Company!

After our trip to Nauvoo, we had a couple days of anticipation (and cleaning!) before we had company come to town!!!

Grandma and Grandpa Hoss came in on Wednesday and we were all super excited to see them. I think they were excited to see us too.

Poor Baby Bolton had come down with a double ear infection, so his excitement was a little less exuberant than the rest of us.
Wednesday also happened to be this crazy guy's birthday!
He had a Mario cap shaped birthday cake and a new bike from mom and dad.
He got a bunch of money from all those grandparents... THANK YOU!
And Jonas was so sweet, he wanted to use the money from his birthday to buy Bryant a present. He was very adamant that we take him shopping... he gave Bryant a sword!
I was only like this the first day we had company, the rest of the time the kids were all eager to climb all over grandma and grandpa.
We didn't want to take away from Bryant's birthday, so we waited until Thursday to give Jonas his gifts from Grandma and Grandpa... When his grandkids turn 6, my dad always builds them an awesome treasure box. Jonas was super excited.
They came bearing gifts for everyone... Eliza got this cute new jacket. I love how she always puts her hands in the kangaroo pockets. If she wears it outside, she insists on having the hood up too. One of the many ways she exhibits her independent, 2 year old thinking.
Levi brought out Bryant's treasure box in all the excitement... he kept telling my parents, "Remember, we I turn 6 I'm going to get my treasure box and I want it to be green."
All the boys lined up to watch the BYU game (streaming illegally on the world wide web... shhhh). A sad loss, but fun time.
Grandma and Grandpa Hoss brought the boys these shirts. They all wore them to school and Friday and I tried to capture a cute photo of them (since they had already missed the bus)... they are such hams, I couldn't get a great (albeit boring) shot, so here are my favorites of the funny faces.




Levi takes it all very seriously. He is such a sweetie. Those other two are just silly!
Oh, he loves his grandma!
Oh, she loves her grandpa!
And look! Friday afternoon I got to pick up Grandma Jane from the airport! We were so excited for her arrival I picked the boys up early from school. Levi was quick to latch onto her elbow. I told her I think she rivaled me as his favorite person. So sweet.
She also came bearing gifts. This guy was happy with even just the tag of his little dump truck.
And the boys were spoiled with Star Wars Legos. A dream come true. We only had to convince Levi of that for a little while...


Lots and lots of time this weekend was spent here...
Eliza's new toy. She loves it!

I'll post about our big event later, but for now I'll just jump to Monday... Jane was going to be leaving us, so we went and took the doc to lunch. But not before a little tour of his clinic.

Walking up Miss Eliza was insistent that she wear her hood and use her pockets and that Grandma Jane do the same. It was too cute to miss the photo op.
Totally posed, just for you. Taken with my phone, so hopefully its not too blurry.
The proud momma. We were so glad that she made the effort to come! It was a special little trip.
My parents got to stay until Tuesday. They treated us to a pizza buffet for family night Monday evening. And even babysat Bolton while I ran Eliza to the doctor Tuesday morning. We are so happy that they came and that they were able to hang out with us for so long! I know its a sacrifice for them, but it is always such a treat to be with family. We are so blessed to have such amazing parents and siblings. Such good examples and so much fun! We sure love y'all!

Spring Break: Part 2

St. Patrick's Day is also Jonas' birthday, so we had to fit some celebrating in to our day! We took the crowd out to dinner at a local restaurant across the river, The Hawkeye. Ethan ordered the special, Corned Beef and Cabbage. Truly, it was a mountain of food. It could have fed 3 people, at least.

Jonas got a mountain cake topped with dinosaurs. His cute cousins gave him a big soccer/beach ball and a catch ball game. He also got a new bike helmet and bell to go on his NEW bike!! He didn't get his bike until we got home, but still very exciting!

Cake and ice cream, everyone's favorite!
Baby Ruby still wowing us all with her beauty.
The next day we headed over to Carthage. The spirit at Carthage is amazing. I love the way my testimony is strengthened to learn about Joseph Smith's last bit on earth.




After Carthage we drove across Missouri and ended up near Joplin to visit Ethan's aunt and uncle. The kids love it when we go see them. We all do! They treat us like their own kids and make us feel incredibly special. We love them so much!

