Easter, spring break and the lot

Whew! Get ready for picture overload. It has been a busy and fun week! Andy has been out of school (will start again Monday) for two weeks so we had to squeeze in as much extra time as we could. Then it's back to never seeing Daddy again. Or close to it...

Some day last week we went for a little hike and picnic as a family up to a local water fall. It was short, but just what the kids needed. 

 Oliver's a fan of the backpack...He was kicking and swinging his legs the whole time!

 A different day we went to a close by park we had never played at before. We walked all the way there and had a picnic as well. Oliver had his first experience on the swings and loved that too. He's easy to please :)

Due to Andy's schedule we didn't see him on Easter. So it didn't feel like Easter. So our holiday was spread over three days. Sunday we had a mini Easter egg hunt outside. I got up a little before the kids and hid some plastic eggs with Candy. We kept meaning to dye eggs but it never happened. Andy and I were not to bothered about not having to clean up dye and wash stained clothes...

Charlotte's face every time she found an egg:

Their spoils. Man I can't get these kids to act normal around the camera...

We like picnics, can you tell? We had one on Sunday- the weather was just too nice to pass up! We didn't even get to go to church because of us all being sickly (you can't tell but we really are!) so I wracked my brain to come up with some fun, Sunday appropriate, activities. check!

 We went for a nature scavenger hunt and the kids each had a bag to collect their findings. We had everything from flowers, to pine cones, to every size sticks and rocks, and several different types of moss. They liked it. Now what to do with those sacks....

 Here is what they found: 

 The Easter bunny came on Monday morning and they were thrilled. We hadn't decided whether we were going to get really into Easter in our family, so we didn't make a big deal out of it. So the kids were pleasantly surprised. 

 Cooked my first turkey (breast) this year and we had a mini feast. We were suppose to host the dinner this year but with the sudden and nasty colds, we had to postpone it. So we just had a family dinner. 

 Random pic of Jesse. He has been obsessing over Mario lately. So one day he wore this all day- even when he was dying of sweatiness he refused to take it off. 

And on to our Astoria trip! We hadn't ever been there as a family so we made a plan and took a day trip. SOOOO much fun! First stop: Aster Column. The kids even went all the way up the 145 steps. 

 Jesse didn't love it. And this pic of Oliver is hilarious! Chunky!

 At the top

  We stopped at a park for a picnic. Oliver was starving...

 Next stop: south Jetty. Pretty view from a cool tower. 

 And finally to the beach...

 To see a hundred-year-old ship wreck...

 Some water time (looks like they are far out but they just got their toes wet....). Charlotte fell in of course...

I don't know how he did it, but he took a small nap. Must be nice!

 And playing nicely together, burying toes :)

Getting water for the sand....

Oliver slept most of the time we were on the beach, so he only got to roll around briefly. Thank goodness for this awesome beach tent! (It looks dirty but it sure did keep him from getting completely gross)

 Next stop: Fort Stevens 

 Pretty cool! This was Andy's favorite part. He loves history like this

 And of course Ice Cream on the way out of town. 

 Even Oliver was happy after basically the whole day in his car seat...

Daddy's lovely "weekend" ended by planting some fruits and veggies this morning. We are adding a few new plants this year to our list. That's garlic in the background, and strawberries in the long box. 

 We also planted some from seed- our first ever, so we'll see how they grow in a week. 

Overall it has been an amazing week and it is will reluctance that we go back to our everyday schedule. Spending time as a family is so much fun for us and it just reminds me how grateful I am for the knowledge of eternal families. I am so blessing and I love my smart, spunky and crazy kids! 

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Here is a book I recently made for my grandma. She has moved into a care home and we are so lucky to be able to see her about once every couple of weeks! My Jesse in particular just loves her and talks about her, so I thought this book would be a good present to say we think of her. Enjoy!

Growing up too fast!

So we had a good week. Not much happened but we enjoyed the beautiful weather! Can I just say that my kids are growing up WAAAAY too fast? We went to Jesse's wellness check-up, had an eye check, and she talked to me about Kindergarten. Still in denial that my little Jesse will start school in the fall! He got a shot so I treated him to Dairy Queen. The primary president in our ward works there and let Jesse make his own cone. It was AWESOME! Thanks Paula!

