Grandma Illene and Grandpa Tom's visit

In April one of my cousins got married and my grandparents came up to Utah for that.  So we had the opportunity to spend MORE time with my grandparents again.  It was so great to spend so much time with them the past month.  Also Russell's personalluity exploded between the time that we went to visit them in Cali and when they came out to Utah.  So we just had a blast watching Russell show off. 

He was struting around like he knows he is cute.  It makes for a great laugh.

He was a crack up this particular visit.  He was interacting with my grandma in such a sweet way.  He would crawl from one end of the table then back to her and touch his forehead to hers laughing the whole time.

Kisses now of days are given all the time but back in April it was hard to get a kiss.  This night he was initiating them with grandma.

hugs too.

They had such a great time together.  They occupied the whole night.

Like I said his personality exploded.  He was acting more like a little boy then a baby.  Interacting with us instead being independently entertaining.

More kisses.

I love my grandma.  She is such a beautiful lady.  She is also so sweet and petite, and next to Russell he makes her look even smaller.

"GG the phone is for you."

These smiles and laughs are all new.

Here he is playing peek a boo with Grandpa Tom.

"I'm gunna get you!!"

He was extremely entertaining that night and I love that I had my great new camera.  I don't think that with my old camera I would have been able to get so many of these moments recorded.

California Trip Part 2

So after Darlene's wedding we went to my grandparents house to visit with them.  They were so great to let us stay with them for the night.  We had a great dinner followed by watching Russell be super cute.  Grandpa Tom blew up some balloons and Russell thought they were just great.  

 But once again I had a hard time choosing which pictures I was going to post so I just did a bunch.

 GG playing hide and seek.

 He was having the best time with those balloons.

LOVE his face.

 

 Look at how big his face is!!  Hello Charlie Brown.

 My grandma and I are clapping because he is doing his new balloon trick (the video that is  down a little further).

 Balloon trick in action.

 We didn't get a great video of his balloon trick but what we did get was still cute.  He would put the  tail piece in his mouth and smack it against his face.  It was so funny!

The next morning my grandparents had early church and we needed to head back home.  But there is always time for blocks with Grandpa Tom.

 Usually Russell will knock the tower down faster then you can build it.  But I guess he liked Grandpa Tom's so much he didn't want to ruin it.

 It took a little while but he warmed up and they had a fun morning.

 These blocks are the best.  If they get wet they stick to things like Russell's forehead. 

 Love both of those smiles!!

 One of Russell's favorite games.  Wearing mommy's head band.  Oh pretty.

 Thank you guys so much.  It wasn't much time but we will always cherish it.

I love that he looked at both of them.

We actually forgot to give Darlene and Mason our present but luckily they were honeymooning in Las Vegas (where would you honeymoon when you live in Hawaii?). So we dropped off the present at their hotel.  BUT it did take us 6 hours just to get to Vegas and drop off the gift.  It was spring break so everyone was trying to get back home.  Toby and I were snipping at each other pretty bad and Russell was getting so tired because he didn't sleep much in the car the whole trip.  So eventually we decided to stay the night.  I think it was a good idea.  We had such a great time last time we were in Vegas that we always want to come back.  We knew we weren't going to get that great of an experience but we at least wanted to go to a great dinner.  A lot of places won't let you take kids so we were limited.  We ended up in a buffet and I will tell you right now that is was not that good especially for what we paid.  WASTE of money.  But we did get to have a nice comfortable night.  We were all rested for the drive home.  As you can see Russell really enjoyed the view.  Poor Toby still had to go to work almost right when we got back.  But I think we still had a great trip.

Dog House

Toby and I decided that Sadie should become a strictly outside dog again.  The space was just to small for her big tail.  Also I was getting really bored of vacuuming all the time (like every other day).  Also we thought we might be moving soon so we should get her ready for being outside for that (it would be easier to find a place if we didn't have an inside dog). Anyway we got started right away.   There really isn't much to say about it so here are a bunch of pictures that I had a hard time deciding which ones to use so I used all of them.

