Easter

This was right after a long 3 hrs at church. We headed right over to my Mom's for our Easter celebration and as the girls are running in to change I thought, yikes, I hadn't taken one picture in their dresses. Do you like Blake? He was too fast for me and had already changed. Oh well.

Too sunny, too hot, too squinty, still they were cute.
Might be my last year getting them to match, or maybe Lex and Mallory will stay the same size for years to come. Who knows.

Manny Bananny and Britty

All the kids. We missed Kyle!

Out of order, but this was the night before. The Elders stopped by so they joined the kids.

The Easter Bunny always hides the baskets in Mimi's backyard and we hunt for those first, then eat a yummy dinner, then hunt for eggs.

Brittan got the Thumbelina movie in her basket and a little doll set with it. She had been obsessed ever since.

All the kids got new goggles. Britty was cracking me up with them. She felt so cool to be like the big kids.

Funny girl

Goggle pictures are the best.

Blake was ready to dive in! Too cold still, and Sunday!

Blake tried the whole week leading up to Easter to get me to take him to Target with his own $5 to buy this Star Wars Lego set. Little did he know how good the Easter bunny would be to him!

We go a little overboard with the hunt. I guess we are used to more kids being there cause usually there are, but this year it was just Holly's kids and mine so they all got to hunt for a million eggs. All the big kids got 45 and the 4 youngest got 25 each! Dang!

We all put small bills in them too. Britty was happy to find a dollar. Madelyn got $29! We all tell her where the $5 eggs are though. She might use it better than Brittan.

Blake found the biggest candy egg! Easter was fun!

Newport Beach

Ahh, the beach! This was such a great day. I was sicker than a dog and the warm beach air felt so good! The kids were so excited to be there, a nice break from Disneyland!

Beach Bums!

Can you hear hear her squeals of delight?

We beached close to these rocks so of course Blake had to explore! He watched the waves for ever and this one caught him a little off guard! Kinda big.

Brittty was pretty brave!

Only for a sec though.....She would go right to the edge of the water and RUN! as soon as a new wave would come.

Don't worry, this is just my 10yr old- Alexa, and my sister in law-Molly, who recently had a baby!, doing front walk overs.

Lex thought Molly was pretty bomb!

So did I! Wow!

Mally collected seaweed the whole time. She only set it down when I told her that it was whale barf. I did tell her I was joking, and then it was right back in her hands.

Blake being the only big boy meant he was nominated for the beach burial!

Ben (Val's husband) and Lex were pretty serious about their sand castle. It had moats, underground tunnels, different levels, until the little girls decided to help.

Diggin' away

Mallory was probably trying to convince Brittan to leave, it didn't work.

All the little helpers!

We stayed for a good part of the day. We had tons of fun and the kids already want to go back. We left and went back to the hotel pool to de-sand and then got showered and ready in two seconds and met Ben and Val for a yummy dinner.

Surprise trip!

I literally decided 4 days before going, it was so thrown together, but off to Disneyland again! We weren't going to get to go this spring. Valerie and Nic's families were going, my friend Ashleigh's family was going, so I couldn't resist. This was against a lot of Disney rules I have, the most important one being that I will not go past Feb. Too many crowds and could be too hot. I'm a wimp and spoiled cause once you go when no one is there and your kids walk on rides and stay on them to go a second round cause no one is in line, it is very painful going when the whole world goes too. Oh well, I had to do it. I told the kids the night before we left that they needed to pack and they were leaving the second school got out at 12:45 the next day. Hysterical screaming, laughing, hugs of joy, and then they packed themselves. I was having a regular bow day the next day and really did not have time to pack so they did! They would hold an outfit iver the banister and I would yes or no it and they would chuck it over if it was a yes. My bow room looked like a bomb went off, but all I had to do was fold and put the stuff in. They were great. The best part was that I didn't tell Nic or Val we were coming, only Ashleigh cause we were gonna be in the same hotel, our favorite one. So off we went. We got up so early, not quite Dave Rawe early, but we made it to Disneyland at 8:30 for our early entry. I new the fam wouldn't get there quite so early so we got to hang with Ash and fam for a while. Oh, my kids didn't know their cousins were coming either. I decided to text Nic a secret msg saying that we were there and to text me back when they got there and tell me where they were. My kids were so confused and not to happy when a couple hours in we were leaving Ashleigh's family for no reason. I just kept saying I forgot something in Fantasy Land. We hid out in a cove by Pinocchio, my kids thought I was crazy, but I had to wait til the merry go round stopped and the fam was getting off. I even made my kids line up to get "bee lip" (Burts Beeswax) on. I had to keep them out of sight from the ride! So as soon as it stopped, I said k, lets go! We walked around and headed straight into them! It was so much fun! Everyone was surprised! Literally as this was happening, I hear someone yell my name and I look over and it is a college room mate from my freshman year at BYU, 16 years ago! Kirsten is from Colorado so the chance meeting at this very moment was crazy! It was great to catch up with her for a few (while the kids went on Dumbo with the fam) and see her cute kids. Our trip was great. It was waaaaay too crowded, won't break Disney rule #1 again. Only down fall was Todd wasn't there, and I got strep throat day 3 of our trip, and the on call doctor wouldnt call me in anything! Other than that, it was a blast!

