Easter Weekend

It started Friday night with dinner and shopping for Auburn's birthday - one of my favorite things to do is hang out with my mom & sisters so of course it was fun! The rest of the weekend is documented in pictures...

Saturday morning was the Easter Egg Hunt in my parents' neighborhood - and being the "transplant" that I am, Noah & I showed up! Ellie needed her sibling there for support anyway (they like to tell each other that they're twins).
Noah & I enjoyed the breakfast - which was all over his face!
Noah looks like he's getting ready to race down the hill to find eggs, but that's not what happened when the race started!

Ellie was all about racing, but Noah on the other hand...
was going as slow as possible and holding my mom's hand like he was scared.
He didn't want to run but then he was sad every time he saw an egg and someone got to it before him!
Luckily there was tons of eggs so we finally made it to an area of the park that still had some for Noah to put in his basket.

After the egg hunt - about 2 minutes after it started!
Noah's showing me his "boy" color easter eggs in this picture. He passed up all of the pink and purple eggs - because he only wanted green & blue. Looks like he settled for an orange one too.

Saturday afternoon we had family pictures (that's why my sisters & I are all matching) and then headed over to a dinner put on by my parents' bishop and other Young Men leaders in their ward. The dinner was to honor Brad & his friend Drew who are both leaving within the next 2 weeks for their missions! The dinner was really good & it was fun to see what goes on at those traditional dinners. I still can't believe that my "bee-bee" brother is leaving so soon!

With such a busy weekend, I did my grocery shopping at about 9:30 Saturday night - and Noah was with me as usual. The Easter Bunny had put off finding a treat for Noah's basket so I had to be as sneaky as possible that night at "my local" Wal-Mart. I picked up anything DIEGO that I could find quick without him seeing. Well, he's too smart for his age so of course he figured it all out. I had to tell the cashier to "tell the Easter Bunny that Noah would like this Diego camera and these ASU tic tacs". (It all worked out since I'm pretty tight with the workers.)

The next trick was sneaking down stairs without Noah the next morning. I thought it would be easy to sneak down there before he woke up but he heard my door open and wanted to go down with me. Well eventually I made it down without him and he was totally surprised when he found the Diego slideshow thing and the tic tacs in his basket. Oh yeah - he was with me when I bought the clothes about a month ago too but I think he forgot about those!

Easter Sunday was a little different this year, but busy and fun! Brad spoke in church and then we spent all afternoon in my parents' kitchen getting ready for his open house that night. Let's just say that I've probably gained AT LEAST 5 pounds this week because I love sweets and there's not only easter candy laying around, but also leftovers from the open house.

On a totally different note - Kip dresses himself! The underwear were on backwards so it was so funny when he stood up!

Sk8er Boi

Noah is growing up way too fast. This past Monday for Family Home Evening, we skateboarded to "the hill" in our neighborhood where he wanted to ride his skateboard down. He got the skateboard from Santa and this was the first time I suggested that he could ride it outside. I don't think he knew that it was even an option! Now I'm scared of what I might have gotten myself into.
He loved it and was actually pretty good!

This is "the hill" or maybe it can be called the "dead man's curve" of our neighborhood. He likes to come here and ride the scooter down the hill too.
When it was time to go home, he was complaining that he was too thirsty to carry his skateboard. "Too bad" I said. (He loves making excuses so he can be lazy.)
We had fun but I really hope that he's not a "skater" someday. The injuries alone scare me!

Guess who's 30 years old?

Auburn is - and she’s so excited about it! Auburn & I are only 20 months apart & I have always loved having an older sister. Don’t let these pictures fool you though - it’s cute how we’re hugging each other, but a lot of memories include fighting and saying or hearing “I’m telling mom” about 50 times a day. (I’m sure my mom and all her co-workers from Riggs Plumbing dreaded the summers when we’d all be home to fight with each other and call her at work over every stupid thing we fought about!)

