Easter morning

The girls Easter morning:Here is the girls surprises brought from the Easter Bunny:We always have a fun egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpas:But before Hayley could find eggs she gave up and went to eat breakfast with Grandpa:So it was up to Aubree to find all the eggs. I don't think she minded.

Here comes Peter cotton tail

We had an Easter egg hunt with some friends. The girls had a lot of fun. We split up the eggs between the families to be filled and then divided then up according to age and color. The daddy's hid the eggs and the search began. The best part of the activity was when some of the older kids couldn't find their eggs and the dad's couldn't remember where they had hid them. It was an all out search. Here is the group after finding all the eggs.
That many kids this was the best photo I had, of course my girls are too busy with their chocolate, they know what is really important.

Bunny Extravaganza (warning lot's of photo's)

One of the many perks of having a zoo pass is we had an early admittance morning for Easter. First the girls had the opportunity to pet a real bunny. The volunteer's thought they were so cute they let them pet all of them.
They had some great places for some cute photo's:
The girls were turned into bunny's:
Our little bunny's:
Aubree was able to plant a carrot seed, and then to help with the kids patience they gave each of them a little bad of baby carrots. How cute is that?Because we were there so early we were able to witness our favorite things, the loud monkey's howl. It is so neat. Here is Aubree watching our favorite monkey's while being a monkey. Hayley spent part of the morning showing us how persistent she is and after 15 minutes she got her sock off.Another first for us this trip was we watched the zoo keepers put out all of the chimps food; did you know they eat roses, ice with fruit frozen inside, and jello jigglers?Then we watched the chimps come out for the day, it was neat to watch them eat breakfast.
We ended our day watching the orangutans. Here is Bruno, he is Eli's same age. Isn't he sweet looking. Here is Aubree's hand with Bruno's:
Here is Eli's hand with Bruno's:By the end of the adventure Hayley was exhausted: We had so much fun the zoo pass has been a lot more fun then I could have ever thought it would be.

Dinner at one of our favorite diners

We took the girls out to Ruby's diner for dinner, it is one of our favorite places. The food is always good (knock on wood). Her is Hayley having her first taste of soda, Sprite.The girls sharing some vanilla malt shake. They share so well with everything else, give them something sweet and the forget how.

Daddy trying to get in on the action of the shake
One of the best things we do when we go out is take the mini dvd player to entertain the kids, Hayley is getting old enough she feels entitled to watch too

ask and you shall recieve

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Here are a couple of photo's of the beautiful Peruvian lily's Eli sent us. They were so great, they were beautiful for almost 2 weeks. THANK YOU BABY!!!

Z is for Zebra

A couple of weeks ago was Aubree's last day of school. She has really enjoyed being with her friends and learning more about the letters in the Alphabet. I can't believe her school year is over, time flies so fast when your having fun.

Good Friday

Every year when Good Friday pass by, I don't usually think much about it. Maybe Eli will get off a little early today. That's all. This year I am singing and Eli is playing his trumpet in this beautiful cantata called, He is Jesus Christ. It is so beautiful. It is the story of Christ from birth to resurrection. We are combining multiple stake choirs and last night was the first night we sang all together. When we sang the first note, the spirit was over whelming. Through out the night I just tried to take it all in. Oh so many years ago Christ, my savior and brother chose to suffer for my sins so that I would be able to repent and be with him again.

So today being Good Friday I have tried to keep Christ in my thoughts all day. I often wondered why they call it Good Friday, because it always seemed to be so inappropriate. This year I am touched by the sacrifice he gave by choice. All week I have tried to remember by history, with what Christ was doing on the particular day. I am so grateful for him and his ability to sacrifice himself so that I could be with my family forever and ever. I now understand that Good Friday is a good day because it gave us all the ability to with those we love forever.

