The Happiest Place on Earth: Take One!

 We have been so excited these past few months as we have planned our trip to Disneyland! We went with Lins, Gman and Mauri - and we had such a fantastic time! We told the kiddos where we were going the day before we left - and they were SO excited! Krikey, all the grown ups were pretty excited too!! Here is Derek - all set to go! 

And here is the car...all ready to go! Ryan and Glendon kept giving me and Lins a hard time about all of the "crap" we packed - but I think our motto was "Be prepared!" haha!

 Two sweet boys ready to hit the road!

 We made an overnight stop in St. George the first night! Lins and Gman let us stay at his Grandparents house with them! We had fun swimming and playing around - and it was great not to have to make that LOOOOOOOOONG drive all in one day!

 Ready to swim!

 "I'm not so sure about swimming!"

 Look at those beautiful blue eyes! She's such a cutie!

 And here we are in California- ready to go to Disneyland! YAY! We were so excited! And it was the greatest thing to go there with our Kiddos! Disneyland really is a magical place - I love it!!

 We were so lucky because there were hardly any lines the whole time we were there! This was one of our first rides - and one of Cooper J's favorites- the finding Nemo submarine!

 Love, love that smile!!

 Driving around on Autopia!

 Good driving!!

 "Hey! I wanna drive too!"

 Cooper wasn't so sure about this rocket ride....But he still had fun!

 I love this picture!!!!!

 Eating a pretzel shaped like Mickey!

 Yum!

 Two pirates in training! Arrrrggh!

 Hugs!!

 The kids got along so well - we were really proud of them!!

 Riding the train!

 So Much Fun!!

After our first day in Disneyland, we were asking everyone what their favorite ride was - Mauri and Derek said "The Crazy Train" (aka Big Thunder Mountain Railway) was their favorite ride!! Everyone had such a GREAT day! We could not wait to head back the next day!!

Easter Egg Hunt!!

 We had such a fun Easter! Derek had so much fun coloring eggs! ...And they both had a lot of fun finding eggs!!

 One of our very favorite activities all year is the Easter Egg Hunt at Nanny and Papa's house!! We look forward to it all year long! The kiddos found a ton of eggs!!

 We colored eggs at Nanny's too!

 Hiding the Easter eggs! ...Harley was the guard dog and kept all of the kids out of the backyard while we were hiding the eggs, haha!

 Searching for eggs! They had so much fun!!

 Mauri and Derek were both so sweet & helped Cooper J!

 Coop found Derek's lemonade and would not let go! haha!

Fun Stuff! ...for the most part!

I didn't realize that I hadn't posted anything for like a month! Time got away from me a bit I guess! Here's some of the stuff we've been up to lately:
More Painting! We love doing art projects! This is the only kind of abstract art that I actually enjoy, haha!! :)
"Oh man! I knew I shouldn't have tasted the paint"! haha!
Love this smile!
Oh Coop, please don't eat the paint!!



It's been warm enough - some days! - to play outside! And Derek and Coop both Love to be outside! Here they are doing sidewalk chalk & sidewalk paint!


"Oh Coop! Please don't eat the chalk...or the rocks!" haha!
We mad these little cupcakes for Derek's Easter party at pre-school! When they were finished I was like "Whoa!" the chocolate pieces on top were HUGE! Gargantuan even (HEAD! haha!). But we just went with it- I figured the kids would like a bigger piece of chocolate anyway, right?!
Look at this sweetie!!
A few weeks ago poor little Cooper J. got sick! He ended up having chicken pox! I felt so bad for him! Luckily he didn't get too many on his face- but he had quite a few on his arms and legs! It was a rough couple of days....But luckily everyone is healthy now and feeling great! It sure makes me appreciate that we are all usually pretty healthy!!
It also makes me appreciate how MUCH Ryan does!! He was out of town that week that Cooper got sick and I didn't realize how much I take his help for granted! He is always willing to do whatever needs to be done, and more often than not he has stuff done before I even think to ask "Will you do this?" There was one night that was particularly rough- Coop was up til 2:00 and then sweet Scooter woke up throwing up at 5:00- and I just remember thinking "How do single parents do this?!?!" It was such a relief to me to know that Ry would be home later that afternoon!!! We sure love him!!

We're feelin' the luck of the Irish!

We love St. Patrick's Day!! We celebrate it pretty much from March 1st-17th...much the same way we celebrate Halloween the whole month of October, haha! A funny little leprechaun left hidden surprises every day, and Derek was SO excited every morning to look for the green clover and the surprise! The leprechaun left us these awesome green shirts!
I love these smiles!!
They are so sweet!!
We also made rainbow cupcakes, which are kind of a pain - but definitely worth it! They look so cool when they're done!!
And we made these little "leprechaun treats!" Derek always loves to help in the kitchen, and these were a perfect project for him - he could pretty much do everything himself!

We also enjoyed watching Darby O'Gill and The Luck of the Irish! The only sad part was when Derek woke up on the 18th and said "I'm gonna go look for the clover!" and I had to tell him there probably wasn't one since St. Patrick's Day was over.....Hopefully the leprechaun will come back next year!!