Happy Easter

HAPPY EASTER!!

I really think Easter is one of my favorite holidays. The resurrection and atonement always touches me and this time of year helps me reflect on it more than usual. I also love it cause my birthday is always around this time, plus I love decorating eggs and going on Easter egg hunts, and just the feel of spring makes me happy. This year with it being so late in April I felt like this holiday wasn't rushed and the fun Easter feeling lasted much longer. I wish it were always the end of April. With it being so late in the month I decided I was going to be ambitious and make the girls Easter dresses, but as most things do my good intentions always wait until the last minute. So, on Friday 2 of my friends and all our kids had one big sewing party all day long! My friend had made a dress like this before and claimed it was totally easy (I guess she didn't know what level of a sewer I am). Somehow after a crazy day with 8 kids, lots of snacks and otter pops, a swimming intermission and lots of other intermissions, and so much help from Maria we got them done. I was so proud of our accomplishment I had to take and share a million pictures so here they are...sorry total picture overload but I just loved too many.

Olivia isn't always the easiest to get pictures of so when we have good moments like these I am snap happy. It was a windy day, so she was really concerned with losing her hat, but it made for some great facial expressions.

I feel like she is telling a story trying to convince us that it really is that big.

I think Maile looks so old and sophisticated in this picture, I love it but I don't, cause I'm already feeling like she's growing up way too fast.

Couldn't figure out the timer so no family shots, but we got these daddy/daughter, mommy/daughter shots. Too bad I ran out of time cause Aaron was really hoping for a silky pink tie I promised him, but I plan on getting around to it, so no worries.

This is the crazy Maile were used to.

Crazy girls!

Fancy, proper girls!

As part of their Easter gifts they got purses filled with some jewlery and lip gloss. I promise it kept them entertained the entire sacrament meeting. Olivia was the only one to break into the church bag, it worked out real nice.

Excited about their new blankies which we were hoping would rid them of their other blankies since those are getting pretty trashed. Although, the last 2 nights they insist on sleeping with both. Hopefully it doesn't backfire casue otherwise we will be carting 6 blankies around everytime we go out of town.

The Easter goods

Such a fun day!!!

Breakfast with the Easter Bunny

This was the only way to get Olivia near the Easter bunny, actually I don't think she realized he was sitting right next to us otherwise she wouldn't be so chill.

I didn't get any pictures of Maile hugging the Easter bunny cause Livy was terrified and wouldn't release the death grip she had on me. She kept a close eye on him the entire time.

Emmy regected the Easter Bunny's high five at first, but then she warmed up to him.

They kept themselves busy while we waited in line to get into the Easter room

This is where Livy spent most of the time, trying to figure out how she could get these treats. I promise that is all she thinks about all day. Even just saying the word "treat" and she perks up and starts looking all around. She LOVES treats!!! way too much.

Once we made it in they had lots of cute, fun Easter games and pictures with the Easter Bunny. It was chaotic though, so I didn't get many pictures of the action except Emmy doing the cake walk for a chocolate Easter bunny. As usual I didn't get many pictures of Maile cause she is always off to find anything and everyone at these kinds of things.

It was definitely worth dragging the girls out of bed.

Our birthday

We did another Easter Egg hunt party for Emmy, I really am stuck on that theme. Probably because I'm pretty sure that is what my birthday party was every year and I remember loving it, so why not. Although this year we did it the day before our birthday which worked out much nicer, for me at least. I'm still trying to make this sharing my birthday thing work. I'm almost always rushing around trying to finish up getting ready for parties, but this time we actually were ready a little early, so I finally got some good pictures of the things I never remember to get pictures of until it's too late and things are already too crazy! Plus this was my first time trying out fondant and I had so much fun and was so proud of myself with how it turned out that I just had to share. Usually I try to be creative with my cakes and they never work quite like I had planned and they are falling apart by the time the party starts, so I was thrilled that this one totally worked and still was looking good by the time things got under way.

I've always intended on doing Easter cake pops cause they look so much fun on Bakerella's website, but this was my first time with the Easter ones. They were really fun for the first half, after that I was wishing I would've stuck with cupcakes.

