Easter Egg Hunts

We had lots of fun celebrating Easter this year. Easter means the start idea hope of Spring, which always makes us excited. About a week before Easter, our playgroup had a craft and Easter egg hunt. The kids had fun and Carson was so nice about helping Brooklyn find eggs. Once she realized there was chocolate and candy in the eggs, she wasn't too interested in finding more. Carson helped her see reason and soon she was on her way again.

Ok, so I have to tell you my feelings about the Easter Bunny. Sigh. I don't hate the Easter Bunny. I grew up with the Easter Bunny in my house and I don't think there is anything wrong with having fun with the tradition. In fact, I don't not talk about the Easter Bunny, but we just don't focus on it. The Easter baskets don't come from the Easter Bunny, they come from Mom and Dad. We don't really talk about the Easter Bunny and hiding eggs is a fun tradition that we do as part of Easter. Again, I don't have anything against him, but we just don't really celebrate him. He is just another part of Easter that we might happen to see and take pictures with, if that makes sense.  It's not even something we consciously did, it just kind of happened that way. Besides, have you ever seen a not-creepy Easter Bunny costume? haha! Carson saw this Easter Bunny at an egg hunt we went to and he HAD to take a picture. Is it just me, or is he creepy looking?!

The day before Easter we went to an Easter Egg hunt in town. There are several, and this one was smaller than most - which meant less kids. The rule was that no adults could touch the eggs, so poor Morgan couldn't figure out what we were doing to her. She did manage to get 3 eggs in her bucket....with at little help from Uncle Will and Aunt Carly.

After the Easter Egg hunt, we went to Yellowstone Bear World for their Easter Egg hunt and their cub celebration. We went last year and we had a lot of fun so we decided to go again. Yeah, so did everyone else in Eastern Idaho. It took us about an hour just to get into the park the line of cars was so long. With all of the crazy people there, we decided not to do the egg hunt and just have fun riding the rides and looking at all of the animals.

Brooklyn and Carson both really enjoyed all of the rides they have there. They are meant for little kids their size and you can ride them as much as you want. We spent most of our time there and then went to the petting zoo area. Brooklyn is the braver of the two kids and would get a lot closer to the animals than Carson would.

 After we drove through the park and watched all the bears, we went home and rested. Later that evening we went to Orange Leaf and had some yummy ice cream. :) It was a fun-filled and exhausting day!

St. Patrick's Day

I love St. Patrick's Day! It is such a fun little holiday. I remember growing up my Mom used to make us green food and I thought it was the coolest thing. I had plans to do fun things for the kids that morning, but we had just gotten back from Washington about 4 am and I was beat.
Jason decided to stay home from work that day and hang out with us. We took the kiddos to I-Jump to get all of their wiggles out from being in the car the entire week before while we were in Washington. It was the first time Jason was able to go with us. The kids had so much fun jumping with their daddy and throwing dodgeballs at him.

I even took Morgan out to bounce for a little bit. She wasn't sure what to think of it all and had a death grip on me the whole time.

After we were done at I-Jump we went to our normal playgroup for a St. Patrick's Day activity. The kids got to do a craft and decorate cupcakes with their friends. We love playgroup days! It's fun for the moms to all get together and it's fun for the kids to play.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite days of the year. I love everything about it. The colors, the decorations, the idea of expressing your love.... I love it all. This year I made a few Valentine's Day crafts for our house. I thought they turned out pretty cute.

We invited our play group over for a Valentine's Day party. Each of the kids made mailboxes and we handed out valentines for each of them. It was crazy chaos, but the kids loved it and it's fun to get together with all of our friends. 13 kids, 3 babies, and 7 moms.

I love this picture! It perfectly describes our play group. Silly kids, some in the corner crying and not wanting to take a picture (Carson), not possible to get everyone to look at the camera, funny faces...

My parents send the kids gift cards to Dairy Queen for Valentine's Day, so I decided to take the kids out for lunch. We went to DQ, went and got balloons (our tradition), and then picked up a heart-shaped pizza for dinner. We normally also make sugar cookies and deliver them to our friends, but this year we didn't get around to it.

Since Jason had class that night, Carly and Will came over and hung out with us for a little bit.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Christmas

Christmas is getting more and more fun with the kids each year. Carson has really caught on to the whole idea and was beyond excited to open his presents. Brooklyn was a little out of it, but once she opened a few of her baby doll toys she was excited. My parents were here and Carly and Will came over to open presents with us. I love Christmas and the excitement of Christmas morning. 

Carson was excited about all of the stuff in his stocking. He got bubble bath, a new toothbrush, candy, and a coloring pack. It was fun to watch him pull everything out. 

Brooklyn was in love with her baby doll stuff. She got a little crib and a car seat for her baby dolls and she wanted to sit in the crib herself. 

It was a fun morning of opening gifts and hanging out. The kids played and played. I love lazy Christmas days like this. It's nice to just enjoy it all and not be rushing around.

The kids insisted on taking their new pots and pans into the bathtub. They are a favorite toy now! They like helping mommy in the kitchen, so it's fun to have their own pots and pans to cook with. 

We were truly blessed this Christmas - what a wonderful day.

Family Christmas Party

This year for our family Christmas party, we got to have Santa come visit! We met "Santa" at church one Sunday when he came to listen to the primary program. We sat next to him and he played with the kids during sacrament meeting. At the end of the meeting he handed me his card and told me that he makes Santa visits during the Christmas season. We thought it would be fun so we scheduled him to come to our party. 

We set gifts on our porch with the kids' names on them and he put them in his sack before he came in. He came in ringing his jingle bells and the kids were amazed/surprised/shocked that Santa came! It was so funny to watch! They didn't really know what to do!

None of the kids were scared, which was kind of amazing. Even Santa was surprised that the little girls were excited to sit on his lap. Brooklyn was so excited, but she wouldn't smile. It was so funny. She kept standing by him waiting for her turn and when he finally called her name she climbed right up on his lap like she knew exactly what she was doing.

Brooklyn waiting for her turn

It really was so much fun for everyone. The kids had the best surprise and it was so fun to watch. I think it is something we will probably do every year from now on. Before he left we sang Christmas carols and he explained what the colors on the candy cane represent to the kids. Such a fun new tradition!