Easter Outfits

My mom got both the kids new Easter outfits for Church and they both looked so darn cute in them. I even got the kids to give each other a hug! (that will be a a great picture for upcoming years when they are fighting) I just had to show off how cute they are!

She's 2!

So I am little late in getting this posted, but better late than never. Our little Paige turned 2 on Monday!! I can hardly believe that 2 years have flown by since she was born. I so remember being in the hospital with her and all that went on to get her into this world. It seems not so long ago, and yet I look at her and think wow she is getting so big and becoming a little girl and not a baby anymore. Here are a few things that love about our little girl:
1. She is pure girl, she loves jewelry, makeup, and clothes
2. She loves her mom and wants to be everywhere I am
3. She is really into Kitten and can make a "meow" noise when she sees them.
4. She is a really good eater, not very picky at all!! (I love this)
5. She almost always sleeps through the night
6. She loves chocolate
7. She is very easy going and usually goes with the flow of things.
8. She is starting to develop her own personality and it is quite entertaining
9. She loves to dance along to music!
10. She is always willing to give hugs and kisses! (love this one!!)
11. She makes the funniest faces and you can't help but smile when you look at them!
12. Most of all we love her and are so glad she is in our family.

She is getting quite a bit better at talking and adds a few words a day to her vocabulary. I still have a hard time understanding her with some things and that really frustrates her, but we do the best we can. She is loving going outside and has a problem with staying in our yard. I can't turn my back on her for 1 minute before she is headed toward the road or in the neighbors yard. This summer is going to to be a challenge I can tell! We love her anyway!! Happy 2nd Birthday Paige. Birthday pictures to come!!

Easter Fun

Warning: Seriously Long Post Ahead!












Well despite the weather we tried to spoil the kids with Easter festivities. A few days before Easter we got together with some friends (the Thornleys) and had hamburgers and hot dogs (we had to to it inside instead of outside BBQ) after we ate the kids colored eggs and we had an indoor egg hunt. Each of the kids had a specific colored eggs to collect so it was fun for them to run around and try and find "their" eggs. Each one got a few fun toys inside the eggs and come money. They were all excited.

The day of Easter happened to also be General Conference. (I love it when that happens!!) So we were all able to sleep in! Parker woke up and ventured out into the kitchen where he discovered that the Easter Bunny had been to visit. He cam running into our room and announced "The Easter Bunny came, the Easter Bunny came!" He was very excited about it. At this point Paige was awaken by all the excitement and both kids came into the kitchen to look at their baskets full of goodies. Parker's basket was filled with Spiderman stuff. He got a 2 new place mats (one of which was Handy Manny) A spiderman plate, cup, and bowl. He also got 2 spiderman books, an activity book, markers, and a spiderman toy. Along with all the toy he got a basket full of goodies. Big Brother loves Reese's Peanut Butter Cups the best. This year I also learned neither of my kids like jelly beans! In Paige's basket she got 2 place mats as well, both princess ones. She got a Princess and The Frog plate, bowl and cup. She got a Minnie Mouse coloring book, Tinkerbell stickers, Peep chapstick, sunglasses, a hair brush and a little bag with flowers on it. He favotite treat in her bag was anything chocolate. Neither one of them liked the Peeps that were in the basket. I also think that you can't have Easter without Peeps, so no matter what they will continue to be in our families baskets year after year!

After enjoying the first session of conference and the wonderful messages about our Savior and the Atonement we went to my parents for Easter Dinner. We had dad's famous steaks on the smoker along with baked potatoes,rolls, salads and strawberry shortcake for dessert. Charyn, Mike and Jackson came down as well and we had a great time together dying more eggs and playing Tripoly. The kids each received an Easter basket from the grandparents filled with more goodies (at this point I knew we had over done the treats, we will have Easter candy for a year!!!) they each also receive a new shirt/dress. Paige got this adorable green dress with polka dots on it. She was so excited about it that she insisted on putting it on right then. She looked adorable as usual and will look even cuter in it on Sunday when she is all done up. Both Parker and Jackson got a new shirt. Neither of them got too exacted about new clothing, they must be Boys!!!

After having fun at my parents we headed out to Matt's dad's house for the annual egg hunt and weenie roast at their house. Well the weather was so horrible the most of us were inside the entire time, we only went outside long enough to roast a hot dog. The older kids hid the eggs outside for the younger kids and and younger kids were able to fill their baskets to the brim. Parker grabbed a second basket after filling his first and continued to find eggs until both baskets were filled. So now for sure we will have candy for 2 years!! We got so much!!!! Grandma and Grandpa C also got the kids each anew outfit and and Movie. Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeaquel. They each got a few other things as well. Big Brother got a dart gun, a foam sword, a bouncy ball, and a crayon set. Little sister got a Barbie, a bouncy ball, a book with felt pictures, and a pink lizard. I was spoiled as well and got a new cookbook that I am eager to try out. Matt received a bag of Reese's cups, his favorite. We had a great time and enjoyed spending the holiday with family.

