spring conference weekend.

our beautiful spring conference weekend started out with a trip to the park (sonic drinks in hand). kayla and chelsea joined accompanied us and brooklyn was in heaven. kayla did anything brooklyn wanted her to do and chelsea kept me company. james was there to go down the big scary slides with brooklyn and also to push her in the swing for long periods of time. needless to say, it was a very successful/tad bit chilly park visit.

that evening consisted of the game 'name the states in six minutes' (i missed 3!!!), cougar town, and new girl episodes late into the night. even brooklyn got in on the action and watched almost a full episode of cougar town. shocked us all.

before the saturday morning session of conference started, kayla and i went on a breakfast run: a huge three pound breakfast burrito for james, and jamba juices for us. a fruit smoothie in the morning... almost nothing better.

tori joined us for conference and we all hunkered down to enjoy it. k that's not true, james turned it on upstairs for me so that i could get a few things accomplished while i listened. i'd say it was a very productive spiritually uplifting day. i loved having my house full of people i love and listening to our modern day prophets.

lunch between sessions was more of a smorgasbord of things: cherry tomatoes, strawberries, crackers, pickles, almonds, soda, vitamin water...you get it. everyone snacked and kayla and tori took turns taking brooklyn outside as per her request. the sky was a little overcast, but a beautiful day nonetheless. spring is definitely here and the buds on our trees in the backyard are full blown proof.

there was also homemade bread. possibly one of my most favorite foods on earth. nothing like homemade bread, a cozy day, and conference with family. 

not pictured: saturday evening. james and jeremy went to the priesthood session, and all of us girls went out to do a little shopping and then had chinese take out for dinner. we ended our girls' night all sprawled out on my bed chatting until the boys got home. we were so proud of our boys and they were ecstatic to tell us how awesome their session was.

we said our goodbyes, packed up the car, and headed to coalville. we got there around 9:30, and then watched les mis. the whole thing. i've seen it several times now and i still cry during that last scene. gosh it gets me. i cry good and hard. huge lump in my throat. tell me you understand that. right?

brooklyn and olivia got ready by their auntie's sunday morning bright and early and were ready for some more conference. 

olivia was good to be passed around, but brooklyn needed some more entertainment. grandma diane gave her all the dot stickers her little heart desired and let her have it. she was in heaven. she also probably used 100 stickers and 98 of them ended up on her face.

brooklyn loves her uncle dev and took him up on a late afternoon nap. i mean look at that. isn't that the cutest? 

we celebrated kenzee's birthday two weeks late, but by darn we celebrated it. we celebrated it with a fettuccine alfredo dinner followed by a birthday cake/chocolate roll for dessert. good choices kenz. good choices.

dev and kenz on niece duty.

after the last session of conference ended, i quickly made my way over to henefer to see a brand spankin new baby.

and her cute big brother.

i got to chat with em for awhile, but not long enough. i love long chats with friends that feel like you're just picking up right where you left off the last time. we haven't been roommates for 6 years! 6 years, and we still can talk like we see each other every day. i love you em and you'll always be a special person in my life!

the weekend ended with slow goodbyes and alfredo/chocolate roll leftovers for dinner. 

james and i enjoyed conference so much and feel a renewed determination to be better people, better parents, better spouses, and better members of the church. we are so blessed and feel so lucky for everything in our lives. let's hope we can keep those good attitudes as we tackle some projects this week and go back to our normal regular ol lives. 

h a p p y  m o n d a y