 I love his smile!

 Russell has become such a copy cat.  I love it.  So he decided he was going to show dad how it is done.

 When he was out with us it was hard to keep him out of trouble...but I guess a paint brush will do it.  He is sitting here brushing the saw dust.  He is such a cleaner.

 Before paint

 After.

 Russell found the lid to the pain.  So it was bath time.

I would love to show you a finished product but it is still not done. Just for your information I have not been keeping up with my blog (something new for me) but these pictures were taken May 2.  We have had a lot of things going on that are making it hard to finish but I promise it will happen before the summer is over!!

Easter

I LOVE Easter.  My parents did a great job making awesome holiday traditions and Easter is in my top 5... no 2 easy.  This year was a little different because we didn't have a big group of friends.  We just had family.  It was a nice change but we still love when we have people joining in the fun with us.

At church I taught my little primary class (5 year old kids). We did a Easter Egg hunt.  In each egg was a little something that helped tell the Resurrection story.  The kids loved it and so did I.  It was a great way tell the story of the resurrection and it is something that I will be doing with my kids.

After church Morgan and Brice came over with their kids and we did our traditional egg hunt...You know the one where the kids look for their eggs for 5 min then the adults spend and hour looking for their eggs.  This year my dad changed things up and the kid eggs were in the front yard and the adults were in the pasture...(about 2 acres).  It was a little intimidating.  I also think our neighbors might think we are a bit crazy.  Us adults are all wondering around the pasture with our little bags looking for little plastic eggs. HAHA I love it.

Alaina taking advantage of the big kids looking for eggs so she could have some time on the trampoline by herself.

She is getting so brave and she is knows she is really cute. 

Ryker looking for eggs.

It's getting really fun with the kids getting older.  My dad can get creative with their eggs.

Someone always ends up in a tree.

The two boys hangin out together.  

My dad took the picture before this one and you can see Morgan taking a picture of them so I thought you should see the picture she took.

Alaina looking for her eggs.

The boy looking for the lost egg.  Some of the eggs were in the sprinkler boxes.  

Brice found a salamander in one of them.  Raelin was the first one there begging to hold it and take it home.  I love her.  She is frearless.

I love that she is posing with it like she is in love.  This girl loves all creatures.  She is great.  I love you Raelin!

Raelin was a big help with the adult hunt.

My dad put a big swing up in the tree in the pasture.

It is my favorite.  I love swings...just like Raelin.

Girls won. Boys are still looking for their eggs.

She doesn't ride the scooter she just drags it around everywhere.

Ryker can ride a big kid bike.  That doesn't mean no training wheels (he has been able to do that for a while) it means that he can barley reach the ground when he is on it.  And turning is tricky.  He crashed a lot but he is tough and determined to get it down.

This is the Easter outfit Toby picked out for Russell. Yes that is a superman shirt.

I LOVE my parents property.  It is so beautiful and peaceful.  

Easter usually has a lot of candy but Morgan and I were in charge of candy this year and we decided to just do a little candy and only the good stuff.  So we had a lot less eggs, most of them were filled with change. It turned out good.  There was still one egg that we couldn't find.  Maybe the horses will have a nice treat some day this year.  HAHA.

  I feel like this year we really concentrated on Christ.  After the egg hunt and dinner my mom told us the story of the Resurrection.  She had spend 6 months in Europe during college so she was able to tell us about her time in Gethsemane and the spirit that was there.  It was amazing how clear her memory was and the picture she was able to paint for us.  With her story and my teaching my class I feel like Easter this year was all about what it really should be about, Christ.  I loved what I learned and what I was able to teach Russell.  Being a mom has changed so much of my general thinking.  In high school all I cared about was candy and now I LOVE that I was able to celebrate Christ and all he has done for us!  Thank you to all who helped make this Easter so wonderful.