Hippity Hoppity Easter!

Well the Easter bunny made it to our place and wow did the kiddos get spoiled! A princess color book, hat, flower clips, barrettes, and a little lamb holder (that was mine as a kid) for Bella. For Jaden a firetruck (he's been watching a lot of Fireman Sam) and a fun new monster truck wii game! A super playdough kit for both of them and a new necklace and ear rings for mommy and jerky and a egg laying chicken for daddy. 

 Woah Mom there's Candy in here!

 Instead of traditional Easter egg dying, we made Dinosaur eggs!

I found out how to do these from Our Best Bites They turned out pretty neat even if it did take a few eggs before I got the hang of peeling them smoothly.

After church it was to Grandma & Grandpa Yancey's for the annual Easter egg hunt in the orchard. Jaden had to show off his new fire truck to his cousin Alex.

Bella had to show off with Uncle Jerry.

And just show off in general.

Elisabeth, Natalie, me and Ryan anxiously anticipating the great hunt.

Of course I had to get a picture of baby KayAnn

"No Mom, Take a picture of me!"

 I'll even pose super cute for you.

Jaden is ready for the hunt!

Get set.....GO!

Bella's got one and is holding on for dear life!

She kept putting one down to pick up another

Would someone please open one of these for me? I know there's candy in there!

Aww KayAnn got one too!

Why does EVERYONE want to upstage the baby? This little interruption is brought to you by my super mature husband. LOL

Grandma & Grandpa Potter and Uncle Cory came to see the fun too.

Umm Bella there's no more eggs under there are you going to come out?

Aww She's going for the easy egg find! Let me tell you brother wasn't happy when she got caught. Hee.

Pleeaaassse Grandma?

Awww sweet sweet chocolate! Allow me to wipe my face on your jacket grandma, I'm a little dirty.

There were just a few eggs out there. . . .

Now that you've had your candy it's time for food. My kids thought they were so big sitting with their cousins.

Bella the super mooch sneaking food from Grandpa, and yes she also has a cookie in her hand. She kept stealing them from people.

What's Easter without a look at the next generation of Easter Bunnies? These are Grandpa Yancey's baby bunnies. Elisabeth held one while the kids pet them oh so softly.

And because she's so big, Bella needed a try on the big kid swing!

But then was happy to go back to her swing and be spoiled.

 

 Meanwhile Jaden love his time playing with Alex.

We had a great Easter! Thanks weather for cooperating! And of course talked about the true meaning of Easter as well, but I'm pretty sure at this point the kids will mostly remember that candy comes in eggs. ;)

Spring Sprung! . . . at least for one day.

We FINALLY had a warm day. We watched as the big machines took advantage of it and started on the road that our duplex will be on. After watching from the window for a bit we all went outside and enjoyed the sun.

Ryan got home early from work and decided to take advantage of the nice day as well and take down the half dead tree in our backyard. Grandpa Yancey's tractor sure did the trick!

Check out Daddy's helper in the back there. He helped load up sticks into the truck and ran behind the truck whenever Daddy picked up the chainsaw.

In case you were wondering, I went out and helped too. ;) Now the tree left behind a wonderfully exciting hole just right for little ones to play in.

 And yes at time the dirt was flying.

And it was EVERYWHERE! But who could deny a kid this much fun!?!

Just think what all we could accomplish if we had TWO days of spring! ;)

18 Months!

Can you believe my baby isn't a baby anymore? :(  She sure is a pretty little girl though. :)

 Height: 30 inches (2.5 ft.)

Weight: 20 lbs 15 oz

Nope not a baby but great big girl. In fact she's certain she's as big as Jaden and wants to do everything he does, including sit at the table instead of the highchair and go to preschool. Drives the poor boy nuts.

Nursery transition is still in the works but seems to be going well. Since I'm the primary chorister it's been up to Daddy to take care of this wild thing at church. He's more than grateful for her to finally be 18 months. This past week he took her and she started to cry. After a bit someone pulled out a bunch of toy cars. Now because our toy cars here are Jaden's, Bella rarely gets to play with them all on her own without him directing the play, so she was very excited to go play cars without big brother around. Daddy snuck out and once she realized it she cried for about 5 min. and was then over it. After all there is snack involved, what could be better?

At her dr. appointment everything seemed to be in great shape until the doc looked in her ears. "She has an ear infection. Has she been acting sick?" umm not even remotely! What a little trooper. So we went and got her medicine and she loves taking it, though still has showed no signs of being sick. There at the doctors though she was pretty angry, After we were all done and I was making her 2 yr appointment (gasp), the lady that gave her her shot and the dr. were behind us at their work station. Bella gave them the evil glare of doom.     Feeling bad the shot lady offered her a sucker. Bella took it hesitantly, handed it to me to open then popped it in her mouth. A second later she gave the shot lady the biggest smile. Ah now we know how to win this little girl's heart. Bella continued to happily chat with her and the dr. while I finished my business, then happily waved bye bye.

Her motor skills continue to improve as she loves to climb and dance and run and spin and walk backwards.

Her speech seems to be coming along though she tends to say the sounds of full sentences rather than pronounce individual words. She does however have down "more" & "that" along with some other words so we usually can tell what she wants.

She has shown her temper on multiple occasions and it appears that the big tantrums we somehow managed to avoid during Jaden's terrible twos will be in full force with this one. 

Daddy is clearly the favorite around here. She will only allow him to get up with her at night. And prefers him to dress her as well. She squeals with delight when he gets home from work and rushes upstairs to greet him. She also makes excellent kissy faces for him after morning prayer so that he doesn't forget to kiss her before he leaves.

