Bunny trail

      It was a chilly Saturday morning, but no one minded. (Our Easter bunny doesn't work on the Sabbath so we do our hunt the day before). Lincoln (16 months) even got in on the action for the first time this year. Gabe (8yr) and David (7yr) finally decided that it probably wasn't an over-sized rabbit that deposited all the candy in our yard, but before we did the hunt I gave them the speech- "If you want candy play along. You have many more years and younger siblings to not spoil this for." They were very compliant. One ambitious squirrel found a plastic egg and gnawed right through the plastic to find the treasure inside. If he wanted  it that bad he deserved the treat. It is amazing how Zach and I can spend a good portion of our evening stuffing and depositing 100 plastic eggs in the yard and within 15 minutes they are all collected and inspected. Children buzz around on warp speed though when looking for Easter eggs. Watching them hunt is one of the fun things about being a mom. I love it. 

Playing Catch

From my limited parental experience, I have found that all boys really want to do is have fun and be loved. This starts at a very young age. Playing catch with Dad pretty much covers both of these two areas at the same time. Lincoln loves balls right now and isn't half bad at catching the ball from short distances. If we could only get him to say "ball" then we'd really be in business.

Mother Daughter PrEaster

I bought Ruthie this cute Easter dress only to realize that we aren't even going to be a church on Easter. SO we wore our Pre-Easter dress last week instead. Still cute. It also doubled as her "princess" dress for a party last week with the help of a crown made by dad. Pretty in Pink. 

Feeding Himself

All of a sudden my youngest is Mr. Independent. He's been letting us spoon feed him up until last week when a light switch must have come on. Lincoln glanced around the table and decided that everyone else got to feed themselves so he would too. He hasn't let us feed him since. If we try he turns his head or spits it back out. The food The food must go down by his own doing or he isn't having it. This has made for much messier meals and more food waste but I suppose it had to happen some time. Shortly after I put my camera down he also tried the two fisted method and the bowl-mouth dump, each with some measure of success.

Fist method

Spoon method

Snow Ranch

Happy Spring Break! I wanted to get out of town this Spring break so I asked my friends if they had any plans and tagged along with a family headed to Snow Ranch in Granby, CO. There is a place there run by the YMCA called Snow Ranch that offers a wide variety of family activities including swimming, tubing, crafts, a rec center, snow shoeing, cross country skiing, and ice skating. Unfortunately the mapquest road we set off to to take was closed 80% of the way up the mountain so we had to turn around and take a different route turning what would have been a 2.5 hour drive into a 5 hour drive. That was hard on everyone, especially Lincoln, who only slept 40 minutes and did not appreciate being strapped in to the torture chamber that long. The way back home seemed relatively short by comparison. Aside from having to sleep all seven of us in one hotel room and Zach and I stepping through the snow up to our thighs, all enjoyed the trip. I would definitely go again.

being pulled up and down the tubing hill just lulled this little one to sleep-bump, bump,bump

one of Mac's favorite activities is to climb on the snow piles

The original cabins from the 1800's 

Prayer Pictures submitted to Vineyard

  I belong to a list serve that sends out emails for photo service opportunity through the LDS church. This particular branch is called The Vineyard (vineyard.lds.org) and it includes things like the arts, education, translation, media, donations, and technology. I decided I would participate in last week's call for photos and took these of some good friends of our family. Thank you Andrews for being lovely and willing models. Who knows, you might show up in the Ensign next year. 

UPDATE: Picture at right of mother and daughter was selected as one of the two challenge winners. Kind of made my day.

Little Climber

 Someone likes to climb. And that someone happens to be just cute enough to laugh at instead of punish. He will climb on anything he can get up on: the couches, the rocking chair, the table, etc. He is even attempting the ladder to the fort outside but Zach informed me that he took a big tumble into the sand today and wasn't too happy about it. These are the happy/proud photos of him getting up. Mommy didn't take any pictures of the sad/disgruntled Lincoln that had to then get OFF the table before he fell.