Let the Good Times Roll

I have to get all this fun stuff down before I forget.
Last Last Wednesday (March 31) we discovered Ezra has two teeth in his mouth! Cody randomly stuck his hand in and found his two bottom chompers had popped through! He has been so mellow we didn't even know. What a champ. Then the same day like 45 cans of formula came from our insurance for pretty cheap. So now Ezra is pretty much exclusively taking a bottle! We also got some cutie bootie cloth diapers from cousin Jill slash China (bless her heart), which we are trying out and liking so far. So it was a life changing week for Ezra.

Friday, April 2nd, Cody surprised our little family with a road trip up to Oklahoma. It was so exciting. I love surprises, Road trips, First times (it was my first time to Oklahoma), and waterfalls! we went to Turner Falls It was so neat up there! I loved being in nature. AND there were even little Mountains! The water was spectacular. The colors were amazing and the waterfall was beautiful. The boys discovered a neato cave where we ate lunch. It even had a window, two entrances and a air vent up top. It was a great discovery. We played around all day.

Then Saturday, April 3rd, was the Young Womens broadcast and we tried to have a picnic but we almost got blown away but it turned out really fun and the conference was Awesome! Thanks to Lynda and Paige too for all their help. While we were YW broadcasting Cody had "gone to pick up his friend Brian at the airport" which was actually MY MOM!!! I was soo surprised! and Happy! and grateful! and excited! I really can't express how happy I was to see Her. I had been having kind of a hard time. That stretch from Christmas until now not seeing any grandparents especially with these blossoming boys seemed like fooreever. Such a good surprise.
Then That Sunday after church My Mom and Ezra and I drove to Houston to pick up my friend Mona. Mona is my friend from China, who ended up in Houston for work training. So she asked her boss to change the ticket and fly out of DFW! perfect. Aww, It was sooo nice to see her. And I was excited my mom got to meet her too. and vice versa. One of my favorite China memories was spending the night at Mona's house and spending time with her and her family. Her Mom sent this amazing cross stitched piece of art. It looked like a painting. So we drove Mona back home and had fun with her her. It turns out she really loves the NBA :) and the Mavericks happened to be in town Monday night. So my Mom watched the boys and I went to my first professional basketball game. It was soo cool! Then the next day we got her on a horse. Yes, they do have horses in China, but not so much in Beijing where she lives. I was a little nervous about Mona judging our little town. She is single living in the big city, but she totally dug it! she was taking pictures of our neighborhood and house and admiring everything. She said she loved it and it was nice to get away from crowded Beijing. She was especially excited to get a picture with a cowboy :)
I was just feeling so thankful at this point in time. My heart was overflowing. A week earlier I was just feeling in a funk and all of the sudden Heavenly Father was helping my to remember all of these blessings I have right in front of me and how lucky I am. It was a direct answer to my prayers. It was beyond cool to see my mom and Mona doting over the boys. I think the boys are great (most of the time:) and I love when they love the people I love. It was a good beginning of the week.
Wednesday morning, April 1, I took Mona to the airport. She went to San Fransisco as an extended layover since no direct flight go back to Beijing. Cody and I both tried to "April Fool" Lynda unknowingly using the same joke. haha. didn't work so good. We took Rowdy to the Jump for Fun bounce house that night and came home to find donuts and sprinkles on a barstool (Rowdy's Favorite). Then someone ding dong ditched us! I ran outside with Rowdy and saw some shoes by the bush totally thinking it was Cody but... It was my Dad!! He had finished hiking the Grand Canyon and drove out here! What a champ. I totally screamed and danced unintentionally. It was the best April Fool's day Ever! That also is my Dad's favorite holiday. Oh man, What an awesome week.
With my Dad and Mom here I remember going to Chef Point and to the Botanical garden and seeing the butterflies. A lot of the exotic butterflies are called Mormons! and they are pretty! There was the normal Mormon and the scarlet Mormon and some other mormon. and the mormons are from Indonesia. It was neat. I know we did more but... ?
My Mom and I had done some Easter shopping earlier in the week. So we had an early Easter egg hunt because she left on Saturday morning. She is so cute and thoughtful. Se always brings Rowdy books and he was super excited about the Easter books and asked her to read or tell him a story the whole time she was here.
Saturday we took the boys to see How to Train Your Dragon. Aww, everyone loved it. Rowdy loves the Little critter books and totally used a line from the book to schmooze my Dad into buying him popcorn. It was embarrassing funny. Then we went to Bass Pro shops and got a picture with the Easter bunny and had a funny little Easter egg hunt. Then later we also dyed Easter Eggs on Saturday night with my Dad. Rowdy got a kick out of that, Therefore Papa did too. Then Sunday was Easter. My Dad left early in the morning. What amazing parents I have. I am constantly blown away at their kindness and .. awesomeness. I totally lucked out belonging to their family.
So Sunday was Easter..Rowdy loved finding all of the eggs and his basket. and Ezra also enjoyed a few candies and baby food and teething rings from his basket. Later in the day we went to Cousin Kelly's house and had an awesome Easter dinner and another! egg hunt for all of the cousins. Rowdy cracked me up. Finding the first egg he squatted down and carefully devoured the contents while cousins ran around him excitedly gathering in all of the eggs. The whole way home in fact most of the weekend. Rowdy was saying,"My tummy hurts. I at too much junk" but just imagine that repeated like 100x. Rowdy did do an awesome job explaining why we celebrate Easter. It is really neat to hear him talk about Christ. And it was super cool that it was Conference weekend. It was just so exciting to celebrate Easter together, with people who know a lot more about the Savior than I do. What an amazing week. I felt rejuvenated and buoyed up and strengthened for so many reasons. and I just felt like Heavenly Father answered a hundred little prayers this past week. It was amazing.