{Easter Part 2}

Looks like the Easter bunny did make it

to our house this year! He even nibbled some

of that fresh grass out of the kids' baskets and left a mess

in their room.

(we had so much fun growing REAL grass in the baskets this year!)

Easter Sunday outfits. I was very excited about these

for 2 reasons. 1-they turned out just how I wanted them too

and 2- They didn't cost me a thing!

(well Trey's did like 2 years ago when i bought it but

that besides the point!) I had all the fabric on hand

to make addies dress!

(Thanks to the Warhol Dress pattern by MADE)

After church Tyler got busy in the kitchen making our

Easter Feast...THAI FOOD!!!! YUM!!

The missionaries and the Cooks joined us

for our Easter dinner. It was DELICIOUS!!!

Thank you Tyler and Doug for making dinner!

After stuffing ourselves with yummy Thai food
we couldn't really moved so we stayed at the table
and dyed Easter eggs! We did our traditional
Silk Tie Eggs. We started this tradition about
3 years ago and have loved the fun
outcome of the eggs. You cut up an old 100% silk tie
and wrap your NON boiled egg in it then wrap a piece
of cotton over that and rubber band the top.
Place all eggs in a pot of boiling water that has
1/2 C. of Vinegar in it for about 15-20 minutes.
drain water when done and unwrap your egg!
(picture of Rach and I taken by Addie...thanks sweetie)


This was Addies first year dying eggs with
the color dyes. She had so much fun!
And check out that beautiful basket of Easter Eggs!
We had a great Easter shared with great friends!
What fun memories we will always have!

{Easter 2011 Part 1}

Our Easter party!!!

It was simple....

It was colorful....

It was delicious...

It was fun...

It was with friends we love!!!

And you can't get much better than that!

And whats Easter without an egg hunt?

We had so much fun watching these cute kids

search, gather, and enjoy the surprises inside their eggs!

{Trey at 2 years old...}

*You are the cutest 2 year old Boy I know!

*Your smile is contagious

* Your giggle and laughter is music to my ears

* You are saying A LOT more words and putting sentences together * Your best friend is your sister Addie (without her you really don't know what to do)

* You furrow your brows when you are concerned

or thinking hard about something

* You are deathly afraid of flies and dogs

* but You love birds and squirrels.

(i promise...he's a tough kid, just with a sensitive side though!!)

* You love BALLS and anything to do with them

* You love to go play at the park

* In the car, you can spot a bird, squirrel, or tractor

from a mile away.

* When you wear your jacket, you always have to

have your hood on.

* Your favorite sentence to say while smiling excitedly is "look see.."

(pointing to whatever is he's excited about)

* You love to play Hockey

(or anything really that involves hitting a ball with stick)

* You love to watch sports live or on TV

* You love to have books read to you

* You are a climber

* You love to wrestle with Daddy and play "hi-ya"

* You are sensitive to others emotions

* You still have the most kissable cheeks in the world

* You love to go for walks in the stroller

* You love to play with your friend, Caitlyn

* Your favorite food is MILP a.k.a MILK

* Although, you really are a good eater

and will eat just about anything.

* You love cookies

* You love to jump or hop around

* You get excited easily over little things..its fun

* You do a lot of grocery shopping with mom

while Addie is at school

* You hate using a booster seat to eat at the table

* You love to watch movies/cartoons

*You can play on itouch a little too well

* You love to watch tractors hard at work

* You are a great traveler in the car

* You are still a Momma's boy

* You are NOT potty trained but will go on the potty

every night before you go to bed

* You love to color with markers

* You are in the 90% in all areas of growth

Tall, stocky, and a big head!!

* You are very loved by your family

* You bring so much joy to our lives

Thank you Trey for being you!

{And another THANK YOU to Rach for taking Trey's pictures!! We love them!}

{Spring 2011}

Spring is FINALLY here.....

(Spring in our yard)

And we couldn't be happier!

{Trey's Birthday 2011}

Trey turned the big "2" this year. I can't believe how fast it has gone.

We had a great grand party planned with friends, but the weather didn't

come through for us so we cancelled the party but still did some

celebrating with just the family. And since Trey loves

balls in any shape or form and we knew some of the

gifts he was getting it just made sense to make it a

ball/sport party. He loved his sport B-day banner

and through out the day would point to all the balls on it!

We did most of the celebrating after Daddy got

home from work. Addie and I worked on the cake

together while Trey was taking his nap.

Oh how he loved his new golf set... Yet another device to hit balls with...pure heaven for Trey!! He would not put down the clubs even to hit on his new T-Ball set. He had to hit the baseball with the club... hey its your birthday do whatever you want! And then we surprised him with a new bike...which he has and does so graciously let his sister ride all around while he continues to find balls to hit around outside instead! Hopefully he'll get around to liking his new bike!! Hot dogs, Root beer, Popcorn and a Movie (Open Season 2) were on the menu for the night. The kids thought it was so fun to be able to eat dinner while watching a movie!! And thanks to Targets $1 bins they just happened to have these cute baseball buckets...perfect for the occasion!

