Easter Dinner and Egg Hunt (Grandma's House)

The day before Easter, we all headed over to Aaron's parents' house for a little fun.  After a super-yummy dinner, Katie and I packed plastic eggs with candy, then Brian hid them throughout the basement.  The kids had a blast finding eggs!

 

Carson was easily distracted, but Grandma helped him stay on task so his basket wouldn't be empty later.

 

Aaron took Cole around. Once Cole got the idea, he was very efficiant at finding and basketing his eggs! 

 

The girls liked helping their younger cousin find eggs.

 

Cole was even more excited when he realized there was something IN the plastic eggs. 

 

The kids had fun playing in the ever-growing box fort that Grandma's been building onto whenever she finds another box.  It's pretty impressive at this point. 

 

Loved this picture of Evie trying to be as big as Grandpa. 

 

Another evidence that Cole loves balls.  He latched onto this after we took away the candy and played happily with it for almost half an hour, just him and a ball!

 

That night we also celebrated Jessica's birthday with yummy cake and some presents.  It's always fun when we can get together with family in the area for times like this!

Wisconsin Dells Wilderness Resort 2012!

Another B family trip to the nearby Dells resort!

Tyson and Elle

Evie, being brave and getting a tube for the wave pool 

Katie and Jess - isn't that wild suit precious? 

Lizzie figured out that the wheel changed the pressure of the spray in front of her. 

Carson loved the waves crashing into us as we sat at the edge of the wave pool 

One of our favorite traditions is to create.  This year it was painting birdhouses. 

Cole also had some time in the water, but since I was the one holding him, there were no pictures of that.  While we had lots of fun, as a whole, we also had a couple of scares.  We need to work up a plan for next year, since we had two kids who wandered off at different times.  It was terrifying - and they had no idea they were in danger.  Thankfully, we have been blessed with safety, even in separation, and we're gearing up for an accident-free trip next year!

Cousin Visit

Last week, Aaron's neice was over for a little visit.  She had a tough time for the first bit, then was very happy to be outside.  She especially loved the cozy coupe and that was the first time that day I got a genuine smile out of her.

That smile disappeared when Carson decided it was his turn.  He promptly returned the vehicle, scared, I think, of her outburst.

She wasn't quite as happy after that, but content to have 'her' car back.

Also, I love the way Carson pronounces Jessica's name - "Jesh-wah".  He's sitting here while I post this, chattering on and on about Jesh-wah and her car.

Moments

Today, we had a few moments I wish I'd just stopped to take a picture of.

Lizzie was feeding Cole.  She set aside the bottle and tried to make him smile and laugh, with great success.  I loved the way her waifish hair hung over both of their faces, a curtain behind which echoes giggles.

Evie snuggled Cole in her beanbag.  Both were just completely content.

While we were making cookies, Carson started making faces at the stainless mixing bowl and laughing at himself.  I smiled at the way that, before he actually started making faces, he leaned way far back, then watched his eyes get big as he brought his face closer to the bowl.

Aaron's niece came to visit for a little bit today and there was a moment when she completely forgot she was being babysat and just enjoyed being with my kids.  I wanted to capture that bust-out-laughing moment between cousins!

I love the small moments I can take away from each day.

P.S.  You know that moment when you look at your photo folders on the computer and you realize that, HEY! you need to get some past months posted before the memories fade from the moments?  I just hit that.  More posts soon, since if I wait for the end of summer, I will have a whole other month of 'life' and will just be completely overwhelmed.  Coming soon!

Easter 2012

Easter was a pretty low-key affair for us this year.  The kids' 'baskets' were the shoe boxes their (desperately needed) Sunday shoes came in, with a couple things Grandma thought to bring, beside a new Easter outfit.  Aaron's mom made Cole's blessing outfit, I made Carson's tie, and my mom made the girls' skirts from a tutorial I found and liked.  I even picked out a new sweater for me and a nice tie for Aaron, so we all had pretty spring Sunday clothes.

Decked out in our new Sunday clothes, we headed to church with all our family that was in town.  This included Aaron's folks, my folks, Aaron's sisters and their daughters, and Aaron's cousin.  Besides the men in our family, Aaron got our home teacher to join the circle and bless Cole.  It was a beautiful blessing and a very nice Easter program.  My parents even got to join our choir, since they'd just sung the same song for their own stake conference!

After church, we went to Aaron's parents' place for dinner.  We got to have some family pictures, though most ended up like the one below; we did manage to get a few to keep, thanks to my dad.

There was a craft, and each of the grandmas took one of our girls and played with sparkly stickers for a little bit.

The kids loved the annual egg hunt.  We missed having their second cousins there; they went to their own grandparents' for the holiday.  But Evie, Lizzie and Carson certainly seemed to enjoy the lack of competition, since they were the oldest ones there and Jess and Elle were less than enthused.

Just before needing to get to the airport, my dad followed our little tradition and sang his song, "New Eyes, New Smiles" for me and Cole.  It was really wonderful that he got to come at all, and I love hearing him sing to my children!

Not long after that, we all headed home.  It was such a great day, loving to be with family, celebrating Christ's resurrection and our love for each other.  What a happy Easter!

Five Grandkids

Yesterday we went to Grampa's for a swim playdate with all the B grandkids.  Aunt Katie obligingly took over camera duties.  I loved how she said that she felt more like a professional photographer just holding my camera.  Made me love my camera again.

Evie has been practicing putting her face under water and showed this off a few times.  With my help, she even happily fully dunked.  (She couldn't do it herself because of the floaties.)  Carson enjoyed the floaties, too, but doesn't quite have the balance to let him just float around like the girls do.  Lizzie had an incident where she fell off her floating raft - with out personal floaties.  It was a scary moment for us all, but she is happily recovered.

After swimming and lunch, we all relaxed for a while.

In our own ways.

I loved taking a few shots of E, and all her silly expressions.

We made a few dozen attempts at a photo with all five grandkids, with amusing and frustrating results.

This, I think, was the best we got, thanks to Uncle Brian's help as photographer.  (Carson just refused to sit nicely.)

Love this picture of sisters and their babies!

We got to half-skype with our family currenly in Utah.  Half-skype because their video was non-functioning.  Utah for Aaron's brother David's wedding to Linnea.  (Welcome to the family!!)  At least OUR video was working, so all those on the other end got to see all the grandkids together, and we could hear one another, so there was plenty of chatter.  They told us memories from the sealing, and we told them how much we wished we could be there.

Naturally, after such a fun-filled day, 5 minutes into the 20 minute drive home, this is what we had.  The best part was that they chose a snack for the drive home - this is typical of doting grammas and aunts - were frozen blueberries.

Which gave us these lovely results.  :)

A Visit from Baby J.

We had a fun visit from Aunt Katie and her daughter who is almost 3mo.  The girls oohed and aahed over tiny Baby J!