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!!

Mr.Creative!

Derek is so fun and creative! I love to see the ideas he comes up with! And it is so fun to watch him learning so much! He can write his name now, and he is recognizing letters all the time! He'll point out letters to us on the cereal box, in books, etc. It's so fun! Recently for preschool every student decorated a puzzle piece with things they did over Christmas break! I love how he chose to decorate his -naming some of his favorite presents, playing wii bowling, confetti, and my favorite is the drawing of our family!!

A few weeks ago Mauri and Lins came up - and Derek and Mauri decided to have a picnic! ....with snow on the ground! haha! It is often hilarious to watch the two of them together! ...last week we were at my moms and Erica and I were talking about how nice it was that Mar and Derek could just play and have fun and we don't have to check on them every minute. Then I went down to check on them and they had strung Christmas lights all over the basement! Mauri's explanation: "We wanted to have a celebration!" haha! I wish I had a picture of that!
He got some legos for Christmas and he has so much fun building and creating things!
Using an old shelf as a jungle gym! It made us really wish we could find these cool toys called "pipeworks" that Ry and Matt played with when they were little! Derek took this apart & put it back together a bunch of times! Oh, and climbed on it too, of course!
This picture is from October - we were drawing on the white board and Derek drew the cutest little pumpkins!
We love his sweet smile! He is one of the sweetest kids ever - he's always ready with a hug if anyone feels sad and he is such a big helper! He'll just see that one of us needs help with something and he'll just jump in and help - lots of time without us even asking him!! We're so lucky to have such great boys!!

Mr. Messy!

Cooper J. is such a funny little dude! He is always cracking us up! I get quite a kick out of how messy he sometimes is when he eats!! ...I don't remember what this is on his face, but look how adorable he is?! Oh man, we love that sweet little face!!
Here he is enjoying some heath cheesecake! Mmmmm...we all enjoyed that quite honestly! haha!
Mashed potatoes in his hair!

Powdered sugar...must've been from french toast or something!
The mystery mess!

And just in case you missed it at the top - look at this darling little face! He is seriously such a sweetie and brings so much joy to our family!

Valentines Day!

We started our Valentines Day with some chocolate heart shaped waffles!

Ryan and the boys surprised me with these flowers! They are so dang sweet!
We painted some valentines for daddy! It was really fun!


We love you Daddy!
Ending the day with some hugs of course!!