More Easter

We really did have so much fun this year with all of our Easter celebrations.
Our first big activity was the MBAA's Easter egg hunt, where the kids met the Easter Bunny himself! Since it was pouring rain, the egg hunt was held at the MBA school, in the lounge. The kids didn't seem to mind one bit, and were happy to crawl under tables and around cords to find their eggs.

Hudson managed to find a few eggs as well.

Makenna LOVED the Easter Bunny, and gave him (her?) no less than a half dozen hugs. They also danced together which was pretty fun.

Another highlight of the Easter activities was the Sunday afternoon neighborhood potluck that was moved to the church building last minute because of the rain. (We've had a very wet and cool spring.) The food was delicious, and it was so great to be able to celebrate this special day with friends since all of our families are far away.

The kids had their own table which they loved.

Our final big Easter activity, happened after Easter, and was a dinner/craft/egg hunt put on by the Kelley Kids MBA club. The kids made Easter Bunny ears, which turned out pretty cute. We also had a small break from the rain (miraculously), and were able to enjoy an outdoor Easter egg hunt!

The egg hunt was momentarily broken up by the appearance of a cute, little puppy, which my kids immediately flocked to. They both LOVE puppies. I don't think it will be too long before we add a puppy to our family.

Favorite Easter Pic

I just downloaded 96 pictures to my computer from all of our Easter activities!

96!!

We had a busy, fun weekend celebrating. Here is a breakdown of all of the fun: 2 Easter egg hunts, an encounter with the Easter bunny, a big Easter potluck, finding and going through Easter baskets, dying Easter eggs with friends, making bunny ears, eating lots of candy, making and delivering sugar cookies, and eating lots more candy! I will probably do a longer post later, but since I have an early morning tomorrow (I have to wake up at 3:15am!!), I just wanted to share the funniest picture from the 96, which also happens to be my favorite.

This picture was taken after church on Sunday. You can see all of the "grass" from the Easter baskets all over the floor. Hudson somehow managed to get out of his pants and vest, and then put on Makenna's Cinderella shoes. He was pretty happy stomping around in those things.

Happy Easter!

Incredible India

Last night John and I had the opportunity to perform for the Asian MBAA's

Incredible India night.

Our good friend Adam (a first year MBA, and friend from BYU) was asked to put together a Bhangra dance for the event, and since Adam and I danced together at BYU (and performed a Bhangra dance), he recruited John and I to join. It was really fun to dance and perform again; it has been awhile.

The night started with an authentic Indian dinner (red dots included).

Then we got into costume before the show started.

We were able to watch most of the show since we were the finale. There were several other dance numbers, some singing and instrumental performances, an Indian dating show (that was hilarious), and some videos and skits. I was quite impressed with how much work went into the show.

One of the other dance numbers

We had some help with our make-up and accessories during our final prep for our performance. I guess Bhangra dancers grow beards, so some of the other Indian performers painted them on the guys in our group.

Adam and John in their awesome make-up

Since we were the last number of the show, the audience had thinned out a little (we didn't perform until 10:40PM!!), but everyone seemed to love it. In fact, we missed our entrance because we couldn't hear the music with everyone cheering so loudly. It ended up being a really fun night, and I'm glad that we were able to be a part of it.

John's 30th Birthday!

Thursday was John's birthday, and he turned the big 3.0. Good-bye twenty's, hello thirty's. Luckily I still have 3+ years in my twenty's (I'm not ready to be 30 just yet) but John was excited to turn 30...guys are weird sometimes.

We had so much fun celebrating John's birthday this year. We started by decorating the house while he was still sleeping, and then as soon as he woke up, Makenna was ready to give him the Dora card she picked out for him, and the book we made for him. As his gift this year, we made a book that included lists of 30 reasons that we love John. It included a list from the kids, a list from me, and also lists from John's parents, my parents, and a list from one of his brothers.

We decided to have a fondue party that night with some of our friends, and so we spent the afternoon running a few errands, and getting ready for the evening. We also had a dance rehearsal for a performance coming up on Wednesday, and then afterwards went out to dinner with the kids. It is always interesting to keep the kids entertained during a dinner out. Mixing drinks seemed to do the trick this time.

