Easter 2011

We spent this past Easter with my family at my parent's house. We got in some quality time with my parents, my sister Kristen and her husband Brandon, my brother Patrick, my sister Kim, and her three children. We missed my brother Mark who is in Utah, and my brother Bryan and his Family who are now living in Kansas.

One of our Easter traditions is picking up candy that the Easter bunny has left behind. Stuart always thought this was so funny, and tells the kids that the Easter bunny poops the candy. This year the movie "Hop" confirmed Stuart's theory of the Easter bunny pooping jelly beans and m&m's.

So, this Easter tradition and the movie "Hop" brings to to a quick story.

Shortly after the trailer for "Hop" came out I was driving in the car with Molly and Taylor when Taylor randomly tells me that the Easter Bunny poops jelly beans. She has her thinking face on proceeds with"I wonder what the Easter Bunny pees? I think he pees cotton candy juice!" I laughed and said that's really gross Taylor, but you are probably right.

Here they are...picking up after the Easter Bunny!

Taylor

Molly

mmmm...Candy for Breakfast!!!

As you can see in the pictures above Molly and Taylor are sporting the Disney princess costumes that were in their Easter baskets! Lucky girls!

We always have a good time hanging out in my parent’s backyard, watching the kids play and visiting. This Easter however we were getting pounded with rain. The weather was warm enough for us to sit under the covered patio, the Easter egg hunts however had to take place indoors!

My parent's with 5 of their 8 grandchildren.

They gave them all matching disney t-shirts.

A picture of our family after church. This was Sunday morning right after church...look at how dark it is behind us. It rained off and on all day!

Despite the rainy weather it was a Easter Sunday!

A busy weekend in April...

Last Saturday I took the girls up to old navy for a little spring/summer shopping. They opened up a new Old Navy in our area and the store layout is very different than any other Old Navy stores I have been to. It was really nice and they had so many cute options to choose from for kids cloths! Look who we ran into on our way out the door…

After we left Old Navy we went to meet up with Stuart at an after party barbeque that was put on by "Friends at Slaughterpen Trails" or (F.A.S.T). Stuart spent his Saturday riding through the beautiful trails of NWA for the “EPIC” ride put on by F.A.S.T. He finished the 22 mile ride that started out in Bentonville and took him all the way up to Missouri. He was only planning on doing half the ride, so I was very proud of him for completing the whole thing! He was pretty worn out when we got home, he is usually a night owl and he was in bed before me that night!

I should have taken a picture of Stuart at the end of his ride, but the only ones I got were of the girls chasing bubbles at the bbq…

On Sunday afternoon we went to our friend’s daughter’s birthday party at the skating rink! The girls were a little slow on the floor, but they had a great time!

Taylor

Molly

If you position your arms just like this you will not fall :).

I love to compare pictures, and when I came across this picture taken this past weekend it reminded me or our previous skating trip taken two years ago.

2011

2009

My babies are getting so big!!!

Kansas City Spring 2011 Part II...Brew to Brew

So, the reason for our recent trip to Kansas City was for the 2011 Brew to Brew run. This was a 44 mile run mapped out going from Kansas City, MO. to Lawrence, KS. My brother Bryan put our team together and we have been looking forward to it for a while. On Sunday morning we got up at about 5 to head to the Boulevard brewing company to kick off the brew to brew race. We started out with part of the team my brother Mark, sister in law Karena, my Aunt Rosemary and her husband Dusty. We met up with the rest of the team, my brother Bryan, my Uncle Joe and his wife Jill and my cousin Mary later that day. We each ran a leg of the 44 mile run and battling 40 mile and hour winds it took up most of the day!

My sister in law Karena...kicking off the day with a coffee in one hand and a Boulevard Wheat in the other!

My aunt Rosemary, her husband Dusty and my brother Mark...Cheers!

That's me on the side of the road...It was soooo windy!

Dusty and Rosemary (this was Rosemary's second leg)

Karena tagging my Uncle Joe....

Joe and my cousin Mary finishing their first leg and starting their second...

Once we ended up in Lawrence we got the chance to tailgate for a little bit and visit with everyone that met up with us.

The whole brew to brew crew...

Joe, Jill, and Mary

Me and my brothers Bryan and Mark...

Rosemary and Dusty

Bryan and Karena

Me and my hubby Stuart...He wanted to run, but his knees would not cooperate.

The kiddo's...Thomas, Molly, Taylor, Seth, and Jonah

We had such a good time and we definitely plan on doing it again next year!

Kansas City Spring 2011 Part I

A couple of weekends ago we made a trip to Kansas City. We crunched a lot into this three day weekend by visiting two of my brothers that I don't get to see very often and some Aunt's and Uncles from both sides of my family. I’m going to summarize the weekend with two different posts because I have so many pictures.

My brother Mark flew in from Colorado on Friday, so we drove up that afternoon to spend some time with him and to visit my grandpa Bill and the Tholen’s. These are some of my favorite people, and they are usually our excuse to go to Kansas City. They took us out to dinner for some great KC barbecue and put us up for the night. They are the best! I didn’t take any pictures this night…boo!

Saturday was such a nice day. We started off the day by playing in my Aunt and Uncle'sback yard!

Teeter totter teeter totter....

Molly

Taylor

Mark and Taylor

I don't know what's going on with Molly in this picture, but I'm sure Uncle Mark is teasing her!

My cousin Amanda came over to get me and the girls and we headed to a little children’s museum. It was great to spend some time with her and this gave Stuart a chance to head over to the Royal's Stadium with my brother to catch some of the baseball game.

Grocery shopping

Taylor reading up on her facts in the medical room...

Molly playing doctor. She said that her name was Dr. Ruben...she delivered all my babies!

Saturday night we headed to Dave and Busters to meet up with my mom’s side of the family. We had a large group meet for dinner including my older brother Bryan and his family.

My Uncle Joe and his wife Jill with my cousins Mary, Mia, and Eli. (I have cousins that are younger then my own children...haha)

My nephew Thomas

My nephew Jonah and Taylor

My Grandpa Thorne with my nephew Seth

It was great to catch up with all of this family!

Sunday is when this trip got really exciting and I will post about that very soon!

Spa Day

Spring break was a few weeks ago and I took an afternoon off to have a “Girl Day” with Molly and Taylor. We met up with my mom and sister for lunch and a little shopping and then headed over to the nail salon for some pedicures! This was the first time that I took them to get their nails done and they just loved it!

As you can see from the pictures, this place was very kid friendly!

After our nails were dry we headed over to stride rite to get some new shoes. They were running the buy one get one half off sale, so the girls each got a new pair of saucony tennis shoes for only $20.00 each…what a deal! We headed over to the food court for some pizza and then the girls spent a little bit of time playing on the playground.

Molly (she's frustrated because I made her pause for a picture).

Taylor

Molly and Taylor kept telling me that this was the Best Girl Day EVER!

I would have to agree!