Easter

I'm not even going to attempt to catch up on everything I've missed the last few months.  Our computer crashed and we lost a bunch of pictures and also I'm lazy so sorry about that.

Here are my sweet Easter babies.....

I love them so much.  We did all the fun Easter activities yesterday so we could focus on Christ today.  It was a good day at church.  On the way there we listened to the Lamb of God choral performance. There is a song about when He died that says "Hope did not die here, but here was given" that I thought of a lot during church.  I'm so so grateful that I can have hope.  Hope that my children can become good people, hope that good exists in the world, hope that no matter how hard life gets, Jesus Christ has given me hope and the opportunity to live with Him again. I love Him so much.

Happy Easter!  

Easter Egg Hunt

Every year, we try to have an egg hunt in our backyard.  This year was really fun.  We had a few friends over and reserved a section just for the littles.  I'm always surprised how little time it takes for the kids to find the hundreds of eggs. 

 Oh the anticipation!

 Bridger's quote of the night: "I only find like one every hour!"  He was getting discouraged because he saw all the bigger kids getting more than him.  Life is rough.

 Penny found her first egg and didn't want to continue searching until the candy was in her mouth.  Gross.

 I love that Brody is getting to the age where things are just fun. He isn't as whiny and upset about dumb things as much anymore.

 I love Garrett's "special" smile.  They're going to get married some day.

We had cupcakes afterward.  I know-I'm kind of special too.

Riverbanks Zoo

We hadn't been to the zoo in years so when my parents came to town, we figured it was time to go again.  They've made a lot of improvements since we've been.  It was perfect weather and not too crowded.  We had so much fun!  It was Penny's first time to the zoo and she loved seeing all the animals...for a second.  Then she was ready to move on.

 Bridger had a rough time at the beginning.  I'm not sure why, but for some reason whenever we do something fun, he gets upset easily and usually ends up crying.  Adam and my dad each had a talk with him and he mellowed out and had fun.  Here is is feeding the birds nectar.  Brody did it too, and the bird grabbed the cup right out of his hand and threw it on the ground.  He thought it was hilarious!

 Cute boys.

 I love his smile.

 Penny usually takes a while to get used to visitors, but she took a quick liking to my dad.  She wanted to be with him all the time.  I love seeing my parents with my kids- it doesn't happen often enough.

 This elephant had his legs crossed like this for over 10 minutes!  It was so funny.  What elephant does that?  This one and also his friend next door.  Both elephants were crossing their legs!

 Penny has the goofiest camera smile.  It looks like it hurts.

 In the penguin house.

 He's so old.

 They have a farm area where you can milk (water) a fake cow and smell chickens.  Not the highlight of the day.

 Two of my favorite girls in the world. Seriously, though.  

$2 for a handful of lettuce was worth it to see a giant giraffe tongue envelope Brody's hand and to hear his little squeal of delight.  Next time we should bring our own lettuce though.

We had so much fun with my parents.  We never take enough pictures but we did a lot of fun things together.  I love them.

Penny's 2!!

So turns out I didn't get any great pictures of Penny's birthday.  We celebrated a few days late since my parents were here. I made cinnamon rolls that day for conference and didn't want to make cupcakes too, so we had birthday cinnamon rolls after we had conference cinnamon rolls.  No complaints there.  We put two candles in hers and she blew them out like a champ.  The picture above is of her playing with her new Dynamite monkey.  Whenever we are in the car or hook our ipods into the speakers in the house, she claps her hands and dances until we put Dynamite on. I found this monkey that sings her favorite song.  She was so happy....but all the adults in the house were less happy to hear the song over and over and over and over again.

She also got a lot of clothes from grandma and Aunt Eliza and a sparkly pink purse with fake lipstick and all kinds of girly goodness.

Here are some fun facts about our pretty little monster:

She weighs 27 pounds and is in 3T clothes.  She doesn't look huge, but she is.
Her favorite food is sugar- candy, cookies, cupcakes, etc.  She can smell sugar from the other room.  She is our best eater so far.  She will eat most fruits and vegetables and eats dinner more than her brothers. 
She loves to get her nails painted and to put chapstick on. I'm so glad I got a girly girl.
Her favorite show, meaning the only one she will watch, is Team Umizoomi.
Her favorite movie is Cars.
Her favorite songs are Popcorn Popping and Little Bunny.
She is "that kid" in nursery.  You know- the hitter.  We can't seem to get her to stop.  We're hoping it's a phase, but seriously.  She's a bully.
She loves going to bed.  She tells me when she's ready for her nap and hardly ever cries when I put her to bed.  I love it!

We love Penny.  She is so beautiful and fun and sassy.   We are so grateful to have her in our family.  We all adore her.

Christmas with Nana and Papa

Finally getting around to posting this. We were excited to share Christmas with Nana and Papa (Lindquist) this year (well...last year now). The drove down from cold Indiana to enjoy the spring like Christmas weather down here in Georgia with us, and it was wonderful. One of the super lame things about living so far from family is that our kids don't get to hang out with their grandparents or cousins very much. So this trip was really awesome for them to be able to have fun with them. And fun it was!

