March

March dragged and flew by at the same time. We started March preparing for Piano Festival. I stressed and worried about this one. Festival was the biggest motivation for me as a young pianist, and I wanted to give my students the same opportunity. And because Lea's students are all clarinetists except for Michael, I signed Michael up for festival with my students. I had to judge, which made me feel extremely inadequate, but I think I did okay. Michael got to play at the same venue that I was judging at, so I got to hear him. He did good, messed up a little, but everyone was so impressed that he was only in kindergarten. 

 Michael went through a crazy ninja/bandanna phase in March. Not sure why. Kind of drove me crazy because the bandannas kept getting left everywhere.

 My mom got me this unicorn for Valentine's Day. Rachel thinks that it is hers. She loves playing on it.

 And Michael loves photobombing. That and trying to convince Rachel that it is really my unicorn.

 Rachel has been needing lots of snuggle time, and we can often get her to fall asleep on our laps. Since starting sharing a room with Michael, I think she's been getting less sleep than before, but she's out of the habit of taking a nap.  

 It's also hard because I'm running out of room on my lap. Good thing Daddy still has room:

 Rachel really loves books and she constantly wants us to read them to her. It's nice that Michael can help read to her as well, but he usually doesn't. He would rather read on his own. He usually reads a chapter book a day.  

 One day, Rachel decided that I needed to wear my gray sweater so that I would match her in her gray dress. She picked it out of my closet and told me to wear it. And so we did matching hair too--like Belle this time:

 Remember how I said that she needs extra snuggles and naps. I was about to move when I realized she had crashed, so I was stuck for an hour in a really uncomfortable position, but it was totally worth it. The baby kept kicking though, and I was worried he'd wake her up. Instead, her other brother woke her up. We tried to keep him quiet, telling him that Rachel was asleep. He walked right over by me and practically shouted a question. That woke her right up.

 But, she was pretty happy:

 and charming and sweet as ever.

 Not sure what this picture is about.

 Or this one:

 Rachel snuck up onto Michael's bed once:

I helped throw a baby shower for my friend Kirsten. She's having a baby boy a month after me. She didn't think she'd be able to have one of her own, so it's been pretty awesome. 

 I wanted to have it at my house, but my co-host said that since I was pregnant, she should host it so I wouldn't have to wear myself out cleaning my house. I was grateful for her wisdom. I could never have had enough energy to get my house shower ready.

 I sent Michael up for my phone one day. When he finally brought it to me, there were about 50 new pictures (not an exaggeration). Here are the best selfies that Michael took:

On March 22, we got our fireplace installed downstairs. We're pretty excited about it! 

 Morning snuggles with Rachel:

 March also brought on even more of that nesting urge. With the help of my visiting teacher, I went through the boy clothes and washed all the 0-3 month clothes and put them in the baby's dresser. I organized his closet, got his bedding all ready, and I finally recovered this rocking chair for the nursery. We bought this off KSL when I was pregnant with Michael. It was in rough shape, but we were so poor and so happy to just have a rocking chair. After 6 and a half years of looking shabby and being uncomfortable, I finally just went ahead and re-did it. I bought a camping foam mattress from Home Depot for $20, and some fabric and thinner foam from Joann's. It was actually pretty easy and I'm wondering why it took me so long to do it.

 Here's what it looked like before:

Notice the sagging back cushion? It looks SO much better now, right?

Here's the wall Kirt helped Brian frame out right before Easter. We had scheduled our drywall guys to come on March 30, so we were rushing to get everything ready for city inspections on Monday, March 28, and Tuesday, March 29.  

 Monday night (the 28th), we hung insulation as soon as the kids went to bed. Brian ended up having to do a lot of the work. I wore out quickly, and my big belly made it hard to do the lower stapling.

 On Tuesday night, we brought in the cavalry--our neighbors Scott and Sally, as well as Brian Watson--to help us move furniture out of the way in preparation for the drywallers to come the next morning. It was a little stressful trying to be ready, and Brian and I both felt like it was finals' week all over again. But we made it! Both inspections passed, which means we only have our final inspection left for all our rooms in the basement. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is HUGE! It's been so many little--and big things--getting us to this point.

 And the next morning, we found out that not only was our drywall guy not going to be there that day, but he had completely canceled our job, saying he just didn't have the time. We were both FURIOUS! Thankfully, he referred us to a friend who could take over almost immediately. We just had to wait a couple more days before his crew could start. I'm still a little perturbed that the one guy just dropped us like that. The contracting world is a strange one. I'll be glad when we're done with it. At least for a while.

March also brought us more moments like this:

We love our little family so much, and we're excited to be welcoming a new member in April!

Easter

For Brian and I, our separate Easter traditions have been the easiest to meld together. Growing up, my family always did the Easter bunny stuff on Saturday so we could focus on the Savior on Sunday. That means, we can usually get together with my sisters for an egg hunt on Saturday and still be able to get together with his family on Sunday without any kind of trouble! 

Sundays, however, pose some logistical issues in trying to get the three Utah Saville families together--we all have different, fairly incompatible church schedules. This year, we were lucky that the Church decided to broadcast the Provo City Center Temple dedication statewide, meaning that the dedication would take the place of church services on March 20. Lea had the idea that we get together and do the Easter thing on the 20th so we would have more time to celebrate together and visit. We went with Lea and Shayne to the 9:00 session--Kirt and Julie went to the 9 a.m. session in Mapleton--and then we all met up at Lea's afterwards. (The temple dedication was amazing, and I was so grateful that we got to participate.)

The night before, we colored eggs with the kids. I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've colored eggs at our house. We only colored a dozen eggs, and the kids were both wishing that there was more to do.  

  

 Lucky for them, Lea hadn't colored her eggs yet, so the got to color more with Skyler and Danny the next morning:

Skyler let Rachel borrow a shirt so she didn't get her dress dirty:  

 I brought spoils from the baby shower that I helped host for my friend the day before. Rachel loved the mustache suckers, and so did the other kids.  

 Rachel LOVES Hunter. She even gets kind of shy around him, almost like a little crush. It is so cute.

 Hunter and Cole hid the eggs, and the younger 4 kiddos hunted for them. There weren't a lot. I think Rachel and Skyler each had to find 7, and Danny and Michael had to find 8. The boys all found their allotted number really quickly, and Rachel was the one finding all the ones they missed.

 After all the eggs were accounted for, the egg rolling began. The poor eggs got some rough treatment this year--even more so than other years. I love this tradition! 

  

 Shayne showed us how they celebrate Easter in England:

 And Rachel convinced Papa to read her some books. It was a great morning/afternoon with this great family! 

 Julie made Rachel and Baby Jane special Frozen quilts. She even made a pillow for Baby Jane. Rachel loves them! They match her pillowcase from Christmas. When we got home on Sunday, she hooked Baby Jane up with her new quilt and pillow:

 and we enjoyed some couch snuggles, with Rachel wrapped in her new quilt.

 The next Saturday (April 26), the Easter Bunny came. Michael had a hard time finding his basket, but both he and Rachel had found Brian and mine. They were dying to tell us, and we tried to silence them before they gave us too many hints. It proved a pointless endeavor because Rachel just went and pulled them out from their hiding places. We laughed, just happy at their excitement. Michael finally found his, with a hint from his dad.

 They each got a churchish book (Rachel got a picture book about the Provo City Center Temple; Michael got a chapter book about a couple of kids who go back in time to the pioneer days), a new church outfit, and a fun little toy (Michael got a Lego set and Rachel got a couple of Disney Little People).

 I think Rachel ate most of her Easter candy before we even got out of bed.

 That Saturday was a little crazy. Kirt came to help Brian frame out a wall downstairs (more on that later), and I had to judge at piano festival. We got a much later start in heading to Odgen for the egg hunt with my sisters than I had originally hoped. We arrived at Chelsea's house just before 5. Rachel crashed for most of the way:

 We color-coded eggs again this year. I hid Rachel and Ambers, Brian and David hid Heather's and Matthew's, Chelsea hid Sarah & Michael's, and Taryn hid Aarons. I think Brian and David had a little too much fun making it challenging for those two oldest kids.

 This year, I decided to buy nicer prizes for each kid, instead of buying the bulk party favors that nobody wants around the house. Each kid had 6 bunny bucks in their eggs that they got to uses to "buy" stuff from the Bunny Store. Taryn bought them all bubbles to go in the store too. After the egg hunt, they got to go shopping. I think everyone was happy, and I'm glad not to have the extra junk. They got lots of candy from Aunt Chelsea in the eggs. Thanks for all the hard work, Chels. She's the one who goes all out on this thing.

I ended up talking to Chelsea until almost 9, so it was pretty late by the time we made it home. The next day was a little rough getting our crew to church, but we made it in time for the opening hymn, which was a miracle. I love Easter Sunday; it's my favorite out of the whole year. Our speakers were amazing, and despite being pretty tired, I left sacrament meeting with my cup overflowing. I'm so grateful for our Savior, for everything he did for us so that we could be filled with hope. There is nothing--no pain, no sin, no death--that can't be overcome through His atonement. He makes this possible:

and so much more! I'm so grateful for Him, for his atonement, death, and resurrection. Happy (late) Easter!