Although Daddy is the fav, she still seems to have some love for me. In the morning Ryan will usually get up and start making the kids breakfast while I use those 10 min. to convince myself to get out of bed. The reward in this is that Bella will often come in, climb up on the bed and snuggle right up to me. This is really the only time this girl is cuddly and I love it. At least until Daddy says breakfast is ready and then she pops right up, slides off the bed and runs to the food.

So although I may miss my baby girl, I'm having fun with this energetic little toddler. Love you Bella!  

Pedicure!

 For my birthday my mom got me a gift certificate for a pedicure. I've never had one before. Not wanting to go by myself I waited until Mom could go with me. She ended up having even a better idea. When my aunt Adele came to visit we would all go get a pedicure including my Grandma! It was a fun morning away from the kiddos with the ladies of my family. 

Does my grandma seem a little unsure about this? She wouldn't pick a color so my mom picked out a really bright one and a really neutral one and told her to pick out of those two. :)

Ah now Adele looks like she really is having a good time! 

And no wonder, we got our feet and legs exfoliated,  lotioned,  massaged, and even dipped in wax.  

She convinced my mom to go a little more extreme than usual if they both did so Adele got this really pretty sparkley dark purple.

Here's the ending product of my Grandma's as well.  they turned out so nice!

 Then is was mine and my mom's turn

We even enjoyed a Dove chocolate and ice water while we chatted.

The girl doing mine kept asking if the water was too hot, my feet were so red, I kept assuring her that my feet were either purple or red and that the water was fine. 

 Here's my mom's sparkley green toes!

Okay so I didn't go near as bold but the light pink was just so pretty and always makes me smile!

Now if only the weather would be warm enough to show off my pretty toes! I had a great time with my ladies! Thanks Mom!

You said It!

3/22/11
Bella totally broke the space bar so if my postslooklike thisyou knowwhy.

3/26/11
Jaden's at his first birthday party without us. Happy Birthday to Russell!

3/28/11
The other day Jaden told us a story about how when Me and Daddy were babies he was the mommy and fed us both bottles at the same time.

3/28/11
Someone please tell mother nature that April fools day is Fri. and the 3 in. of snow out my window is SO NOT FUNNY!

4/1/11
Jaden: When race cars don't have wheels they're being silly! APRIL FOOL!
Well he kinda gets the concept. ;)

He's got another one "Mommy I Santa Clause so you Santa Clause Mommy,Mommy. April Fool!"

4/3/11
Ryan: "Jaden, that is President Monson, He is a Prophet, he Talks to Jesus." Jaden: "Daddy are you Jesus?" Ryan: "No silly, you know who Jesus is." Jaden: "You said he talks to Jesus and he talks to you see!" Jaden points at the tv. :)

4/5/11
Had a great ladies day out with my mom, aunt, and grandma! Got my first pedicure.
My toes are so pretty! Too bad it's too cold for anyone to see them.

4/7/11
Happy 18 month b-day to my not so baby girl!!

4/8/11
Jaden: "Mom I still don't love you." Me: "Well I ALWAYS love you, why don't you love me?" Jaden: "Cause you're keeping on the computer." (In case you think this is a hit to how much time I spend on the computer, which would be valid, but in fact he is referring to the fact that he wants to play at pbskids.org. Time to get a monitor for our other computer for the big boy.

4/8/11
Jaden saying the morning prayer: "Heavenly Father bless...be quiet Bella! Heavenly Father... Bella be quiet! Heavenly Father bless Mommy and... BELLA BE QUIET!...

April Fool!

April Fool! 

I explained to Jaden that it was a day to just be silly!  He was happy to oblige and worked really hard at coming up with April Fool Jokes:

Jaden: When race cars don't have wheels they're being silly! APRIL FOOL!

Well he kinda gets the concept. ;)

He's got another one "Mommy I Santa Clause so you Santa Clause Mommy,Mommy. April Fool!"

I got the kids dressed silly, Jaden wore his clothes inside out and backwards, Bella wore Jaden's clothes and they made her look like a cute little boy. Both had on mismatched socks (though Jaden didn't even notice until bedtime hee April Fool on him!)

Here's the kiddos dressed for a silly day. And April Fool on me! They refused to look at the camera.

For lunch the kids had to eat all their candy  before they could have lunch. Jaden especially enjoyed this silliness. We then had waffles for lunch. 

When Daddy got home Jaden ran up and to Daddy and said "Daddy what's on your shirr? April Fool Day!" To bad daddy wasn't paying close enough attention to catch his perfectly executed joke that I may have been coaching him on all day.

Jaden also kept getting confused and would say Patrick Day! 

Jaden got another chance at his April Fools trick. Ryan was taking me on a date that night so we took the kiddos to Grandma and Grandpa Potter's. Jaden ran up to Grandma "April Fool Day. What's on your shirt?" Okay so that wasn't quite as well executed but he's getting there. ^-^

The trick was really on us though because the museum we were going to closes early on Friday's (odd? we though so.) So after a wonderful dinner we went to Home Depot (it seems we never go on a date without stopping there). Then we walked around the greenbelt a bit. 

We saw a fun new playground nearby and since it was empty we went and played for a bit.

But when a family with kids arrived we quickly made our escape. We aren't teens anymore and didn't want to appear creepy for playing at a kids playground without kids. 

That night I got one last trick in. I had put several plastic bags under the sheets on Ryan's side of the bed. He thought that was a pretty good one, and it gave me a good giggle.

Other silliness at our house since then:

Jaden and Bella insist on literally occupying the same space at the same time. This often results in to angry stuck children. Here in the excersaucer and often behind the stove as well.

Bella found an excellent comfy place to watch tv.

Here's Jaden with his recent artwork including a paper airplane he helped fold himself!

Here's more of my little daredevil having a great time!