Easter at Nana's

Aunt Amy made a new discovery: Derek likes to perform puppy tricks. He and Amy spent several minutes playing while Derek pretended to be a dog and perform tricks like rolling over, playing dead, sitting up on command and so on. After that, we sent the kids upstairs so we could hide eggs. To be fair, we let the kids come downstairs youngest to oldest. Bryce took a few helpful pushes to figure out how to put the eggs into his basket but he eventually got it. We had a lot of fun talking, laughing and just enjoying being together.

Derek playing dead

Panting like a puppy

I have no idea what he's doing here, but this is hilarious!

RIP Rocket Cup. This was the last sip. It broke shortly after. Derek and Bryce both loved this cup.

Aunt Bella and Clara

Bryce went first. He needed some help to put his eggs in the basket. He was pretty content just to get one in each hand.

Derek came next with Ally and Tyler not far behind

Derek had a better eye for eggs this year than last year

Bryce found some smelly eggs, haha!

"In here, right?"

Tyler found eggs in some pretty high nests

Amy helped Derek find some sneaky eggs hidden in cracks

Got it!

Aunt Jenn, Derek, Nana, and Bryce

Aunt Bella helped Derek empty the spoils of the hunt into plastic bags. She probably slipped some math into the conversation, too. :)

Aunt Jenn and Nana helped Bryce empty his eggs

Happy Easter! Tyler, Dillon, Ally, Amy, Uncle Tim and Danny

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.

Christmas with Aunt Mary



Derek, Bryce and Clara's Great Great Aunt Mary came into town this week and we had an early Christmas with her and the kids. It was so fun to see her again! The last time we saw Aunt Mary, Bryce was about as old as Clara is. Bryce and Derek each got a special present from Aunt Mary; a talking Percy train for Bryce (which was extremely attractive to Derek, too) and an R/C monster truck for Derek. Both boys were fascinated and it was sweet to see their excitement. Bryce is much less excitable, so he just watched politely as Aunt Mary opened the Percy train and showed him how it works. Derek on the other hand was hopping impatiently from foot to foot as Mitchell opened the R/C truck and put batteries in it. He'd run off to tell anybody about his "cool monster truck," run back to see if Mitchell was done and then run off to talk to someone else. He's such a hoot.

 

Clara got a gift from Nana - pretty bows and some rufflebutt diaper covers. Of course Aunt Amy, Aunt Val, Nana and I couldn't resist playing dress up and trying to take some staged pictures with the massive flowers and cute little dresses. Clara was a good sport for a pretty long time but every baby has her limits. She ended up in her little Christmas dress and was happy to cuddle with anyone after she was fed.

 

 It was just like a mini preview to Christmas with all the younger cousins opening presents from Aunt Mary. Paper was crackling and kids were shouting - perfect madness. I loved it!

 

 Derek is so excited about the R/C monster truck!

 

 Aunt Mary helped Bryce open the Percy train

 

Sweet brothers! Derek gave the train back to Bryce after checking it out. Way to share!

 

Derek was thrilled to have Mitchell show him how to use the R/C truck

 

Aunt Amy and Clara 

 Aunt Val was happy to cuddle Clara

 

 Cap'n Tyler Hook!

 

 I swore I'd never put massive flowers on my girls, but the aunts went into override mode. :) Still, she's looks good in lavender.

 

Look at that cute little rufflebutt!



Aunt Amy used her phone to take this picture and then edit it. How cool?!



 Love this black, white and red picture!

 

 Sweet little cuddlebug

 

Had a great time!

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?