Easter

Sisters in their easter dresses

It took awhile to get a picture that turned out decent

Here is the best we got :)

I think I actually like this one better

 

Eliza on her bike

 

We spent the week before Easter studying the last week of the Savior's life.  Here we are going on an easter walk looking for symbols of Christ.

 

I tried the fake eggs...they didn't work that well.

Watching general conference.

 

I love that Hannah dressed up all her dolls for Easter.  Eliza loves playing dolls with Hannah.

Happy Easter!

 

I didn't get any good ones of them doing their egg hunt.

 

I love the light in this room at Aunt Marties house.

Playing in the backyard at Aunt Marties.

Hannah got some sidewalk chalk paint and the girls had so much fun painting everything.

We have enjoyed the spring Midwest thunder storms.  Although the first big one Daniel was out of town so all 4 kids slept in my room with me!  Ethan and Eliza were watching the storm in this picture.

 

We are still doing well.  Andrew is doing flag football which he enjoys.  He spends a lot of time outside playing with friends, playing basketball, and jumping on the trampoline.  Hannah also spends a lot of time outside.  She loves riding her bike, doing art, and playing with her bunny.  Ethan loves riding his bike and playing with his toy animals or cars.  Eliza loves playing with dolls or with her siblings.  Daniel is doing well at work and I am enjoying Spring.  It is fun for me to watch it come in so distinctly.  We miss everyone and think of you often!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

I already wrote about celebrating Ethan's birthday, but here is a little bit more about his actual birthday and the fun boy that he is.

 

I love that Ethan has a good relationship with each of his siblings.  On this day, Ethan and Eliza were having so much fun playing outside together.

 

His new favorite food is cooked cheese :).  He loves to cook and makes a lot of things himself.

 

 

 

These two girls live across the street and they are some of Ethan's best friends.  The older one especially adores him and gives him lots of attention.  They had come over to say happy birthday to him so I asked them if I could take their picture.  All of my kids have fun playing with these girls. Holly is 10 and Susan is 13.

On his actual birthday Ethan requested to go to the zoo.  It was just me and Ethan and Eliza and we had a great time.

 

Ethan loves riding bikes and just learned to ride his two wheeler.  It only took about 2 minutes before he could take off by himself, thanks to all the practice on his balance bike.

 

Ethan spends a large amount of time every day playing with these animals.

 

We had a little piñata during playgroup to celebrate his birthday.

We had been talking about spring and noticing the buds and blossoms.  One day my lap was covered with bills but Ethan came in and said he wanted to show me something.  I could tell he was excited because he had that sparkle in his eye.  Instead of telling him I'd be done soon I put down my stuff and went right away and I'm so glad I did!  He was so excited to show me that the bush in our backyard had some buds growing on it. I love that kid!

Brothers :)

Ethan loves this shirt that he got for his birthday.  He is a big seahawks fan and is always singing that song.

 

 

 

Spring Break

The kids had a 2 week spring break!

 

 

We went to a fun restaurant where you raise your hand and they'll throw you rolls from across the room.  The rolls were huge and delicious.

We met a ton more kids in our neighborhood and we've been spending a lot of time outside.  Winter ended and spring started almost overnight, it was weird.

We went to this park in Saint Louis and I realized I missed the inner city diversity of my youth.

Having fun and making messes

 

On the Saturday after the first week of spring break we drove up to Chicago to meet Kelsy, Brett, and Riah! Yay!!

  

We went to the zoo in Chicago.  Sadly I didn't get a good picture of everyone together but here are the kids, although Riah is hidden a little by Eliza's hair.

We went to a yummy and famous pizza place in Chicago.  We were very lucky to have aunt pixie come to the zoo and out to dinner with us.  The kids loved that they got to write their names on the walls/chairs.

 

One of the most exciting things for them was staying in a hotel.  It was saint patricks day weekend so we got to see (briefly) the river that they dyed green.

 

Andrew at the bean.

 

I love this picture.  I wish I knew what they were talking about. Kelsy?

The Chicago bean was fun.  I didn't even know it existed before.

 

We went to the aquarium in Chicago, they had some pretty cool sea life including a very large sea turtle and a beluga whale.  They also liked the penguin slide.

We got to take Kelsy and Riah home with us for the week!  The first day was the nicest and we walked to the park next to our house.

Green waffles and lucky charms for saint Patrick's day breakfast.

My camera was dead the day we went to the zoo so I only have a few pictures that I took from Kelsy's camera.

Cute sleeping babies.  Eliza loved having Riah over (we all did).

We went to the arch but the tickets were sold out to go up to the top.  I love my Hannah!

 

There is a large children's museum here called the magic house.  Ethan loved taking this computer apart.  I was happy because I had made him a tinkering kit for his birthday (box with screwdriver and stuff to take apart) so I was glad he enjoyed it.  Daniel brought an old computer home from work and Ethan loved taking it apart.

The girls loved putting things in the wind tunnel with Kelsy.



They had a china exhibit going on.  They are preparing to march in the parade :). 

Cute girls.  I think its funny that all the other kids have cousins that they love and talk about and Eliza always talks about Lucy and Riah. :)

 

Ethan loved the panda bear rescue center.  He loves animals!

 

Andrew helped carry the dragon for the parade.

Happy girls riding bikes.

We celebrated Ethan's birthday at the park.

Eliza loves her daddy.

 

 

Ethan got a soccer ball for his birthday.

I love my Ethan and can't believe he is 4!

Happy Birthday buddy!

 

It was sad to say good-bye to Kelsy and Riah but we had a great time with them and a fun spring break.  Some other things we did were go to the swimming pool and we spent a lot of time playing in the basement and jumping on the trampoline.  I didn't get pictures of those things.