Easter Fun

Caleb on the hunt for Easter eggs during our preschool egg hunt

Matt's mom made these beautiful Easter baskets for the kids and me. I thought this was such a clever idea for an Easter basket! Matt helped her with the beginning stages of wrapping the balloons with string, and he also filled the baskets with candy afterwards.

We got together Sunday night at my parent's house with all the cousins. Caleb, Drew and Dallin anxious to start the egg hunt.

Carter finding eggs too!

Caleb was very serious and very fast!

Watch out! This kid will plow you over to get to an egg! :o)

Carter finding an egg with Grandma's help

Jared, Sam, and Alex finding eggs

The hunt is over and candy is disappearing quickly from the eggs

Alex's cute smile

Dallin and his mommy

Drew with his mommy

Gavin enjoying playing with an egg. He didn't care what was inside.

Carter and Me

Matt didn't get a picture of Lindsey, but she was down this past weekend with her boyfriend Derrick. We enjoyed having them here and playing games and tennis with them. The kiddos all loved playing with Aunt Lindsey as well!

Warm Weather

When the weather warms up, it's time to play in the water. We went to some fountains in the area so the kids could run around in the water. Kids got wet and had fun while Mommies chatted in the sun (I went with my sister and a friend). Carter had fun exploring the water fountains.

Trying to figure out the water shooting out of the hole in the ground.

Caleb having fun.

Helping Carter get wet :o)

Fascination

Gavin, Ariane, Dallin, Caleb, and Samuel

Even though the kids are ready for summer (because summer = constant water fun), I'm enjoying the cooler mornings and nights. I think summer's heading our way though...

Helping Out

My younger sister is doing a school project where she and her partners are trying to see how many people they can get to view this video they created. She even featured me in her video! If you could take a moment to look at it, she'd appreciate the help!

Maybe One Day...

Caleb used to be very afraid of dogs, but recently he's started loving them. For about two weeks straight, Caleb asked every day if he could have a dog. He specifically wanted Brona, our next-door-neighbor's dog. Carter is very taken with dogs as well. As soon as we step outside the front door, he immediately grabs my hand and walks me over to the neighbor's fence where he expects me to lift him up (and hold him up indefinitely) so he can see Brona.

Matt and I have had several serious conversations about getting a dog. I LOVE dogs. I worked at a dog kennel all throughout high school and became very attached to some of the dogs that always frequented the kennel. We had a dog growing up when I lived in Utah. Periwinkle was *my* dog. She slept with me at night, and we were the best of buds. It was so difficult leaving her behind when we moved.

After a few discussions about getting a dog, we finally decided that the time is not right for now. Matt's biggest reason why we shouldn't ever get a dog is because I become too attached. There were a lot of other things...we couldn't make up our minds about small vs. large dog (I'd love a dog that could go running with me), outside vs. inside dog, we would want a dog that didn't shed hair, I'm trying to take good care of our 2-year-old couches and don't want a dog jumping on them, and cleaning up the backyard after a dog isn't necessarily appealing especially when I teach preschool and have kids playing in my backyard constantly. So to answer Caleb's constant question, maybe one day we'll get a dog. For now, our neighbor is kind enough to let us borrow his dog on occasion. We love it when Brona comes over to play!

Completely unrelated to dogs, we love our wisteria in the corner of our backyard. It has completely taken over all 4 corners of the fence. It only blooms for about 2 weeks in the year, so we had to take a picture of it before all the blooms left. (It also attracts a large number of bees and wasps for those two weeks!) It is green all spring and summer so it still looks nice, but we always look forward to the blooming.

Happy Birthday!

There's still more celebrating to do this weekend with Matt's family, but tonight we celebrated Carter's (and my) birthday with my family.

A recap of my day first: Matt got me a new MacBook Pro. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with everything to learn and frustrated that some of the shortcuts aren't the same as a PC, but this blog post is coming from my laptop while I'm watching American Idol. That's a great feeling. Maybe now I'll keep up better on my blogging! Matt is such a great gift-giver, and he always manages a great deal because he knows I'm not happy with a gift if it's more money than I want to spend (I would have never asked for this gift). I'll never be able to equal his ability, but he still loves me for my efforts! Some church friends took me out to lunch as well, and I got lots of birthday wishes from friends and family.

Carter didn't know his day was any different except for a visit to the doctor's office where he got three shots! Cruel of me, I know. Carter weighs 23 lbs. 13 oz. in the 66th percentile, and he is 31" in the 85th percentile. He's looking to be taller than Caleb will be.

My family came over for cake/ice cream and presents. Here are some pics:

I made a Texas sheet cake because it's one of my favorite cakes. Ariane brought some peanut butter balls as well, since I'm a sucker for peanut butter and milk chocolate. They were yummy.

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Carter and I blowing out our candle.

Carter crawled on the table ready to dig in!

Matt took a lot of pictures of Carter eating cake. Here are some of my favorites:

He couldn't understand why everyone was watching him/filming/taking pictures. "I'm just doing my thing." Carter LOVES to eat.

Opening presents. This shirt says "I'm always hungry." Perfect.

Carter is most always asleep by 7pm if not earlier. It was 8pm when the party wrapped up. You can tell how disinterested Carter is.

I couldn't get Carter's red eyes to edit for some reason, but I still thought this was a cute picture. Happy Birthday my sweet boy!

Sweet Tooth

Carter is going to have a sweet tooth like his Mama! Honestly it doesn't matter what anyone is eating; if you have food, Carter is right next to you like a little doggie begging for a bite. In this case, I was making a dessert and accidentally dropped a Cool Whip lid on the ground. Carter was quick to snatch it up and have his way with it. Carter turns one at the end of the month, and I'm predicting he will demolish his piece of cake.

Preschool Field Trip

We have been learning about bugs this month in preschool, so we did a field trip to the Butterfly Museum. The kids were so excited about going and talked about it for 2 weeks. I was really excited about going because it was my first time to use my new camera! Our Christmas present to ourselves was supposed to be a new camera (our old one was literally falling apart), but we decided to hold out for a sale. We now have a Canon G12 PowerShot that we're really enjoying using and experimenting with. I haven't read the manual yet (it's on the to-do list), but I can already tell a difference in the quality of pictures. Anyway, here's a slideshow of our trip: