A Royal Affair

This was my first ever royal party! For my mom's 60th birthday, Amy and Chad put together this beautiful, fun party! The plan all along was to have this dinner party in my parents backyard, but that afternoon as the rain was POURING and it was a bit chilly we made the quick decision to move it to the church building. Mom didn't know what kind of a birthday party she was having. As Dad brought her in the back door the royal trumpet sounded, a crown was placed on her head and she walked past all the people clapping, on the pink carpet, past the crossed swords, to the front. Then all the guest were announced, one family at a time as they bowed to the queen. We were announced as "His Royal Highness, the Duke of Lehi, Lord Jared and Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Lehi, Princess Melissa." It was a wonderful night of dinner, dancing and presents. We had such a good time I wanted to include lots of pictures!

The guest of honor - the queen.

Amy did such a great job of making it all look so beautiful!

Make way for the queen


Her she comes...

The Anderson family bowing to the queen

There were a lot of good looking royalty at the party!

Princesses Amy and Eden

More royalty...

Jacob enjoying dinner

Chad and Mitchell

Looking at the book she recieved from her children

Jacob giving Eden a kiss

The Queen dancing with Mitchell

Mackayla and Bradley

Grandma and Uncle Jim

Some of the grandkids singing Happy Birthay

Opening presents

I don't know how they didn't end up in any of my pictures but for memory's sake, Uncle David, Aunt Lori, Julie, and her family were also there!

Mother's Day

My special day was wonderful! I was looking forward to it for weeks before hand. Mackayla told me once, "Mom you are getting too overexcited about Mother's day!" However, she was excited too and made me many cards throughout the week. She hid them all in different places and instructed me "NOT to look under ANYTHING until Mother's Day!"

Since we have 9:00 church there wasn't really time for breakfast in bed, but they did make me some yummy eggo waffles and then gave me some presents. Jared surprised me with a trip home to see my family for Memorial weekend. I really wanted to go for my mom's 40th birthday, but we are already going this summer and with the price of gas and Jared being so busy at work I figured we just couldn't make it. Apparently though, Jared and my mom had actually planned it and made arrangements weeks ago. We are so excited to go see all the family in Yakima!

As we picked up the kids from their classes at church it was so fun to receive all their gifts. They had made flowers and pictures in primary and Jacob had made me a necklace in nursery! Then they made dinner and homemade ice cream for me! How could I help but be excited about this day for weeks?!?! I love Mother's day!

The picture flower Mackayla made me at preschool

We planted some bulbs in the fall, and Mackayla spent the entire winter praying that our tulips would come up in the spring. They are late, but are finally opening up! They look beautiful and Mackayla spends a lot of time outside looking at them.

Jared had some work done on his toes a few days before Mother's day and so he spent a lot of the weekend with his feet up. The kids read him lots of books to help him pass the time stuck on the couch.

I really wanted to get the garden in, and, since Jared was laid up, I ended up doing a lot more of the hard physical work than I usually do in preparing the garden. I got a lot of it in that weekend, and then Jared finished it all up today so now we just have to wait for it all to grow.

We planted a little bit of everything: tomatoes, peppers, peas, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin, strawberries, carrots, radish, onions, corn, beans, lettuce, parsley, asparagus, sage, and basil.

Jacob was having so much fun with me the other day taking pictures of ourselves. I decided to stick a couple in our family album here.

All asleep together!


These were my instructions: Take a picture of me doing the dishes, put in on the blog and write under it, "our little mommy."

We got to go to Sophie's dance recital last week. Mackayla thought her ballerina outfit would be the appropriate attire to wear to the event. She actually ended up matching Sophie quite well.

Jared and I have watched all three of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies this week to get ready for the fourth one to come out next week. Hopefully we'll get to see it soon.

Mackayla will be starting her last week of school this week! When I learned about my surprise trip I realized it meant that Mackayla would be missing her preschool graduation that she was SO excited about. We promised her a big graduation party at Grandpa and Grandma's house and she is now excited about that. We're really looking forward to this next week!

Easter

On our way to church Easter morning

Our attempt at a family picture after church using the timer on the camera

Another one

Getting ready for an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday afternoon

Jacob has just woke up so he was in a pretty serious mood

Coloring eggs Saturday Evening
This activity is always a real test of patience for the parents. "Don't throw the egg in!" "Don't take it out yet!" "Don't put your hand in!" "Don't crack the egg before you put it in!"

Good times!

Easter baskets on Sunday morning

Ready to eat our colored eggs

As I went to put the Easter dinner in the oven I realized it was not working. It wouldn't heat up at all. I put some of the food in different dishes and cooked it in the microwave. Lisa let me come put my rolls in her oven. So, with that slight delay we were still able to have our Easter feast.

I made some cinnamon butter and that was Bradley's favorite part of the meal!!

They say its good to be in the habit of eating slow and Mackayla really has that down. She loved the food but it took her about 20 minutes longer to finish, as usual!

We tried really hard to help the kids remember the true meaning of Easter this year. We had family home evening lessons on it all month. They each had one empty egg in their Easter baskets Sunday morning to remind them that the tomb where Jesus was laid was empty that morning. We watched the "Finding Faith in Christ" video on Sunday afternoon. After all that Bradley wanted to "play Jesus" that night. Somehow that included running crazy through the house and jumping off couches. :) Hopefully he did understand a little about Jesus's life, death, and resurrection.

April Showers

This has been a very rainy month. If I start to complain though, Bradley is quick to remind me that rain is a good thing. We don't have a lot to report on in the last couple weeks. We had another round of the stomach flu run through the family last week. Jacob is the only one that hasn't gotten it yet. I'm hoping it has been long enough that we can now assume he somehow lucked out and it skipped him. It completely wiped Jared and me out for a couple days. Monday, Jared stayed home sick for the first time ever that I've known him. We're feeling much better now, and Jared is back to being SUPER busy at work.

Decorating spring sugar cookies

We've been loving the movie Tangled. The kids love to play Rapunzel. Bradley usually likes to be the horse Maximus, but since Jared pulled out this satchel for Bradley to carry around he likes to be Flynn Rider. The kids have been walking around with a frying pan all week.

Last Friday, the 15th, Bradley turned 3 and a half! He was so proud to be so much older. Since Jared had worked so much that week already he only went into work for a few hours that day and took Bradley with him. Here are the two men on their way out the door to work.

That afternoon we went to Bridal Veil Falls and hiked around a little bit. Here's the 3.5 year old with his mom.

Throwing rocks in the river.

Beautiful little girl!

A Saturday morning family workout.

My Strong Men

Reading with Dad