Easter Easter Easter!

This year we went to my mom's house to color Easter eggs.  It was fun to get to spend time with my family and get creative.  My nephews came and it was a big party!

 It's adorable how much my nephews love their grandpa!

Here's my favorite egg this year.

Another one I did.  Sappy, I know...

My oldest Nephew had so much fun choosing what colors he was going to do.

My youngest nephew wanted to do what everyone else was doing.  I thought this was extra cute because he's such a wiggly worm it was amazing that he sat there so still :)

And here's my sweet sis-in-law with nephew #3 (on this side) on the way!  I LOVE newborns, so I'm excited for him to get here in July.

After coloring Easter eggs we hid plastic eggs outside for the little guys to find.  His basket is empty because as soon as he found an egg he would open it, eat it, and leave the shell on the grass.

 I helped Brigham count how many eggs he had found.  33!  That's the highest he's ever counted and I got to help (that's the teacher in me, getting excited about helping a little person count)

 My twin brothers live together and I figured they wouldn't get an Easter basket, so last night I made them a basket when I made mine and Tanner's.  I dropped them off on their door step last night.  i hope they got them and nobody stole them!

Posting all these pictures made me think of the Easter when Tanner and I were dating.  We colored eggs with my roommate Tessa and our friend Josh.

 

And here we are this year.  Do we look like we've changed much?

Love this weather and these people!

 

After Sunday dinner a few weeks ago we headed outdoors to enjoy the weather.  We started out playing "Duck, Duck, Goose".  My nephew LOVED it!  He got silly and started saying different animal names instead of 'duck'.   My little sister apparently thought it was really funny.

We then moved on to "Red Light Green Light".  My brother took a spill.  I'll tell you... these children's games are difficult!

It ended with people doing wheelbarrows.  

Too bad this perfect weather doesn't last long...

My best cousin's wedding

   

My cousin Lisa and I are 5 days apart.   When we were little my mom would make us matching clothes.  and we'd get pictures together.  Last week Lisa got married. 

    

 Here we are all grown up :)  She looked gorgeous in her wedding dress.  I'm so happy for her!

 

 

The luncheon after the wedding was at Tia Rosa's.  We had the most amazing tostadas!  My mouth is watering just thinking about it!!!

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On another note, I finished lining the curtains in the living room

 

Also, my nephew is a technological genius!  He can navigate his way around my Ipod and is actually really good at the game Cut the Rope.

And coming soon... My garden!  (this is my 'super-pre' picture)

Daddy Daughter

Last weekend was the daddy daughter camp out for my parents' ward.  My mom and sister mentioned it and I thought it would be fun!  My dad and sister had things early Saturday morning, so we just went for Friday night.  We left at 4 and got there just before 5.  My mom had prepared foil dinners for us so right when we got there my dad got some charcoal going.  He set up a table and chairs and we all pulled out books and enjoyed the nice weather.  When dinner came off the coals it was delicious!  We went and sat around the fire for a few hours and enjoyed the company.  It started getting too cold for my liking and I made sure I stayed real close to the fire.  They had planned some "Minute to Win It" games and and it was fun watching the girls play.  We headed home around 9 and I had a nice chat with my dad on the way home.  It was a nice little adventure.

Bridal shower, a hair experiment and locked in keys

Whenever I see someone with big loose curls in their hair I swoon.  You see, my hair is naturally curly, which I LOVE.  I like that it's easy and versatile and that I can flatiron it when I want.  I have just have yet to master big loose curls.  I almost have to straighten my hair then re-curl it.  And for a long time that just seemed ridiculous... and like a lot of work...  But today I tried it!  I know ot wasn't the smartest thing to try it on a rainy day, but oh well.  It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but I think it turned out well.  And I think it will be even better when it gets a little longer.

 

Today was also my twin cousin's bridal shower.  Our birthdays are only a few days apart and we're both tall.  And that, you see qualifies us as twin cousins.

The shower was a lot of fun and it was fun to see family that I don't see often.  Since it was raining fairly hard when I got to the shower, I thought that I'd turn off the car, put everything away in my purse and use my umbrella to go around to the passenger door and get by big gift and purse.  Well, habits are hard to break and I am in the habit of opening the car door, getting out, locking the doors with my hand, then shutting the door.  I did this as normal and walked to the passenger door with my umbrella.  I didn't even realize that I had locked the door until I got to the other door and tried to lock it.  I was so frustrated!  My gift, key, phone, and everything was in there.  Luckily I have Tanner's phone number memorized, I have a kind aunt who let me use her phone, and a sweet husband who was kind enough to leave what he was doing to bring me the spare key.

Lately

It's been too ling since I have written and so I thought I's play catch up!

My husband sent me roses "just because".  I love that!  I know they are just flowers, but they make me feel so loved.  I just like knowing that Tanner is thinking about me and wants me to know it <3

I got a new laptop!  You may remember that our house was broken into and my laptop and ipod were stolen.  I am happy to report that I got a new one of each.  My new laptop's name is Gigi (or G.G. for Gregron's Ghost)  I am really loving it except that it's made of metal and glass and gets quite cold.

Tanner got these wretched shoes on his mission and wore them WAY LONGER than he should have.  I hated those things and he finally let me buy him a new pair and throw these old ones away!!!  Horray!

We have a family tradition of making gingerbread houses (that's where my mom and dad's story begins!) each year.  Here is the one Tanner and I made this year.  One of my favorite parts is that I gave the gingerbread people frosting hair.

Our mortgage company (lender, actually, but it's all the same to me) rented a theatre and invites us to see the movie Tangled for free!  We even got to bring 8 other people as well.  Santa was there so we got a picture to be festive.  I loved the movie by the way.

My sister-in-law made me pajama pants out of this amazing red and white fabric.  I love them!  I also got some pretty sweet Christmas presents (I made a list of what I wanted and Tanner got me everything on the list!)  i got an ipod dock, beautiful red Crock pot, boots, 5 shirts, Anne of Green Gables (1 and 2) on DVD, a lace skirt,

I thoroughly enjoyed my 2 weeks off from work!  They were much needed and to be honest I didn't do a whole lot.  I slept in, kept the house nice and tidy, cooked more, read, relaxed, hung out with my family, helped my brother and sister-in-law move, worked one day at the fabric store, and enjoyed having no commitments.   But now it's back to work and parent teacher conferences next week.

Just before Christmas break I straightened my hair on day and when a student saw me in the morning he said "Mrs. Layton!!!?  Is that really you?"  haha.

We are also teaching sunday school at church.  We taught 15/16 year olds for 4 weeks, then they rearranged for the new year and we are teaching 12/13 year olds.  It's been fun having a church calling with Tanner; we have always had separate callings.

This is for McKenzie

and for Brad my brother, and

to those who haven't given up on me as a blogger.  Thank you!

I am having trouble putting writing between the pictures, so let me just give a brief overview of what I have been up to.  I successfully completed my first year of teaching (hooray!),  I got to have a summer vacation that was paid, I went to my parents' cabin, went to Disneyland, stayed on the beach for family reunion #1, spent a few days in the mountains with the young women in my ward, got my license suspended, spent the 4th of July in Manti Utah for family reunion #2, bought my very own atlas, wore a flower pin that one of my students made for me, fell in love with chocolate soy milk that's individually packaged, went to the Landmark resturant for my birthday (1st time there and I loved it!),  went to the Manti temple, played in the last-day-of-school-teachers-versus-6th-graders-softball-game, packed up everything in my classroom so I could move rooms, hung out with my family, slept in almost every day of this summer, went to my cabin again for family reunion #3, and an gearing up for family reunion #4.  We are also buying a house! 

Here's what I have been up to lately.

We call him Connie

I come from a family of 7 children. I LOVE my family and we get along SO well. See, here we are. Can't you just tell that we love each other?

I am the VERY middle child. My brother just younger than me is Connie (the tall one to the left of Tanner in the picture above. Third from the left...) His name isn't really Connie, but since he used to be such a con and ignore my parents' requests to go to bed, staying up hours past his bedtime he earned the nickname Connie. I don't think I've even called him Austin these last 3 years.

Connie is fantastic! He is a great brother and fabulous friend. He's funny, kind, and a friend to all.

Well, a couple months ago Connie turned 19 and got called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Here he is opening his mission call. He was called to serve in Omaha Nebraska for the next two years. He left this last Wednesday (July 1st).

This is him as a newly set apart missionary. I am SO proud of my little brother. I know he is going to make an amazing missionary!!!

I have also started a blog for him. I'll be posting letters and pictures he sends home. So if you know and/or love my brother feel free to stop by this blog to see what's going on with him and his mission.