Elsie is 3!!

 I cannot believe that my baby is 3!!  She is definitely strong willed!!! However, she is the sweetest little gal and loves her family so so much!!  She talks a mile a minute :) and loves to dress up and look beautiful!  She is also a very excellent singer and dancer :)!!

To start off the day we had a little Easter activity with friends!! Unfortunately it was very rainy... but the kiddos had a blast anyway!!!

All the kids made their teeth blue with robins eggs...on Ryan's suggestion!!  Leave it to Ryan... :)

 Once we got home, we just had to do birthday girl make-overs while daddy and Beckham ran errands!!

 Here us Elsie helping me make the cream cheese frosting for her cake!!

Once the boys got home, the party began!!  We started off by playing some "monkey" games since we were having a Curious George themed party!! For the first game the kids had to run around and find all the bananas!!

 Next, the kids played "Monkey See, Monkey Do"- a scavenger hunt of sorts with challenges :)

They had to do jumping jacks...

 hop on one foot...

 follow clues...

 run laps...

 do pushups...

 give hugs...

 and bust some dance moves!!

 We also played a "Feed George the banana" game!!  This may have been the favorite, oddly enough!

Then Elsie got to open up present!! She had been so patient all day!

 Then for dinner, we roasted "Hundley" hot dogs and ate outside!!

 Then had cake and banana splits!!

 Jane and Beckham and I made out kitchen into a jungle for the party :) Elsie loved it!!

To top this wonderful day off, a dear friend of Elsie's stopped by to drop off a gift for Elsie and they stayed and played for awhile outside!!  It was a lovely end to a lovely day!!  We sure love our Elsie girl!!

Oh Wonderful Utah!!

 March was a busy busy month!!  But the highlight BY FAR was being able to go to Utah to be with family.  It had been nearly two years since we had been home and our trip couldn't have been more wonderful and dreamy!!

On our way there we took our time... not knowing how our kids were gonna do on the 17 hour journey.  On day two we finally entered Utah!!  We planned to stay the night in Moab and do a little sight seeing before the last leg of our journey.

Needing a little adventure, we decided to hike to the delicate arch.  This is a fairly challenging, three mile hike.  But I was pleasantly surprised by how awesome our kiddos did! The weather was amazing, the sights were stunning and our kids were such troopers!!!

 I was so proud of them!!

 Elsie needed a little more encouragement and help them the others...in fact, I held her for probably half of the time...but she did pretty good considering the fact that she is a pretty cranky three year old:)

 We could see that the one hike was enough for our little family.  It was certain that the kids wouldn't tolerate more. So we drove around Arches National Park some more while the kids slept:)

 Three days later we arrived at my moms house!! We were so excited to see her! One of the main reasons we went to Utah was to see my poor Grandma who has been struggling lately! She has been such a huge part of my life and I was dying to see her!

 Our visit was so wonderful!! We chatted and sang songs and she played ball with the kids!

 It was such a nice visit.  I hated to leave :( As we left, she gave each of my kids a special prize and recited a beautiful Irish poem for us!  I miss spending time with her so much:(

 My mom was so excited to see my kids! She was so sweet and even played night games with them :)

With her special prize from great grandma, Elsie bought an Elsa castle to paint.

 My mom gave Elsie a little birthday present early! Elsie was thrilled with her play make- up set.  It looked so real!!

On another fun day we got to visit Ryan's dad at his work! He gave us a special tour of his work facility and gave each of the kids a hearing exam!! They thought it was pretty neat!!

 One observation I made while in Utah was that the resources for free fun for kids were endless!!  It was so amazing! The new kids play area at the University Mall was amazing!!

 There was also a beautiful water show that was programmed to music!

 On another day we visited the Bean Life Science Museum!  This was always a favorite of our family's when we lived there, but the face lift it has received is quite nice!!

 We also visited a new park in Orem that was spectacular!! So much fun stuff for the kids to do! They could have spent days there!!

 Ryan's sister and her kids, as well as his uncle and grandma from Idaho came into town to visit!!  It was so special to be able to see so much family while we were there.  Elsie particularly loved her "cousin doggy" as she called him.

Seeing another great grandma was a special unexpected surprise for the kids! They had so much fun with great grandma Dick!! She was so sweet and brought balloons and lots of goodies for the kids!! She's such a neat lady!

 The kids also particularly loved spending time with cousins!! This is a rare treat! Beckham thinks his older cousins, Spencer and Stewart are the coolest people ever!

 And Jane followed the one other girl cousin around everywhere!

 Elsie just got loooooots of love and attention from the adult :)

 As if this trip wasn't amazing enough, we also got to see our bestest friends from when we lived on base in Delaware, the Woodlands!!!  They were such great friends and like family to us. And conveniently they lived across the street from us!!  I will always love and cherish this family so so much!!

The kids instantly started getting along and loving each other just like the good ol days!!

Here's the whole crew!

 Meeting at Cafe Rio for lunch was just the cherry on top of this perfect visit!!

It was so hard to say goodbye.  The time went by way too fast and though it is always nice to be home...Missouri feels a little lonely now.  I loved every second of our time in Utah and hopefully we will go back soon!!!