Easter!

We have had such a lovely Easter this year, as we always do. The pictures are quite out of order, but still cover all the activities.

Derek had a great time coloring easter eggs. Dave & I were so worried about him spilling the cups over that in our effort to stop him spilling, we dumped a few cups over ourselves. Ugh, dye stains. :( However, Derek loved doing the eggs, and chose to do most of them in green.
Derek helped Dave find his Easter basket, and was obviously excited about it. This is the first year he's understood baskets & eggs, it's pretty fun to catch their enthusiasm.
Hailey loved her basket too!
... ande her basket from Mimi & Papa.
Derek sported his new church shirts today, and looked adorable.
This was yesterday w/ the Easter Bunny at the egg hunt that the city sponsored.
... it was a little bright, and it started late, which for a 2 year old can be brutal.
So, we waited & tried to stay warm.
Then, the moment of truth, Dave kept coaching him on what to do - to hurry & run and grab the eggs before the other kids could. It was pretty funny!
He ate his treasures on the way home. I think he's been on a candy high for the last few days. He'll have some candy, and immediately want more, and try to sneak it. How fun to be young.

We've really enjoyed spending time with family this easter weekend. We hosted dinner this evening, and had Dave's folks & his brother & family over. There was WAY too much food. I think Dave ate 7 deviled eggs (not halves, but whole!!) He & his brother are like competitors to see who can eat the most eggs. It's a crack up. Above all, we're so grateful for the real reason of Easter - for the resurrection of Jesus, and for all that means. It's exciting to see how our children learn bits & pieces of what that is to them.

Happy Easter!

Karalee's Birthday

Karalee's birthday was a few days ago, so we packed up the kids & headed to Bajio to celebrate.

Derek & Cambrie had a great time
Ah, Karalee. She's a great friend, and I was glad we could all get together to celebrate her birthday.
Amber, Melanie, Emily, Karalee & I had a really nice time out for lunch. I always love a reason to get out with the girls.

St. Patty's Day!

St. Patrick's Day is my favorite un-official holiday. My family has always done a big to-do for it - so I got up early to make a nice green breakfast for the fam, but I couldn't start before putting on my green. We're serious about pinching! :)

Hailey was my good helper, mixing the green food-coloring into the pancakes, eggs & milk.
Grub time! Derek was so excited that all the food was green - especially the milk! He kept telling me - "The milk is gween!". IT was very cute!
Hailey got all decked out in her greenest gear.
Derek got to play with Cambrie for a few after Corned beef & Cabbage dinner. They are so cute together.

Girlfriends & kids!

This weekend I had my girlfriend Tearsa in town from St. George. She had come up to take her girls Avery (5) & Adrianna (3) to Princess on Ice. Anyway - she came in late Friday, so Saturday we hung out & did some running around. Later on we had our other girlfriends come over so we could have a big shin-dig. We had a great time!

This is Tearsa & her older daughter Avery - So cute!
We had high hopes of eating at PF Changs, but we had too large a party, and the wait would have been an hour & 20 minutes - dang! So, we ended up at the Old Spaghetti Factory, and had the worst waitress ever - she spilled a drink all over Avery, and then ignored our table the rest of the night - lame! This is Carrie (Right) & Cyndi
Here are all our monsters - we made them sit down for a few pics.

Adrianna, Avery, Sara, Braxton, Olivia & Derek. The kids had so much fun terrorizing one another & running around the house.
Here is Cyndi & her little Sara - don't you love the red locks? She's so beautiful!
I'm so glad to have great girlfriends - even when we only reconnect from time to time!

One more reason to hate the snow!

So for Christmas - Santa brought the kids a trampoline. It has been up for a while, but today Dave just got the net up around it. It took him a few hours, but it was up & steady. So - around 4:30 a nice storm rolls in big winds & all. The next thing I know, the tramp has moved from one corner of the yard to the other, so I run outside & unhook the net, so it won't catch the wind. My efforts were in vain though - only 30 minutes later or so, our neighbor behind us knocked on our door to tell me that he watched our trampoline fly over our fenceposts into the neighbors yard. Ugh! So, Dave went & met him out back to pull it to the side of the yard. Now, here's the worse news - EW - the trampoline broke! For those of you that already have heard the story are aware of the dilema we've had (Dave really) with putting together trampolines. So now - who wants to take a whole tramp apart (for the 2nd time) to exchange it. Ugh!

Anyway - I am just counting down the moments until this aweful weather stops blowing things away, and making our power flicker. <>

Animal Farm

Friday my friend Amber & I took the kids - Derek & Cambrie - to the animal farm at Thanksgiving point. It's so cute to see their excitement with the animals. They got to see cows, and horses, chickens, goats, ducks and other fun animals. They got to pet a few of them, and feed some others. They had a really fun time!
Feeling the love - they were holding hands in front of the donkey/alpaca spot. There was a nice sign above the donkey that said "beware - I bite". Yikes!
A friendly horse we got to see, and pet. Look out for the snotty nose!
Derek & Cambrie got to go for a pony ride. At first he was terrified, and didn't want to let go of me, but once I forced him on, he had a great time.
They really don't have jails for two year olds, although sometimes it would be very helpful in getting things done. The kids had fun checking out the "little" jail.
I'm glad Derek has such a fun friend - he and Cambrie have fun together, and get a rise out of each other. It's great!