My baby is 1!!

 Well, the dreaded day came...I did not want our sweet little Elsie to grow up so fast...but she went and turned one in the blink of an eye!! Though I am sad my baby is growing so fast, she sure is an adorable, goofy, super fun 1 year old!! The kids and I always love an excuse to party, so we had some fun for Elsie's bday :) We decorated with all pink and girly colors and had our most favorite cupcakes!!

 All day, Elsie wore her birthday girl pin! She got lots of love from everyone as we dropped off and picked up Jane and Beckham from school. I help out in Beckham's classroom every day so all the kids and teachers know Elsie very well. So, when we got to class they gave her a crown and everyone sang Happy Birthday to her!! It was adorable!

 Once Ryan came home we were finally able to have a little celebration for our sweet Elsie! She seemed pretty excited to be getting her very own , entire, cupcake to eat!!

 She wasted no time, and dug right in- haha!!

 We had to give her a bath right after because she got the cupcake all over her and was breaking out in a rash. When she was all clean, she got to open a few presents!!

 Grandma and Grandpa Dick gave her some darling summer outfits!! She couldn't wait to try them on :)

 We gave her a few special things as well :)

 Goodness, we just absolutely adore Elsie! She has been the most perfect addition to our little family and she makes us all so happy! She is such a goof...staying in line with the rest of my kids:) One of her favorite things, is when I lay out freshly clean laundry to fold!! She loves playing and rolling in it! It is just so funny to watch and keeps her entertained for a good long time! :) I snapped some pretty good pictures of one of these "laundry fun" sessions :)

 Happy Happy Birthday to our darling little Elsie! We just love her like crazy :) Sometimes I wish I could freeze time- but since I can't, I am trying to enjoy every moment with my amazing kiddos :)

Easter!!

 Easter was wonderful!! It is crazy for me think that at Easter last year, we had a brand new little baby join our family.  Now, here we are one year later...with a toddler, in a new state, and nearly ready to move again! Life moves way too fast for me sometimes. Anyway, Easter was just wonderful this year! It was lovely to be able to watch Conference with our traditional Conference breakfast before we began the Easter festivities. I can't think of a better way to spend Easter, than to listen to our Prophet and apostles speak and to be reminded on Christ :)

Long before Conference began, the kids were up bright and early, excited for their Easter baskets!! Jane's basket was filled with My Little Pony items...she was beyond thrilled!

 Beckham's basket was filled with several things that he loves... bubbles, silly string, balloons, markers and this cute little froggy!!

 After we ate a delicious breakfast of eggs, crumb cake, cantaloupe and orange smoothy and watched conference...the Easter bunny paid our house a visit. The kids were so excited to hunt for Easter eggs!!

 The kids did this cute Easter craft that was in their baskets :)

 Elsie just did her usual thing :) But,the day was made so much more pleasant because this darling little lady was toddling around, getting into everything and making mischief!!

 We ended the day by, of course, having a delicious Easter dinner!!

 This year we started a new tradition!! In order to really focus on Christ and the resurrection this Easter, we did a week of family home evenings that focused on the last week of the Savior's life. We started with palm Sunday where we talked about the day Jesus came to Jerusalem.

 Next was "mad Monday" where we talked about when Jesus sent away the money changers from the temple. The kids each drew pictures of the temple!! Next was"teaching Tuesday" where we talked about some of the lessons and parables Jesus taught the people. Jane and Beckham each got to pick a parable and teach it to the family. Jane did the widow's mite...

 and Beckham and I did the 10 virgins.

 I don't have pictures of the rest of the days but put up reminders of each of the days on our mantle as we went along. We did "Spy Wednesday" where Judas makes a deal to reveal Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, "passover Thursday" where we talked about the passover dinner and the first sacrament, "Good Friday" where Jesus suffered and died, "Spirit world Saturday" where Jesus went to the spirit world and then of course there was Easter where we talked about Jesus being resurrected.

Our week of remembering the savior was a huge success!! I was so impressed with how interested Jane and Beckham were in learning about the last days of Christ's life and with how they remembered what each day was called!! We sure had a lot of fun this Easter combining old traditions with some great new ones!!

Great Start to Spring Break!!

 My kids have been so excited for Spring Break and have had a long list of "To Do's" for Spring Break.  We decided to get an early start on the fun by playing an April Fool's trick on Ryan.  The kids did a great job pretending to be sick- hehe. When Ryan came home, the kids were in their jammies, layed out on the couch with wet rags on their heads and the throw up bowl out and ready. When Ryan came home, we really had him worried for several good seconds before Beckham started giggling :)

The kiddos didn't have school today and Ryan had a lot of work to do, so the kids and I planned on having some fun. When several of our initial plans fell through, we ended up going to Sacramento to go to Sunderland. But first we got to visit my Aunt who lives there!! It was such a fun surprise to see my cousin who was in town for a few days. She was sweet and helped me out with feeding Elsie :)

 Jane and Beckham loved the darling little play house that they had! The chalkboard table was a particular favorite :) I may need to steal this idea one day!

 Beckham loves to water with a watering can and they were very sweet to let him give their garden an extra watering today :)

 Elsie got to explore as well :)

 We had lunch on their lovely patio with their sweet dog :)

 I caught Beckham, who is a sweet, quiet kid, chatting my Uncle's ear off. He was sweet to listen to him and it was darling... so I had to snap a pic!

 We had such a lovely time hanging out in their lovely backyard in the beautiful California sunshine.

 I was trying to not take up too much of their family time and leave before we overstayed our welcome, but the kids were having too much fun. And my sweet Aunt was so nice to play with them :)!! So, it took us a bit longer to get out of their hair :)  I think we could have stayed there all day :)

 I was finally able to lure my kids away with the promise of heading to Funderland! It was crazy busy there so it took us 2 hours to ride only 5 small rides...but we still had fun. The kids loved this dragon roller coaster :)

 There were lots of other fun rides...however...from here on out I had Elsie in my arms and was struggling to keep her happy until we finished the rides. So unfortunately, I didn't get any other pictures except this one right before we left.

We had such a fun but exhausting day! I will need to sleep well tonight to prepare for more Spring Break fun. I love hanging out with this cute kiddos all day :)