HAPPY EASTER!!!

Colored eggs!  This is one of my favorite Easter traditions.  Ashlyn and Grant had lots of fun.  They wanted to plop the eggs into the colored water rather than carefully lower them.  Grant was using crayons to draw pictures on them.  He didn't quite understand the concept of using a white crayon and kept using blue and green.  I think our eggs turned out quite nice!

Here is an example of the nests I made.  This is something my mom used to make for us.  We would usually get a cadbury egg  as a child.  One year Jesse ate everyone's cadbury eggs before we had the chance.  We weren't very happy because that was the coveted item each year.  It seems like he was a little sick after eating all those eggs.  If my memory is wrong, I hope he was sick.  In our nests this year we just had small little eggs (jellybeans, robin eggs, etc.). 
The Easter egg hunt begins...




This is a real nest that Grant found a couple eggs in.

Grant and Ashlyn both found Easter baskets in the house.  In them were the silly bunny ears.  We all had to take turns wearing them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID!

Here we are on our hot date for Dave's birthday.  The kids were at a friends and we did everything that Dave wanted to do.  That means we went to his favorite restaurant Cantina Laredo.  Being the wonderful photographer I am I forgot to have my camera out at the right times and missed most of the action.
This is the remains of hot fudge from a delicious brownie.  It came to the table with sparks flying(there was a sparkler in it).  It sure was good!
This is Dave analyzing his leftovers.  I'm not sure what was so interesting about them.
Last on our evening out we went to the movies!  This is a real treat for us because we never go.  We saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  (Yes, this is the cheap theater).   We really liked the movie and recommend it to all.  

Dave really wanted a strawberry rhubarb pie, but here in Texas they are very hard to come by.  Back in Utah I'd go to Denny's and pick one up.  Here I called Denny's and the girl didn't even know what rhubarb was.  Needless to say, he didn't get any pie.  I drew him a picture,  but it didn't taste very good.  I even tried to find rhubarb in the stores, but it wasn't in stock yet at the only store I found to carry it.  Maybe he'll get it for Father's Day if he's lucky.  

FLOWERS!

Disney on Ice

Awhile ago we bought tickets to go see Disney on Ice.  I remember going to see a show in Salt Lake as a child and thought the kids would like it.  I have no memories about what I saw except a big building.  I bet it will be the same for Grant and Ashlyn.  

We went to Fort Worth for an afternoon of excitement.  We saw Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy of course.  In addition there were scenes from The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Lilo and Stitch, and Peter Pan.  Grant said he liked Peter Pan the best.  Its the only one that had anyone fly in it.  Our poor deprived kids haven't even seen any of those movies.  

I found it really difficult to get a good picture because of the lights.  It was always dark and my subjects wouldn't hold still while I snapped the shot.

You might think we do lots of fun things, but believe it or not we haven't left Texas since last June.  We are looking forward to a fun filled time this summer when we travel to Utah, Idaho and Oregon to see our families.

Camping fun!

                                             Here is the resident owl.

Because we planned our trip at the last minute we couldn't really get a hotel room for an affordable price.  Grant wanted to go camping more than anything else so we made a reservation at the nearby KOA.  It wasn't too bad and we were able to have showers, running water, electricity, and plenty of friendly ants to keep us company.  What more does a person need?

I had to include this picture because of Ashlyn.  She decided to follow in her cousins footsteps and go topless.

SPRING BREAK 2009!!!

Swings, see-saws, and cars...Can you guess where we went?  These first pictures aren't very distinctive.  In fact, I don't even know the name of the restaurant where we ate.

The great shots with the waterfalls and flowers are at the Riverwalk in San Antonio.  No, this is not the river, but the Hyatt hotel with its chlorinated water.  The actual riverwalk was so crowded that it was impossible to walk at times, let alone take a picture and the water was absolutely disgusting.  

Its Shamu!  We decided on a spur of the moment trip to San Antonio on Sunday night and left Tuesday morning.  I think it was spring break for the rest of Texas because it was very crowded at Sea World.   

Ashlyn posed for this photo, but was sad when she was kicked off the ride.  She is nowhere near the 38 inches required to ride the Shamu Express.  

Here we are at the Alamo.  This is all we could see because by the time we paid to park blocks away and walked it was closed for the day.  

Manner Bugs!

Well, I did it.  I finished this family home evening lesson about manners.  I had some help from Grant during the coloring stages.  He wanted to try out my new markers.  Needless to say, I had to do "his" over again.  After all the coloring, cutting, laminating, and cutting we were able to use the lesson.  We had our friends over to participate with us.  The kids had fun playing the memory game. 

Preschool fun!!!

Grant has been going to preschool for the last year on Wednesdays.   The first day of school I asked him what he learned.  He said, "I played with toys."  He loves going.  I teach once a month and go a little crazy when everyone is here.  The kids all have fun together.  They especially enjoy eating their sack lunches.  Its my favorite part of the 3 hours because they are all happy including Ashlyn who wants to be part of the group.  Grant just got home a few minutes ago and told me he learned about the letter T.  That's a huge improvement from his first day.

The latest and greatest!

As you can see we are learning some new things.  I'm posting this under David.  I have just learned how to put pictures on our blog.  These are a little old.  Ashlyn is wearing her princess dress and loving it.  Grant has just had some hot chocolate and is sitting in front of a campfire and loving life.

We have enjoyed having a visitor in our home the last few days.  Dave's mom is here to see the kids.  They love her.  Ashlyn is constantly climbing up on Grandma's lap to read books.  Grant has played "Memory" with Grandma a few times and has even beat her.  Grant is really good.  He is always helping out his opponent with a smile on his face.  

Well, here goes.  This is me making an effort to learn something new.  I still have a lot to learn, but I have to start somewhere.  I can post, but still need to figure how to put pictures on.  I like the background you can now see.  I disliked the other one.  

We have been busy with the usual things of life.  Eating and sleeping.  Also, cleaning when it has to be done.  Oh, and changing diapers.  The fun never ends.  

Here are some highlights about the kids.  They really like Chuck E Cheese's.  We had to carry them out screaming.  They love Lightning and Sally the best out of the Cars toys we got for Christmas.  Grant likes his new Primary class.  Ashlyn is very cute and sneaky.  They are sound asleep right now and that is one of the best times of the day for me.