My sweet kids

Blake and Lex are so good at helping me when Todds not with us. Britty sometimes choses them over me!

All the cute princesses-

Jessica, Jordan, Brittan and Addison

I'm so glad my girls love seeing the princesses still. Note the absence of Blake-

not so cool to him

This was Britty's new obsession this time. She has recently gotten hooked on the

Toy Story movies so in every store it was a hunt to find and hold Jessie, Woody and help

one of them ride Bullseye. She got all three for her treat. This was the first time Lex couldn't

find anything she wanted, that's ok, as long as she still wants to go!

It's Dress Party Time Again!!!!!!!!!!

For all of you who have come before, and for those of you who want to for the first time, it is time for The Dress Party. Deanne will be blazing through town on

Monday, March 16

from 12pm to 3pm

for my semi-annual dress party.

She will bring dresses for the spring and summer, Eastery type dresses, as well as some more casual ones too. The prices are amazing, $20-$40, and these are boutique style (brand) dresses. You can call me with any questions you have. There might even be a prize for bringing someone who has never come before, and it may have to do with a bow :)

Hope to see you there!

Girl Trip!

This past weekend, the girls and I set off to the coast for a fun trip with our friends Christy, Breanna and Ryan. We has Fri. and Mon. off for Presidents Day so we left on Friday morning and headed to Santa Cruz first to visit the mission there. Alexa and Breanna chose that one to do their 4th grade mission project on, so this is kinda the purpose of our trip. We had fun exploring the church for all of 20 seconds cause it was so small! Good thing I asked the little lady who volunteers at the gift shop if we had done everything that we could do (we had already told her we were a 4th grade family, doing a project) and she says, "Well I guess you could go over and see the mission". Good to know. Thanks for being so helpful. Kinda thought we were already there. Didn't know the church and mission were at two different locations and we were about to leave thinking, wow, sure thought there would be more! We laughed at how dumb we were and how not helpful our sweet lady was.

After going over to the actual mission for a while, we headed up to Capitola to walk around a bit. Brittan screamed hysterically when she saw the ocean! Then we headed up to Salinas to eat dinner at Chili's and then go see Confessions of a Shopaholic. It was cute but I was kinda disappointed. We were supposed to stay at Nic's that night but Brittan started running a high fever so we shacked up with Christy in her hotel room so we wouldn't give what ever Brittan had to Nic's kids. She was sort of better the next day, with motrin.

Saturday, Molly met us at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and got us in for free! Thanks Molly! The kids had so much fun. The only bad part was that it was soooo crowded! We hit a triple bummer weekend with it being a Sat., Pres. Day weekend and it was Valentines Day. Oh well, we still had fun and the kids loved playing together! I love their faces here!
Britty in one of the kid areas.

Our main goal of this day was to get Brittan to the beach! She has been obsessed with it lately and I owe it all to Calliou. Apparently the kid must go there a lot cause Brittian talks about all his trips there constantly! She wanted to fly kites, look for crabs, dig in the sand, and much more. Sad thing for her was that it was like 2 degrees in Monterey that weekend, and raining too. Even still, we had to go! So Nic met up with us at that point and took us to the end of Cannery Row down to a beach. We stayed for one hour. It was all we could handle cause it was so cold. Didn't seem to bother Lex, Mally, Breanna and Ryan. They rolled up there sweats and got in the water! Crazy kids, their legs were so red! Poor Ryan got knocked over by a wave and fell completely in the water!

Brittan, Jessica and Jordan loved digging in the sand the whole time. Brittan was not about to touch the water. After stripping Ryan down, we could only take the cold a minute more so we packed up and headed back to Nic and Molly's house for some warm baths!

We have promised Brittan that the beach is way more fun than that, and that it really does get warm, and that we'll go back there soon with Jessica and Jordy! We had a super fun time!