(Please excuse the old-school scrapbooking in this picture - and more to come! What was I thinking when I cut my pictures out into shapes?)
Auburn always put up with having 3 younger sisters who were (and still are) much more immature than her. We liked matching and sometimes Auburn was forced to match with us even though she probably hated it! Auburn came to the rescue when I was a junior in high school and most of my friends had boyfriends - let me explain: She was at NAU and allowed me to come “visit” (or get out of town) during Valentines Day weekend and Prom weekend. It was a lot of fun! (Auburn: do you remember the leather coat guy at the dance?) During one of the trips to NAU, I remember coloring my hair - and it turned out PINK although that’s not what I had in mind! I washed it so many times before going back home, and luckily within a few days, the color faded.
Auburn picked a great guy to marry - it was like I instantly had a big brother when she got married and I love Bryan! I’ve posted this picture before but I have to show it again because Auburn was my date - we’re trying to do the “prom” pose without peeing our pants at the PCC in Hawaii.
Kind of embarrassing to put this picture of myself on my blog, but let me explain. One year for Christmas, our family did a dollar store gift exchange. The rule was to buy something funny from the dollar store. Auburn and I found out that we went to the same dollar store, and without even giving each other any clues about what we found, we just had a feeling that we picked out the same item. When Christmas came and we did the exchange, we could not stop laughing, because sure enough we had both picked out the gold hats. Auburn & I are a great team, sharing the load of the shopping bag at the mall (aka Maria & Jessica) - only my family would get this, so sorry anyone else!
Auburn has taught the rest of my family how to be a great mom (or aunt or grandparent…). All you have to do is threaten your kids with something they’re afraid of. At Christmas time, Auburn’s threat for Roxy was Santa - for obvious reasons. When kids grow out of that certain threat, you can always find a new one that works. Thanks for teaching me how to use “scare tactics” Auburn! (Aren’t her kids so cute?)
Auburn makes the best Debbie Downer faces, and she is hilarious. I don’t know why some of the things she says are so funny, but I love her sense of humor. The best is taking road trips to California with just the girls. I will crack up the entire way to California - listening to Auburn. Speaking of, she’s great at writing songs (again, only my family would get this).
On a more serious note, I love having Auburn as my sister. She is so caring and will do anything for me. She helps me out with Noah so willingly and he loves her too. Auburn really is a good mom, whether or not I’m talking about scare tactics. She takes good care of her kids and always has them looking so cute and clean. (I scored big time with all of the clothes passed down from Riggs & Jax.)
Thanks for all you do Auburn. I love you & I hope you have a great decade - being in your 30’s now!

Ellie, I can't believe you're

I still remember the day you were born. It was so special to be there when you came into the world. The first thing we noticed was your long feet and your cute dimples. You were a sweet, happy baby from the very beginning. I had so much fun spending lots of time with you during those months before Noah was born. I loved it when your mom worked on Saturdays and I got to pretend you were my baby!Thanks for helping me take care of Noah even when you were so young. It helped to have a little mommy like you around when I couldn't entertain him 24/7.He loves you too and says that you will always be his best friend. You are one of the cutest little girls around - not only in looks, but in personality too. It seems like what makes you the happiest, is making other people happy. That's a great thing about you and I hope it never changes!I know that you & Noah were destined to be so close in age because although you are both getting a little old to still be the "only child", at least you have each other. As we get older, I will always look back at this time in Noah's life and the memories will all include you. We love that he gets to spend so much time with you. You are so fun to be around, and there is no one else like you! You're so silly sometimes!
If you're not a super-model in this picture, I don't know what you are! Your protective daddy better watch out in about 10 years!
I love you so much, Ellie Girl! I miss spending time with you during the days but I want you to know that you will always be so special to me.

Me & Noah are excited for your birthday party!

Happy Easter Time!

I'm not a dog lover although you might think so after seeing this post. Alisse forwarded me this e-mail titled "WHY DOGS BITE PEOPLE" and the pictures are so funny. These are just some of my favorites.