April Fool's!

These clever kids!

When I bought Steve's phone 2 years ago, it came with a pink case.  Unacceptable, in a man's world, I replaced it with a manly black one.

The kids found the pink one sometime last year and SECRETLY HELD ON TO IT until the perfect time -- April Fool's Day this year.

At 6 AM, Carter snuck into Daddy's room and stole his phone from the bedside table.  He promptly switched the manly cover to the girly cover.  And this isn't just pink...it's HOT PINK.

Next was where I came in: Alana helped me pick the perfect My Little Pony Wallpaper to display instead of his family picture.

And Addison helped us change his ring-tone to something more twinkly and fairy-like.

Then we hid his phone in his brief case.  Before walking out the door, he couldn't find his phone (duh), so we called it, and when he heard the fairy-chimes coming from his bag, we were all in for a good laugh!

100 Things that make Carter happy

I recently discovered this list that Carter wrote.  I thought it was too good to pass up the memory.

100 Things that Make Me Happy

By Carter

1. Cake
2. Key Lime Cove
3. Odyssey Fun World
4. P.J.s
5. Nerf Gun
6. Remote Control Alligator Car
7. Presents
8. Beach
9. Stuffed Animals (and next he names his favorites:)
10. Turkey
11. Dolphin
12. Snuggly (his baby blanket)
13. Parrot
14. Medium huge Mater
15. Enormus Dino
16. Little Dino
17. Steve (yes, he's referring to his stuffed dog, not to daddy...that doesn't come until #98!)
18. Freddy (Steve's little puppy)
19. Birthday Parties
20. Buffalo Wild Wings (ewww gross, but he really likes it...I think for Magic Steve, the balloon animals, and the free ice cream bar.  I must admit, Wednesday Night Kids Nights ARE a good deal.  But please, may I never go back)
21. Jump Sky high
22. Ms. Jensen!  (yes, including the exclamation point...his kindergarten and first grade teacher)
23. Ipod
24. Wii
25. DS
26. 3DS  (should I mention we don't own numbers 23-26 but it still made the list before me?)
27. Parking Tunnels (garages...so clever!  Yes, we do love the engineering of parking garages.  They ARE fun!)
28. Planes
29. Ranger Rick
30. Book-It (reading incentive program at school)
31. Rameez 
32. Balloons
33. Lukas (Rameez and Lukas have been in his every year class since preK)
34. Mario and Sonic (yes, the video game characters)
35. Jolie (another dear friend who has been in the same class since PreK...and from church, too)
36. Ashton
37. Abby
38. Andrea (Neighbors)
39. Secret Key
40. Race Cars
41. David
42. Playing with Friends
43. somehow this number got skipped...
44. ...so did this one....oh well
45. Wiggly Tooth
46. Swimming
47. Running
48. Slip 'n' Slide
49. Pool
50. Park
51. Brookfield Zoo
52. Lincoln Park Zoo
53. My Monkey (cuz, see, there is this one ape that had fun copying Carter's every move one time we went, so he feels there is this bond, this connection.  So we always go visit "his monkey".  Somehow, I don't think the guy on the other side of the glass remembers.)
54. Doughnuts
55. Pop gun
56. Sonic (there he is again...and that's how it happens at home, too: these characters tend to show up several times a day!)
57. Antarctica
58. Sports
59. School
60. SCHOOL (yes in caps)
61. Eating
62. Hot Dogs
63. Sleeping
64. Pancakes
65. Ice Cream
66. Blueberry Hill Restaurant (gross.  I thought we, as a family, decided it was gross when we went?)
67. The Touch Lamp (at school, the reading corner has a lamp that you touch the shade and it becomes brighter or dimmer.)
68. Computer Lab
69. Gym
70. Brownies
71. Tag
72. Reading Lamp
73. Video games
74. Hotels
75. Candy
76. Chocolate
77. Candy Bars
78. Drawings
79. Elmer and the Dragon (book)
80. Rostam (neighbor)
81. Library
82. Jokes
83. Crazy glasses
84. My family (Awww!  THERE we are!!  Holding tight in 84th place!)
85. Museum of Science and Industry (oh, if the MoSI is at 85th, then I KNOW this list is in no particular order.  Otherwise it -- and us -- would have been WAY up at the top!)
86. Books
87. Magazines
88. Me (I'm glad he has that in there!)
89. Space
90. Universe
91. Thunderstorms (a kid after my own adrenaline heart)
92. When it rains very hard, thunders very loud, and lightning is very bright!
93. Ticket To Read (computer reading incentive program)
94. Getting Panther Paws (reward/compliments at school)
95. My Disney Uno Game
96. Mom and Baby (THERE I AM!!!  AGAIN!  Number 96!)
97. Addie
98. Dad
99. Alana
100. (FINALLY!) Jupiter and Saturn and Running

Rainbow Spring Bread

Hooray for Grandma!

She has a fun tradition of making Spring Bread at the turn of the season.  We LOVED this growing up, and being an empty nester, she has established no cause to stop :)  She makes batches and batches of dough and then invites neighborhood kids nearly daily to come over and learn to make the bread and strawberry jam.  Thank GOODNESS we live close enough to join in on the tradition!

So my Mom came down to visit the day before Easter and together, she and my kids made 3 lovely loves of her Rainbow Spring Bread.  But don't ask for some...we gobbled it up in NO time!

My house was clean yesterday...sorry you missed it.

What does 32 weeks pregnant + Spring Break = ?

If you thought exhaustion, you are right.  But the more correct answer is:

Spring Cleaning.   Like Crazy.  And when I mean crazy I mean every nook and crany.  Everything you should clean and maintain once upon a time but never get around to doing.  Silly things you probably do all the time, but I never do.  So much stuff, that my parents even dedicated their whole Saturday to come help us with our mile-long list, and Steve's mom took the kids to an Easter party for the afternoon so we could work.

And it went beyond just cleaning.  It was de-cluttering.  Throwing away.  Donating.  Packing away.  MIN.IM.IZ.ING!

Sure, this all could be called spring cleaning.  Or it could be called getting our house ready to put on the market.  And since we've been here for 7 years and never shown any real pictures of our house...(of course, to keep the creeps away from knowing too much about our layout and all) I thought I'd share the pics at last...you know, since our house is clean and all.

Home Sweet Home

Living Room

Den (clearly the biggest transformation of all, wouldn't you say?)

Family Room

And since you're supposed to de-personalize everything in your house when staging it to sell, Cheri and I replaced my family pictures wall with this awesome montage of quotes:

Kitchen

Dining Area

Where's the pic of the downstairs half bath, more elegantly referred to in our real estate brochure as "The Powder Room"?  I'll have to take one tomorrow I guess.

Master Bedroom
...yikes, I didn't realize how much that oak dresser stood out...put hey, that's our first piece of furniture we own from when we got married 10 years ago.  Cute story of how we got it when we lived in Costa Mesa, CA.  The Bishop of our congregation learned we had no furniture and one day came over with this dresser, a table (which we still use), and a queen bed (which our kids now use).  Lovely!)

Master Bath
--have ALWAYS loved the his and hers sinks!
...though, we found we still use one sink more than the other...does this happen to anyone else?
...I also really love the roman tub...basically, it's deeper than normal.  Such a plus.

Upstairs Bath

2nd Bedroom

3rd Bedroom

Backyard Fun

And there you have it!  A clean house.  A "ready to be shown at moments notice" house.  Today.  Ask me tomorrow, and it may be another story.  Hence the title of this post :)

Now, know anyone who would like a house?