Spring Break

It was our Spring Break already a couple weeks ago and we decided to make the most of it! We headed up to Missouri to see Ethan's sister and her family who we haven't seen in almost 2 years!!! (Longer for Ethan!) Then rather than just hand out there, we all trekked up to Nauvoo for a couple days. We had such a great time!!!

Once we got to Nauvoo, we checked into our condos. We stayed at the Nauvoo Villas which are awesome!!! They are like little apartments with bedrooms, kitchens, laundry, everything! It was perfect. There are few things I dislike more than staying in a tiny hotel room with all 5 of my children, so bedrooms make any hotel stay indescribably better.

We didn't have a ton of time our first day since everything closed down by 5 pm. So, we played at the condos and ate pizza together. As you can see, they kids were happy as could be...

These two play off each other brilliantly. So fun to have such great (silly) siblings!
This adorable babe stole all our hearts. You can totally see why Bolton was son interested in her, she is gorgeous!!!
And let's not forget Eliza. She just sat and looked at the pretty baby for quite a while.
Ruby's so good, she even looks at the camera. Not bad for a 2 month old!
After dinner we headed back to Nauvoo to view Rendevouz! In Old Nauvoo. They have special seating for the kids at the front of the theatre, these kids braved the show together... well for a little bit at least. Eliza joined us in the back pretty early on and Levi went back and forth.
Do any of you recognize these two stars? (I realize that many of you don't... they are some dear friends from the good old days of Utah). They did an awesome job! It was so fun to see them, when Sister Taylor spotted Ali her face was priceless!
Oh how I love the Temple! I wish we could have done a session, but unfortunately our schedule and theirs didn't match up. At least we got to enjoy its beauty.
The next morning, St. Patrick's Day, we toured Old Nauvoo. This is the Dry Goods Store where they talked about all sorts of things, including the Post Office and the first "running" water. We thought it was funny that the mail delivery was so unreliable, that mail men would sometimes just choose not to delivery letters despite the effort and money people would put into sending it.

As for the running water, the young men got that job... they would fill these buckets at a well and then run up to the Temple site with the buckets yoked to their shoulders. Quite a big and important job.
We had lots of room and time to run and play. It was just what the kids needed after all that time in the car.

We also took a carriage ride to see what the area might have been like prior to the Saints building up the City Beautiful. We got to sing "I am a Child of God" a quiet grove and it was sweet.


After the ride, they let the kids pet the horses, can you tell who is excited?!!?


Daddy was afraid he'd be bald before the trip was through.
That day we headed over to the Nauvoo Bakery (in New Nauvoo) for lunch. Once again, you can see the kids had a delightful time just being kids.


These little sourgum cookies were super yummy!

We kept getting the little girls confused with each other from behind. They are so cute!




We met up with Sister Taylor again in the Print Shop! She was by far the most engaging missionary who taught us. Giving the kids a real hands on experience. Side note... My dad noted when he was there a year ago that in the print shop the capital letters were all in an "upper" case and the small letters were in a "lower" case. Anyone know if that's where the titles came from?

If you'll notice Levi's absence from the photo. He wasn't too into the whole Nauvoo thing. He refused to go inside many of the buildings as well as many of the pictures.
See, there he is being busy doing something else...

This is the Family Living Center where they teach you how to do a lot of fun things.
First up, making rope. The kids all got to twist it until it was nice and tight...

Then, those three pieces were twisted together to make a strong rope.
Best of all, they got to keep the rope they made!! Bryant and Conrad had a great time lassoing anything they could!
The final tour we were able to do was at the Seventies Hall. Elder Taylor was our guide here.

We stopped by the Blacksmith shop, but they were closing early due to a reenactment of the organization of Relief Society for the missionaries. Elder Taylor was portraying Joseph Smith and Sister Taylor was Emma. It would have been neat to see, but only the missionaries to got to take part. The Blacksmith did give us "prairie diamond" rings, though.

Our last stop for the day was the Trail of Hope down to the Mississippi River. Ali and Josh didn't join us for this part of the day, but we had fun and are glad we did it.

My boys love to climb, especially trees. Jonas ran as fast as he could to this one and begged me to take his picture. What mom could resist?
Bryant on a barge.
Tossing "pooh berries" into Old Muddy Water.

You would be amazed at how difficult it is to get a good family picture... these are the best of at least 12!

I love Nauvoo! The spirit I feel there is incredible. The Saints and the Prophet were amazing people. I'm so thankful for all they went through to build up God's kingdom.

More from this trip and the last week to follow soon!