Too bad, we don't have some of the best moments of the party with Aaron hopping around like the Easter bunny with his fluffy tail and mask leading them all to the Easter Egg hunt.

obstacle courses

relay races

and cake!

Our birthday started out right with Aaron making our favorite - french breakfast puffs.

Emmy had one request that day- go to the play place McDonalds.

A favorite present- bike basket, horn, and tassels!

I also got a favorite present, just not the physical thing yet so we don't have any pictures. Aaron got me a gift certificate for a new mountain bike! I'm so excited. I've got a couple months to find the perfect one.

I was nice enough to let her get the texas yee-ha and ride the saddle all by herself at Texas Roadhouse.

then she stuffed herself with ice cream after eating nothing

for dinner cause she was too full from treats all day. Whenever it is one of there birthdays we let them do makeovers and get fancy to go out on the town. Well this time Maile wanted to wear that pink dress which clearly doesn't fit her anymore, but she was being stubborn so Aaron came up with the brilliant idea of letting her wear her nightgown underneath with those lovely purple leopard shoes and her bright blue eye shadow. Usually I know they stand out and people are looking at us, but I'm okay with it when they are in just like a princess dress or something, but this time, I was having such a hard time being okay with it. I was so embarrased of Maile, it was almost like I was wearing it, I was so uncomfortable with her outift, it was making me crazy! I didn't want her adding any extra attention to herself, as soon as we got our booth, I hurried her into the corner and made Aaron sit next to her hoping to cover her up. Seriously, I can usually handle the dress ups, but this time was too much. It was so embarrasing and of course Maile couldn't be contained in her corner for too long. By the end of the dinner she was up talking to all the people around us and dancing and showing off her great outfit!

Then it was home for more presents

and a sleepover movie night. We watched Tangled and had ice cream. Obviously the girls were glued! They LOVE that movie!

It was a fun filled day for all of us.

The latest

Our St. Patrick's Day pot of gold hunt!

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

Maile is really into the pinching thing and will just all of the sudden decide we are playing leprechaun day and if you aren't wearing green she'll pinch you, hopefully she will get over it soon, cause I'm sick of getting pinched!

Our cave hike!

The girls love to go on lion hunts at home and of course it always ends with us finding the lion in a cave, so when they found out we were hiking to a cave it was really exciting until we were actually in the cave then they started to get freaked out, but once we were out and done with the cave they love talking about it.

With BYU doing so well in basketball we decided we would get cable so Aaron could keep up on his march madness. (I say Aaron cause I've never been into basketball, but this year BYU got me hooked) I thought it was really fun even though BYU didn't do as good as we were hoping - now that they are out I'm not as into it, but Aaron is still loving it!

As for me, well I'm just livin large as you can see with another 3 months to go!!

Maile started up t-ball again- she loves that! She is so excited to be registering

for kindergarten this week.

Livy can be such a monster these days! She loves yelling and squawking at us ordering all of us around until she gets what she wants (although that is so hard to figure out).

I don't really remember Maile and Emmy having a terrible 2 stage, but I definitely think Olivia's going through it a little early. Despite her monster moments she can be so stinkin cute and lovable it's hard to get mad at her.

Emmy learned to ride her bike without training wheels about 2 months ago and since then her favorite thing to do is go for a bike ride. She has actually gone on some pretty long ones riding the entire way. I thought we would end up putting her bike in the back of the trailer and her riding with Olivia but she loves it so much, she does awesome! We've gone to the "far far away park", as the girls call it cause it is about 4 or 5 miles away, a couple of times now and she loves it! She is also such a good buddy for Olivia, cause like I said Livy can be so frustrating but Emmy plays so well with her even when she is a grump.

We've been switching computers and have had issues so I can't retrieve some of the pictures I wanted to post but here are some we took from this past weekend.

Yee- Ha!

We had fun going to our first rodeo here in Sierra Vista with some of our friends. Now Maile wants to be a cowgirl.

The first Saturday of every month Home Depot has a project for kids to come do. The girls love it! We just happened to be there last month during this time, but now that we know I think it will become a monthly activity they will count down to. They think it is so fun using nails, hammers, and they are so proud of their final products. Livy obviously needs a lot of help but Emmy and Maile are very determined to do it all on their own.