Pops played all kinds of games with the kids and even taught Brody how to play chess and checkers and the huge 4 person chess board he built. They loved every minute of it and we loved to see them all together.

Me and my sweet mom tried to make some sweet treats in the kitchen. I've had this idea that candycane and white chocolate chips would make awesome cookies. So far I can't seem to perfect the recipe to make reality match my imagination, but Mom and I had a great time experimenting to tried and get it right. The were good, but I'm hoping for excellent next Christmas!

Of course the first thing, the last thing, and most things between those that the boys wanted to do involved some type of climbing on Grandpa. I'm so glad that he has the health and strength (and the willingness) to get on the floor with the boys and wrestle with them. They love it! They are never happier than when they are wrestling with papa. Even little Penny joined in this time and had a good time jumping on papa and chasing him around.

For Christmas Eve we tried something new since the weather was so nice - we went out to the backyard and roasted marshmallows after dinner! The Winn family came over for dinner (which was excellent) and then we all spent some time in the backyard talking and eating treats and s'mores. It was a good time and we especially loved the cool temperatures we were blessed with. Luckily Bridger escaped the fire with only a minor burn. You'd think kids would remember by now that those metal roasting sticks get hot when you put them in the fire!

The boys used some of their own money to buy gifts for Nana and Papa. This year Bridger got Papa a very cheap pair of hillbilly teeth which he thought were very funny, but had trouble keeping in his mouth. Nana was gifted with a whoopee cushion, which she used as a scapegoat and we all used for a good laugh. Brody and Bridger were asking everyone as sneakily as they could (which is to say not at all) to stand up for a second so they could see how tall they were. Low and behold, every time I or someone else sat back down after being measured some unknown pressurized gas that must have been secretly building up expelled itself! I just don't know how that happened! Excuse me!

Since the weather was so wonderful we went on a few walks along the trail and in the woods near our house. The boys went exploring all over the place, threw rocks in the streams, crossed under barbed wire, and trespassed on private property. What more can you ask for in a good adventure? Penny wanted to show Nana everything she found interesting, like bark pieces and big leaves and fallen trees and the stream she'd fearlessly get close to.

It was a good Christmas with family and friends and we all gave and received good things. The best gift was to have my parents here. A close second was the remote control Helicopter from Jess. Now that Bridger and Brody have their personalities more developed it was easier to get them good gifts. Bridger has been silently dancing all over the house with the use of his mp3 player and headphones and Brody has spent hours putting together various contraptions with his knex-like building set we got for him. Bridger has also been learning to read much more with his Hooked on Phoenix kit. Penny has not taken to riding her new little trike, but would love to push around anyone else on it. Jessica is working out with friends 3 times a week with her snazzy new Skechers and yoga pants. I'm sure she'll be able to run circles around me and beat me arm wrestling in no time.

We are looking forward to an awesome new year full of surprises and changes! We are glad to announce we are pregnant with twins!! And we are moving to Utah!! And we just bought new couches! Okay, well, one of those is true anyway. (hint: its the couches.)

Catching Up On December

December always seems to fly by and be extremely busy.  This year I thought I had kept things simple enough to not be as busy.  Turns out I hadn't.  We had stuff going on every weekend, school parties, baking, shopping, and the usual business of cleaning and laundry and keeping my children alive.  It's not a bad busy, but it makes everything go by so quickly.

Every year since we moved here to Georgia in 2005, we have gone to Lights of the South.  It's a huge light display that you take a hayride through to see.  It is beautiful and amazing and we love it.  The kids get to sit on Santa's lap and play on a playground and we stand by the fire to stay warm.  It's a magical place.

Brody and Bridger each told Santa what they wanted for Christmas, although by then they had changed their minds multiple times and after this they changed their minds a few more times.  I don't think Santa ever figured out what they wanted.

This is what happens when you try to bring Penny near Santa.  She's a little dramatic, it's true.

Aaaaand back to happy.

 

We also built and decorated a gingerbread house together.  The boys did all the decorating themselves.  I love to watch their creative minds working together.  The first year we did it I was anal and wanted the house to look perfect.  I'm glad I let that go.  

Penny contributed too.  Any candy that fell off of the house or was left unattended for more than 1.5 seconds quickly got stuffed into her mouth.  Side note- I'm sure most kids like candy, but I've never seen anyone like her before.  She will do ANYTHING for candy.  Even if it includes pain.  She'll eat food that she hates. And if she sees candy and doesn't get to eat it, watch out.  She will cut you.

More December catch up to come....

Better Late Than Never..... Merry Christmas!

This year I was too lazy to do Christmas cards.  During the week of Christmas, I slept in, took naps, and lazied around all day with the family.  We did get up and get dressed for church on Christmas and here are some pictures of my good-looking offspring.

We had a good Christmas and a good Christmas season.  We love to see our children as their understanding of Christ grows and they begin to understand the true meaning of Christmas.  We are grateful for our family, our friends, and our Savior. 

We hope you all had a good Christmas and that you felt loved and blessed!