has been taking up so much of my time latley? It's been 2 or 3 nights week for the past 6 weeks or more. Plus, on the nights she performs I stay up and vote forever. And since Gabrielle had this cute picture on her blog that I could steal and use on mine, there just seemed to be a lot of reasons to just go for it! Sorry to bore all of you who were there. But really, are we really going to get tired of talking about Brooke? I don't think so!)

Big Talker

Ian completely amazes us with how much he speaks. Madeleine was a pretty impressive talker at a young age also, but I think Ian might even be a bit ahead of what she was doing at 16 1/2 months. I have tried a few times to capture him talking but whenever he sees the camera he says, "CHEESE!" You will notice that in this video. Anyway, he loves these Bright Baby books and can identify most of the pictures. His accuracy is usually better than what this clip shows. He was a bit distracted by the missionaries who were over at the time and it was a little past his bedtime too. The funniest thing is his roaring. He makes the best roaring sound. Check it out.