Easter

We had a lovely Easter Weekend. We started out with coloring eggs on Saturday night...

From Easter 2011

From Easter 2011

From Easter 2011

From Easter 2011

From Easter 2011

From Easter 2011

From Easter 2011

From Easter 2011

From Easter 2011

Only at my house...where every holiday has a spooky twist...

From Easter 2011

Our very own "egg-o-lantern"

From Easter 2011

Easter morning came entirely too early for my tastes, especially since I've come to enjoy sleeping in on Sunday's this year.

From Easter 2011

Cole herded the kids into the basement, then came to wake me up.
The kids headed straight for their baskets...

From Easter 2011

Then we had a fun Easter Egg Hunt...

From Easter 2011

From Easter 2011

From Easter 2011

From Easter 2011

As usual, the egg hunt took about 5 seconds, but it was fun while it lasted. Talia had the most fun...every egg she found was thrilling, and she was so cute! After the hunt, it was right back to the baskets...

From Easter 2011

Besides the candy, Talia got Littlest Pet Shop pets and Squinkies, and the boys each got a new DS game...

The kids sat down for breakfast and I went back to bed for a little bit. When I got up, I decorated the cake I made for Easter dessert...

From Easter 2011

And, of course, I tortured my Family for some Easter pictures :)

From Easter 2011

From Easter 2011

We enjoyed Easter dinner with Cole's family.

From Easter 2011

My FAVORITE standing rib roast, with salads and rolls.

From Easter 2011

From Easter 2011

(my nephew Hunter is a bit of a spaz...)

From Easter 2011

Dani...

From Easter 2011

The kids all enjoyed playing Just Dance on the Wii....

From Easter 2011

From Easter 2011

Mmm...cake!

From Easter 2011

After hanging out awhile, we headed over to visit my parents. The kids had a little egg hunt there, and we got to see my sister and her family for a little while, which was fun. It was really a fun Easter!

Crazy Hair Day!

Today is crazy hair day at school.

From April 2011

Alec has lots of hair right now, which made it easy make crazy hair. A little "Spike It" hair cream, some colored hairspray, and we were good to go.

We couldn't leave Kyle out, even though his hair is short, so we ended up spraying it white with black stripes....

I think they look pretty sweet!

Battle of the Bands 2011!

Every year, Ogden holds a "Battle of the Bands" competition for local high school bands. Cole's brother Heath's business, Music Village, is one of the sponsors. I love stuff like that, so I thought it would be fun to go down to the Union Station, listen to the bands, and support Heath. I also thought it would be fun to take Kyle with us...

We headed down and got there right as the doors opened. In addition to the main event, the Newgate Mall was giving away $10 gift certificates in between every band, Cherry Bomb Salon was doing "Rock your Hair" colored extensions for free, and there were a bunch of vendors of music "stuff" (for lack of a better word, there was a wide variety) for the bands and kids to check out.

From April 2011

(this pic was a little over exposed, but perfect in every other way!)

I got some sparkly strands tied into my hair, and we ate some dinner (Chick-fil-a and Pizza Factory) while we waited for the bands to begin.

From April 2011

Like Father like Son...

From April 2011

From April 2011

My nephew Hunter...

From April 2011

My father in law was talked into getting a rockin' hair extension by my niece and nephew...and they chose pink!

From April 2011

From April 2011

The things a grandpa will do for his grandkids!

These guys had built their guitars out of gas cans...and they were AMAZING!

From April 2011

The Crowd...

From April 2011

My father in law and brother in law working the sound....

From April 2011

These guys, from Layton High, were my favorite...unfortunately, they didn't win :(

From April 2011

These guys were from a special needs high school.

From April 2011

Each band had to sing 2 songs of their own material. These special needs kids...the drummer was deaf, and played by feeling the vibrations. Their first song was tolerable, the second was much less than tolerable...but my heart was warmed because all the high school kids cheered for them just like they did for the other bands. It was remarkable.

It also made me smile to realize that on the surface, high school kids really haven't changed that much. And neither have I. :)

To: Grandpa.....Love, Talia

From April 2011

Talia loves to cuddle with Grandpa in his chair!!!

Oh, and I posted a couple more scrapbook pages in my scrapbook tab above...

I have Pages!

I have created a separate "Page" tab at the top of my screen for displaying my digi-scrapbook pages...enjoy!

Four

How is it that time has passed so quickly, and now my baby is Four?

From April 2011

No longer a baby except to me and her daddy, she is such a fun little person. She is still sunshine personified, with a bit of attitude and "drama queen" thrown into the mix.

From April 2011

We decided to have a "friend" birthday party for her this year, so our Friday was busy. I had trouble sleeping the night before (for some reason, I kept replaying the night I was in labor with her over and over in my head...definitely my easiest and best labor experience) so Cole let me sleep in while he got the kids off to school and started getting things ready for her party. After I got up, I got to work making frosting and decorating cupcakes for the party and of course, her birthday cake.

From April 2011

From April 2011

She really wanted a Littlest Pet Shop birthday...she loves her little animals. I couldn't find supplies locally, so we had kind of a conglomerate "girly" birthday party...princesses, pets, flowers, butterflies...it was a little hard for me, my type A personality coming out wanting everything to match, but she was happy!

From April 2011

From April 2011

We got all ready for the party...we started off decorating tiara's...

From April 2011

From April 2011

(intense concentration)

From April 2011

Then we played "Stick the ladybug on the Poster"..which I have no pics of because I was the one helping the girls...

Finally we had a pinata, lovingly made my my wonderful husband.

From April 2011

From April 2011

This girl really knew how to whack a pinata...

From April 2011

From April 2011

Despite Cole's efforts to make the pinata weak enough for the little girls to break it, it was still too strong. We had to call in a "heavy hitter" to take it out...

From April 2011

From April 2011

From April 2011

(I had to post all those pics...I love his expressions as he tried to take out the pinata!)
Gathering the loot...

From April 2011

Then we opened presents (and she loved them all, Thanks!), and had cupcakes!

From April 2011

After the friend party, we did some damage control. Later, Grandma and Grandpa joined us for pizza. Talia opened her present from them...

From April 2011

She was thrilled with the clothes, coloring book and crayons!
Then she opened her presents from Mom and Dad...

From April 2011

From April 2011

Butterfly wings, "Tangled", Clothes, and Sandals...she was so excited!

Finally it was time for the cake. She'd been asking for it all day, so excited to get her new pets to play with...

From April 2011

From April 2011

(the best pics I've ever gotten of any of my kids blowing out the candles...I LOVE my new camera!)

We enjoyed cake, and then we watched "Tangled" for the first time. Talia told me it was "the best movie ever!". Talia kept telling me what a great birthday it had been..."and next time on my birthday, I'll be 5!"

Thankfully, not for another year. :)