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?

Lozilu Mud Run!

I did it! I ran my first mud run today! Well, really my first "competitive" run ever. Some of these pictures are a little embaressing for me, but I want to remember this run. It was awesome! So. Mush. Mud! My friend, Erica and her husband were so kind to watch the boys while I headed over to Grapevine with Jeff, Tammy and Liz to run in the mud. Thanks Erica! When we arrived, we checked in, stashed our gear (and clean clothes) and checked out the competitiors. Almost everyone was in some sort of pink and several teams were wearing tutus (it was a women's race, so no guys allowed). Liz was a big fan of the tutus. ;) My mom came to check out the lay of the land and root us on. She's helping to put on the kiddie version of this mud run next month. Exciting! The course we ran today was 3 miles long with 12 obstacles of various sizes and shapes. We did all of them! Way to go Dirty Darlings ("It's what we call ourselves... we're kind of like a team" NAME THAT MOVIE!)!! I'll let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves. :) Lanae, Sereen, we wish you had been here!

 Sisters!

 Girl Power!

 Gotta love the matching... well, everything, really.

 Jeff-pile!

 Our lovely photographer. ;) Thanks Mom!

 You can't see us but we're waaaaaaay in the back. Almost dead last.

 The under-overs. This was an under. 

Military training is still useful!

1\2 the way there. Get it?!

 Ugh, this one was hard. The thin ropes were caked with slippery mud and we had just climbed out of the mud mosh-pit. Tammy actually tackled me! Way to go!

 Dirty Darlings indeed.

 Liz was the bravest of us and went over the last tall wall. I took one of the smaller ones (we had to sign a release waiver and I wasn't taking chances with all that slippery mud).

 A super tall rope pyramid. Fun if it weren't so tall. Safety mats, people! Seriously!

Waiting in line for the bouncy mud house. Liz is going to get me back for smearing mud in her hair. :)

 Peek-a-Tammy

 Racing for the metaphorical 50K

 I chose to pull a Derek and roll down the slide. ;)

 Liz did too!

 Her landing was much more spectacular.

 The last obstacle!

 This mud pit (the last of three) was so freaking sticky! If you stopped moving, you sunk to your elbows.

Emerging swamp monsters... in case you didn't know how they were created. ;)

 Running across the finish line!

 One of the dirtiest, muddiest team ever! And the most amazing! I love you girls!

Jeff helped Liz and I clean off at the end. Lol!

The champions!

Turtle Boys

My mom found matching turtle pajamas for the boys. They're so cute! Derek was excited to have turtle legs. He kept pointing them out on Bryce. "Look Mom, Bryce has turtle legs, too!" The picture session turned into  a wrestling match and then a tickle fest. It was so cute to watch these two boys playing and giggling and having a good ol' time. This happened right before bedtime, so they were thoroughly wiped out and so very ready for bed. That made me a very happy mommy with lots of time for myself that night. ;)

 Derek loves tickling Bryce!

 Bryce loves getting tickled!

Bryce also likes playing with Derek's hair. It's so thick and plush! 

 "Look at the camera, Bryce!"

I love it when they look at each other and giggle. I hope they stay such close friends.

What cute boys!

Aunt Bella's Visit

Aunt Bella was in town this weekend and came over for a visit. Derek was so excited to see Nana walk through the door and then seeing Aunt Bella put him over the top. He couldn't get over the excitement of having them come visit. Kelly was such a trooper to deal with all the loving attention Derek bestowed on her. ;) 

 Aunt Bella!

 Derek would NOT leave her alone. He wanted to "BIIIIG HUG" her and wrestle and everything!

 We always tease Kelly that Derek is half as tall as she is, but this time we wanted to know if he was taller than she is while kneeling. He didn't quite get the idea, but it's a cute picture!

 Close, but not quite her height. Another adorable picture though!

 Such a sweet moment.

 Running to show off his homemade cape.

 I tried to make a "D" symbol but I'll stick to iron-on appliques from now on.

 Nana and Bryce!

 Tickling...

 ...and giggling!

Big boy!