Meet Our little characters

"Mommy, come meet the characters."This is what I"m asked pretty much on a daily basis or multiple times a day when we have characters at our house from Disney, Superhero world, or anywhere else you can think of. Our kids love dressup. I love their imaginations, not so much the mess the imaginations make sometimes.....Want to meet them?

"Movie stars"

"Snow White and her prince" (Cole wasn't in costume, but has a promising career as one of the dwarfs I think)"Tinkerbell" at the front of the parade....doesn't she look familiar? Sometimes I get bored of just watching....."Mickey and Minnie" (and Cole sitting on their lap)Just tonight we were visited by "Rapunzel and Manpunzel"(sidenote: the costuming department aka. daddy tied pajamas together to create this look of long hair)

The characters are sleeping now, but will be back tomorrow for sure!

Mom's Day

Ahh Mother's Day. Dreams of a day off, sleeping in, breakfast in bed, perfectly dressed and behaved children, a clean house, just to name a few. Dreams, that is exactly what they are. The reality? Sick kid up all night before, kids up at 6:30 (husband still at work....), total disaster of a house........need i go on? I just laugh it off because as an adult, there really is no day off.

All joking aside though, I couldn't find more joy doing anything else. These little sweeties are what makes life great. Okay, them and my wonderful husband who cooked and cleaned for me today so I could play with them, which is really all I wanted to do for mother's day. I've been having fun finding matchy match clothes for Brynnli and I lately while she'll still let me. I feel like I owe it to her since she might not ever have a sister to match with.....so I made us some matching skirts to wear...hehe (she was excited about the skirt actually, just not having her picture taken...EVER)
We had Rick's parents over in the morning for breakfast before church, Rick cooked and did a great job!

And of course I"m so thankful for my awesome mom, I can't imagine what kind of person I would be without her example. Yay for moms!!!

Breakfast with Carson

Carson's preschool had a mother's day breakfast today, which was so fun. It was so special to spend some quality time with him, what a sweet boy. They sang us a cute little songwe ate breakfast together and Carson made me a cute little necklace.

Can't believe this little boy starts Kindergarten in the Fall.....does anyone know how to freeze time?

Easter and Egg Hunts

I spent so much time this month thinking about how excited I was for us to wear matching outfits to church and what we were going to eat, and then I realized I had completely lost the meaning of Easter itself. I LOVED talking with my kids about Jesus and all he has done for us, and hope I can teach them to remember what's really important in addition to all the fun stuff. It was a really nice day, good family time, good talks in church, and good food and family.

Then of course there were the usual festivities leading up to Easter, egg hunts at school, and at the park, which Rick got to come to, which was so nice. Last year me and my prego self lugged the two to the Easter stuff solo....not nearly as fun.

30?

When did that happen?

It's funny how in my head I'm still stuck at 21, like when I see people and I'm like, they're not that much younger than me, but yep, they are. I remember when Rick and I first got married we had some friends who were approaching 30 with three kids and I remember thinking....man are they OLD. They were so fun, but I thought their life was over. They went to bed early, rarely went on dates.....oh wait....that's my life NOW. Except, oddly, I am very OK with that. I don't feel sad that I'm 30, I feel like, well, I am married with three kids, it's about TIME. Now maybe all those moms at preschool won't look at me like I"m CRAZY when I say I"m 29 with three kids:). I"m ready for 30. And most the time I secretly like sitting around in my jammies watching movies on the weekends....

Anyways, so for my 30th we had a lowkey day. I got up and the kids opened my presents.I went and got my nails done and then stopped by Brynnli's school to help with her Easter party (did I mention Brynnli started school? That will be a another post....)We had a blast at the pool and had strawberry shortcake for dessert (my favorite....since I dont' actually like cake much)It was a great day.

The next night Rick and I headed out to see the play Wicked and have dinner at Chima, a Brazilian steakhouse. Rick's parents rushed back from out of town to babysit, since I'm too neurotic to trust any teenager with all three of our kids:) Thanks Tolberts! We had a blast, but forgot our camera....so we took this one when we got home. What a great birthday! Did I mention Rick got a cruise for his 30th birthday? Just sayin..... mine will be coming soon I'm told....once Cole's older and...We're waiting for our cruising buddies the Wernlis who just had twins to come!!

Spring Break

This was the first year we had a real Spring Break because Carson was actually in school and got one (even though it's still just preschool....) It was so nice not having to be up and dressed by 8:30 to take Carson to school last week, I am dreading next year when he goes at 7.... anyway....

We went to the beach, the water was still a little chilly......but we had fun anyways!It was Cole's 2nd time at the beach, first time in the water and sand, he LOVED it. Brynnli was trying desperately to rinse the sand off in this little bucket....

Carson brought his dump trucks...

Brothers

We did something last minute and decided to go to Sea World...we literally decided and left in a matter of an hour. I was so proud of myself.

The kids have never been and loved feeding the seals, petting dolphins and stingrays, and watching the shows. This was their favorite show the seal and otter show, we watched it twice.

Brynnli struggled the second day to be in a good mood at times....as you can see by her refusal to take this picture that she begged me to wait in line for. Love it.

It was a fun week!

Friends and Family

Okay, last blog from our trip LAST MONTH to Utah. Rick's family left after the first week and we stayed out there to visit some family and old friends and hang around Provo and remember when we were young and irresponsible....

We stayed at my aunt and uncles for a few days and had a big snowstorm while we were there. The kids had a blast playing outside AGAIN in the snow. Cole really hadn't been out to play in the snow at all until this, he was mostly excited about it:)
I think he liked the snow, but wasn't a huge fan of his marshmallow suit.....

We started and ended our trip with a visit to urgent care with Cole. He slept awfully pretty much the whole trip so I was convinced both times he had an ear infection.....the jury is still out on that one...I think he just likes his own bed.My parents drove out for part of the weekend to see us and that was so fun! We went bowling, out to Kneaders for breakfast, and back to the Brick Oven for dinner, and just played. The kids were so excited to see their Grandma and Grandpa.

And my sister Nicole goes to school in Provo so we were able to see her lots, which was so nice. We went to Cafe Rio, Red Robin, shopping, and got to see her apartment.

I very possibly look intoxicated in this picture, but it was the last day of our trip and I think 15 days of sketchy sleep had finally gotten the best of me.

The kids LOVED bowling, so much that Carson decided that's what he wanted to do for his birtdhay party.

You know how there's those kind of friends you can not talk to or see for awhile and then just pick right back up with when you get together? That's how we felt when we got to hangout twice with some of our best friends from BYU days, the Adamsons. Our kids seriously had a blast with their kids, and we had a blast with them.

We met up with my cousin Elise and her hubby and sweet little girl. I guess I wasn't super good at pictures this day, but did happen to snap this one while the kids played ring around the rosy. Did I mention this trip made me really want a basement? None of those in Florida. We also met up with two of my other cousins Janelle and Joel and their families (I haven't seen Joel since I was in 9th grade!) Somehow I forgot to take any pictures...lame.

Of course we hit a few things we miss from Provo too.....mostly food. In and out, Tucanos, Cafe Rio (multiple times), and the mall. This was the coolest train that just cruised all over the mall. Love it.

All in all a fun trip. Can't wait to go back!