"Hayley, I can't see the TV"

"Really Aubree? Hayley is blocking your view to the tv?"
"yes"
"That is pretty amazing seeing how she isn't tall enough to even touch the tv. But ok, Hayley come here so sister can see"

The start of spring cleaning

I have started Spring cleaning. I say started because it will take what feels like all Spring to finish. I have decided to put getting the carpets cleaned on hold until Aubree gets potty trained. So I decided to spot bot the spots as best as I could. But before you spot bot you have to do a very in-depth vacuuming of the floor, which means running the vacuum over the floor 5 or 6 times. Here is the vacuum I cleaned to start the cleaning:
So after vacuuming the downstairs, under everything, the cob webs, the stairs, and couch:
And now I am ready to vacuum upstairs:
I must say that I have a love hate relationship with may vacuum. We were given it for our wedding 5 years ago and it still works amazing>which is a love. It sucks up everything is its sight> which could be love or hate depending on if it was something I over looked and now have to fish out. The fact that I have to clean a filter> definitely a hate. But the alternative is a vacuum with a bag and that seems ridiculous. The label on the filter says it should be changed every 6mo, and I have changed it 2 times since owning it. Maybe its time to change it again.

Anyway back to spring cleaning: The 2 places Eli and I have lived in since moving to So Cal have had weird matte paint on the walls. Which we both have hated because if you touch the walls with almost anything it leaves a mark. (even clean, white, tennis shoes) A dark black mark, that is impossible to get off. Well that's what I thought.
Here is what one Magic Eraser looked like after doing a wall that is about 3ft x 4 1/2ft. It took all the marks off. So 9 magic erasers later all but one wall downstairs looks bran-spankin new. It was so worth it, especially when my friend came over and told me how clean my house was. LOVE IT. Isn't that after all a huge factor in why we clean at all so that our family and friends with have good clean thoughts about how you run your house?

More Spring cleaning to come, I just have to decide what to do next...mmmm thoughts?

Here fishey fishey

The girls have started swim lessons. We decided to put them both in a parent ed class, just once so we could all be in the pool together. The worst part of all being in the pool is there is no one to take pictures. Aubree loves it, she can't get enough of it. Hayley is just like her mom, likes the water but doesn't really want to get splashed in the face. We all like it especially because the pool is heated. LOVE IT!!

Special Surprise

There are few things Aubree loves more than to get packages. When we came home from park day we came home to a PACKAGE. It was from Eli, he had sent us flowers. Aren't these Peruvian Lilly's beautiful? ( funny fact, on the paper work they said they came from Ecuador)
I never have really thought about flowers coming through the mail, but now I have decided it might be better than from a local florist. When they come in the mail they bloom for you, when they come from a florist they bloom for the florist. Just a thought. What do you think?

Please meet you activities director..

AubreeSometimes during the day I just sit back and watch the girls interact and have fun. The best part is that Aubree has taken it upon herself to see that everything Hayley does is micromanaged. I think this is why we have older and younger siblings. The older ones get to boss the younger ones around and we think this is fun. Why does this same concept not work when I tell Aubree to pick up her toys?

New Cousin

Eli's sister Tina and her husband Mike had a beautiful little boy. Zeke was born at the end of February and a couple of weeks ago we introduced the cousins. Let me tell you how much Aubree loves him. She just like to be in the same room as him. She is so sweet and soft. She just loved to touch his hair and arms. After taking a little nap Zeke woke up and Aubree needed to go with Tina to check on him. Hayley was intereted in the I am still MY MOM's baby sort of way. We are so happy for Tina and Mike, and are tickled that Zeke has come to join the maddness.

my new favorite thing...

This would be Hayley's new favorite thing. First thing in the morning she walks over to the rocking chair where ever it and does this. Sometimes she changes things up and tries to take a kick ball with her. She loves it, it is what makes her happy. At first Eli and I would try and stop her but I have given up and just make sure she is safe. Who would ever want to make that girl cry??

Who need Fancy Nancy when you can have....

FANCY AUBREE!!!!!!!!!!!!

She just loves to play dress up and thought it was so funny that she was dressed just like her doll

Fruit smoothies anyone

Aubree and I decided that instead of letting all the fruit go bad we would make a fruit smoothie. She loved pushing the buttons.What could make them better? Drinking them in a fancy glass.
And to top it all off we ate some toast. It was so fun and tasted really good. What a great Smile!!