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.

Cousins!

Ashley and Shaun went to Salt Lake for their anniversary and Kenzlee, Brock, and Joslynn stayed with us for the weekend. The kids LOVE their cousins and it was lots of fun. Kenzlee was a great help with Brooklyn and Joslynn (who love to fight) and Brock and Carson played really hard. It's fun to watch Carson and Brock play together. Carson is finally old enough to really play well with Brock and they have lots of fun. They both slept on the bottom bunk and poor Brock got smothered by Carson.

On Saturday we went to the playground at the elementary school by our house. The kids played on the slides, jungle gym, and swings. They also played on the teeter-totter. Carson had never seen one or played on one before, so he thought it was amazing. I took turns with the little girls on my lap and we teeter-tottered with Kenzlee.  Brooklyn and Joslynn would laugh and laugh when it was their turn. So sweet and so cute.

At one point we all piled on a tire swing and slowly (to make sure no one fell off) rocked side to side. I did my best to get a decent picture before anyone fell off. :)

 

Later that day we painted pumpkins in the driveway. Once again, Brooklyn had a lot of fun with the paint. I don't think there was a single inch of the pumpkins that didn't have paint on them. 

We had a lot of fun with our cousins. We need to make this more of a monthly tradition!

Playing in the leaves

We had a few weeks in October of AMAZING weather. It was warm, sunny, and perfect. I love fall even though it only seems to last a few weeks in Idaho. We met up with some friends at the park to play on one of the really nice days. The kids had so much fun playing outside in the sun. Pretty soon they found the leaves and had a blast. I think it was the first time Brooklyn has played in the leaves and she loved throwing them up in the air. It was hard to get a good picture because they had so much fun jumping and dancing in the leaves.

I really enjoy days like this with the kids. It's so fun to watch them play and just let them be kids. I think I'm going to be really sad when Carson goes to school and isn't by my side to play with all day. I guess we just need to work really hard at making more memories like this one. :)

Random Cuteness

The last few months have been busy for us and we have been trying to enjoy summer and warm weather as much as possible. Here is a little look at what we have been up to:

Typical mess under the high chair once Brooklyn is done eating. It's a constant chore to keep it clean.

Donuts with Daddy!

Melaleuca Zoo day! We never get tired of going to the Zoo. Carson's favorite part is sitting on all of the fake animals. 

Lately the kids have been obsessed with my glasses. Carson put on a pair and looked so funny!

Playing the Disneyland game on the XBox with Daddy. Carson loves the game after we have been there and he knows all of the rides.

Carson and Brock are finally getting to the point where they play really great together. It's so fun to watch them become good friends.

This little girl loves the popcorn popping toy at Target and always wants to push it around while we are there. Although its cute while we are in the store, I refuse to buy it. :)

Carson likes to take pictures and will randomly say, "Mom, lets take a picture." I don't mind. He's such a cutie. 

Brooklyn found my stash of girl scout cookies one morning and ate an entire package of thin mints. If she wasn't so innocent looking and cute I would have been really mad. 

The kids love playing outside and they especially love playing with their water table. It was such a good investment! 

One day we played at the park for 3 1/2 hours and Brooklyn fell asleep as soon as she hit the car seat. 

Time for some bigger sunglasses!!

Smores for FHE

Snowcones with our cousins!

Carson randomly got the block of cheese from the fridge and took a few bites out of it. Silly kid.

Disneyland!!

Ok, here goes probably the longest post I've ever done. DISNEYLAND!!! Jason and I have talked about doing a family trip for a while now, but weren't quite sure how or when to do it. Jason works so hard at a very demanding job - normally putting in close to 60 hours a week - and also goes to school fulltime. The poor guy leaves before we wake up in the morning and normally doesn't come home until after we are all asleep. Weekends are spent entirely at the library. Needless to say, we missed our daddy. We were blessed with a little bit of extra money we weren't counting on and decided to go for it. So, the week after finals ended we packed our bags and headed for Disneyland! We flew on Allegiant Air since we get great deals and took a shuttle from the airport to our hotel. The kids did great on the flight and got a little wiggly on the shuttle, but for the most part they did great. We bought a front-carrier for Brooklyn and it turned out to be our lifesaver. She likes to be held and likes to see everything, and this was the perfect way for her to do both.

We stayed in the Disneyland Hotel which as a lot of fun. In all the times I have gone to Disneyland I have never stayed in one of the actual hotels before. Although it was really nice, I don't think we will do it again. For us it didn't feel like it was worth all the extra money. :)

We spent an entire week there which gave us plenty of time to do everything we wanted to without feeling rushed. We were able to go back to the hotel and take naps and let the kids rest and just enjoy ourselves. Carly and Will flew out for the second part of the week and helped us with the kids so we could go on a few of the adult rides as well. It worked out perfectly. The kids loved all the rides and we went when school was still in session so it wasn't crowded at all. In fact, some of the rides didn't have any wait at all so we didn't even get off the ride. We rode the little mermaid ride about 6 times in a row almost every day we were there. We have the entire thing memorized, but the kids LOVED it so we didn't mind. Carson also liked the Teacups, Dumbo, the Carousel, Buzz Lightyear, and Peter Pan. Brooklyn liked EVERYTHING we went on. That girl was so silly! She would laugh and giggle as soon as we would get started. She really enjoyed herself. 

 Here comes picture overload!

On the Dumbo ride! First ride of our trip!

Daddy and Brooklyn riding Dumbo - first ride of the trip!

Loving the teacups!

Right after we rode the teacups one night

Meeting Pluto

Mickey Mouse!!

Brooklyn loves Sully, so we bought her the stuffed animal while we were in the park one day. She LOVES it!

This little girl loved churros. She could eat an entire one all by herself.

Carson loved the Carousel rides. He would ride them at least 3-4 times in a row before agreeing to get off.

Brooklyn and Daddy riding the Dumbo ride!

We ate breakfast with the characters one morning and had a great time. Carson was in heaven!

We also got to watch the World of Color show one night and it was INCREDIBLE. I don't know how else to describe it! Carson and Brooklyn loved it as well. It was totally worth having to wait for an hour to save good seats. None of our pictures really turned out except the one of Carson and I waiting for it to start.

This hulk is made up entirely of Legos. The picture doesn't even come close to doing it justice. It was so cool. Outside they had a lot of Disney characters made out of legos that were larger than Jason and I put together. Carson loves Legos (he gets it from his Dad) and he wanted to spend an entire day in the Lego store.

We had a blast on our trip and made lots of great memories. As you can imagine, this isn't even close to all of the pictures we took and I'm sure I will come back and add lots of things as I remember them. It was just what our little family needed. :) Thanks, Disney for a magical week!