MY FAMILY'S VISIT!

The last weekish has been so amazing! My dad, mom, Michelle and her two adorable boys came to visit! It was SOOO great to see them!
We had so much fun together hanging out and playing, making a sandbox, going to the zoo, going to the dollar theator, going out to eat, etc. One of the nights they were here Grandpa, Andrew, and Carolyn went to a Rockies game...Carolyn had a BLAST with special time with Grandpa and Dad and she still talks about all the fun they had there. Here are the kids watching a show...
At the zoo (you gotta love the sunblock look)...
Angela pointing out the elephant to Grandpa...


Grandpa and Grandma treated us all to a ride on the train...a dream come true for the girls! They are always asking me to ride on that but mama always says, "Not today."



Come back soon, guys!

Easter!!

Easter was so wonderful! The Sunday before Easter was when Carolyn sang for the first time in Sacrament Meeting. Watching my own little cute child sing has been something I have been looking forward to just about my whole life :) And it exceeded my expectations. I loved watching her sing up there to say the least.
The girls got Easter dresses for Easter (well, Angela "got" a hand-me-down dress from Carolyn and I got an adorable dress for Carolyn at the thrift store for $3), but the week before they wore their dresses from the year before. They looked beautiful. Here they are in last-year's dresses...

The day before Easter, we went to a community center for an Easter Egg Hunt and a chance to meet Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny. It was so much fun.


Angela wasn't sure what to think of the huge bunnies. Can you tell from her face? She just stared nervously and pointed...wouldn't go anywhere close :)







Decorating Easter eggs...

Andrew started a great family tradition that before we find our Easter baskets, eggs, and treats that the bunny brings, we sit together as a family and talk about our Savior. We read of Christ’s resurrection in the scriptures and talked about all that our Redeemer has done for us. It was a wonderful start to our Easter Sunday.
The Easter Bunny was good to us. He must have received Carolyn’s letter because he brought her some chocolate- which she was quite thrilled about.

The Easter bunny also brought the girls some baseball bats and baseballs. We've been playing a lot of baseball lately and have had to be creative in how we play it because we didn't have any bats or baseballs...so we were quite excited about what the Easter Bunny brought us.

Easter egg hunt...





We went to Chris and Janeil's home for Easter. So kind of them to host our holiday celebration! We had a blast! Thanks!! Does any one have a whole wheat roll recipe that you like? I can't find one that rises very well...so I had to settle for these.
The Egg Roll!

Andrew was the big winner this year...but that wasn't the exciting part of the event. No, no. For five long years, I have never been able to defeat Andrew's "Jannie Killer" egg...he makes it every year and spends a lot of time making it look as ugly as possible. My beautiful eggs have never been able to crack that ugly egg in our big egg rolling contests. Well, this year was different! My "Andrew Beater" won!! Great day!

Randomness

Don't you just love it when fruit is in season and sooo delicious? Angela does :) So does Carolyn...this was her lunch the other day.
Blurry picture...but they are so cute together.
My friend, Lisa, introduced me to amazing place to purchase clips and material to make your own clips. They have such cute selection and the products are so inexpensive (some are $1.90 for a dozen flowers). Anyways, last night I had a great bow making session. Here are some of my favorite bows we have (some where given to me by sweet people, some were purchased, and some I've made):

Little Mama

There’s no denying that our little Angela has some feistiness in her. There’s also no denying that she is a little mama. Not only does she love taking care of her baby dolls all day long, she also likes taking care of her mom. Throughout the day, she’ll look at me and say, “Mama!” and run to me with her arms wide open and give me the biggest bear hugs. Going shopping with her sitting in the front by me is one of my favorites because as we’re shopping, she’ll often look at me and say, “Mama” and give me big hugs while I’m pushing the cart around. The other day Carolyn, Angela, and I were playing baseball together in the yard. I didn’t have my shoes on and stepped on a prick in the grass. Angela saw that I got hurt and I can’t even explain the face that girl made when she realized I was hurt. She was so concerned about me and ran over saying, “Mama! Mama!” and gave me the biggest hugs. It made me realize that I need to get hurt more often.

Dear Easter Bunny

I already posted this on my preschool blog, but I just love this letter Carolyn wrote to the Easter Bunny today. It makes me laugh :) “I love Chocolate. I love you.” We all know what Carolyn is hoping the bunny will bring her.

We’ve been keeping busy and happy here. The weather here has been so beautiful and we’ve just been loving it. Last week I also started a new morning schedule that has been going so fantastic for us. Some of us know how much I love making schedules and so this is exciting for my dorky self. Of course with kids schedules aren't really meant to be kept - but it's a great tentative schedule that we sometimes get done/attempt to get done. Part of our new schedule is having preschool time together right when the girls wake up and then doing a whole lot of reading together! It's been a great way to start the day with the girls.

Playing outside: