Ocean, tulips, health

I found out some rather unpleasant health news a couple weeks ago and as part of efforts to healt my body I'm doing a 30-day elimination diet of wheat, milk, and eggs, three categories my body turns out to be quite sensitive to. It's....not my favorite...Pretty much I can't eat anything and it's really, really lame and I dearly hope this isn't forever, but it might be. Blech. My physical health is improving incrementally but my emotional health is a bit more raw. It stinks to deal with chronic pain and fatigue. So anyway, I'm on the lookout basically alwasy for tasty things because when you can't eat those three foods you can't eat basically any dessert. A guy was giving out samples of this dessert hummus at the store the other day and it turns out it's surprisingly tasty. Just a little simple pleasure in my week. 

 We went to the Tulip Festival not to far from us on Saturday and it did not disappoint. Everyone had a fabulous time even despite rather more windy and chilly weather than we expected.

 We also took advantage of being near the coast and went to Deception Pass. Okay, we're always near the coast, but we were an hour closer this weekend and we introduced the kids to their first trip to the Pacific Ocean. They were enthralled. We'll be back.

 Genevieve spent a goodly chunk of time doing guided drawings yesterday after church.

 And ever entertaining Chloe thought it was hilarious to wear Daddy's glasses.

Here's to a good new week and more improvements in my health.

Easter and other things

Chloe was too quiet one day and I came in to discover she had opened every nail polish bottle and had decorated herself and by extension the counter. Oh, and mixed all the colors in thier bottles by double dipping. Oh boy! Thankfully ti all came out.

 Our ward hosted an Easter hike on Saturday. It was really fun.

 And on Easter we enjoyed stake conference and then spent THREE hours at the park with our family and a couple other friend families eatig and playing and doing an Easter egg hunt. It was amazing. 60ish degrees and sunny.

 And lastly, I made myself a skirt! From fabric a friend gave me, so it was free. It fits perfectly. I love that I was able to customize it to my shape. I even put some heels on to model it, lol. Didn't put a matching shirt on, but who's counting.

Spring Break

You guys, Spring Break was kind of a bust this year for me. I thought about going to Utah to visit family, but then I changed my mind. So we stayed here and it was kind of chilly and rainy the entire week except for Friday. And Spencer was sick for the first few days so we didn't leave the house. It was not what I would call an awesome vacation. But we did chill all week and there is that. Friday we made it out to the zoo with a friend and that was really fun.

 Saturday we went to an Easter Egg Hunt Hike in the local state park. They said it would happen rain or shine, and boy howdy, it was rainy and muddy and cold and we had a great time anyway. And Genevieve won a $50 Amazon gift card after it, so that was awesome.

 And this is totally fun too. I have started to dip my toe into trying to sew some clothes for me. A friend gave me a bunch of fabric that is totally not good colors for me, so it's perfect to use to try out new clothes. This dress turned out pretty great! There's one seam that won't lie flat, but otherwise it's a total success. Kind of fun. The color does nothing for me, but maybe it will for one of my friends or something. Kind of a fun new hobby.

Finishing projects and General Conference

It was a good week and especially weekend. I got a bunch of projects done and really enjoyed listening to General Conference.

Chloe finally joined the custom-color dresser club. Her favorite color is yellow and she loves this thing.

 I took her with me to run some errands Saturday afternoon and she fell asleep in the car, so I pulled out my baby carrier that hasn't been used in probably six months and strapped her in. She stayed asleep for most of the trip to Home Depot.

 Spencer and i made some caramels after Conference.

 Spencer had his science fair this weekend. It was really fun to go see it, along with a jillion others from his classmates.

 Dressups are the thing lately for Aaron and Chloe.

 We have two bunnies living in our yard these days.

 Aaron asked me to cut the feet out of his pjs because they were full of holes. Then he wore them like slippers. What a fun kid!

 Probably two or even three weeks after I acquired this set of bunkbeds and dresser, I finally finished the stain and oil and got htem setup in the boys' room. They are in heaven and I love their room a whole lot more with the room for the chair and dresser. So homey and comfy. The extra bulletin board is going to go in Genevieve's room.

This week in pictures

Finished up my most recent paint-by-number. Now I don't have a craft to work on as I want to, so I finally got around to trying out a shirt pattern I got years ago but never bothered to actually make. My friend in South Carolina gave me a bunch of her old fabric awhile back and a lot of it isn't colors that look good on me, so it's perfect to use to try new patterns as a test muslin. So I made a shirt yesterday and it turned out not bad. Only a few errors, lol. But it looks truly terrible on me because the colors are horrendous on me, so I will not be modeling it. However, I had lots of fun making it and now I want to make more. New hobby! 

 We've got a little bunny that has taken up residence in our yard. Aside from the bunny poop I saw today, it's fun to have a wild pet.

 Caught Spencer reading his scriptures Sunday morning. Huzzah!

 We bought bunkbeds this week at our children's request and because I really, really didn't want to build a fourth version of the same bed, but I wanted to move Chloe out of her toddler bed. I'm refinishing one set, so it's in my carport. This set I may paint, but for now it is setup and the littles love it. It's sturdy as can be and I got it for all of $40, so I'm quite pleased.

 This is me driving home with Chloe and Aaron from picking up said bunkbed.

 My newest completed paint-by-number.

 I built one of these in South Carolina and really should have tossed it in the truck, but I didn't, so here's a new bike rack that I built last week with a few 2x4s.

Parks and zoo

The weather is warming up and we're so happy to get outside! We went to a several parks this week and checked out the zoo and they were all fabulous. 

Ardmore Park

 Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Woodland Park Zoo

 Wiped out after the zoo. He crashed on the couch and slept for hours.

 Happy Pi Day!