thank you Easter bunny... bok bok

31!

I turned 31 at the beginning of the month and it was a GREAT birthday....with a rocky start.

I woke up expecting Dave to let me sleep in...but that didn't happen and I very grudgingly did the morning routine--breakfast, lunches, hair, teeth brush, drop-off etc. and came home quite bugged thinking that Dave hadn't even remembered it was my birthday.

I was hoping to go for a hike or something with him while the kids were at school, but he was still asleep when I got back so I left without him and went and "hiked the Dish" with Mia. 

I had a great hike and came back a little happier.

I thought we were going to go to Half Moon Bay for the afternoon with the fam, but when Dave got up he said, "be ready at 4pm--we're going out tonight!"

When the kids got home from school they went and ran an errand with dad and then we partied...

We had a ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins (thanks to Groupon) and I got spoiled with cards, a laser hair removal machine :) a new camera backpack (that is awesome!) and a new sports watch, something I've wanted for years.  I also received cookies, chocolate, flowers and cards from friends and really felt loved!! 

Thank you everyone for making my 31st a great one!

And, thank you Janet for watching our kids for the entire night so that we could do dinner and a movie...something we hadn't done in a long time!

We ate delicious Persian food in Mountain View and the grilled lamb and tzatziki hit the spot!

We then saw "The Adjustment Bureau" and it was pretty good, but just fun to be out on the town with a hot date! 

Thanks Dave, for surprising and spoiling me...sorry I thought you forgot it was my birthday-- you did a GREAT job!

Other happenings...

Mia eating Zanna's hair

Conference Morning Breakfast

James learning to be a man

Zanna's field trip with Dave to the ranch

self-explanatory

breaking out!

a daily disaster

Jedi training birthday party...it was a big hit!

a new view...

We got a new camera...a Canon D60 SLR and we are loving it! I still feel totally overwhelmed by all it can do, but this is one of the first pics I took with it and it just makes me happy :)

The stare down! 

mia and adam...3 days apart

 check out this smile! she's looking so much older....sad

 mia and dad cueing up their dance song

 their favorite is "Chicken Fried" by Zac Brown Band

 one of the many messes I clean up all day, everyday

 Project Runway...

Zanna and Brooke LOVE to do make-overs on themselves and this time did outfits as well as hair and make-up so we went outside for some shots

 naturals...

love the pink earrings :)

End of new camera pictures.

Juana Run?

This was the name of the 1/4 mile race the kids did a few weeks ago and it was awesome to see them getting a little nervous, trying their best and running their guts out!

Our neighbors did the race as well and so we had a big cheering section

another fun place to play and make LOTS of noise

She loves these chairs and I just couldn't resist this ruffle-bum picture

She's getting closer and closer to walking and is loving the "cruising" stage

This is the first time she got in "trouble" by Dad. He told her "No" in a dad-tone and she did not like it!

Playing with her ninja brother

The Oakland Temple

Our ward had a temple trip with babysitting on the temple grounds so we were really excited to get to go together for the first time since Mia was born.

The grounds are gorgeous up there and I was in love with all the spring flowers and tulips--reminded me of the flowers on the SLC temple grounds at our wedding

the fam.

After the temple we had lunch at Fuddruckers-- we hadn't been there since we lived in Hershey and pigged out on burgers, fries and onion rings! Mia had a pickle and tomato appetizer...

We only have another 21/2 months to live here in Palo Alto and are can't believe how much our life is going to change again very soon! We have decided to rent a house in Pocatello so that we can get up there and figure exactly where we want to be and do all the house searching from there (not that we aren't already obsessed with doing it online) but figure it will be much easier when we are already in town.  Dave is already lining up his schedule for his new job and will start mid-July.  The hospital has it's grand opening this month and he is pretty excited to work in a brand new ED--nice.  

Mia will be 1 in a couple of weeks (May 5th) and Zanna and James look like teenagers! Not really, but they act like it sometimes and always want to use my phone!

Life is good.