Easter and Spring Break

So April started off with another wonderful General Conference. I really love having the whole weekend to spend with family and dedicate to listening to the words of the Prophet and his Apostles. Our tradition is that Ethan and Lydia get to pick out a special treat to eat and because it doesn't start until noon here in the Eastern Time Zone, on Sunday Jason let Ethan and Lydia help make crepes with strawberries and whip cream. Oh so yummy!

Our conference activities included some magnet shapes, memory, coloring pages, and Lydia doing Dad's hair. :)

We had a lot of fun the week of Spring Break. Ethan had a week off of preschool and we took the opportunity to do some extra fun things. One was a trip to the Cincinnati Zoo for Zoo Blooms. The zoo has thousands of tulips that are absolutely gorgeous. I just love tulips!

We also had a fun trip to the Cincinnati Museum Center with my friend Renee Dison and her family. They just reopened the Museums that were built in the old train terminal several months ago after they were closed for over a year for repairs and renovation. It was fun to see some of the new things in the Museum of Natural History.

They played with exhibits featuring science principles, dressed up in old fashioned clothes, painted, built new things, and just had a wonderful time!

We were invited to Carly's Easter Party next door. My kids had so much fun decorating Easter baskets, eating yummy food, doing an Easter Egg Hunt at the elementary school, and sack races. It was such a perfect day outside that we were outside practically all day and I got a little sunburned.

The next weekend we drove to Indianapolis to the temple there. I took the kids to the library while Jason was in the temple and then we swapped and Jason took them to the park. Again, we had such nice weather and visiting the Indianapolis Temple was awesome too! So beautiful!

 We did our annual dying of Easter eggs that the kids love, and Ethan had his preschool Egg Hunt and party. As you can see, Ethan only picked up green eggs. I guess that makes it a little more of a hunt since they just lay hundreds of eggs on the open ground and let the kids go. Ethan's favorite colors right now are green and brown (camouflage colors) and Lydia's favorite colors are purple, pink, and green. They are constantly both wanting the green plate, or the green fork, or the green cup, etc.

Ethan and Lydia love to try to do their hair in the mirrors so see what they look like.

Our home in the Spring. We just planted daffodils and tulips in the front yard which looked really nice this year.

Easter weekend Andrea and Nate and their four children came to stay with us. The kids had so much playing with their "cousins." Jason and Andrea are actually the cousins. Saturday morning we went to Jumpzone where they had an egg hunt on the inflatables. Lydia found one with a prize for a free ICEE.  We also stopped at Chick-fil-a afterwards for lunch and watched a movie in the afternoon. In the evenings after the kids were in bed we just talked and played games until late!

 Sunday morning we went to church together and tried to get a few family pictures. :) In the afternoon we made Resurrection Rolls talked about the Resurrection for our family lesson.

We're doing our team cheer, Burninghams on 3!

 We ate lots of yummy food and played a lot with the kids. They keep us all busy, but it was so fun to be together! Ethan, Bailey, and Matthew slept in Ethan's room and they loved to laugh and talk to each other before finally falling asleep.

Monday morning before Nate and Andrea headed back to Michigan, we visited Smale Park in Cincinnati. The weather was finally nice enough to be outside and the kids loved playing at the park together. Unfortunately Jason had to work and missed the fun.

Thanks for coming to visit us Nate and Andrea. You're welcome to come back anytime!

March Waiting

I feel like we spent a lot of time in March waiting.....waiting for change......and we're still waiting..... So when something changes, we'll let you know. :) In the meantime, we fit in some fun activities.

One of the biggest accomplishments of the month was that Lydia learned to "listen to her body" and no longer wears diapers or pull-ups! Yay! I had been trying on and off before March to potty train her, but in March we both worked really hard and Lydia made a ton of progress. She is getting to be such a big girl in so many different ways.

We love to go to library story time. Miss Emily is one of our favorite librarians. We especially love her yoga stretches, shaky eggs dances, and parachute songs.

