Easter!

We had a very nice, low-key Easter Sunday.  Izzy was the one who remembered that the Easter Bunny had visited the night before and that she had to look for her Easter basket. Once she reminded Liam, they were on the prowl! Izzy found hers first under the kitchen table. Liam had a hard time finding his because "that Easter Bunny is verrrry tricky" (he kept repeating this while searching) and started hiding his Easter basket harder because he's older now. He finally found it under the office desk after playing the 'hot and cold' game.  Both Izzy and Liam got swim suits and fun treats in their baskets. They had to model for us and Izzy was really into modeling Liam's new sunglasses!  All the kiddos piled into Addy's pack-n-play to check out her loot!  Her favorite was her baby mum mums.  :D












 
We all went to church together and took some family Easter photos afterward.  I am not sure why, but we seemed to have a hard time getting a decent smile out of Liam that entire weekend.  Oh well, such is his four-year-old self.  He's still pretty handsome anyway.  I had a hard time finding cute boys' Easter clothes this year, so I made him a bow tie and he thought that was super cool. I thought he looked pretty handsome myself.





Addy was really into her Easter grass, the flowers, or the wind and I couldn't get a smile out of her either! That is, until daddy played with her.  I think this turned out pretty cute: (helps to have such an adorable subject!)

Nana and Papa and the kiddos!

We tried to get a photo of all the cousins together-- pretty much a hilarious disaster which is what you get with 4 kids 4 and under. By the time we were done trying to get a photo, we were all cracking up.



It's even more of a feat trying to get a photo with Nana and Papa and the kids. Nana and Papa are also very hard to get a photo of smiling for the camera, so add in four kids and some wind and this is what you get: 

Still pretty cute though. :)

We then bundled up for the traditional Y-town Egg hunt. I made this cute little onesie dress for Addy.  The wind was pretty fierce so we did have to change out of our Easter best.

We got to the hunt a little early to visit the Easter bunny. Liam was excited for this, except when we got there he said, "Look at that man dressed as the Easter bunny. I think it's just a costume." To which we had to explain that he was a helper for the Easter bunny and not to tell the other kids.

Liam did an awesome job at the hunt and Addy did too, despite the windy conditions. They had a lot of fun, too. Although, between my sister and I, we've been going to this hunt for approximately 30 years and neither one of us have EVER found THE golden egg. One of us found a second placer once, but never the golden egg. We're starting to doubt its existence.



I love this picture of my sweet girl. She thought the Easter grass was about the coolest part of Easter.



Hunting her first eggs!

We're so thankful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and his atoning sacrifice.  What a blessing it is to have the knowledge that we can be with our families forever and live with Heavenly Father again. That is definitely something to celebrate.

Easter Weekend Festivities

We had a wonderful Easter weekend.  We headed out to Yerington after I got off of work Saturday morning.  Saturday was filled with fun Easter crafts, Nana and Papa's new annual Easter Egg Hunt, Rain, and Egg Dying.  I took approximately a million photos, so here are a few.  We made Easter Egg rice crispies and fun yarn Easter egg decorations.  Nana and Papa hid each grandchild a color of eggs for the egg hunt (Izzy had pink, Liam green, Peyton blue, Addy purple) and then at the end each found a big treat! (Izzy and Addy got LaLaLoopy dolls and the boys got bubble toys).  Peyton had the most fun with coloring eggs I think, he even ate them! oops!  After the egg dying fun, a community bath was definitely needed!  The the kiddos tucked into their Uncle Wes/Daddy made tent to wait for the Easter bunny! What a fun day!

The kids had lots of fun getting drenching under the gutters. haha

















Addy's first Easter egg!



Easter Baskets all ready from the Easter Bunny!

Happy Half Birthday!

I can't believe that we just celebrated Addy's Half Birthday!  :D  I don't know where the last 6 months have gone, but we really have enjoyed every minute.  She's growing and changing so much everyday and her little personality is shining through a little more each day.  She's becoming so much fun with all of her little antics and preferences.  Here are a few things about Adelyn at 6 months old:
-Biggest news- we have two teeth!  Teething was pretty rough on our girl-- she had a very runny nose and cough for a couple of weeks before those little guys popped through.  I think we're going to try an amber teething necklace for the next ones.  I can't believe she got her teeth so early. Liam was walking before he got his first teeth. haha.  They are awfully cute though. 
-She finally will lay down and sleep without being swaddled.  We were so nervous to try this with her because she's always been such a good sleeper, but Sammy told us she just lays her down while she's awake and she falls asleep on her own, so we tried it and it works. Hooray! Makes life a lot easier and she's still a good sleeper.
-We tried rice cereal this weekend and she did pretty well with it. She wasn't 100% in love with it, but she didn't seem to hate it either. We'll keep trying it out.
-She is still 100% breastfed.  I am so happy that I've been able to keep up with her by pumping while I'm working. I've worked really hard to keep it going and it is 100% worth the effort. I'm really hoping to make it at least until she's a year.  I love nursing her.
-She's really starting to roll around more on her own. She's been able to do it before, but now she's really starting to do it while she's playing.
-Her favorite thing to do now is to grab everything.  It's pretty cute, if not a little annoying when she rips one of my earrings out.  haha.  But, she loves to hold her toys and eat them. ;)  She puts everything in her mouth! 
-She's in love with her brother. When he's in the room, her eyes never leave him.
-She loves to play in her jumperoo and just jumps like crazy. So cute.
-Her eyes are getting bigger and bluer every single day.  We get lots of comments on her big blue eyes when we're out in public.

Happy 6 months, Addy!  We hope that time slows down a little bit for the next 6 months, even though we know it'll probably just go even faster.  We're enjoying each and every moment with our sweet girl.

My Reader

Liam has been reading since he was about 3 1/2 years old. Really, he taught himself to read after he learned all the letters and sounds.  We also simply read to him every night before bed.  This has been a huge blessing to us because he now can read books in bed by himself before he goes to sleep with means that he doesn't get out of bed 233724324 times. ;)  But, in all honesty, it is so much fun having him read.  He loves to read The Friend and gets soo excited when it comes in the mail. It's adorable.  One night, before bed, I went into his room and found him like this. It was so adorable that I just had to snap a photo. He looks like *such* a big kid.  When did this happen?!  Sheesh. I really hope he continues his love of reading, like Wes and I do.  I think we're off to a good start though.

Our Karate Kid

One of Wes's favorite movies of all time is The Karate Kid. I can't tell you how many times I've heard about it over the last seven years. ;)  (yes, isn't it insane that we've been together that long?!)  Anyway, I think Wes secretly wishes that he could have become some karate master.  So, when we moved into our ward, we found out one of the members owns a karate studio and teaches.  He offers great deals and we thought it'd be something really beneficial for Liam.  We're hoping it helps his coordination and we've heard many people say how much it helps kids in general with focus and respect, so we thought it'd be a win/win situation. He's only been going for about a month and a half, but he's loving it. The studio and teachers are awesome.  He and Wes have been practicing a lot together too. So, without further ado, here's our awesome karate kid.

Here Liam is sparring with another kid in the class. It's pretty funny watching them use their techniques to hit eachother since we constantly are telling kids NOT to hit.  haha.  But, they teach them the appropriate uses for these tools, such as self-defence. It's sorta like watching miniature rock 'em sock 'em robots.  Liam is the one in the bright blue helmet.

Here he's doing a pretty good side kick!  Good job, buddy!

He's really looking forward to two months when he can test for his first stripe! I'll be sure to keep updated with all of that.