Easter Egg Hunts

This was the first year both girls were really into egg hunts at Easter.  We were lucky enough to go to three of them.  Our playgroup decided to have one first and the kids were hilarious!  Here they are all lined up and ready to go...it was everything we could do to hold them back!

Ready, set....

GO!!!

 I have a great time watching the girls hunt for their eggs.  We set it up so each kid was supposed to get 12 eggs.  Jade being one of the older ones was a little faster at finding the eggs so by the time I caught up to her she had like 35 eggs! She was such a great little sharer though and hid some of them again for the little ones to find. Kiera was so cute as she would spot an egg, she would run to it, pick it up, look it over and then open it to see what kind of candy was in it!  If she liked it, she would promptly eat some, if not she put it in her bucket!  

These days it is pretty much impossible to get Kiera to look at me when taking pictures.  She just has better things to look at!

Kiera with her friend Audrey. Everyday she asks to play with "Aud--ee!"

 Yes! I got them both to look..kind of!

I grew up in a small town and was very involved in community activities.  That is just what you did.  So I wanted the girls to get involved with their community activities even though we live in bigger city than I did.  We went to the Orem city Easter Egg Hunt.  We were running a bit late as usual because no matter how old Kiera gets I still cannot manage to get us all ready in less than an hour or more!  Anyway, needless to say as we drove up to the park where the egg hunt was, the streets were lined with cars and we had to park 1/2 mile away. As we got out of our car it was 8:57 and I told Jade to run as I packed Kiera.  The egg hunt started at 9 and I knew we were not going to make it.  As we were running through the parking lot, a nice lady must have seen us and took pity on us.  She opened her van door and said "hop in, I will drive you to the starting line, it only lasts 30 seconds and you will not make it."  So we hopped in, and because of her kindness we just barely made it as they yelled GO!  The girls ran and got lots of candy and goodies.  I will be forever grateful to that lady who helped us out that day.  She saw a young mother with 2 little kids and showed true kindness.  She had kids of her own but they were older, it was so nice of her to take the time to help us out, rather than hurry to see her own kids.  WOW!  Thanks for helping to make my girls' day.

We even met up with our friend Ellie at the Orem egg hunt. I also love this picture because if you look closely you will see that both of my girls are pointing at me taking the picture but are not looking that direction.  This has become the norm as they are so busy looking elsewhere and I say, "look at Mommy, where is Mommy?"  Thinking that they would look at me, oh no way, they know where I am and point but keep looking at whatever they want!  Oh the joys of taking toddler pics!  

Pretty princesses sitting in front of the beginnings of our spring flowers.

Could not resist going for that candy any longer!

Finally, we had an egg hunt at our church.  It was a nice morning with friends and breakfast and then a nice calm little kid hunt in the primary room.  

Once again the limit was 12 eggs per child, but Jade had lots of fun and got more than her share, so we hid the extras again.  She enjoyed that!

Daddy and his girls

Mommy and her girls

Daddy's biggest fans and helpers!

I am grateful for a Ben and what a great husband and father he is.  He helps me so much with the girls and you can see how much they love and respect him by the relationship he has with them.

I could not resist snapping this memory when I looked in one night to see them all reading together...

We had to have our sewer line fixed and as a result the workers had left tons of rocks for us to pick up.  The girls jumped right in and helped Daddy pick up and move the rocks with the wheel barrow...

Finally, I thought this was hilarious.  I guess Ben has been letting Kiera help brush his teeth.  She is obsessed with our electric toothbrushes and knows they are off limits.  So this was a real treat to help Daddy!

Kaeli's baby shower

We had so much fun making things for my sister's baby shower.Mom came down and we spent the day making diaper cakes, trikes, and a labor survival kit for Kaeli and even watched the new Les Miserables movie!  Fun times!  Check out this diaper trike, I think it turned out super cute!

Jade had tons of fun playing with Kaeli's mother and sister in law.  They loved playing with the balloons!

Cute Mama!

Had to get a pic with my sis and the new mom to be!  I know she does not like pics of herself but someday your kids will be grateful that their aunt took lots of pics of their mom!

Mom, Kaeli, Me

Painting Nails

The girls love getting their finger and toenails painted.  So one day we did some mini manicures and pedicures.  As I was finishing up Jade's toenails she asked if she could paint mine.  I thought, why not!  I think she did a pretty good job of keeping most of the paint on my toes!  She even chose the green color!

It has begun...

Potty training Kiera that is!  I cannot believe she is that old already!  But she is totally initiating this on her own and most days will go at least once in the potty.  She so wants to be like her big sister and I think that has helped with this process. By no means am I ready to dive full force into it yet, but we are working on it little by little right now.  She loves to use her Elmo potty and read her Elmo potty book.

I'm Growing Like a Flower

Jade is growing up so fast and growing out of most of her clothes.  Every time I mention how big she is getting or how tall she is, she simply states, "yep, I'm growing like a flower."  I love it!  She totally made that connection herself that flowers grow tall so she does too!

 Her hair is getting longer so we have been experimenting with ponytails and having some fun braiding as well.  She has to have the ponytail poofy so she can swish it around. One day I put it into a bun so the hair would not move and she promptly told me she couldn't feel her hair and I needed to take it out!

Jade Quotes

I wanted to remember all of the funny and insightful things Jade says as she experiences the world for the first time. I have been writing them down when I remember but thought it would be fun to have them here so we can put them in our family "scrapbook."  Yes, this blog is my way of scrapbooking now days with life so busy!

Last week we were driving around and randomly Jade says:

J: Mama my tummy is poking out because there is a baby in there.
Me:  Ummm...well you don't have a baby in there because you have to be married to have a baby in there.  (thinking I would instill some values early!)
J: Oh no Mama I can't have baby Jesus in my belly because only Mary can have baby Jesus in her belly.

I think she thought I said Mary instead of married and then she just formed a whole conversation about that. Too funny sometimes to see where her logic takes her.

Fun at Uncle Tommy's House

Just found these pics and wanted to document how much fun the girls have at Uncle Tommy's house.  Every time we go up there, Jade gets so excited and says "ooh he has lots of toys!"  I think it is funny because we have lots of toys at our house too.  I think it is true that other people's toys are more fun than the ones at your own house!  Crazy kids!

The little girls...Kiera and Ellie

 Jade and Daddy in Aiden's alligator sleeping bag.  We were all watching basketball and Jade decided to make Daddy get in this with her.

 Kiera absolutely loved this rocking horse...