Easter with Grandma and Papa

Saturday after Manor Care we headed home so Matt could go to Weber and take one of his last tests for his Master Program. I will be so thrilled when he is done!!! While he was gone we ate lunch and had naps. As soon as he got home we headed to Nics for more Easter festivities. My mom had an egg hunt set up for the kids. There were 120 eggs for just the 4 of them. The kids anticipation was high I didn't think they were going to make it thru taking pictures before they could find the eggs....hence why none of them are really paying attention.

After they found the eggs and ate way to much candy it was time to dye some eggs. My mom had seen this new idea where you color some shave cream and then put your eggs in. It was fun to try but didn't really work so we wont be doing that again but it was fun to try something new.

After that we ate dinner and then the boys headed to the priesthood session while we stayed home and visited and the kids just played. Just a side note we had forgotten Matt's church clothes so it would have been really easy for him to just stay home but he went anyways in his jeans and tennis shoes. Im grateful for his example and his desire to do what is right. After the boys got home we did cake and ice cream to celebrate Maddi birthday. In the two below pictures I captured what Gracie really likes about cake and ice cream....the frosting(just like her mommy). When you ask what she is doing she just looks really guilty before a smile covers her face and she tells you she is just eating frosting.

The birthday group  minus mom who is taking the picture

After cake and ice cream my mom "attempted" to get a picture of my dad with the grandkids and well lets just say none of them were interested in holding still or having their picture taken minus Hallie. But it is a great picture of her with her papa.

After that it was time to call it a night we were all tired for the long day and everyone was pretty sugared out. I was sad to head home knowing that my parents would be leaving the next morning but I have a feeling that we will be seeing them a lot more in the next couple of months which will be a welcomed treat for us. Sunday we stayed home and watch conference. Matt caught up on some much needed homework and took it easy. That morning I had woke up feeling pretty awful...I think I had over done it the previous 2 days and not only had pregnancy caught up with me but also a very nasty cold so I was very glad to have Matt home so I coul dtake it easy on the couch, All in all it was a fun weekend. I wish that weekends like this would spread themselves out more so we had more time to enjoy each occasion individually but it is what it is and it was fun to have conference fall on actual Easter weekend. The girls are getting old enough where they are really understanding the true reason we celebrate Easter and for with that Im thankful for the weekend and the memories that were made.

Manor Care Easter Egg Hunt

It has become a tradition to attend the Manor Care Easter Egg Hunt. We just love how they do it rather than hundreds of kids running and grabbing eggs as a free for all they give each child a number and they are allowed to find only the eggs with their number. In the pasted it has been a little difficult for my younger girls to understand but this year they made it even better the younger kids were assigned a color instead . Here are the girls anxious as ever to get out there and get all the eggs.

"The sun is too bright daddy"

After each child had found their color/number then they allow the kids to get the remaining eggs. They find them in a fenced area where they can set the residents up so they can watch the kids and be part. It really is such an awesome idea and one of the "best kept secrets" as far as easter egg hunts are concerned.

This year along with the color/numbers they also did a "prize" egg for each category and Hallie was thrilled when she found it. This is the basket she won...it was really cool

After they served giant pink frosted cookies and hot cocoa. Gracie was pretty pleased with her findings.

While we ate our snack we emptied out our eggs so we could give them back and keep our candy. I also love that they do awesome candy like real chocolate goodness not the cheap crappy candy like most places. This is about half of the girls eggs we had to empty their buckets about half way through. It took about 20 minutes for them to find all of their eggs.

I guess you can eat a cookie any way that you choose.

It was such a great and fun way for us to spend our easter morning. I hope they continue to provide fun activities at the nursing home that also encourage interaction with the "old" people. I don't want my kids to be afraid of them and I think that regular and fun interaction with them help with that. 

Family Comes to Town

Over easter weekend we were lucky enough to have my parents and Maddi here to visit. Friday after we got off work we decided to load up and take a trip to Huntsville to see our lot and enjoy some delicious BBQ. The kids had a ball running around and exploring. Im really excited for the girls to have open space where they can explore and grow up using their imaginations. We also took our plans so we could show everyone how the house would lay out and what the house would look like. My parents had some good suggestions and then we were off to fill our bellies with delicious food.

After we spent some time letting the kids run around the park chasing each other and getting their wiggles out while we visited and planned out the rest of our weekend. We missed Kim and Ez but look forward to when they are here in June getting to show them our lot as well. 

It was a fun night and it made us more excited about building after getting to show our family. It is hard that they are so far away but trips like this make it do able and when we get together you would never know that we had ever been apart.

Easter Festivities Begin---Huntsville Easter Egg Hunt

I saw on one of the Valley Facebook pages that there would be an easter egg hunt in Huntsville during the middle of the week in the morning so the girls and I decided we would try it out. It was the first time they done it and although the kids had some fun it was really cold and unorganized.

The girls quickly decorated their cookies and decided to eat them in the car on the way home with the hot chocolate they also provided

This is a giant balloon Hallie won as one of her "prizes"

We didn't stay very long since the weather was so cold the poor girls hands and noses were red by the time we were done.

To The Zoo With Daddy!!!

I honestly can't remember the last time Matt went to the zoo with us. We usually go in the middle of the day when he is at work but since he traveled over the weekend a couple weeks ago he was able to take a couple days off during the week. It just so happened that Hallie was out of school for Spring Break the entire week so that made our schedule even that much more flexible...it was awesome! I loved having Hallie home the entire week and Matt home for a couple days I just really enjoyed having time together without adding something else to the schedule if only it happened more often. When we got to the zoo I was a little worried since there were a lot of people there but Matt assured me it would be fine so we unloaded our stuff and headed in. I was really glad we didn't have to wait in line for our tickets because the line was way long. 

The temperature was perfect the animals we really active. They were bathing the elephants. It was really fun to see their personalities come through as they played in the mud and water. The girls thought they were so silly.

These 3 are my whole world I don't know what I would do without them

The grizzly bears were also really active wrestling and playing.

Our little family

The tiger was sleeping and pretty lazy but was close enough to see really well

They had a new baby orangutan about 5 months old! Seriously one of the cutest things I have ever seen. 

The girls were really excited about sitting on the elephant to show Matt and then we were all tired and ready to head back home from our fun day. I hate how tired I get from doing the simplest things but I guess that is just what happens at this point in my pregnancy only a few short weeks until we meet our newest addition.

We got home just in time to get some dinner and get Matt headed off to teach class. It was so fun to have Matt home and to not have the girls by myself. I loved getting to make memories with all of us and can't wait to do more fun things

March Art

Hallie has and is becoming quite the artist. She will spend some time each day coloring, drawing or both. She is becoming pretty good and I'm thrilled that she is finding activities she has real interest in. Here are some of her projects from this month