Sunday, March 31, 2013

Happy Easter 2013

Abbie got her hair curled for the first time yesterday and I thought she looked absolutely no doubt about it ADORABLE!!!
 What an eggcellent Easter Weekend it's been!! We have had a blast the whole weekend long. We started Friday afternoon at Penguin Park since Daddy got off a little early.
This is Dade's "Handsome face" and rightly named as well.
 Then yesterday we had our Saturday morning traditional Grandpa Jay and Grandma Bonnie egg hunt followed by breakfast. 

 I LOVE family traditions and am so glad that we have some fun ones strengthening in this "newer" phase of grandkids and with us living by each other.
 
 Hayden continues to have her own very unique and endearing sense of style. This particular weekend she was all about wearing her sunglasses constantly.

 Jackpot!!

 Grandma was Abbie's big helper.

 Dade's Dragon face. Lookin good!!



 This morning - Sunday - we did our immediate family Easter Egg Hunt. Abbie in her Christmas Jammies is ready to go!!!
 


 The kids went for the big loot first. I told the kids this year the Easter Bunny didn't designate which egg/ candy/ present went to which child, but instead told me that it is all to share.  
 
 On the hunt!!







 Here they were huddled around and making sure that they were gathering the equal amount of eggs. Carter on his own took eggs out of his basket to give to his sisters because he wanted to make sure they had as many as he did.  So sweet!!


 The Loot!

 I desperately tried to snap some pictures of the kids before we had to rush off for church.  Matt was in trying to get the rest of our church prep done so I was battling the kids to get together on my own. It's pretty tough getting three kids to gather together nicely and pose with smiles for a picture. So here are some of my attempts. 
 
 Matt picked out the girls' Easter dresses this year and they looked very cute!! They both got their hair curled again this morning. My finger tips are feeling pretty fried.

 Big Boy handsome Carter.

 Yay!!! They are all sitting still.  I was just trying to snap a picture so fast that I wasn't able to perfectly frame it in. Oh well, trial and error. I am just so happy to have a nicer camera that I can learn with!









 Now that church is over it is time to start devouring the chocolate!!
 
Carter from our egg hunt this morning. 

We are so grateful to celebrate this day that gives us all our other days to celebrate. If it were not for our Savior and His sacrifice we would be nothing. We would have no life to live. He is all and gives us all. 

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Great Grandma and Grandpa B Came for a Visit


 Great Grandma and Grandpa B came into town for Grandpa's sister's (Esther) funeral in Wichita. Instead of driving all the way to Wichita from Utah they decided to fly to us to see all the family and then Bonnie drove them out to Wichita.

 It was so nice to have them come to the house to spend some great one on one time with the kids.



 This chair has always seemed like a big wing back chair to me, that is until Grandpa sat in it.  Grandpa is such a giant of a man in stature and character.

 Grandpa is a baby whisperer.  He has magic with these little ones they just love him.


 When they came to our house, Abbie made a B line right for Grandpa.





 We feel so blessed to have Great Grandparents in our lives!! They are great examples to each one of us.

This last Monday with them in town Great Grandma and Grandpa did Family Home Evening for us and they talked about what life was like when they were little - which was so fun to hear and helped us appreciate so many of the luxuries we now have to make our life a little easier. Also, Great Grandpa is famous in our family for being an excellent story teller so of course we all requested one of Grandpa's stories and I got it on video, it's Jack and the Beanstalk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMyDt603_kE&list=UUzNsVkVTRvTlaadmUN59I-w&index=1

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Paradise Park

 A few weeks ago Carter had a day off of school and Matt surprised us by taking the day off of work as well so we needed to do something big and fun, so we got passes to something similar to a Children's Museum here and it was a blast!!

 Lots of smiles were to be had by all.

 I am still trying to get used to my new camera so I took a TON of pictures, but really that is no surprise since I always seem to take a million pictures.

This place had so many fun things such as a construction room.

 Of course, a ball pit - where they actually had a machine that sucked in the balls and cleaned them.

 Abbie is at a stage where she has such a plethora of adorable, mommy heart-melting facial expressions that just kill me. I am sure to the average person, most of them look the same, but to a mom they each have their own meaning and each crack me up.  Literally, just ask Matt I go crazy over this girl and am laughing all the time when I just look at her.


 Hayden is still my crazy, dramatic girl.  She is a wild, fun girl. I love watching her personality shine through in behavior and dress.  What you see is what you get with this little one and it is generally a lot of fun.


 Goofy girl, too.

 This is in their climbing gym.


 This room was full of barns and animals and doll houses and little people and furniture for the houses.

 Our favorite spot was the water table. We spent at least an hour here.



 A foam pad room to wrestle and chase in.

 There was a section where you could paint your face, Abbie loved the faucet that you can clean up in. It was just her size and would automatically turn off and on - perfect toy for a toddler. Problem was there was only one and a fair amount of kids. We had a few screaming fits.

 Carter was DETERMINED to paint his own face.





 Abbie eating lunch. Her face painting was done both by her and me.

 Hayden at the grocery store, buying some groceries. There was an imaginary play town with a grocery store, a restaurant, a house/kitchen, and a bank. Plus, it had costumes that the kids would dress in to play. For example, there were a couple bank robbers and Carter was a Police Officer trying to arrest the bank robbers.

 Abbie doing her best to keep up.

 There was also a foam ball factory on the other side (additional cost for those looking at this post to find out what this place was like. We had a pass for this but no one was checking for passes so you could probably just go in to play). Matt didn't mind trying to nail the kids across the way with the balls. And of course, they loved it, too.

 Again more of the Abster.


 Like I said, he really didn't mind...

 Rock climbing wall (Additional cost)

 Abbie blowing kisses.

 My beautiful Hayden!!

 Bumper cars (additional cost)

 Abbie's mad look - I kept trying to get her not to drink the water and put the rubber duckies in her mouth.

 This was her yelling at me after I once again told her no no for putting the ducky in her mouth. Did I mention she is super spunky?

 Hayden was very focused playing in the water.

 Abbie's smug look.

 This picture just cracks me up.  When she gets really happy she just goes on and on with her talking/ yelling.

 See look Mom at how cool this duck is.  It really is awesome.

 I thought she looked adorable in the big water shirt.




 She loves to play Peek A Boo.  Peek...

Peek...

 Boo!!


We wore Hayden out!!  She woke up at about 5 am that morning so we were worried how well she would do, but she did pretty well.

  Abbie wanted to call "Mamah" (Grandma) and tell her what a great time we had.

And of course, my pictures once again did not remain in order so even though I showed pictures of the girls in their car seats going home we will revert back to the fun. Ha! Hayden loved "chit chatting" on the phone.  This girl is a talker!!

And one last picture of my sweet Abigail.

Here is a video of Abbie playing in the water table.  I love listening to her jibber jabber.

This video is of Hayden playing in the kitchen.  It is just so much fun to watch children's imaginations unfold. There is a little boy's voice in this video that cracks me up. He asks if he can make scrambled eggs and then tells me he will "show me how the men do it!"  HAHAHA!!!  But truly Matt does make better scrambled eggs than I do. Eggs are his specialty.