I hadn't originally planned on making John a cake this year since we were having the fondue party, but since we were going to be having the party after the kids were in bed, I decided that we needed a small cake so that the kids could sing happy birthday, and be a part of the celebration. Makenna picked out a nice pink Easter cake for him, which he of course loved ;)

After the kids went to bed, we had a few friends over for a fondue party. John and I were given a fondue set for our wedding (almost 7 years ago) and this is the FIRST time we have used it! It has stayed with us from UT to WA to NE, and now to IN, just waiting for us to use it, and we finally did, and it was so much fun! We had a chocolate fondue, and a cheesy pesto fondue. Both of them were really yummy!

I decided to surprise John by having our friends come to the party dressed in their "Elderly Best". It was great to see John's reaction when the first couple (Andy and Amy) showed up. Andy even had toilet paper hanging out of the back of his pants, it was great!

This picture is a little blurry because I was laughing when I took it. Mike played the role of an old man SO well, it was hilarious! Mike and Anna won 'Best Dressed' for the night, and were given some Depends for their prize.

Mindi showed up with a large, somewhat saggy balloon chest! We all laughed so hard at her costume! We also had a several other guests that came straight from a school meeting, and so weren't in costume.

Of course John wasn't in costume at first, but after everyone showed up, I gave him a robe and glasses that I picked up for him at the goodwill. John and I also made up a 30 question true/false quiz all about John for everyone to do. Most of the things were pretty funny, and it led to some good stories, and lots of laughs. We even laughed about the winner of the quiz, she being the one who we would have guessed would have known the least. It ended up being a great night, and we had a lot of fun.

Preschool Mess

Makenna is in a little neighborhood preschool group that meets once a week. Today was our turn to host preschool, and after having some free play time which the kids spent playing upstairs in Makenna's room, this is what I found:

They had piled EVERYTHING in Makenna's room (toys, books, stuffed animals, puzzles, ride-on toys, baskets, dress up clothes, etc, etc.) onto her little toddler bed Her empty bookcase took us about 30 mins. to refill!

Beyond the House

Although 85% of our time spent in Omaha, was spent house hunting, we did have a little bit of time for some fun with my family. One night my dad "put on" his buffalo rug, and chased the kids around. I thought maybe Hudson would be scared, but both he and Makenna loved it! Hudson also got to go fishing for the first time. The lake was still partly frozen, so they didn't catch anything, but he enjoyed helping John. Hopefully this summer he will be able to catch his first fish. We also got a chance to play with a few cousins. Hudson LOVED this cousin in particular. As soon as she walked in, he was quite taken with her, and followed her around. She didn't seem to mind the attention, and was great to play with Hudson. My sister Amanda and her family also came from Utah to visit, and Makenna loved having Kate as a playmate during the trip.

Our First House!!

John and I spent spring break this year house hunting in Omaha, NE. After almost 7 years of marriage, I can't believe that we are FINALLY going to own our own home!! I am beyond excited. I feel so lucky to be going back "home" and to have the chance for Makenna and Hudson to grow up close to some of their aunts, uncles, cousins, and one set of grandparents.

Our house hunting experience was fun, exciting, a bit tiring, and at times a little stressful (but I think just for me...John seemed to be fine). My dad was our realtor (how lucky am I), and my mom was our babysitter extraordinaire. I really could not have asked for a better house hunting situation. After looking at about 40 houses in 3 days, we quickly narrowed our search down to our top 3 and then top 2. Deciding between the top 2 houses proved to be quite difficult, and we went back and forth all weekend, before making our final decision on Sunday night, and putting an offer in on Monday morning.

I am SO excited about our house. It is still in the process of being built, so after the offer was accepted on Monday evening, we were able to spend Tuesday picking out all of our 'finishes' (granite, carpet, tile, light fixtures, etc). It is a 2 story house, with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and an unfinished basement (a project for a few years down the road).

Here is a picture of the outside of our house (it is not painted yet). We will be closing the end of May, so hopefully it will look a lot different by then :)

These other pictures are taken from the model of our home.

We LOVE the spiral staircase in the entryway.

The Kitchen
One of my favorite parts of the kitchen: the hidden walk-in pantry (on the left) and the built-in desk.

Looking from kitchen past eating area, towards the family room.