Saturday we headed down to Salem to visit the padres and stopped along the way at a park. Charlotte insisted on doing everything Jesse did and it was REALLY hard for me to step back and realize that she is getting big enough to do a lot of the big kid toys. Okay confession: this was the only time I stepped away- to take the picture. I guess there is a little hover-mom in me after all. 

 Jesse was hanging from bars all over the place. 

  Oliver was sporting a new hat- thanks to grandma. I LOVE it!

 My Jesse figured out the timeless monkey bars- he was so proud of himself and just another moment for me to realize he is getting so grown up! 

Catch up time again!

So I know its been a while. Some have been wondering whether I even catch up on my blog. Ever. I think it has been probably about 4 months? Well anyway- a lot has happened since then, with many fun holidays in between so I thought I would share some memories we have made since August. 

Jesse was a Power Ranger for Halloween. This is currently his favorite show, and it's very obvious by the way he wants to chop and play fight with everything. Awesome. 

Andy grew a beard. Just kidding. I had fun making this crocheted beard for a white elephant gift for someone. For some reason this pictures sends me into fits every time it see it!

Oliver discovered his tongue. Cutest little thing :)

We shopped for a Christmas tree! (told you these pictures were OLD). Found the perfect little one for our little apartment. Andy's first time chopping down his own Christmas tree. The kids loved it. 

Our elf on the shelf visited us for the first time this year. I love this new tradition we have started and I think the kids have too- and really believed he would report back to Santa any bad behavior, so the month of December went by pretty smoothly! 

I ran my first official 5k. It was the Winter Wonderland event, where we were running through several light displays along the route. Pretty awesome if you ask me!

We went to the nutcracker as a family (minus dad and a few others), but it has been a tradition now for several years. We get dressed up, have a nice dinner, and wear painful shoes. all in all a good night.

The hubs and I

Another Christmas tradition: Zoo lights! We went during the week, right when it opened, and the crowds were perfect! This was basically the only picture I got, but it was a pretty (new) awesome display on a wall. 

More Christmas tradition fun...

Watched a Christmas movie on an air mattress in the living room. This will carry on from here on out. We all laughed together while watching Jim Carrey's version of The Grinch. 

We got some family pictures done- and since most of you got one in a Christmas card- here are a few other precious moments from that day:

So I am missing a few pictures from Jesse's birthday, but I will try and find them to put them up. We had an actual birthday party this year and Jesse was in HEAVEN! He loves to be social and we had a good show-up. It was a super hero party and quite fun. 

Here's our traditional Valentine's day breakfast, started when I was little. We had cinnamon rolls. Yum! Need to work on the decor though....

We visited the Portland, Oregon LDS Temple Visitors Center. Small, but well done. And it has several interactive stations for the kids. We enjoyed ourselves!

In February we went to the coast for my cousin, Alex's wedding. We stopped briefly on the beach (we couldn't NOT stop) and got some wiggles out as you will see....

 (LOVE jesse's face in this picture!!!)

 Little sister kate, and mom were with us. 

 And oliver slept in the car through it all. SO much fun!

We have had several busy weeks. Between watching kiddos, sickness, helping people move, meeting up with my mom, and just generally trying to stay busy it has been a good month!

 Caught Jesse being VERY thorough doing his chores one day. He loves to use the small vacuum (not too loud) and apparently under the couch is too dirty. He is five this year, and has started earning a quarter for each day he completes his chore chart. He is working towards buying a version of Angry Birds on Dad's phone. :)

 Caught the kids playing make-believe with Charlotte's dishes today. They don't do that too often and I love to see it- looks like we'll have to get a kitchen set with food pretty soon.

 After two days of the flu, we are happy to have our old selves back and so we celebrated by having a lazy day which concluded with a picnic and disney movie. 

So there ya go. That is us, caught up, with lots left out in between. It has been a good several months! We look forward to going to Utah in April for Andy's brother's wedding, baby arrivals of some dear friends, and hopefully some sunny days ahead!