It's Alive...

So Bryant started walking a couple weeks ago and we've had a blast watching him putter around. He doesn't walk exclusively yet, but he walks often. I'm glad he'll be walking for summer so his knees don't get all banged up crawling on the patio with shorts on and he won't get as dirty. Plus, it's SO CUTE!

Grandma Sheila's

We spent Spring Break at my mom's house in Washington. My four year old niece stayed and spent the week with us as well.



We went bowling. Amber(the 4 year old niece) won.

Bryant rode in this car while we bowled.

I took the kids to a car museum. This was Lydia's favorite because it was 102 years old.

Amber's favorite was the 2007 Viper. Nice.

We also had lots of good food, stayed up late, watched movies, and read stories...you know, Grandma's house stuff. We had a wonderful trip and can't wait to see everyone again in July!
What is your kids favorite thing to do at grandma's house?

Easter

We were in Moses Lake, Washington for Easter. Most of my siblings were around and we had a wonderful time. On Saturday we found a local easter egg hunt to go to. Both my girls were in the same division this time, the 4-6 year olds. Most of the eggs were hard boiled eggs with a few plastic ones. Aunt Shannon and I told the girls to pick up plastic eggs first, then the hard boiled ones. When the time started they rushed in, Ali obviously didn't understand what a plastic egg was as she skipped over all plastic eggs and grabbed the others. She was happy with her take though, so I praised her accomplishments of finding about a dozen eggs.

Lydia was so intent on not picking up hard boiled eggs that she ran around trying to assess which eggs to pick up. By the time she made a decision to pick one up, it would be gone. She ended up with no eggs and big tears in her eyes.

We shared some of Ali's eggs with her and I assured her she would get plenty of eggs at our family egg hunt. We went to stand in line to see the Easter Bunny. While in line one little boy had noticed her lack of eggs and secretly put one in her basket when she wasn't looking. She was so excited. Meanwhile her 7 year old cousin Zachary also decided to hide his only plastic egg and have his older sister Aspen help Lydia find it. Lydia was so excited that she had ended up with 2 plastic eggs no one else had found. I'm grateful to parents to raise good compassionate kids. Don't worry all my children got PLENTY of eggs and candy from our family egg hunt.


Sunday morning the Easter Bunny had left some great baskets of goodies for everyone. The girls got refills for their candy factory and EZ bake oven, nail polish, movies, and of course, more candy.


Bryant got a book. Everyone was happy, we had a great time seeing the cousins, and we had a great dinner. The only thing missing was Tim. We had a great Easter.

San Diego

The second half of the week we went to San Diego and stayed with my uncle. My girls don't have any living grandfathers and my uncle doesn't have any grandkids, so this was a match made in heaven! My girls loved being doted on and calls him grandpa. He read them stories, listened to their prattling, and let them eat whatever they wanted. Lydia didn't really want to leave him to go to Sea World, but grandpa had to work, so off we went.


Lydia loved the sea lion show and the Sesame Street play area. She didn't like much else, and she REALLY didn't like getting splashed by Shamu or the dolphins. We were there two days, so the second day we had to promise to not sit in the splash zones. My girls are very different. Ali was very sad that we didn't get splashed on the second day and we ended up splitting up during the shows so Ali could get splashed. She loved the dolphins and especially SHAMU!


Bryant had so much fun in this little baby play area they had and he loved watching the fish in the shark encounter and the aquarium.


Then on Saturday, we had grandpa all to ourselves. We went to a kite festival on the beach where the girls made their own kites, got their faces painted, and collected shells. The ocean is so beautiful and this ended up being one of their favorite memories from the trip.



We had such a wonderful trip full of wonderful memories. I hope we get to go again soon.

What is your favorite theme park to visit in Southern California besides Disneyland?

Tim and Ali's Birthdays

Tim turned 31 and Ali turned 4 this past week. They were both pretty low key since we just got back from Disneyland. That's enough birthday...right?!? Actually, I haven't done a party for Ali yet (Lydia has had one every year) so I thought my poor neglected middle child should get one. She wanted a tea party. She had 3 girls and 2 boys over. They all came in dress ups, but we provided further accessories, added some make up, and took some pictures.

The highlight was letting them decorate cupcakes. My cake genius friend provided some frosting, flowers, and sprinkles. They had a great time creating their yummy works of art.


After cupcakes, tiny sandwiches, cucumbers, strawberries, jell-o, and hot cocoa had all been merrily consumed, we opened presents and played musical chairs.


Happy birthday to my little snuggle bug! (yes, I mean Ali) Happy birthday to my wonderful husband! I love you both so much!

Disneyland!

Our family took a trip to Disneyland last week. We had such a wonderful, magical time! We went for 3 days at the beginning of the week. The lines were short, the weather was perfect, and the princesses and fairies were plentiful. Lydia thinks fairies are much better than princesses. When we visited Pixie Hollow, Tinker Bell took an instant liking to Lydia and they talked like old friends for about 5 minutes while the line behind us grew very long. She now tells everyone that she and Tink are friends.

Ali got to meet her favorite princess, Ariel. The girls also met Belle, Aurora, Tiana, Cinderella, and Snow White. The other characters they met were Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto, the Fairy Godmother, Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore. Even though Lydia knew before the trip that they were people in costumes, she seemed to forget that and just enjoy meeting each character. Ali believes she really met Ariel. Bryant smiled and giggled a lot when he met Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore.




Besides meeting these great Disney characters, we went on many rides. Lydia's favorite was teacups. Blech. Tim and I had to switch off taking them because it made us sick. Ali loved Splash Mountain. I think she went 5 times! She likes roller coasters...Lydia doesn't. Ali was barely tall enough to make it onto rides like this.

Bryant liked the carousel and It's a Small World rides. He was a really good sport on the trip considering we were there for about 9 hours each day and he only got naps as we went.


Tim didn't like much of Disneyland until we went to California Adventures the third day. We all loved Soaring Over California and the big ferris wheel, but he also went on California Screamin' and the Tower of Terror. We went to Bug's Life while he did those.



My favorite part was watching the magic through my children's eyes. We had such a great time! My next blog will be about going to SeaWorld and San Diego.
What is your favorite thing at Disneyland?

7 Years of Bliss

Tim and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary this month. I would have gotten this post up sooner, but Tim had the pictures on his phone. We had a great time. We went to a fun restaurant in Provo called Spark. It has a real New York kind of feel to it. It had a full line of mocktails (non alcoholic drinks) that were delicious and pretty. The food was good, but the ambiance was my favorite thing about the place. Then we went to Comedy Sportz. We laughed our heads off and felt young and in love again. Thanks Tim for 7 years of happiness. I love that I get to be by your side for eternity.

Then a few days later was Valentine's Day. We went to our friend's house and made crepes. We played a games and had crepes for dessert too. I think it was my favorite Valentine's Day so far. Great friends are such a blessing.

These are the place settings Amber made. She really made the table look fabulous!

Tim and I

Amber and Jermie

What was your favorite Valentine's Day?