When we weren't at the baptism, we were in the pool at the hotel (Americinn) that Nana and the rest of the LeFevre's stayed at. The babies loved playing in the water, and my girls turned into human prunes. They were in the pool about 4 hours on Saturday afternoon. Also on Saturday, Kristen, Nase, Oliviana, Lorina, Christina, Justin, Stacy, Landon and I went to the Texas Roadhouse in Idaho Falls. It was a big deal for Landon and me, because we rarely leave our house after it gets dark, and Saturday night we actually ate dinner at about 8:00pm. We enjoyed getting away and having some adult conversation. Even though Oliviana came with, she was well-behaved and since I didn't have to take care of her, I couldn't have cared less. As long as my kids weren't with us, I was fine.
Sunday afternoon (Justin, Stacy and Lincoln had already gone home), we made a spiral-cut ham, prime-rib roast (I can't remember the cut, actually, but it was amazing), garlic mashed potatoes, salad and breadsticks from the pizza place the day before that we hadn't cooked. We were all able to sit around our table and enjoy the meal together. The best part (besides the company) was the raspberry/chipotle sauce poured directly on the meat. You have to buy this stuff if you have a Costco around.
Then, Kristen, Manaze, Oliviana and my mom took off for Utah, and we played Scrabble with Nana, Lorina and Christina. During our Scrabble game, an enormous blizzard showed up! It was white-out conditions and everything! Landon drove his family back to their hotel, which is under a mile from our house, and dropped off our girls to spend the night with them. We were able to spend Sunday night without kids. It was such a treat. The first thing I did was clean my house. I get a little crazy if my house isn't pretty clean. I restrained myself from vacuuming until the next morning. After that, we ordered Vicky Cristina Barcelona from Dish On Demand. Don't waste your time. Pretty trashy.
So when I picked up the girls Monday morning, I found out that Emma had thrown up twice in the night and both girls hadn't gotten much sleep (to be expected at a sleepover). They were tired and sick. Christina had also gotten sick, so she stayed at the hotel while Lorina, Nana and the girls and I headed for Idaho Falls for some shopping and lunch. The girls got some cute shoes (Payless) and accessories (at Claire's), then we ate lunch at Babe's Bakery in IF. If you've never eaten there, try it some time. They have homemade dressings, breads, soups and quiches. Yummy.
By the time I got my girls back in the truck to drive home after dropping off Nana and Lorina at their hotel, they were both bawling like babies. Lauren was inconsolable. I changed her into her jammies and tucked her in my bed and she was out for 3 hours. Emma was very eager to get back into her own bed after being displaced for 10 nights, so she got into her bed and also slept 3 hours. By the time the girls woke up, I was feeling sick. Then Landon came home from school and he was feeling sick. I went to bed at 5:30pm and the rest of the night was a blurr. Landon and I both threw up about 9:00pm, felt dizzy, chills, and feverish until morning. By the morning, we were both feeling much better. Landon and Emma made it to school, but Lauren was sick all day yesterday and is home again today. I had to cancel a 2-day sub job to stay home with her. Poor kid. Nana, Lorina and Christina headed home around noon yesterday after a quick stop to see Landon's classroom.
In the meantime, our dryer had stopped heating, so I couldn't keep up the laundry (another thing that makes me feel sane). During all the sickness on Monday, we carried our dryer down the stairs and loaded it into the back of the truck. Landon has a contact at an appliance store in town and he was able to fix the dryer free of charge for us, if we brought it to him. He fixed it, and Landon brought it back and we carried it back up the stairs. (Dryers are heavy when you're sick.) I had 7 loads of laundry to do Tuesday.
All and all, we had a fun time hosting a special event with so many family members. It was definitely a new experience for us, because we live so far away from everyone. It was busy, kind of stressful, but very rewarding and fun. We are very grateful so many could make the long trip to visit and make Lauren's baptism so special and memorable.
Very scary picture of Emma.
I made my trusty Honey Oatmeal Bread. It turned out so beautiful that I had to take a picture.
Sunday morning I had a 7:15am meeting, so Landon made the girls fried potato pancakes with some leftover mashed potatoes. I found this picture on the camera, so I'm assuming it was pretty noteworthy to the girls. Sunday I had my early meeting, 3 hours of church, followed by 4 hours of visits with various ladies in the ward. Long day.
It keeps snowing! We'll have some really nice spring weather, then several days of cold weather. This is a picture of one of the townhouse buildings that is being constructed. We should have the last 7 buildings finished and landscaped by August. (As I told the wife of the project manager, "I'll believe it when I see it." I doubt she appreciated my attitude.)
This is me, taking my 10 minute break. (That's what I call my afternoon "down time".) Kitty likes to rest on my neck/chest. We think we found a new home for him. Mr. Bowman, Emma's teacher, has a farm/ranch in Ashton. He likes to keep 2-3 barn cats, and he's got room for one more. We decided that Kitty is too much cat for the LeFevre family to handle. We cower in our bedrooms every morning, afraid to go out to the hallway, because the cat attacks our legs and feet. He's incredibly active and playful, and we're hopelessly sedentary.
We have recently discovered that the girls' brains have developed enough to play Scrabble now. It's really fun! We played a few times when we had family visiting for Lauren's baptism, and we played last night with them. Lauren likes to tell Landon when they're playing on the same team, "Don't worry Dad, I've got it all figured out," then starts laying down a word on her own. (She came up with "zen" last night.) The only problem when we play board games with the girls is that they inevitably get silly and crazy and we end the game yelling at them to go upstairs and get ready for bed. (Look at the picture! You can see Lauren had already been ordered upstairs to get her pajamas on, and the girls are acting silly.)
(I didn't have my camera, but I found this kid holding a square ice cream cone from Rainey Creek when I did a Google image search.)
I started Weight Watchers online yesterday. So far, I like it. It's cheaper than the weekly meetings version of Weight Watchers, and as of Day 2, I'm still motivated.
The wienie roast in action. We learned that Emma doesn't know how to "squat." It was really funny to try to teach her how to squat her legs (see how Morris is squatting? Emma can't do that).
We had s'mores for dessert made with leftover Easter Peeps. This is the only way I'll eat Peeps, by the way. Landon loves them any way they come.
There were thousands of people, so we made sure to hold hands tightly.
There was an incident with Oliviana where she pulled Lauren's hair kind of hard a couple of times. Lauren cried because that's pretty much the most painful thing you can do to Lauren. In an effort to discipline Oliviana, Kristen pulled Oliviana's hair and asked her if she likes how that feels. Oliviana said, "yes." So I guess that's one difference between Lauren and Oliviana.
Three fake smiles.
Here's Stacy with some of the food. I had made 8 loaves of bread (pumpkin, coconut, lemon, poppyseed and almond), mainly for Nase's benefit. He had given up going to his final Rugby tournament of the season to be at Lauren's baptism (all his idea, Kristen didn't even ask him to sacrifice his game) so I made the bread with him in mind. He enjoys baked goods. Then we had See's candy, cream cheese with raspberry/chipotle sauce over the top and crackers (the sauce is from Costco and is awesome!), Girl Scout cookies, salad with cranberries, feta cheese, almonds and vinaigrette (salad mix from Sam's club--go buy it, it's good) and then 4 Papa Murphy's pizzas. I thought the food was fantastic. 
This is Lauren just after she got her jumpsuit on. She was really happy.
The money shot.
After she was baptized, she wore a cute dress we bought at Burlington Coat Factory. I'm not one to support my girls wearing foo-foo white dresses reminiscent of Catholic christenings or weddings. It goes against the current trend in our church right now, but my girls are victims of my strong opinions, so they knew better than to ask for a white dress. Lauren's was a great compromise, I thought. In her hair, she wanted to wear a special bow barrette that she had made in an after-school class called, "Girls and Curls." 
We loved that so many in our family could come to Lauren's baptism. Portia Loosli, my brother's mother-in-law from Ashton, also made it, which was really thoughtful. You'll see Landon's mom, 2 sisters, Lorina and Christina, brother Justin with wife Stacy and baby boy, Lincoln. Then there was my mom, sister Kristen with husband Manase and baby Oliviana. 