Lydia balancing on a toy at the library

Giving some sisterly love

Proud that he put this plane together

 We filled up our "quickly obey" jar and took a trip to Totters Otterville, such a fun place to play for Ethan and Lydia. Lydia's favorite part was playing with the babies and Ethan's favorite part was painting his face.

Ethan's preschool had another Tea Party on T week. They had a good time dressing up and eating lots of yummy treats and sipping milk!

cute birthday outfit from Grandma and Grandpa Rogers

We continue to go to activities with MOMs Club. This was a free music class from Musikgarten.

Our friends watched Ethan and Lydia while we attended the Temple in Louisville. They took them to the park and swimming. Such great friends and we're so grateful!

February: Birthdays, Love, and Boulder City

At the beginning of February I organized a field trip for the MOMS Club at Auntie Anne's pretzel shop at the mall. The kids learned a little about the history of the pretzel, got to practice making their own pretzels, ate a yummy pretzel, and then took a ride on the carousel. Pretty awesome!

We also took a trip to Boulder City the second week of February so I could help Jason's mom do some reading assessments for a 13-year-old boy about to start some cognitive therapy and reading tutoring. Fortunately for me and my family, they all got to join me for some time with Grandma and Grandpa and some warmer weather. Jason still had to work the entire week, but he still fit in a birthday, two job interviews, some yummy meals, a Valentine's trip to the temple, and a couple of games.

We helped Dad Burningham celebrate his retirement in style by sampling all this yummy food. Congratulations!

 Ethan loved trying out Ping Pong and especially playing air hockey with everyone that was willing.

We celebrated Jason's birthday with stir-fry, puppy chow, and gifts. We also watched home videos of his 5th birthday. He was such a cute little boy!

 One day we walked a long way on an old railroad path through a couple of tunnels. It was kind of windy and threatened rain, but it was still a beautiful walk and Ethan and Lydia both chased Grandpa for about a mile of it on the way back to the car.

 Ethan and Lydia made heart-shaped sugar cookies on Valentine's Day and took them to some friends of Grandma's that needed some extra love. Ethan and Lydia and the recipients all loved it!

 Another day we fed the ducks and fish at the docks. It was a beautiful afternoon!

 Ethan and Lydia enjoyed a couple rides with Grandpa on his motorcycle around the neighborhood. Lydia keeps asking for me to buy her a pink motorcycle and Ethan wants a black one. :)

Being silly

One afternoon we walked over the bridge that overlooks Hoover Dam. Quite an amazing structure!!

We flew home late Friday night and fortunately Ethan and Lydia both fell asleep for over half of it. They are pretty good little travelers.


Lydia also celebrated her 3rd birthday in February soon after we arrived home. We celebrated with cupcakes and gifts. Lydia now weighs 30 lbs (50%tile) and in 36 inches tall(25%tile). She is quite a fun girl, very imaginative. She loves to take care of her dolls by changing their diapers, clothes, and taking care of them when they're sick. She even asks when she can have a baby in her tummy. She likes to be silly and play with Ethan, but she also likes to call the shots and have things her way right now. She loves to fill up her purses and bags with random things and cart them around in her shopping cart. She is also good to give hugs and kisses on the cheek. She eats oatmeal every morning plus some cereal and loves fruit and crackers. She still drinks almond milk instead of cow's milk, but she really likes cheese and yogurt. She invites us all to come on a "venture" (adventure) with her to the zoo or the grocery store or anywhere. And she likes to push the button on the "alligator" (elevator). We sure love having Lydia in our family!

One other change is that I was released from working in the Primary Presidency and called to serve as 1st Counselor in the Young Women's organization. Right after I was called I helped with an Iron Chef activity and spoke and played the piano at New Beginnings. I'm looking forward to getting in know my Mia Maids even better. I think we've got a really great group!

Iron Chef, they had to make an entree, appetizer, and dessert

Mia Maid class

New Beginnings turned out to be a great evenings thanks to Emily who is a super event planner!