Aunt Mary and Aunt Nancy Come to Texas!

Aunt Mary, Aunt Nancy and their friends, Rhonda and Linda came out to Texas for fun! Woohoo, boy did we have fun. Between the park, watching a hockey game at Beth's house, and amazing pesto alfredo stuffed pastas, it was awesome! Last night, we all got together to watch a hockey game. The game was being played outdoors in the middle of a snowstorm, so they had to paused roughly every ten minutes so workers could clear big piles of snow off the rink. Crazy! 

We all met at a park today and I missed the pink shirt memo, lol. Pretty much everyone was wearing a shade of pink. Derek had a blast playing in the dirt with Declan - he didn't really do much else. Bryce was happy to dink around between the table with breakfast burritos and the slide. I tried to get him excited about the slide by going down it with him, but he was more content to watch everyone else go. Clara charmed everyone with smiles, of course. Mitchell and I thought we could stay and play the murder mystery game with the adults later but the kiddos decided they'd had enough fun for the day. It was cool to see everyone dressing up for their parts as we left though! 

Adorable!!

Sweet kisses

 John was the first to claim bottle time with Clara

 Bryce and I went down the slide together. Brave boy!

 Jilli shot down the slide!

 Declan and Derek digging in the dirt

 Aunt Mary discovers the best thing in the world - a sleeping baby on your chest. Perfection.

 Bryce cheesing

 Aunt Nancy and Clara trading cuddles

 She WILL cut you ;)

 Rhonda got in on the feed-the-baby gig, lol. Thanks Rhonda!

 Aunt Amy and Derek rock these green 'staches

Amy, Aunt Mary and Clara - Luck O' The Irish!

 

Aunt Mary and Clara - aren't they such cute leprechauns?

Aunt Amy and Bryce

 Declan, my favorite not-nephew! Lol.

 Aunt Mary, Aunt Nancy and me. I love you guys!

 Bryce, Aunt Nancy and Clara

 All dressed up for the murder mystery! Linda, Aunt Jenn, Aunt Mary and Amy

Christmas at Gamm's

Amy, Val and I took the kids to do Christmas at Gamm's house last night. It was a pretty quiet drive. :) My cousins Jeff, John and Beth were there as well as their mom, my Great Aunt Kathy and Aunt Jenn and Uncle Tim were there with Ally and Tyler. My Uncle Tom was there too! There were lots of great finger foods that Gamm made and, between the toys and cousins, Derek was pretty well entertained. Bryce was happy to interact with anyone and Clara was an immediate magnet, haha! I spent most of my time talking with adults, which was a great Christmas present in and of itself. Thanks for watching the kids, Amy!

 

Gamm gave Derek and Bryce each a present and they ripped into it with gusto. I wish I had recoded Derek's reaction when he realized that he unwrapped a big stegosaurus. It was so cute! Bryce unwrapped a Thomas train with a bee car that really buzzes. It's compatible with the wooden train tracks they got for Christmas, too. It was a great visit.

 

 No wonder it was a really quiet drive. :)

 

 Rob and Val. Aren't they cute?

 

 Bryce made himself right at home traipsing all over the house

 

 Derek and Declan played so well tonight! They were both sharing cars with each other and playing very nicely.

 

 My beautiful cousin, Beth!

 

 Ally and Tyler were scoping out all the presents

 

 It was so good to see Andrew! I can't remember the last time I saw him. Amy was such a trooper to feed Bryce. He loved the meatballs and ham.

 

 Jillian is growing up so fast! She and Derek are about two years apart and roughly the same size.

 

John was one of the first to requisition Clara, haha! Gamm gave her this adorable little dress with some cute sock shoes and her first pair of tights!



 Derek's "sloth slur" is so cute. When he opened the box, he yelled, "Oh wow! A Shtegoshaurush!" We're still working on his S sound, but it's cute nonetheless.

 

 Jeff had just gotten to hold Clara when she decided she was hungry, so he was the first to hold her after she was fed. We met his girlfriend, Kellie, tonight and she's really nice.

 

 Bryce happily toddled over to John and climbed, unsolicited, up into his lap. He's such a friendly little kid.

 

Gamm finally got her hands on the little ball of pink lace.



Bryce loved all the different toys - particularly this phone...



...and this doll. He patted this doll and carried it around for a while before he moved on to another toy. It just reminds me to keep a close eye on him when he's around Clara. Just til she's a little bigger.

Easter

We celebrated Easter with my Gamm and Papa this year. We've missed the massive Easter Egg Hunt for the last several years, so it was high time for us to make a reappearance. ;) We had so much fun! Gamm made tons of sweet things to eat (including white chocolate covered jelly beans - YUM!) and all the kids had to trek through the house to find their Easter baskets. Derek found Bryce's first and happily ran over to him saying, "Bryce, Bryce, look! Your basket!" Derek was thrilled to discover bubbles, a monster truck, a set of three cars, a candy-pooping cow toy and the most exciting thing ever - chocolate! - in his basket. Bryce was fascinated with his stuffed Horton elephant and the little stuffed bunny Nana gave him and very content to be in Tia Rosa's lap (she held him pretty much the whole time. Thanks Tia Rosa!). We even gave him some frosting, but apparently it wasn't as good as the St. Patty's Day icing. Lol! Papa went all out this year and hid over 400 eggs in his front and back yard. They don't have a huge plot so the minute we walked out, there were eggs EVERYWHERE! It was so cool! Derek had a blast hunting for eggs and finding all different shapes and sizes. I think his favorites were the frog egg, the baseball egg and the camo egg that he found on the fountain. I found the traditional $5 egg this year for only the second time in my life! ;) It was hidden in some leaf litter under the camo egg on the fountain. I thought it looked a little funky, haha! With the addition of my $5, Derek found a modest stash of a little over $15. All the eggs had nickels, dimes and the occasional quarter in them. There were also ten eggs that had a dollar bill in them. I think Derek found a couple of those. It was neat to teach Derek about counting and money. We'll do an FHE about tithing next week and let Derek give his first tithing slip to the bishop. He's already excited about it. Check out some of the pictures of these kids huntin' eggs!

 Opening his basket

 You can't see his mouth very well, but it was an "O" - he was so excited to find chocolate!

 Hi from Bryce!

 Nom nom nom!

 Tyler got a cool prank set in his basket. We had a lot of fun with this beauty. ;)

 The starting line... Ally, Tyler, Derek, Bryce, Declan and Jilli

 The girls were paying attention, lol

 Just a sample. So many eggs!

 Even Bryce got in on the egg-action!

 Tyler found the first jelly bean egg

 Derek's camo egg - the $5 egg was in the leaves underneath. Traditionally, it's the smallest egg, not much bigger than a couple inches.

He missed the one right in front of his face to go for the orange one in the back. Typical Derek. ;)

 Huntin' Eggs!

 Derek wasn't sure this was an egg at first.

 Papa helped Derek find some of the more disguised eggs in the big bush

 An egg that wishes it was a baseball

How many eggs can YOU find?