Trey had snuck off quietly during the end of the movie

(which the rest of us were apparently glued too) and this

is where we found him. Off in his own little world licking

away at the frosting on his cake! It was hilarious.

For the longest time after we discovered where he was

we just sat there and watched him do his thing!

Oh man, He was LOVIN' it!

Trey is such a joy to have in our lives. His smile makes

me melt and I can't help but smile back. We love you

Trey and wish you a great year of being "2"!!!

{2 years}

Yay...for turning 2!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREY!!!

We love this sweet boy so much....

Hope you have a great day buddy!

{Mt. Rushmore}

The fun didn't stop after the St. Patty's Day

celebration...the next day we packed up

and all loaded in our van and headed out to

South Dakota...Destination: Mt. Rushmore!!!!

We drove out on a Friday afternoon and safely arrived

in Keystone, SD where we would be staying the night

in a fun Holiday Inn Express. The kids were fantastic

travelers but were sooo excited to get out

and get some wiggles out swimming in the hotel pool! The front entrance of the hotel was like a mini zoo for

the kids. They had all sort of stuffed animals for them

to see and complimentary hot chocolate which we all enjoyed!

And ironically enough our good friend who plays hockey

had a tournament in Rapid City, SD

(which was 15 min. away from our hotel) the

weekend we were there! So fun that we got to

watch just one more game. G &G Hansen

had never been to a hockey game before so they

were way excited to be able to watch one and meet

our good friends, the Rupps! And of course the kids

had a great time watching and runnin' around!

Go Oilers!!

First thing Saturday morning we headed out to

Mt. Rushmore. (which was only 2 miles away from our hotel!!!)

Addie was so excited to see these

faces that we had been telling her about.

They have really done up the place and have made it a very beautiful Memorial. As you walk toward Mt.Rushmore you first walk through these granite pillars with each state flag adorning them. it really is a beautiful site. Then it all opens up and you are standing right in front of Mt. Rushmore. Check. We can officially check Mt.Rushmore off of our list of places to see! It was absolutely beautiful and incredible! Here's our little family! I love how all 4 of us are lined up almost perfectly with the presidents in back! A little collage of the memorial. The statue in the middle is Gutzon Borglum... the brains and sculptor behind this amazing rock carving that he dared dreamed to do. From L to R: George Washington

Middle:

Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt

And on the Right:

Abraham Lincoln

Put them all together and you have an amazing

sculpture of 4 amazing men/Presidents that made

an difference in history.

There is a nice trail that takes you to the base of the mountain

so you can get a closer look. It was a beautiful day with

the sun shining and a light breeze.

And the 3 Randalls were kind enough to let us snap

a 3 generation picture of them!!! We had so much fun

there at Mt. Rushmore. We actually spent about

2 1/2 hours there between site seeing and the museum.

the kids were so good and we all had a good time.

After Mt.Rushmore we stopped in the little town

of Keystone (where we spent the night) which is

2 miles down the road from Mt. Rushmore.

It's a quaint little town with a population of 311.

Most of the shops were closed for the "season"

but we did manage to find an ice cream/candy

shop open!! yay! We walked down the one side

of the street and back up the other side. It's

not very long as you can see and yes this was

the extent of the town.

Yay for Ice Cream...we were all craving it!

Every DQ we passed along our way had big

signs on them that said, "closed for the season

come see us in April." We were so excited when

this cute shop was open and serving up nice

cold Land O' Lakes Ice cream. It was delicious

ice cream. they had every kind of fudge you could

imagine in there along with every kind of chocolate

covering every kind of nut! I could have gone wild

in that store but I stuck to just the ice cream!

After Ice cream we headed up the other side

of the street to see what other stores there were.

Spinning salt water taffy in the front

window of another cute little store

caught all of our attention fast. We actually got to

go in and see the entire process to making salt water

taffy. From the spinning to flavoring to coloring to spinning more

to cooling to shaping to putting it in the coolest machine ever

to watching that machine spit individually wrapped

pieces of delicious Taffy. They had every possible

flavor of taffy....even Jalapeno, which Tyler got to try!

Last stop of the trip....Hill City. They have an old

1880 steam engine train which runs in the summer from Hill City

to Keystone. Although it wasn't running we stopped anyway

to let the kids get out and see and play on the train. It was

a great stop before the 3 hour car ride we had until

we would be home. Overall, this was such a FUN trip.

The kids were fabulous, the company was fabulous,

the sites were fabulous! And a big thanks to

G & G Hansen for helping and joining us on this trip!!!