Happy Birthday Lexie!

Well I am a little late on this one.  Lexie turned 14 on the 22nd.  I can hardly believe my baby is so old.  It really seems like only yesterday that she was born and made me a mother.  She had a track meet on her birthday.  So it seemed super busy.  I took her shopping on the Friday before, just her and I, and that was so much fun.  We shopped for clothes at a few stores, stopped for lunch at chipotle and then went to Hobby Lobby and looked at all kinds of room decorations.  We laughed and giggled and had a good time and even managed a serious conversation too.  It was a great day.  One I definitely want to repeat again soon.  I love the person she is becoming.  I am so proud of her.  She tries so hard to always do what is right and let her light shine.  She is a great example to all she meets.  

Here are a few of the pictures from her birthday.  

I love you my sweet girl.

Eater Fun

We had a wonderful Easter celebration.  Jake was working nights so we decided to most of the activities on Saturday, which ended up being really nice because we spent Sunday focused more on the Savior instead of candy.  The easter bunny came and left candy for the kids to find.

They had lots of fun finding everything.  And as you can see the easter bunny came early and everyone was still in their jammies while they hunted.  

With their spoils...

including a dark chocolate, dairy free bunny for Myles... It is really hard to find candy he can eat. 

We dyed our eggs on Friday.  Everybody gets a dozen eggs, which sounds like a good idea until it comes time to eat 4 dozen boiled eggs.  There are only so many things that one can do with boiled eggs before it gets old. 

As I was writing this I realized that I did get any pictures of my kids all dressed up for church.  Sad.  Well they looked super cute. I guess you'll need to use your imagination.

Spring?

Yes, in Minnesota. Moody, moody weather that is what spring is in Minnesota.  So almost all of our snow was finally gone, just the big piles from the plows and shoveling was all we had left, oh and a big patch on the north side of our house.  Then we had another snow day... that makes EIGHT days this year that school has been cancelled because of the weather.  We got another 5 inches so the kids made good use of it and made a cute snowman.  That was Friday and today (Sunday) it is mostly gone again.  I'm so jealous of Utah and all the flowers that are blooming already that we have seen at temple square while watching conference.  One day we will have flowers too.  One day.  Hopefully soon.

Spring Break

The kids had off Wed-Sun last week for spring break.  We spent one day running errands in Rochester, a few hanging out at the house and one at the Minnesota Zoo.  We had never been there before and I am sad that we haven't made the time to go before because it was really fun and everyone had a great time.  There is a whole indoor section that was were we spent most of our time because it was still a little cold for the outdoor stuff.  We bought a membership and can't wait to go back later.

The kids seeing how their wing span compares to bird that are common here.

riding a bear

This was my favorite animal today.  It is a see dragon, similar to a sea horse, they were awesome.

Lexie and Ashton trying to touch rays and sharks  They both ended up being able to, but Abbie was disappointed because her arms were too short.  They seemed to know how to swim just out of reach most of the time. 

A hermit crab inside a coral the kids all thought it was really cool

Ashton, Jake and Myles looking at some monkeys.

The penguins were really  cool

Abbie with a small crocodile

The kids joined the monkeys for a while, I almost left them there they seemed to fit in so well....  ;)

Myles pointed at so many things, he loved seeing all the animals as long as they were moving around.

This picture isn't the greatest but it is of Ashton's favorite animal at the zoo, a cute little armadillo, he was asleep this time (Ashton saw him on a school trip) Here is a little better picture of him.  

Myles started getting tired by the end of what we saw this day.

Abbie with a raccoon statue, she said it was Chester (from the kissing hand book)  

We had a fun day and only saw part of the zoo so we will definitely be going back, hopefully soon!

Myles' moments

Myles is so much fun.  He is also a handful most of the time.  He is curious and stubborn, but he is also cute and silly and fun.  He finds something new to get into almost every single day.  He definitely keeps me on my toes.  Here are a few Myles' moments...

Here he is folding his arms for prayer the other night, he is just learning how to do it and he only stays this way for a second or two but he's figuring it out. 

Abbie and Myles watching something on the iPad...with no pants on.  He takes them off whenever he can get them off.  I can't wait for warmer weather so he can just wear shorts.

My little lefty.  I am almost positive that he is going to be left handed like me.  He seems to prefer his left hand and will transfer things like a spoon or pencil to his left hand from his right.  And this is him being Mr. Independent.  It would seem he has already hit the "terrible twos" ....at 15 months.  He always wants to do everything by himself and gets upset if he can't.  Also, I am so grateful for the many different kinds of food that are out there now.  He is eating "cultured coconut milk" --coconut yogurt.  I don't think such a thing even existed when Lexie was a baby or if it did, I don't have any idea where I would have been able to find it.  Not that I would have been looking for something like that for her.  But his milk protein intolerance has made me look outside the box for things for him  and all of us to eat.  And I am grateful that they are there.

Playing with Chester, his red panda from build a bear.  

Doing puzzles, when he wants to sit still he is really good at doing these simple puzzles.  But a lot he doesn't want to hold still long enough to put all the pieces in the puzzle.  

Daddy's Little Helper

So we finally have had some warmer weather and it seems that spring may indeed come to Minnesota this year after all.  We have had a bunch of warmer weather (temps in the 40s) and some of our snow is finally melting.  We were outside the other day, Jake was clearing some of the ice/snow from the driveway now that it had softened up a little and Myles insisted that he needed to help.  We have a kids size snow shovel,  Myles had it and followed Jake around mimicking him.

Baby Blue Eyes

I took this picture of Myles today and his eyes just looked so blue to me I had to share it.