As I end this enormous post I just want to express my gratitude for My Savior Jesus Christ and the greatest sacrifice of all He has made for us, the Atonement. I am so grateful for the true meaning of Easter and the opportunity to be reminded of that great and wonderful day each and every year. I am so grateful to be a member of the church and have the gospel in my life and to be able to raise my children with the gospel in their lives as well. I am grateful for the living Prophet, Thomas S. Monson and the direction he give us and for the opportunity to watch conference and to be edified and uplifted from the wonderful messages shared this day. I look forward to the May Ensign and to be able to read and study those messages more closely.

Egg Hunt #1

This last weekend the kids got to participate in their first egg hunt of the season. My kids will be spoiled before Easter is even here. I think they will get to do 4 egg hunts this year, and will probably need to go to the dentist afterwards!! My aunt Marilyn has started a tradition of having my mom's side of the family get together at her house for an Easter get together. We do a potluck lunch and then the kids get to do an egg hunt afterwards. If they are good at searching for eggs and find one with a number on it, they get a small prize at the end. This year both my kids were excited and did well gathering eggs all on their own. It was fun to watch their excitement as they got to collect the different eggs. Parker had been talking about this egg hunt for about a week prior and was so looking forward to it. I think it met his expectations and he is looking forward to the next one we will be having with some friends.

Fashionista

My little Paige is quite the little "fashionista." Lately she has been into the whole clothing thing. It is quite a common occurrence at our house for me to dress her in the morning and an hour or so later she comes out of her room wearing something completely different. Not only will she change around this time of day, but probably 4 or 5 more times throughout the day. It is quite the scene to see what color combinations she comes up with. I am quite impressed that she can completely change her clothes all by herself. She can take both her pants and shirt off and put new ones on along with socks or tights. What 2 year old(almost) can do that??? Parker wasn't able to dress himself until the beginning of this school year at almost 4 years old!! I think I have a very smart girl on my hands! I love to see what she does each and every day! You may have noticed her "beautiful" (said sarcastically) outfit in the previous post, well that was all her. Pink Pajama shorts, with pink tights and a pink shirt. No matter what I seem to dress her in, she always wants to change. She has quite the personality. The only down fall to her cute little obsession of changing clothes is all the laundry she is creating!!

Is it finally Spring?

It was nice outside for a few days last week and the kids took advantage of being able to play outside. We are sooooo ready for nice weather here at our house!!!

Charyn's Wedding

After almost a week of recovery I finally decided to blog about Charyn's wedding. She got married last Friday, the 5th of March at the Old Shelton Church in Ririe. It was a nice little ceremony and my dad was able to marry her and Mike. My mom and I have been preparing, along with Charyn for quite a while to get everything ready. They had quite a long engagement, which gave us plenty of time that we weren't really stressed about it until the few days before and the day of. The place where she got married was going to charge her $250 just for a chocolate fountain. So we decided that we could do the chocolate fountain on our own along with the rest of the food for not much more than that. So the day before the wedding the three of us, Mom, Charyn, and Me, along with our grandma Sharon and a family friend Barbara got together to do all the prep work. Washing and cutting vegetables, making chicken salad filling, cutting cheese into cubes and stuff like that. With all of us working we got a ton accomplished in a short amount of time. Charyn was so wonderful and took my mom and I afterward to get pedicures and manicures. It was so fun!! It has been a long time since I was on the recieving end of either of those and it felt great!! The morning of the wedding mom and I packed the suburban, when I say packed it, I mean packed it to full capacity for things we would need. We drove to the reception center and got under way preparing. I was also asked to do Charyn's hair for the wedding. We had previously gotten together a couple of times and practiced and I was confident that I could do it. I allowed for 2 1/2 hours to get her hair done just in case and when the time came to do her hair for some reason it was not coming together like I had hoped. we were running out of time and she was getting antsy and I was frustrated with myself for not being able to do it. I was so close to having a meltdown, but I tried to hard not to do it in front of her. I just wanted her hair to be perfect. Afterall she will look back on her wedding pictures and be reminded of her hair and I wanted her to LOVE it. Well I finally finished and the hair turned out Okay, but not perfect. I was really disappointed in myself and I felt horrible. Although she did look beautiful and several people complimented on her hair. Thank You to nice people. So from now on I vow that I will not do Bridal hair again. It is too stressful for me and I don't feel like I do that great at it!! Back to the wedding. Mike and Charyn had a friend take their pictures and another friend made the cake. What great friends they have!! The ceremony was short and sweet and we are all so glad that it went well. We are so happy to have Mike in our family along with his son Jackson. We considered them a part of the family along time ago, but now it is official. They had a great turn out of family and friends to come and support them and the food was a big hit. We had gobs left over, but it is far better to have too much than not enough right! So we had leftover wedding food for the next few days, which was wonderful not to have to cook! Congratualtions Mike and Charyn, have fun in Mexico!!!